----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Darius Bartlett's examination of the geography of Tolkien's Middle Earth caused me to recall something I forgot I did: back in the late '60s I was one of the many who desired to wake up and find myself in Middle Earth and STAY THERE FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE! To plan for that event, I embarked on a scheme to make a series of topographic quadrangles of Middle Earth. Inspired by the fine USGS 15 minute series, I blew up the little cheapie Middle Earth map in the Ballantine paperback edition into about 50 topo quads! I adopted a lot of the USGS style, but without the scientific verification (!). Alas, there are no benchmarks to be seen - yet. The final result is not as laughable as it sounds, but sophisticated it ain't. Brian Bach Central Washington University Library [log in to unmask] On Fri, 21 Nov 1997, Darius Bartlett wrote: > ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- > At 12:28 20/11/97 -0500, Alberta Auringer Wood wrote: > > >At the Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives meeting in > >Saskatoon last May, one of our speakers was William Sarjeant of the > >University of Saskatchewan who writes using his two middle names of Antony > >Swithin. He has created a series of novels about the island of Rockall. > >[...]. The books are not fantasy, science or historical fiction - they are > >examples of how maps can be interpreted by one's imagination and some > >careful use of geological, geographic and social theory to build a > >plausible theory of what could have been. > > MANY years ago, in my PRE-undergraduate days, I remember attending > a fascinating talk by an academic geographer (from the University of > Leeds in England I think?), who presented an astonishingly detailed > analysis of "the geography of Tolkein's Middle Earth". His thesis was > that, if you examine the maps and text of "Lord of the Rings" and the > other Middle Earth sagas, you can build up an extremely plausible, > multi-layered view of this imaginary place. And, furthermore, if you > do undertake this sort of analysis, he suggested that various parallels > emerge between the "geography of Middle Earth", and the actual geography > of Europe at the time that Tolkein wrote. The more obvious examples were > the location of Mordor in the east, behind a high and seemingly > impenetrable barrier of mountains (analogy with the Iron Curtain of the > time and the "evil empire" of the Soviet Union?); the "good guys" > living in rural simplicity in "the Shire" (evoking an English, Anglo- > Saxon sense of place: even the Hobbits' pubs have more than passing > similarity to those of rural southeast England of the time!); and the > "elves" and "dwarfs" occupying mountainous lands to the northeast > (parallels with Scandinavia and myths of Trolls and so on?). > > I'm sure there were other examples, some much more subtle and based > on deeper geographical ideas (the geographies of the social dynamics > between the groups, for example; and the comparative descriptions of > 'sense of place' as exhibited by the different cultures encountered > in the yarns). > > Unfortunately, my own geographical education was not sufficient at that > stage for me to really appreciate the subtleties of his argument, but it > must have made an impression, for me to be able to still remember it > over twenty years later! I wish I knew who the speaker was, and also > if his ideas had been published anywhere? Does anybody out there know? > > An interesting topic for discussion. Over the years, I have first > learned from you folks of many of the books that have since become my > favourites. So do please continue throwing out pointers to > particularly notable fiction (and non-fiction) from time to time as > you have been! > > Have a good weekend! > Darius > *************************************************************************** > Darius Bartlett Darius Bartlett > Department of Geography Roinn na Tireolaiochta > University College Cork Colaste na hOllscoile Corcaigh > Cork, Ireland Corcaigh, Eire > > Phone: (+353) 21 902835 Fax: (+353) 21 271980 > E-mail: [log in to unmask] http://www.ucc.ie/ucc/depts/geography/djb > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This message was transmitted using 100% recycled electrons.... > *************************************************************************** >