Hi,
I just found this map on the internet:

I thought it looked really nice and I wondered if this map is from a book (because it looks pretty book-like) ? If so, what book? Is it official?
Thanks!

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“A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.”

I'm pretty sure that is official. Numenor used to be a starshaped island in the middle before it sank. The place in Arda i'm most interested is the one north of middle earth.

It looks pretty good and pretty close to the realm described by tolkien
But if i remember well, then according to the first tome of the History of middle earth book series, the map of the Arda was something like a ship floating in space. A flat "earth" we could say, where the sun and the moon where 2 masts. And in the centre of it was middle earth(thats why its middle ) and in the "driver's position" were the undying lands.
Something like this:
http://quenya101.files.wordpress.com/20 ... 0x2560.jpg

In the history of middle earth book series there are some maps but they are pretty early conceptions. After the creating of the world and the story of the building of valinor there are almost no maps showing arda, but only middle earth.

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éala éarendel engla beorhtast, ofer middangeard monnum sended

Yes, but wasn't Middle-Earth made round later on? Also, the geography really changed over the years. If you compare the Silmarillion map with a LOTR map, they will look very different. I think the map you pointed out, was the early version of Middle-earth during the first part of the Silmarillion, and the map I found is during LOTR.

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“A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.”

I've recently been looking into this as I'm trying to read the Silmarillion.

There's a book that's been in print for years called "The Atlas of Middle Earth" by Karen Wynn Fonstad. This is the most comprehansive set of maps currently available by a long long way. There used to be another called "Journeys Of Frodo" by Barbara Strachey, but it appears to be out of print. Brian Sibley and John Howe have published a well-illustrated (but very basic) set of maps too called "The Road Goes Ever On And On".

This resource on theonering.com includes some of Karen Wynn Fonstad's maps, plus loads of other useful stuff:
http://www.theonering.com/galleries/map ... enealogies

Hope it's useful!

Thanks for the names of the books and the link. I own "Journeys of Frodo", but I'm afraid there's no complete map of Arda in it. It is a great book though, especially when following the maps while reading the LOTR books.

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“A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.”

The map is featured in this book: A Tolkien Bestiary in black and white. I'm not sure who made the map though (not the writer, probably) and I'm not sure if it's featured in another book too.

On the topic of Arda: at first, Arda was indeed flat. When Melkor was defeated Illuvatar "bend" the world, widely believed to be meaning that he made Arda into a sphere.

A lot of different maps are floating around on the internet that are said to depict the whole continent of Middle-earth. I believe Tolkien only ever drew a couple of rough maps. The standard map (see below) was drawn by his son and approved by the Professor. I believe that beyond this map, pretty much nothing is known. Some hints are given (the Dark Lands, the Eastern Sea etc), but none of these were featured in any canonical maps. That is why people across the world have made them for their purposes. The map you posted is probably one of these, with a lot of canonical accuracy. Some parts though, are I believe still filled in by the artist himself and not based on Tolkien's sketches.

The book "the Atlas of Middle-earth" contains a lot fo maps which are very accurate for the biggest part. I've also posted some below.

Map of North-Western Middle-earth:


Arda in the First Age:


Middle-earth in the Second Age and on (first image):
http://www.tolkienforums.com/thirdagemaps.htm

Isn't there a large piece of the East missing (especially the north-east). I was quite sure, but everyone else seems to be of a different opinion.

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"... Telchar wrought it in the deeps of time."
-On Andùril, The Lord of the Rings

If middle earth were to be conquered. Would the undying lands be within Sauron's reach?

The standard map (the first map of my previous post) probably has a large part in the East missing. We know that Utumno, Cuvinien and some other places were in the East of Middle-earth. These are not stated on the map I posted and they are not said to be destroyed by Illuvatar, so I think we can safely assume they were still around further to the East, even in the Third Age. The map CyberAlien posted features these places.


I guess this is slightly off-topic, but I'd say Sauron might at a later point have had the resources to do a landing on the Undying Lands. By no means would he have been successful though, fighting a host of Valar that were superior and a whole bunch of Maiar that were about equal.
I guess Sauron would also have known this and that not even his greed for power would have made him try it.

No, I meant the OP's map - yours is obiviously incomplete, but doesn't pretend to show everything.

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"... Telchar wrought it in the deeps of time."
-On Andùril, The Lord of the Rings

The first map I posted is indeed incomplete, but I believe it is the largest 'canonical' map available (as in, Christopher made it, the Master approved it). Other people have tried assembling the known places into something like a complete map, but about many places, nothing is know. We don't know how far Middle-earth reaches to the East, what shape the coast is over there, etc etc.

The map in the opening post is probably not complete either, as the Dark Lands and the East Sea are not showing. While just these vague terms are known, and a general direction, nothing else is know. As far as I know, Tolkien never drew a map of that, nor approved, so to say, any other map.
Also, we can't be sure how accurate that map is, since no were Tolkien stated things like shape of the coast, mountain ranges etc.

Oh ok, I was thinking about it because I didn't realise that the undying were actually relatively close to middle earth.

So did I, at first I thought they were far away from Middle-Earth.

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“A wizard is never late, nor is he early, he arrives precisely when he means to.”

I wasn't saying that Middle-earth and the Undying Lands were close, but it was do-able. Elves still sailed the to the Undying Lands, so I'm sure Sauron could have could have build a huge lot of ships, if the whole of Middle-earth was under his reign.
Ulmo would however have made the crossing pretty dangerous, probably fatal for Sauron's armies. So I while I'd say it's possible to get across the sea, it would be ridiculously hard for Sauron to get to there, and once there he would have been obliterated and cast into the Void to see his master.