I’m rereading The Lord of the Rings as I do every few years since my freshman English teacher gave the books to me in high school. Many years later I stumbled across a copy of this book in a used book store and pounced on it.

It is a tremendous reference for all four novels in Tolkien’s epic fantasy, with hand-drawn maps of all the regions of Middle Earth from First Age to Fourth, a dated route map of both Bilbo’s journey to the Lonely Mountain and Frodo’s journey to Mt. Doom, and maps of all the large battles, including the ones in Lorien, Mirkwood, and the Dale that are only referenced in passing in the text.

During every rereading of LOTR I am continually astonished by how fully realized this world is and how in this atlas no river valley, mountain range, hobbit hole, or barrow down goes unrecorded or unillustrated. On every rereading I find some unremembered or never noticed geographical feature I have to look up–this time Deadman’s Dike–and lo! there it is on Fonstad’s map. You will never wander lost through Middle Earth again.

Book Review Monday Chatter JRR Tolkien Karen Wynn Fonstad lord of the rings The Atlas of Middle Earth