Though I am no expert, I've long considered those maps (the ones displayed in the Illustrated Tolkien Encyclopedia) to be nothing more than wild, colorful suppositions by encyclopedia contributors. They don't match the tolkien style. There are no solid lines, the artist/cartographer used very odd colors, and they generally give very little information. Other than the red in Bilbo's treasure map, and the slight use of color to distinguish labels and such I cannot think of any other maps by tolkien that show this sort of collage-like painting smear. Until proven otherwise, I hold my opinion. This is fan art, of a commercial sort.
Iarwain
[ July 27, 2003: Message edited by: Iarwain ]
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