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Maps and Mapping in Children's Literature: Landscapes, seascapes and cityscapes
Edited by Nina Goga and Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer
[Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition 7] 2017
► pp. 221–237

Chapter 12
Mapping Middle Earth

A Tolkienian legacy

In this chapter, J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy maps in The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–55) are assessed and analyzed. The analysis shows that the five maps – two in The Hobbit and three in The Lord of the Rings – are less uniform than one would assume. It is also clear that the maps in The Hobbit represent a more child-oriented aesthetics than in the latter work. A few examples are then given of how Tolkien’s maps have influenced subsequent writers of fantasy. Finally, it is demonstrated how the Tolkienian fantasy map is transformed when it is moved from the printed page to the screen.
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • The map iconotext
  • Maps in travel tales and adventure stories
  • The Hobbit: The map of Wilderland and Thror’s map
  • The three maps of The Lord of the Rings
  • In the Tolkien tradition: A Song of Ice and Fire
  • The Chamber of the Painted Table
  • Dynamic maps: From Middle Earth to Westeros
  • Author queries
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 14 August 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/clcc.7.13sun
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Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Goga, Nina
2017. Chapter 13. Landscapes of growth, faith, and doubt. In Maps and Mapping in Children's Literature [Children’s Literature, Culture, and Cognition, 7], DOI logo

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