The earliest map
From Tolkien Gateway
"The earliest map" refers to a map of the world as conceived in The Book of Lost Tales, the earliest version of the legendarium. The map as reproduced in The Book of Lost Tales Part One (page 81) was redrawn by Christopher Tolkien from a sketch by J.R.R. Tolkien[1], being "no more than a quick scribble, in soft pencil ... in many features difficult or impossible to interpret".[2] Features redrawn by Christopher include (listed roughly from north to south):
- Utumna (later Utumno)
- Ringil
- Mountains of Valinor (marked j)
- domain of Mandos (marked c)
- Hisilome (marked g; Qenya form of Hithlum[3])
- The Iron Mountains (marked f)
- A river (possibly the Sirion) and an unmarked dot next to it, which possibly corresponds to Artanor.[source?]
- Two Trees (marked b)
- Magic Isles (marked k)
- Kôr (marked d)
- Valmar (marked a)
- Eruman/Arvalin (marked h; later Avathar[3])
- Helkar
- Helkar?
References
- ↑ A reproduction of the original sketch was published in The Great Tales Never End: Essays in Memory of Christopher Tolkien, ed. R. Ovenden & C. McIlwaine, Bodleian Library, 2022, p.103 (Fig. 6.4), with a discussion of Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull, ibid., p.106-107.
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien (ed.), The Book of Lost Tales Part One, "III. The Coming of the Valar and the Building of Valinor": "Notes and Commentary", p. 82
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Stentor Danielson, "[Untitled blog post]" dated 21 February 2015, mapsburgh.tumblr.com (accessed 19 March 2017)
