Tolkien Fanartics: Mapping Arda Part III: The Second Age

[daughterofshadows]

Maps and geography are an essential part of Tolkien's worldbuilding and a major allure for fans of his work. As part of the Tolkien Fanartics column, Anérea has been working on a series, Mapping Arda, that considers not only the maps and geography from the books but how fans represent, reinvent, and fill in the cartographic work that Tolkien did.

The Second Age is the most fragmentary of Tolkien's work on the three ages of Arda, and its maps are no exception. This month, joined by Varda delle Stelle, Anérea takes a look at Tolkien's (incomplete) maps of the Second Age and how fans have explored and answered the questions they present, representing the geography of the Second Age in myriad forms, from traditional paint and ink to embroidery to three-dimensional models. Anérea and Varda have curated a collection of fan-made Second Age maps that show the various ways that fans approach and represent this most mysterious of the ages of Arda.

You can read "Mapping Arda, Part III: The Second Age" here.