Tolkien’s Annotated Map of Middle-Earth Discovered Inside Copy of The Lord of the Rings

Map goes on sale in Oxford for £60,000 after being found at Blackwell’s Rare Books inside novel belonging to illustrator Pauline Baynes.

By Published on October 23, 2015

A recently discovered map of Middle-earth annotated by JRR Tolkien reveals The Lord of the Rings author’s observation that Hobbiton is on the same latitude as Oxford, and implies that the Italian city of Ravenna could be the inspiration behind the fictional city of Minas Tirith.

The map was found loose in a copy of the acclaimed illustrator Pauline Baynes’ copy of The Lord of the Rings. Baynes had removed the map from another edition of the novel as she began work on her own colour Map of Middle-earth for Tolkien, which would go on to be published by Allen & Unwin in 1970. Tolkien himself had then copiously annotated it in green ink and pencil, with Baynes adding her own notes to the document while she worked.

Read the article “Tolkien’s Annotated Map of Middle-Earth Discovered Inside Copy of The Lord of the Rings on theguardian.com.

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