The Atlas of Tolkien’s Middle-earth: The essential guide to the geography of the world of The Lord of the Rings

The Atlas of Tolkien’s Middle-earth is an absolute treasure for any fan of Tolkien’s work. It provides an incredibly detailed and immersive look at the geography of Middle-earth, covering everything from the Elder Days of The Silmarillion to the epic journeys in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.The maps and diagrams are beautifully crafted and highly detailed, showing the movements of key characters of the story and the major battles of each age. The inclusion of castle layouts, landforms, and thematic maps on climate, languages, adds even more depth to the world building.This atlas is not only a practical reference for understanding Tolkien’s world but also a work of art in itself. A must have for any Tolkien fan and fantasy lover.

A lovely book for Tolkien fans

A great resource, especially if your Tolkien interest extends beyond just the Hobbit and LOTR. Covers all three ages and goes into great detail of key locations and journeys. The only small gripe is in the printing - some map detail is lost in the binding crease when it extends over two pages. Highly recommended.

I bought this as a gift and even I was really impressed with it. (The recipient - a fairly big tolkien fan loved it.) It goes into tons of details about the various races of middle earth, as well as big maps. However, the maps are not always that clear because of the it is printed (some of the names are either in half or not very clear to see because of the spine. (That's why I rated it 4 out of 5.)

All the maps you could wish for, to scale, with great detail, and as much text and explanations as there is maps, so just as good to read as to look at.See Beleriand of the Silmarillion in relation to Eriador and the LOTR lands. See Numenor, the Valinor lands of Aman, Eriador, Gondor, and so much more. See the whole world put together. There are dozens and dozens of maps, showing races, tribes or groups lands, language areas, migrations, voyages, journey routes, vegetation, climate, geology, town/cave plans, battles, the whole lot.Absolutely indispensable for any serious Tolkien fan. Get this book if you want to delve deep into the novels and get the most from them.My one issue is that this is not in full colour, just a limited range of black, greys and reddish-browns, so some of the keys to the maps are harder to follow and rely on shades for areas that are tricky to distinguish. The publisher would do well to create a full-colour version.

Very satisfactory item. Just what I wanted

Karen Wynn Fonstad was a professional cartographer and it certainly shows in this truly magnificent atlas which could potentially have been called Atlas of Ëa although she does actually focus most of her excellent geographical scholastic skills on Middle Earth. She has brought a dimension to Tolkien which I can only drool over. How I ever missed this work, I will never know (I've just received my copy from Amazon). She has elaborated to an extraordinary level of cartographic detail which only Tolkien himself could possibly have envisaged (although I would have liked to see more on Númenóre perhaps).Here's a short list of some specifics to whet your appetite if you need convincing: the Gates and Falls of Sirion, Menegroth, Echoriath and Gondolin, various representations of Belegaer including one with a Great Rift running north to south (perhaps analogous to Earth's mid Atlantic rift...), Buckland and The Marish, Helm's Deep, Tol Brandir, Udûn and the Black Gate... even the back cover's adorned with a fabulously detailed map of the Hithaeglir!She also presents various notable journeys including those of the Elves from Cuiviénen, Turin and Nienor, Beren and Lúthien, Frodo and Sam as well as the voyages of the Númenóreans and the Dwarves' migrations. Add to this all the major battle scenes and a panoply of realms and kingdoms plus thematic topologies of climate, landforms, vegetation and population and you have before you an extremely well written document which I feel illustrates Tolkien's work admirably and, with some knowledge of the choice of extant commentaries, without equal. Treat yourself and get a hardcover copy because if you're a die-hard Tolkien fanatic, I can guarantee you'll otherwise wear it out!

Lovely work by Karen Wynn Fonstad. Makes a nice read along with Toklien's works. I enjoyed reading the hobbit & the Lord of the Rings along with this book. Read a few chapters of the hobbit & LOTR & read the respective chapter in this atlas to help better visualise Tolkien's wonderful world.I only wish the maps were in colour, it would have been so much more fun to read!