Atlas of Middle Earth and Its Appeal

Every now and then I get into a whimsical mood and check out a peculiar spin-off book from my local library: The Atlas of Middle Earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad. It is based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, known best for The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. This book goes into meticulous detail about the various stages of change in Middle Earth, a thoroughly fictional place, through the different "ages" as Tolkien laid out in his often cumbersome tales.

Fonstad is herself a geographer with cartographic experience. It shows in this excellent book, although as I study its pages I get the disturbing feeling that my time would be better served looking over maps of real places. And yet, because I have enjoyed an affinity with maps since early childhood and feel quite comfortable around them, I keep coming back to this book.

As for the Third Age, the era in which The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings transpires, I am pretty familiar with the geography of this completely non-existent world. As for the earlier ages, there were a lot of cataclysmic upheavals that occurred with Middle Earth, raising and sinking islands and parts of continents, making one place move to another realm, and even changing the shape of Middle Earth itself. Definitely pure fantasy, not science fiction!

Since Atlas of Middle Earth is based on stories and illustrates where events took place involving those stories' characters, how about a personal "Atlas of Real Earth" compiled in a comparable manner? Let's say, for example, that I want such an atlas for my family and friends. The maps would feature migration routes as we moved from southern Georgia in my infancy to Alexandria, Virginia, and then to Opa-Locka and later Hollywood in southeastern Florida. Then in my adulthood to Gainesville, Leesburg for a seven-month respite, and then back to Gainesville. There would be a special page showing the various places in Gainesville I've lived as well. Not to mention the vacation excursions and other travel I've undergone. And of course, friends and other members of my family would have their own tales and "trails" featured on the maps.

I think that would be a pretty cool idea for a business: make and sell a highly stylized atlas, patterned after Tolkien's maps, depicting your own life's events and journeys just as if you were the one living out some fantasy adventure!