Altered Maps XII: Not to Scale

[trader/warrior]

I was in Rivendell a few weeks ago.

Seems to have deteriorated somewhat since the third era.

 

[JohannaK]

Huh. I thought you lived in Switzerland.

 

[Dachs]

It's a bit confusing because Central Europe is hard to see, but somewhere in a square between Helms Deep, Minas Morgul, Mt. Doom and Isengard lies my home.
I really shouldn't be alive.

You live in south-central Rohan.

 

[DroopyTofu]

So that makes America the land of the immortal elves! USA#1

 

[Arakhor]

Actually, no. At some point, the Undying Lands were set outside the world and only the silver ships of the Elves could reach them.

 

[bhsup]

So then... Canada?!

 

[JohannaK]

Poland.

 

[Lohrenswald]

I thought to myself that Rohan would kind of fit with Hungary, because they were obsessed with horses.

If Hithlum is Greenland, does that mean that Morgoth lived on the north pole and is Santa Claus?

 

[Dachs]

I thought to myself that Rohan would kind of fit with Hungary, because they were obsessed with horses.

Instead, Rohan is the Hungarians' favorite early medieval target. Maybe it's an extended pun or something.

 

[warpus]

One does not simply walk into Poland

 

[Winner]

That map is as old as the internet itself.

Does *anybody* know if it bears any real relation to LOTR itself, or is it just something like the stuff we do here with maps for fun, which has since spread all over the web?

 

[JohannaK]

It resembles my Middle Earth map that came with this collection of Tolkien's works. 'Cept Spain should not be there and things like that.

 

[really]

Tolkien was a visiting professor to the university in my town - I think Grey Havens would be Galway rather than Limerick.

So I live in Grey Havens.

 

[trader/warrior]

I seem to remember from reading "The History of Middle Earth" by Cristopher Tolkien, that J.R.R rejected any real-world correlation with the geography of Middle Earth, but if there was any, Britain would not be in the Shire, but rather nearer Beleriand, as shown by a map drawn by Tolkien that shows a similarity to the real world, but was in the end not considered "lore".

Might well be terribly mistaken in this though, not even sure if this was the map I was thinking of.

 

[Angst]

Something I like about Tolkien is the stylistic "smallness" of the grand epic mysteries of the world. Sauron is the Prime Lieutenant of the Dark Lord of All Omg Guy Morgoth - and yet, while being so cosmologically important, he manages to end up in some relatively local political squabbles in some comparably small corner of the cosmos, Middle Earth. The whole world not even being charted or explored and the fact that several nations side with Mordor in the name of freedom makes one question the exact nature of the grand conflict and the scope of the world - and whether there is more to it than even the Ainur. For obviously, Middle Earth is not the whole world, but it's somehow the only place things happen in, isn't it? I suspect I might be wrong, but there's a certain charm to this scope: Sauron is cosmologically important, but he fights stuff on a local scale to gain local power and simply start a regular Evil Kingdom. It's curious how Arda works.

Other fantasy things could learn from this. In all fantasy settings atm you fight against the end of existence or something. Skyrim has the world try to end, Warcraft ended up with it in WoW as well, Starcraft II managed to do it as well... I like that the Dark Lord simply tries conquering a kingdom, even if he is supposedly the evil of all. It's much more terrifying a villain that brings pain and suffering to a people than one that simply ends being - like how perpetual torture is scarier than the disappearance of death. It's simply more relatable.

 

[Kyriakos]

edit

 

[Graceheart the Leopard]

Whatever happened to those giant mountains in Denmark?

 

[JohannaK]

They turned invisible.

 

[Civ'ed]

Whatever happened to those giant mountains in Denmark?

Moved to Sweden.

 

[Yoda Power]

Go nuts!