''Journeys of Frodo: An Atlas of J. R. R. Tolkien's'' The Lord of the Rings by

Barbara Strachey Barbara Halpern Strachey (17 July 1912 – 15 October 1999 in Oxford, England) was a British author. Barbara Strachey was born to parents Oliver Strachey, a cryptographer in World War I and World War II, and the feminist politician, writer, and ...

is an

atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...

based on the

fictional realm A fictional universe, or fictional world, is a self-consistent setting with events, and often other elements, that differ from the real world. It may also be called an imagined, constructed, or fictional realm (or world). Fictional universes may ...

Middle-earth Middle-earth is the fictional setting of much of the English writer J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy. The term is equivalent to the ''Miðgarðr'' of Norse mythology and ''Middangeard'' in Old English works, including ''Beowulf''. Middle-earth is t ...

, which traces the journeys undertaken by the

characters Character or Characters may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk * ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...

Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...

epic Epic commonly refers to: * Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation * Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements Epic or EPIC may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and medi ...

. The book comprises 51 two-colour

map A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes. Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...

s (a general map of Middle-earth and 50 numbered maps) at various scales, all based on the original ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

'' maps drawn by

Christopher Tolkien Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (21 November 1924 – 16 January 2020) was an English academic editor, becoming a French citizen in later life. The son of author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien edited much of his father' ...

from his father's sketches. Each map is on a right-hand page in

landscape format Page orientation is the way in which a rectangular page is oriented for normal viewing. The two most common types of orientation are ''portrait'' and ''landscape''. The term "portrait orientation" comes from visual art terminology and describes ...

and depicts physical features in black and contour lines in red. Routes taken by characters on roads and paths are shown in dashed black and red; routes off-road are in red only. Arrows show the direction of travel and dates are listed in red. Scales along the top and left of each map show the distance east/west (mainly east) and north/south (mainly south) from

Bag End Bag End is the underground dwelling of the Hobbits Bilbo and Frodo Baggins in J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy novels ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From there, both Bilbo and Frodo set out on their adventures, and both return there, fo ...

. At the bottom of each map is a scale showing miles to the inch and an indication of the

lunar phase Concerning the lunar month of ~29.53 days as viewed from Earth, the lunar phase or Moon phase is the shape of the Moon's directly sunlit portion, which can be expressed quantitatively using areas or angles, or described qualitatively using the t ...

or phases visible at the dates given. Each numbered map is accompanied by a description on the facing left-hand page, in which Strachey describes the portion of the route indicated, often justifying her topographical decisions with quotes from the book. In some cases she points out discrepancies in the topographical descriptions, occasionally for instance altering the course of a road or a river on the grounds that it would otherwise be inconsistent with Tolkien's other descriptions of the terrain.

Reception

Christopher Tolkien refers to ''Journeys of Frodo'' a number of times in ''

The History of The Lord of the Rings ''The History of The Lord of the Rings'' is a four-volume work by Christopher Tolkien published between 1988 and 1992 that documents the process of J. R. R. Tolkien's writing of ''The Lord of the Rings''. The ''History'' is also numbered as vol ...

'', often agreeing with Strachey's conclusions, and sometimes disagreeing. Nancy-Lou Patterson, reviewing the work in ''

Mythlore ''Mythlore'' is a biannual (originally quarterly) peer-reviewed academic journal founded by Glen GoodKnight and published by the Mythopoeic Society. Although it publishes articles that explore the genres of myth and fantasy in general, special att ...

'', calls it a "delightful contribution" to the understanding of ''The Lord of the Rings'', agreeing with Strachey's comment that when she first read the novel, she wished she had had "a complete set of maps covering the journeys of Frodo and his companions". Patterson writes that Strachey's maps "with their charming directness and laconic simplicity, come very close to the spirit of Tolkien's own line drawings, and form a genuine visual parallel to his novels". Ian Lace, reviewing the book for MusicWeb, called the book a remarkable piece of useful Middle-earth/Hobbit scholarship. He writes that Strachey has combined information from the texts,

Tolkien's maps J. R. R. Tolkien's maps, depicting his fictional Middle-earth and other places in his Tolkien's legendarium, legendarium, helped him with plot development, guides the reader through his often complex stories, and contributes to the Impression o ...

, and clues such as the phases of the moon.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Journeys Of Frodo 1981 books Books about Middle-earth Fictional atlases Allen & Unwin books

Reception

See also

References