I too thought that JRR had done the map. Another fantastic video The Lord of the Rings. Map was the first fantasy map I ever saw. I constantly referenced it whole re reading the book. It is in the back of my mind as I draw. Thanks for the tribute and analysis. I look forward to drawing my own. John aka the Angry Dwarf
Great stuff as always Nate, was really cool seeing you put this together. I think the "scribbly" style for the mountain shading works very well - I'd never noticed that in the original until you pointed it out. I might try a little map myself :-)
Also, something that has just occurred to me - I think the "X marks the spot" thing you reference is actually a picture of two crossed sabres, to show a battle site? The UK's national mapping agency, the Ordnance Survey, used to use that symbol, so it would have been familiar to Tolkien. Could be wrong.
Hi there, fellow cartographer. There is much more material to the map and more maps itself. I've did a lot of research on this and the grid based map where he tracks the miles and days of travel is even more impressive but not as pretty.
Great work. For the forest, to make the trees appear less like rows, add each circle randomly when expanding and not in a row. Keep in mind to not to make the circle identical to the ones next to it.
Pretty sure the 'x marks the spot' is meant to be 2 crossed swords, the ones of the map mark 2 important historical battles. The battle of the celebrant field and the battle of dagorlad.
Since I first saw the middle earth map I have always been obsessed with it and this map you made captures all that essence which I love. I think your map was great! 👍
This is a fantastic video, Nate. Possibly my favourite of your mapping videos. I may be biased by my love of Middle Earth and the maps, though. Thank you for pointing out the style and showing us your own version; it’s awesome.
I know this video is 3 years old, but something I feel like you missed with the mountain shading is that Christopher Tolkien's mountains seem to be less about scribbles and more a 3D drawing of mountains with three tones, the darkest tone (the black), the midtone (the hatching), and the lightest tone (the white.) While the scribbly black still looks good I think to get closer to that style, the side of the mountain facing away from the invisible light source to the left should be shaded with diagonal hatching (perhaps with a line outlining the hatching as is visible on one of the mountains near the "Anorien" label) and then have the darkest parts to the mountain be shaded in with solid black.
Nicely done. To my eye, Christopher's mountains seem to be rows of a handful of mountains drawn behind another row in the foreground until the range is complete.
I'm probably going to be the 100th person that says this but this but this has been long overdue thank you soooooooo much for covering this topic. Keep up the good work.
Olden Days Maps & Place Names (Early Fantasy & Sci fi) Khet'il, Scravvels or Nibble-Pibblies Imagination It's funny that with just a little basic (or obvious) knowledge what a better job can be done. Basic Geology Mountains, Islands and Plate Tectonics... Names & Language English historical place names for example (Romans, Danes, Normans etc.)
Fun fact. That map was actually drawn by Christopher Tolkien from my understanding with the help of J.R.R himself, and later annoted by Tolkien with notes.
Great idea. I like the map. Maybe you can practice your handwriting with pencil. If you were doing this whole project from scratch, I would think pre-sketching this out in rough draft will help you place (leave room for) the text. My guess is Christopher probably did several drafts to get it just so...
One last comment - the map could have been any page in the Lord of the Rings great work. I haved the video twice now and will be rewatching it in the future as a guide to drawing my own map. John aka the Angry Dwarf
I needed this a year ago, I drew the dnd world we played in for my DM and party. All done in secret and supprised the DM at the end of our campaign. (I hate forests mostly because they are mind-numbing to draw.)
Have you come across a book called ‘The Journeys of Frodo’? It traces the fellowships’ course across maps related to the dates worked out from the timelines of LotR
WASD20 It’s by Barbara Strachey. Published in Unwin Paperbacks, 1981. According to Barbara’s calculations, the Fellowship have left Lorien and are travelling down the Anduon (17th February)
