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The Atlas of Middle-Earth (Revised Edition) |  | Author: Karen Wynn Fonstad
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy Used: $3.60
as of 9/9/2010 09:20 PDT details
You Save: $21.40 (86%)
Seller: Franky T's Books and More
Rating:  86 reviews
Sales Rank: 53813
Media: Paperback
Edition: Rev Sub
Pages: 224
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8 x 0.7
ISBN: 0618126996
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.912
EAN: 9780618126996
ASIN: 0618126996
Publication Date: April 10, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780618126996 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
The publishing world is full of Tolkien spinoff products, some trivial and ephemeral--but some, like this thoroughly researched atlas, are genuinely classy. Karen Wynn Fonstad is a qualified geographer and cartographer who first mapped Middle-Earth in 1981 and has since added much new detail based on those endless volumes of drafts, abandoned passages, alternative versions, and laundry lists published since Tolkien's death. She fills in gaps and details in the familiar Third Age maps from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, goes back in time to map Middle-Earth's First and Second Ages, and reconstructs the route and timescale of every important journey in the stories. There are local maps of key places like the Mines of Moria, Lothlorien, Isengard, Minas Tirth, the Tower of Cirith Ungol, and the volcanic Mount Doom. War maps cover the saga's notable battles, up to the hopeless last stand at Mordor gate and the tiny later skirmish known in Shire records as the Battle of Bywater. Thematic maps show Middle-Earth's distribution of climate, geological features, vegetation, people, and (most importantly to Tolkien) languages.... It's all done tremendously seriously and would make a fine gift for enthusiastic Tolkien fans, except that they'll have bought it already. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk
Product Description
Karen Wynn Fonstad's THE ATLAS OF MIDDLE-EARTH is an essential volume that will enchant all Tolkien fans. Here is the definitive guide to the geography of Middle-earth, from its founding in the Elder Days through the Third Age, including the journeys of Bilbo, Frodo, and the Fellowship of the Ring. Authentic and updated -- nearly one third of the maps are new, and the text is fully revised -- the atlas illuminates the enchanted world created in THE SILMARILLION, THE HOBBIT, and THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Hundreds of two-color maps and diagrams survey the journeys of the principal characters day by day -- including all the battles and key locations of the First, Second, and Third Ages. Plans and descriptions of castles, buildings, and distinctive landforms are given, along with thematic maps describing the climate, vegetation, languages, and population distribution of Middle-earth throughout its history. An extensive appendix and an index help readers correlate the maps with Tolkien's novels.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 86
 excellent content, printing mediocre ... June 4, 2010
Qbaza
I like very much content of this book. Very nice. Unfortunately publisher did mediocre job. Quality of paper not very good, sometimes maps that take two pages are shifted, and quite often it's very hard to see the map in the place where the spine is.
 great companion April 1, 2010
LibKat (Cape Cod, MA)
Great companion book to one of the best series of all time. I love maps and these really give you some insight into Tolkien's world.
Fonstad's Atlas as a work of Interpretation and Criticism December 30, 2009
Evan T. Burchfield (Southern Oregon)
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
A few previous reviewers have attempted to sully this product with claims of inaccuracy; one in particular (Mr. Martinez) has stayed on this item's main page for years and is considered helpful by 85% of responders. He rants in two separate reviews and with multiple paragraphs that Fonstad didn't do her homework and that this is overall a "bad" piece of work. Despite these claims staying largely unsubstantiated even after Mr. Martinez's second review (he names a few of these errors in both reviews, but claims there are too many errors to tabulate), many other reviewers have referenced Mr. Martinez's review as if it is authoritative; that, along with the fact that many hundreds of others have clicked the little button that says Mr. Martinez's comments have been helpful to them (indicating perhaps that they have not purchased this book thanks to Mr. Martinez) is what urges me to write this review.
Since I am not a cartographer nor a Tolkien expert I cannot comment on the veracity of Mr. Martinez's claims; his overall picture, however, is so negative that once I had this item (the only one like it on the market currently) I spent some time comparing the book to the Lord of the Rings itself, and used it as a guide on my first complete read-through of The Hobbit since I was a child. I have walked away totally satisfied by Fonstad's book, with only a few minor criticisms. As a Tolkien fan who is working his way through a casual Tolkien survey, I can say that Mr. Martinez's vitriolic critique is totally wrong-headed. His error lies in his presuppositions: 1) that Middle-Earth is a complete and real thing, not something created by a man; he therefore assumes that Middle-Earth is always consistent and requires no interpretive work as regards its geography, and 2) that the only audience for this book is scholarly, and therefore scholarly exactitude is required in marking its worth.
On the first point, Mr. Martinez assumes that there is a "right answer" to the geography of Middle-Earth, and that clearly Fonstad has not got it. Fonstad is sweeping in her scope and level of detail, but she is upfront about her assumptions and guesses, never presenting herself as anyone more than a skilled cartographer trying to make as much sense of this varied world as possible. The amount of time Tolkien spent creating his universe, from the early 1900s to his death, should indicate that HIS errors were unavoidable without major revision. See also The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion for details on Tolkien's mistakes (geographical and otherwise), which do not destroy his work, but nonetheless do exist.
Fonstad's book is in many ways putting pieces together that weren't made to fit, and for this it should not be considered authoritative unless considering the absence of any competing atlases. Certainly someone should make a competing Atlas, but considering the contradictions inherent in Tolkien's works, it would be no more "correct" on many points than Fonstad's (though I'm sure many errors could be removed). It is in this sense that any atlas of Middle-Earth (as any illustration of Middle-Earth) should be considered "interpretive."
As for the second point, Mr. Martinez rates the product as 2 out of 5 stars and says "Tolkien readers need a new cartographical reference. Hopefully, one will come along some day that doesn't look this bad." Here Mr. Martinez is specifically speaking about Tolkien readers, not scholars; he writes his review as if the average or even enthusiastic Tolkien reader could not garner any joy from this book. Fonstad doubtless has made mistakes, especially considering that she published her revision prior to Christopher Tolkien releasing the entire "History of Middle-Earth" series. I noticed one or two general mistakes myself, though nothing that has destroyed my confidence in the general quality of her book; I must again reiterate that Fonstad consistently states where she draws her conclusions from, and therefore the reader is encouraged to test her words against Tolkien's text. Mr. Martinez's time would be better spent listing and compiling these mistakes rather than dissuading readers from consulting the only available Middle-Earth atlas.
Fonstad's book really is a work of criticism, pointing out the grandeur, the consistency, and occasionally the mistakes in Tolkien's work. When shining a light on The Hobbit, Fonstad's book shows us how truly inadequate its geography and timeline is when compared to the Lord of the Rings, where Tolkien was much more consistent. It is immeasurable how valuable Fonstad's book has been for readers like me. This is without mentioning that the scholars Wayne Hammond and Christina Scull reference her work three times in their authoritative The Lord of the Rings: A Reader's Companion.
The best "negative" review on Amazon about this work is by Wade West "Glorfindel" who offers a highly critical four-star review that is qualified by his endorsement to purchase the book. To say it clearly: if you need a LotR map or want help visualizing Tolkien's world, get this book. Like everything else written on Tolkien, it is a start, not an end.
Very nice, but still left unsatisfied. December 19, 2009
Johnathan Mcilvride (Canada)
I'll start with saying the Atlas of Middle-Earth is a great read. It's most definitely a fantastic addition to any Tolkien lovers collection. I in no way regret buying it.
It provides an in depth look at several interesting moments throughout the first, second and third age. Then it goes even more into detail with providing the travel paths Bilbo and the Dwarves took during The Hobbit, and Frodo and the Fellowship took during the Lord of the Rings. It also provides descriptive explanations at what you're looking at for each map, and how or why the map might have changed. It's great for getting a solid look at how the world has shifted over the ages, and provides a pleasant surprise to how Tolkien related it to our current world today.
On the downside it still does not provide any maps or information leading to the Far East, nor Harad, or the Iron Hills northeast of Mirkwood. This may be due to a lack of information provided by Tolkien on the areas at large. Or it may just be research that has not been brought to a close to add in. In any event, I was definitely a slight bit disappointed with the unsaid mystery that this book along with many others have left unexplained and uncharted.
As mentioned in some previous reviews. There are some small differences in the mapping, city scale and design, from other maps, artwork and of course the movies, that will leave you a bit in question. For example the layout and scale of Minis Tirith is a fair ways off for the conceptual design they used in the movie as well as some of the artwork you see in the illustrated novels. However overall the accuracy and detail of the book is absolutely fantastic.
I give it a four star review overall, which would've been a five had it provided some detail or explanation on the uncharted lands mentioned above.
I definitely recommend it to everyone I know who is a Tolkien enthusiast and do say the price for the quality is more than reasonable. You won't be disappointed with this book.
A Good Book for Tolkien fanatics September 13, 2009
M. Belknap (Garrettsville, OH USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Atlas of Middle Earth is a good book for anyone who is obsessed with The Lord of the Rings. And I do mean obsessed. If you just watched the movies, this probably isn't for you. I would recommend this for anyone who is seriously interested in the history and cartography of Middle Earth. The author goes over each of the ages of Middle Earth, providing a history along with maps of the land. The maps are impressive, with one exception: they can be a bit confusing. There is a lot going on in the maps, and they really need to be studied in order to make sense of them. That being said, the concept of an atlas of such a well-loved and well developed world as Middle Earth, is great, and i commend the author on doing such a great job with it. Highly recommended for any serious Tolkienite.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 86
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