Recently, the Robinson Map Library at UW-Madison exhibited many of the manuscripts that cartographer Karen Wynn Fonstad developed in making the groundbreaking The Atlas of Middle-earth.
TORn Discord member Alida Mau shares this report of the exhibit's showcase of original, hand-drawn maps together with examples of her finalized published works, explanations of her techniques, and stories of her experience turning written, fictional geographic information into visual representations.
Middle Earth Map Exhibit Makes Appearance at UW-Madison
By Alida Mau
UW-Madison’s Robinson Map Library recently held an exhibition that might be unfamiliar to many of Earth’s cartographers, but will certainly resonate with fans of JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. There the works of the late Karen Fonstad lay on display. The sprawling collection contained drafts and finalized hand drawn maps from her original publication and revised edition of The Atlas of Middle-earth, published in 1981 and 1991 respectively.
The public exhibit ran from July 21 to 31, and was curated by her son, Mark Fonstad, who has been digitizing her full works. The collection included world and regional maps spanning all three ages, along with migration and battle maps, linguistic distribution, and city plans. The exhibition spanned the entirety of the library’s tables yet is estimated to only include 5% of her work, which humbly began sketched out on her kitchen floor.
Developed as a visual tour to supplement reader’s journeys through Tolkien’s literary works. Mapping Arda was a lofty task, for a world that was developed as an alternative history to England, it is not an exact match and landmarks were often amplified from those present in the modern Earth. So she relied upon distances as listed in the books, often in leagues, to set the proper scale for the atlas and expanded upon those descriptions using her geography background and how those landscapes might manifest in a more realistic sense. To give readers a sense of how the world fit together, Karen erred on providing more detail to help fill in some of the blank spaces on the map. Take for example the expansion of Trollshaw forest in the draft of her travel map depicting Frodo’s journey to Rivendell.
Map cataloguing Frodo’s journey from Bag End to Rivendell. UW-Madison Karen Wynn Fonstad Exhibition.
What started the endeavor to make an atlas of Middle-earth was a fateful encounter with a student who wanted to build a map of Middle-earth while Karen was a TA in grad school. Upon realizing an atlas would be better suited to Tolkien’s writings than a world map after the publication of the Silmarillion, Karen pitched the idea to Houghton Mifflin almost a decade later and it was quickly greenlit with the blessing of the Tolkien estate.
She would go on to release a revised edition in 1991, informed by previously unreleased details as the History of Middle-earth was published, such as the circles of the world and geography of Numenor. In an ironic twist, Christopher Tolkien in part credited the initial Atlas of Middle-earth for helping the History of Middle-earth get published upon realizing that the public interest and readership was great enough to warrant undertaking that project.
Early version of the 2nd Age voyages of Numenoreans. UW-Madison Karen Wynn Fonstad Exhibition. Final draft of the 2nd Age voyages of Numenoreans. UW-Madison Karen Wynn Fonstad Exhibition.
She went off of drafts available in Marquette library which could sometimes be complicated as Tolkien’s canon would change between revisions and sometimes be contradictory. Some of the details of Gondolin’s city layout, for example, were not fully published in a final form.
Unbeknownst to Karen until 2004, Alan Lee mentioned that he and the crew often heavily utilized her Atlas around with them while locations scouting in New Zealand while developing the films. And her reconstruction of Minas Tirith (seen below) based on Tolkien’s own sketches in the Marquette archives helped inform the design decisions of the Jackson films.
From here the collection will be transferred to the American Geographical Society Library in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where it will stay in perpetuity. Karen’s revised edition of Atlas of Middle Earth is still in print and available for purchase.
We have one more trip around San Diego Comic-Con 2025 for you. In this episode of the Collecting The Precious Podcast Jim and I, along with very special guest Matt from Nerd of the Rings, talk about the fun that was SDCC 2025. We cover how cool it was, and that despite there wasn't a film or show coming out this year, that there was awesome stuff to be seen from Weta Workshop, Vanderstelt Studio, Middle-earth Enterprises, and Cliff Cramp Illustrations. That's not to mention how freaking awesome our booth was.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZEGpmfzbUo?si=2bpkbTDfsSg-1ciE&w=560&h=315]
This amazing piece by Weta Workshop was revealed to the world during Comic-Con 2023. After much turmoil for yours truly, I finally had time to sit down, open, and to review this awesome piece.
This is the limited version of the Fountain Guard statue. In this version you also get the White Tree of Gondor as we see it during much of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The Fountain Guard of the White Tree is limited to 905 pieces and is sold out of course but if you're willing you can snag this on the secondary market. It is, after having had time to stare at it, one of my new favourite pieces.
Comic-Con may have come and gone but we're not quite done with it just yet. Today we have our Comic-Con Middle-earth tour. In this video we take a look at Weta Workshop, Vanderstelt Studio, Middle-earth Enterprises, and Cliff Cramp Illustrations. All of them had some awesome Middle-earth themed items.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT6U_qL7Rpg?si=voPEjcGurDqHaKFy&w=560&h=315]
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The Prancing Pony made everyone feel like a Hobbit at Comic Con, and now you can give back to Barliman the barkeep!
Photo: Middle Earth Enterprises Team Picture
Our pals at SDCCBlog.com have opened voting for Best Of San Diego Comic Con 2025, affectionately known as The Shruggies, and The Prancing Pony Booth from Middle Earth Enterprises has made the short list of nominees!
Click here to vote for TheOneRing.net booth and the Prancing Pony Club t-shirt for best exclusive!
Heads up: when you fill out the first 4 poll questions, the page automatically refreshes with the rest of the awards categories. We need your vote to catch up to the current leader LEGO!
Vote Vote Vote here! Let's win one for the old Gaffer!
- Samwise Gamgee, if he went to Comic Con
Bringing the Prancing Pony to life
Middle Earth Enterprises, the stewards of all things LOTR and Hobbit, made their comic con debut in oversized fashion with a book, cartoon and movie accurate scale build of the pub the Hobbits arrive at in Bree. The Prancing Pony, under the peaceful management of Barliman Butterbur, is famously the place where "it comes in pints!"
If the Prancing Pony booth made you feel something, please VOTE at the polls now and be sure to tag @theoneringnet in your photos on IG. Voting ends Friday August 8th.
As in the title. Sale ends at midnight; I assume USA Eastern time (GMT -5, I believe). Links to all the booksellers -- Amazon, Apple, B&N, Google, Kobol.
Middle-earth came to San Diego Comic-con once again this year.
Jed Brophy meets the Nazgûl and Eowyn
TheOneRing.net booth was a hub of activity. Guests included actor Jed Brophy who was Nori in Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit movies, as well he played multiple characters in The Lord of the Rings and The Rings of Power. He regaled us with many fascinating and funny tales about his on-set experiences as he signed autographs. Graham McTavish, Dwalin in The Hobbit movies, stopped by for a visit and a chat, as did multiple Oscar winner Sir Richard Taylor of WETA Workshop. Nerd of the Rings, also shared the booth along with some lore with all who were curious. A variety of Middle-earth cosplayers dropped by, displaying incredible talent and hard work.
Graham McTavish & Jed Brophy
Cliff Broadway, Sir Richard Taylor, Jed BrophyDavid Baxter, Jed Brophy, Kellie Rice
TORN created several new T-shirts for the event: Bilbo from The Hobbit animated film smoking a pipe - the first official merchandise from that movie; “The Prancing Pony Club”, featuring a pink pony with a glittery silver mane and tail designed by TORN's Green Dragon, and The Happy Hobbit's “Seasons of the Shire”. In addition there were coins from The Shire Post, lovely fabric products from Oscha Slings, and stained glass window clings from Geek Orthodox Art.
A huge hit of the con was the Middle-Earth Enterprises’ booth, an over-sized recreation of the Inn of the Prancing Pony in Bree where all who entered felt as small as a Hobbit. This was the first official Lord of the Rings booth at SDCC! Guests were greeted by a life-size Bilbo from the Rankin Bass The Hobbit animated film and received a poster of a painting by Jerry VanderStelt depicting the Great Goblin from the same film. Then it was time to grab a pint, actually, a huge wooden stein that made you appear Hobbit-size in the photo taken while seated on a ginormous bench. It was great fun, and both the photo and the poster are memorable keepsakes. If you happened to get a photo of yourself at the Inn, please post and tag it #mehobbitsdcc2025 so we can see your hobbity selves.
John Mayo of Middle-earth Enterprises created the Prancing Pony Inn booth
Next door to The Prancing Pony, Dark Horse (who built the life-sized Bilbo) showcased new vinyl toys of Bilbo and Gollum.
We had two panels this year. On TORN's Friday’s Panel, TORN Tuesday’s Justin Sewell and Clifford Broadway (Quickbeam) and TORN staffer Nicole Roberts (Rasputin) kicked off the conversation by asking how the audience felt about using AI to de-age actors for the upcoming The Hunt for Gollum movie. Surprisingly, most of the audience voted against it. The Happy Hobbit's Kili, Kellie Rice, related her cozy experience previewing WETA Workshop’s Tales of the Shire video game. TORN staffers included Cathy Udovch (Garfeimao) giving an update on the Comic-con cruise; Josh Long (Elessar) talking about collectibles; and Nancy Steinman (Mithril) with news about Tolkien’s "new" story The Bovadium Fragments which will be released as a book this fall.
L to R: TORN's Cliff Broadway (Quickbeam), Cathy Udovch (Garfeimao), Justin Sewell, Josh Long (Elessar), Nicole Roberts (Rasputin), Kellie Rice (Kili), Nancy Steinman (Mithril)
Back on the floor of the con, theWETA Workshopbooth returned to SDCC this year! They brought their “most significant collectible to date,” according to founder Richard Taylor – a 43” tall sculpt of the entire Fellowship on the stairs of Moria. It was incredible to see all nine characters, plus Gollum, together in one masterful piece filled with “action,” each figure interacting with the others in their own unique way. Another new thing at the booth was the lack of glass to shield all the other sculpts, something Richard chose to do so that fans could take glare-free photographs. (Jed Brophy mentioned on Sunday’s TORN panel that this would have provided a challenge for his character Nori the Dwarf who was a bit of a thief.)
Several WETA artisans were in attendance, and I was happy to have the opportunity to speak with Tree Harris, one of the costumers who worked on The Hobbit and Avatar: The Way of the Water. She demonstrated creative tricks for designing memorable costumes. This year, WETA shared a booth with Legend Story Studios, a New Zealand-based trading card game design studio, and they created a life-sized winged sculpt of a character from one of the card games for the con.
WETA's 43" tall sculpt of the Moria staircaseWETA Workshop's Tree HarrisMinas Tirith Sculpt without a glass case.Sculpt created by WETA for Legend Story Studios
TORN’s Sunday panel was moderated by Justin. On the panel was Richard Taylor who told us about the nerve-wracking audience reaction to the first reveal of a scene from The Fellowship of the Ring at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001, and how he got to listen to Christopher Lee sing opera every morning. He also talked about and showed video of WETA’s new game Tales of the Shire (now available), in which you play a Hobbit and grow your own vegetables, make meals, and create community. He said the game was created with the deepest of love and enthusiasm.
L to R: Clifford Broadway, Fredrica Drotos, Justin Sewell, Jed Brophy, RIchard Taylor, John Mayo, Jay Komas, Beol Miller, Matt Graf, Jon-Paul Dumont
Middle-earth Enterprises, who are the stewards of the entertainment rights for film, stage, video games, merchandising, and events for much of Tolkien’s literary work were also on the panel. John Mayo spoke about creating the Prancing Pony booth. Fredrica Drotos, who worked on rights with The Saul Zaentz Company before it was purchased by the Embracer Group (soon to be renamed Fellowship Entertainment) is looking forward to long-term, generational development. Jay Komas said all their projects revolve around what fans want. It feels like Tolkien’s universe is in good hands.
Next year is the 25th anniversary of the release of The Fellowship of the Ring, and it was revealed Warner is busy planning “special things”. Cliff advocated for the unicorn edition of the film which would include all the scenes that were shot but cut. And Jed Brophy said he was excited that The Hunt for Gollum, which will be directed by Andy Serkis, will be going back to New Zealand for filming.
Beol Miller, director of Middle-earth Adventures, told us about The Brandywine Festival, the first officially licensed Middle-earth Live Action Role-Playing camping event which will take place first in Kentucky and later in the UK, where you can LARP as a Hobbit for 5 days. Matt Graf from Nerd of the Rings is helping research lore for the event, like the discovery that in the East Farthing, Hobbits often wore Dwarven-made boots, and he will be NPCing a boot merchant during the event.
Return to Moria developer Jon-Paul Dumont talked about getting fan feedback to keep making the video game better and for development of its expansion. He previewed a clip from Return to Moria: Durin’s Folk. In this new version, you will be able to recruit Dwarves from every clan to move into Moria to help rebuild it, to craft and trade with other people of Middle-earth, and discover whole new areas of story.
Fredrica and John also talked about recreating The Brandywine Star, an early Tolkien newsletter that used to get snail-mailed to fans, as a digital edition, but possibly even as a paper quarterly.
Emotions ran deep in the audience when Cliff spoke about community and our better selves. “We are the ones who are best equipped to take care of one another in this life,” he said, referencing when Sam helped Frodo up the side of Mount Doom.
Outside of the convention center, a highlight was a Moot organized by the new SoCal Iquendi Smial (chapter) of the Tolkien Society. The gathering of like-minded Tolkien fans and scholars was the perfect opportunity to meet new folks, geek out, and do some deep dives into Middle-earth/Arda lore.
For a year when there were no new film or TV releases in this fandom, there were still plenty of Middle-earth events to keep fans happy. With the upcoming Season 3 of The Rings of Power, next year should be even more exciting. Hope to see you there!
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