A map of Europe projected on Middle-earth

This is another map I produced for the extended edition of "Middle-earth seen by the barbarians". It has Europe superimposed on the LotR map.

The basis for this exercise was Tolkien's statement in Letter 294, recently confirmed by the draft for the Pauline Baynes map, that Hobbiton was located at the latitude (and, implicitly, the longitude) of Oxford. An earlier, more tentative version of this map I had produced many years ago, but now I was delighted to find that my computations from back then have been confirmed by Tolkien's notes on the Baynes draft!

The present map also helped to identify the latitude of Erebor. Entering this value into the free astronomy software "Stellarium" then allowed me to run a set of simulations that showed the positions of the sun and moon in the sky at Durin's Day and, from there, to establish the entire lunar almanac of "The Hobbit". The results of this simulation are part of my other book, "The Moon in 'The Hobbit'" (see the links at the bottom of this page).

Middle-earth seen by the barbarians available in b/w or full colour!

Both extended editions of "Middle-earth seen by the barbarians" - full colour or b/w - are now available for purchase. They include the updated content of both original volumes that originally derived from essays published on Lalaith's Middle-earth Science Pages:

I - The Indigenous Peoples of Eriador and Gondor
Compiling the fragments on the culture and history of the pre-Númenóreans of Middle-earth from many different sources written by JRRT, with a special focus on the Dunlendings.

II - The Lossoth and the Forodwaith
The peoples in the far north about which very little is known. This chapter is accordingly short.

III - The Lost History of the Men of Darkness
Compiling culture and history of the various tribes and nations of Easterlings and Southrons, from Wainriders to Variags. This is quite the longest chapter.

IV - The Third Realm in Exile
A special chapter devoted to the Black Númenóreans and the history of Umbar, that other Realm in Exile besides Arnor and Gondor.

V - The mysterious King Bladorthin
About the one king who fits into no genealogy of the kingdoms of Middle-earth and the probable history of his kingdom

Two Appendices discuss the etymology of the name Bladorthin and the arithmetical approach to superimposing a grid of latitudes and longitudes on the LotR map.
A third Appendix, not previously published, discusses certain elements of the recently discovered draft that Pauline Baynes referred to in her 1969 map of Middle-earth and what they additionally reveal about the barbarians of Middle-earth.

The luxurious full-colour edition is available from here:
http://www.amazon.com/Middle-earth-seen-barba…/…/ref=sr_1_4…

 For readers with a smaller purse, a less expensive b/w edition is available, too:
http://www.amazon.com/Middle-earth-seen-barba…/…/ref=sr_1_5…

A map of Middle-earth in the First Age

Codex Regius books: Middle-earth seen by the barbarians, the full-colo...: This is one of the basic maps of Middle-earth that I have designed for the full-colour collective edition of "Middle-earth seen by the barbarians."

Lalaith's Middle-earth Science Pages relaunched

Hi there!

Changing our provider has required a new online address of Lalaith's Middle-earth Science Pages and, taking the chance, a major overhaul of its layout. As you may know by now, a couple of the larger and more significant essays on the history, astronomy and linguistics of Middle-earth have been collected in book volumes on behalf of collectors who prefer to have everything on their bookshelves that relates to J.R.R. Tolkien and the world of Middle-earth. The rest will stay here and subsequently expanded again.

Note, please, that the "Tolkien on Audio" section, known from the old Science Pages, is gone. With an entire new generation of musicians inspired by Tolkien's works especially in the Hard Rock & Metal scene I feel incapable of keeping trace and, therefore, I could not do adequate justice to many of those dedicated artists.

Another highlight is the publication of the full-colour extended edition of "Middle-earth seen by the barbarians" that has previously been published in two b/w volumes. Some readers have with good reason commented on the quality of the maps printed in those books, which is owed to the fact that CreateSpace generally reduces b/w print to 300 dpi. With them, colour print has a much better quality that, in my eyes, justifies the higher price if all pages are produced in colour. Hence, I revised not only the maps but the entire layout of "Barbarians" and I added a section discussing elements on the recently discovered draft that Pauline Baynes had used to compile her full-colour LotR map of 1969.

I have approved of the review today and the full-colour edition of "Middle-earth seen by the barbarians" is now available in print here: Middle-earth seen by the barbarians, full-colour extended edition, March 2016 .

For readers with a smaller budget, a b/w extended edition of the same book will follow within the next few days.