[HN Gopher] Show HN: A cartographer's attempt to realistically m...
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Show HN: A cartographer's attempt to realistically map Tolkien's
world
Author : intofarlands
Score : 149 points
Date : 2026-04-07 12:12 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.intofarlands.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.intofarlands.com)
| mfro wrote:
| Funny, I found this last night: https://www.ardacraft.me/
| broken-kebab wrote:
| Friendly advice: this is wrong way to sell fantasy maps to nerds.
| The link shows some animation (which actually feels a bit
| annoying cause I can't focus on any particular detail), and
| lowres pics of maps itself (which can't prove the quality of
| work), and some useless text. Instead it'd be way better to show
| a few highres fragments.
| SamBam wrote:
| It's probably just me, but I'm having trouble finding any
| images of the Middle Earth maps except for Numenor, Valinor and
| Aman. Maybe it's just OP's title that led me to expect
| otherwise?
| riffraff wrote:
| odd, I'd rather have Tolkienistic maps of the Earth :)
| whicks wrote:
| good news, there are artists out there doing exactly this!
|
| one example: https://lordofmaps.com/ (unaffiliated)
| cyberlimerence wrote:
| Beautiful work, I love fantasy cartography. Someday I actually
| want to make some maps of my own, I was thinking of ASOIAF. A
| slightly off-topic question, are these types of maps legal to
| sell from copyright point of view? I understand that this is
| quite a niche product, so maybe I'm overthinking it, but do these
| count as derivative works ?
| PokemonNoGo wrote:
| I had the same thought. Not bashing their work I am genuinely
| curios.
|
| For this specific case I was suprised to see they have a
| dedicated website for such questions! So I guess it is quite
| common.... (They seem very serious about it since i couldn't
| even mark the text to copy it here! )
|
| >Tolkien's original drawings, paintings, maps, designs, scripts
| and other graphic works are protected by copyright and may not
| be copied. The Tolkien Estate takes action against parties who
| try to commercialise Tolkien's works, including maps of Middle-
| earth, the One Ring Inscription and other images.
|
| [0] https://www.tolkienestate.com/frequently-asked-questions-
| and...
| bombcar wrote:
| The key is that the _original_ maps are copyrighted, and
| direct derivatives may fall under that, too - but the general
| _information_ cannot be copyrighted (at least in the USA).
|
| You could make a freeway map of Eriador, for example.
|
| And see all the "unofficial" books around Minecraft or Harry
| Potter (or lord of the rings):
| https://www.amazon.com/s?k=unofficial+lord+of+the+rings
|
| And maps "in the style" of Tolkien but covering the real
| world or other properties are likely entirely fine.
| egypturnash wrote:
| Don't forget trademarks, even if your maps are drawn completely
| from scratch then I am sure whoever has the license for selling
| maps of A Song Of Ice And Fire (TM) will take issue with you
| presenting them as such, if your business becomes large enough
| for them to bother noticing you.
| 101008 wrote:
| A bit unrelated, but one of the rarest pieces for Tolkien's
| collectors has been put for sale recently
|
| https://www.tomwayling.co.uk/product-page/songs-for-the-phil...
| WillAdams wrote:
| Hopefully that too will get a good reprint, or better an
| academic treatment like to _On Fairy Stories_ --- that _The Old
| English Exodus_:
|
| https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/The_Old_English_Exodus
|
| is getting reprinted (though annoyingly only in a boxed set of
| other books I already have) would argue for it.
| CamouflagedKiwi wrote:
| Very nice. I have a book of maps for his world on a bookshelf
| here which I got when I was young (The Atlas of Middle-Earth -
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlas_of_Middle-earth). I
| enjoyed reading that a lot, and it was nice to see that most
| parts of it are well thought through and internally consistent
| (there's one piece near Rivendell which is a bit of a mess
| between the Hobbit and LotR but we can let Tolkien have one minor
| issue).
| bombcar wrote:
| This book is amazing; the fact that she was able to work out
| most everything involving _geology_ just from Tolkien 's
| descriptions is wonderful.
| philipov wrote:
| I have that same book. It was a major source of inspiration
| when I was a kid.
| WillAdams wrote:
| c.f., _The Worlds of J. R. R. Tolkien: The Places That Inspired
| Middle-earth_ by John Garth
|
| https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53939643-the-worlds-of-j...
|
| and esp. the photo from the review:
|
| https://signumuniversity.org/course/lita-5315/
|
| https://signumuniversity.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/202...
|
| (I had thought I had seen a higher-resolution version, but not
| finding it now)
| kergonath wrote:
| > I have a book of maps for his world on a bookshelf here which
| I got when I was young (The Atlas of Middle-Earth)
|
| This atlas is fantastic. An absolute must-have.
|
| There is a new edition in French with redrawn maps that are
| great. I did not triple-check everything but as far as I can
| see they are just like the old maps in terms of details and
| accuracy, only much more beautiful. There are some pictures
| here: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/03b6ZK .
|
| I have no idea if these maps will be published in English,
| AFAICT this cas commissioned specifically for the new French
| edition.
| DGAP wrote:
| Cool!
| jamesjolliffe wrote:
| Tangential, BUT, here is a grid map of ARDA from a (M)ulti (U)ser
| (D)ungeon text game from the 90s that you can still play:
| https://mume.yllemo.com/lib/exe/fetch.php?cache=&media=maps:...
|
| You can literally still connect to this game from your terminal:
| telnet mume.org 4040 IIRC.
|
| When I was a teenager, a buddy and I printed out giant copies of
| that map, laminated it, and put it on the wall in front of our
| computers while we hunted hobbits on our orc characters. Was
| pretty rad.
| grimgrin wrote:
| Always known of MUME, though wasn't a part of my mud history.
| I've wondered how the other tolkien muds compare, though most
| would be much smaller worlds I'm sure.
|
| If you set the Genre here to Tolkien you can see a list of
| some: https://mudstats.com/Browse
|
| > MUME is a free multi user role-playing game based upon J.R.R.
| Tolkien's 'Middle Earth' that has been continuously running
| since fall '91. The action takes place in the late Third Age,
| before 'The Hobbit' and after the loss of the One Ring by
| Sauron. The key of Erebor was just found by Gandalf and all the
| epic tales narrated in 'The Lord of the Rings' may take place.
| MUME covers 23'000+ original rooms from the mighty Dwarven
| Halls beyond the Gulf of Lh???n in the West to the fringes of
| Mirkwood in the East, and from the ruins of Fornost in the
| North to the fortress of Isengard in the South. In this
| meticulously crafted world where fantasy tales come to life
| players join... https://mume.org/
| b112 wrote:
| Giant indeed. How large was it, I couldn't even zoom in enough
| on my phone to get good detail.
| throwanem wrote:
| 10,408 by 5,408 pixels, or about 30" by 15" at 300dpi - but
| for this you'd want half that or less, so the result is large
| enough that the print is actually readable. Even redone to a
| less extreme aspect ratio, it would certainly fill a binder
| and probably cover a wall.
| b112 wrote:
| Wild. This makes me even more interested in playing. Thanks
| throwanem wrote:
| Thank you for posting that! I never had use for Tolkien and my
| MU* days are decades now behind me, but I do still love a good
| map.
| explodes wrote:
| In all for these maps, unfortunately this is a "Show HN: paid
| only products", not open source maps, free maps, or anything fun
| like that. At least I couldn't find the actual maps that are
| mentioned in the title.
| LinuxAmbulance wrote:
| As far as I can tell, this submission is just an ad.
| frasermarlow wrote:
| There is a great (Free!) interactive map of Middle-earth (The
| Hobbit+ LOTR journeys) here: https://middle-earth-interactive-
| map.web.app/
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(page generated 2026-04-07 23:01 UTC)