jamesjolliffe3 hours ago
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.
grimgrin3 hours ago
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/
throwanem3 minutes ago
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.
b11217 minutes ago
Giant indeed. How large was it, I couldn't even zoom in enough on my phone to get good detail.
throwanem5 minutes ago
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.
CamouflagedKiwi4 hours ago
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).
bombcar3 hours ago
This book is amazing; the fact that she was able to work out most everything involving geology just from Tolkien's descriptions is wonderful.
WillAdamsan hour ago
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)
philipov3 hours ago
I have that same book. It was a major source of inspiration when I was a kid.
explodes26 minutes ago
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.
LinuxAmbulance9 minutes ago
As far as I can tell, this submission is just an ad.
mfro5 hours ago
Funny, I found this last night: https://www.ardacraft.me/
1010085 hours ago
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...
WillAdamsan hour ago
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.
broken-kebab5 hours ago
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.
SamBam2 hours ago
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?
VoodooJuJu4 hours ago
[dead]
cyberlimerence5 hours ago
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 ?
PokemonNoGo4 hours ago
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...
bombcar3 hours ago
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.
egypturnash3 hours ago
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.
riffraff5 hours ago
odd, I'd rather have Tolkienistic maps of the Earth :)
whicks5 hours ago
good news, there are artists out there doing exactly this!
one example: https://lordofmaps.com/ (unaffiliated)
DGAP4 hours ago
Cool!
