Lord of the Rings maps

I seem to remember they've been available for some years now. Can anyone recall when they first appeared for sale?

On another note - Stephen Raw's daughter has posted an essay on TORN, in order to promote sales.

http://www.theonering.net/torwp/2011/ ... gs-maps-the-real-history/

There's one or two ideas here which caused me to raise an eyebrow -

eg: "J.R.R. Tolkien did not draw the maps to accompany The Lord of the Rings, rather he commissioned his son, the much less gifted artist, Christopher Tolkien."

and - "...it is difficult to imagine what J.R.R. Tolkien’s real intentions were for the maps at all. If he did not draw the original, it is impossible to say why he omitted certain details and added them elsewhere. The real mystery is why J.R.R. Tolkien, as an accomplished artist and cartographer himself, asked his son to produce the books most important illustrations. Perhaps it was because he was concentrating on his writing."


what do others think?

They were originally added as a fold out end paper probably four pages wide by two or three pages in height and were originally produced in black and red. Clearly this edition did not last long. As the books became increasingly popular and printing techniques became more advanced, the previously expensive method of attaching the maps to the back of edition was ditched.

Clearly indeed this edition did not last long (at least 35 years from 1954 to 1988 or 1989) as three volume hardbacks.

Now Trotter, you aren't being very generous to her, are you? She was clearly talking in *Geologic terms* when she stated "this edition didn't last very long". Clearly.

Stu

Bah. I preferred the old maps, even if CT isn't a gifted artist. Frankly, I don't like change and the old ones were fine by me when I was a young 'un.

The ditched copy in Unfinished Tales is my favourite map, even if it has been drawn by Christopher

One of the modern polish artist made these miracles:







Unfortunately for You some of descriptions are in polish but after all it looks great printed in A3 size ;)

Those are nice looking maps!