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Old 03-22-2019, 01:16 PM   #8
Findegil
King's Writer
 
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 1,694
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It is a long time since we last discussed about this topic! And by re-reading this short thread I found that I probably must now extend my list at least through Volume II. But that’s only another point on my agenda (maybe the next).

As I have already started to work with the Maps and Diagrams from the Ambrakanta, I am now very confident that I can handle as well other maps. Beside the three Diagrams and two Maps of the Ambrakanta three maps are set, I think:
- A Version of the 2nd Silmarillion Map form HoME 11 for Volume I.
- The Map of Númenor from UT for Volume II, The Black Years.
- A Version of the 1st LotR Map from Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth for Volume II, The Fading Years.

Other maps are more questionable:
- A Version of 2nd Silmarillion Map form HoME 11 for Volume I, Of Beleriand and it’s Realms: Christopher Tolkien did kind of split the content of the 2nd Silmarillion Map for greater clearness. And in this place he added the part of the split that could be named a political map of Beleriand. It is an option we should at least discuss.
- Verious maps that Tolkien had drawn for The Hobbit in part with the way of Thorin & Co. Marked on it from The Art of The Hobbit.
- A map of the Shire. I am not sure if we have an original source for this, but if yes it is still questionale if it makes sense in our project.
- The 2nd LotR Map meaning the map of Gondor, Mordor and Co. As fare as I remember Christopher Tolkien redrawing is very near to the original and it is includes in LotR it self, which we alway looked at as kind of companion to our project.

To all these maps I will come back sooner or later. But for the time being I want to discuss with you a much more difficult case: While I worked on Ambrakanta Map IV & Map V I found references to the 1st Map from HoME I. As it is, that map is unuseabel. But in one point it is unique: It does provide details about where is what in Valinor. The 1st Map is indeed very much in agreement with the text of BoLT in which Valinor and the mansions of the Valar are described. And we have taken up many passages from BoLT exactly because they do the same as 1st Map: They provide details about Valionor that are never again mentioned. As we know from Ambrakanta Map IV & Map V the shape of Valinor greatly changed. But as our text stands the relative placement inside that realm of all the features marked on the 1st Map were still the same.
My proposal is the following: rebuild only the Valiorean part of 1st Map to agree in shape to Ambrakanta Map V and lable all the unlabled features on that Map. So the labels I would take are:

Labels on the map:
M… Ice => Helcaraxë

Letters discussed in the comments:
a: Valimar
b: The Two Trees
c: Halls of Mandos
d: Kôr => Tirion
e: ‘the low place in the hills' by which Melko and his following passed out of Valinor into Arvalin-Eruman, a gap left by Tulkas and Aule for their own entry into Valinor at the time of the raising of the mountains => I think we have to remove this feature.
h: Eruman => Avathar
j: potential coast lines, the lable is to be removed
k: from east to west: the Magic Isles; Tol Eressëa; the Twilit Isles; we have to remove these and add the Isle from Ambrakanta Map V

Features not named on the map or discussed in the comments:
The dot south of c: Sirnumen => Formenos
The dot between d and e: Murmuran (the dwelling of Lóriën)
The dot south west of h: Ungoliant’s Lair

Features to be added from Ambrakanta Map V beside the Isle:
Aqualondë as a square like Valimar and Tirion
the dots in the south of the plain of Valinor: Aulë’s House
Valinor it self as a lable for the country.

The original 1st Map was on a manuscript page within the text of the chapter: The theft of Melko and the Darkening of Valinor. Therefore I would include that map in our QS; Cha. 10 Of the Drakening of Valinor.

Respectfully
Findegil
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