Steve Hayes
2015-10-24 03:28:03 UTC
Tolkien's annotated map of Middle-earth discovered inside copy of Lord
of the Rings
Map goes on sale in Oxford for £60,000 after being found at
Blackwell’s Rare Books inside novel belonging to illustrator Pauline
Baynes
Alison Flood
Friday 23 October 2015 13.48 BST
Last modified on Friday 23 October 2015 18.19 BST
A recently discovered map of Middle-earth annotated by JRR Tolkien
reveals The Lord of the Rings author’s observation that Hobbiton is on
the same latitude as Oxford, and implies that the Italian city of
Ravenna could be the inspiration behind the fictional city of Minas
Tirith.
The map was found loose in a copy of the acclaimed illustrator Pauline
Baynes’ copy of The Lord of the Rings. Baynes had removed the map from
another edition of the novel as she began work on her own colour Map
of Middle-earth for Tolkien, which would go on to be published by
Allen & Unwin in 1970. Tolkien himself had then copiously annotated it
in green ink and pencil, with Baynes adding her own notes to the
document while she worked.
Blackwell’s, which is currently exhibiting the map in Oxford and
selling it for £60,000, called it “an important document, and perhaps
the finest piece of Tolkien ephemera to emerge in the last 20 years at
least”.
It shows what Blackwell’s called “the exacting nature” of Tolkien’s
creative vision: he corrects place names, provides extra ones, and
gives Baynes a host of suggestions about the map’s various flora and
fauna. Hobbiton, he notes, “ is assumed to be approx at latitude of
Oxford”; Tolkien was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University.
The notebooks reveal that Hobbiton is on the same latitude as Oxford,
and imply that the Italian city of Ravenna could be the inspiration
behind Minas Tirith.
The notebooks reveal that Hobbiton is on the same latitude as Oxford,
and imply that the Italian city of Ravenna could be the inspiration
behind Minas Tirith. Photograph: Blackwell’s Rare Books
The novelist also uses Belgrade, Cyprus, and Jerusalem as other
reference points, and according to Blackwell’s suggests that “the city
of Ravenna is the inspiration behind Minas Tirith - a key location in
the third book of the Lord of The Rings trilogy”.
“The map shows how completely obsessed he was with the details. Anyone
else interfered at their peril,” said Sian Wainwright at Blackwell’s.
“He was tricky to work with, but very rewarding in the end.”
Correspondence between Tolkien and the late and acclaimed illustrator
Baynes, who also worked on books for CS Lewis, as well as Baynes’s
unpublished diary entries, gives further details about the sometimes
thorny relationship between the two. On 21 August 1969, Baynes
describes a visit to Tolkien and his wife in Bournemouth, “to chat
about a poster map I have to do – he very uncooperative”.
The author later apologies for having “been so dilatory”, and a later
lunch sees the author “in great form – first names and kissing all
round – and pleased with the map”.
Henry Gott, modern first editions specialist at Blackwell’s Rare
Books, said the map was “an exciting and important discovery: new to
scholarship (though its existence is implied by correspondence between
the two), it demonstrates the care exercised by both in their mapping
of Tolkien’s creative vision”.
“Before going on display in the shop this week, this had only ever
been in private hands (Pauline Baynes’s for the majority of its
existence). One of the points of interest is how much of a hand
Tolkien had in the poster map; all of his suggestions, and there are
many (the majority of the annotation on the map is his), are reflected
in Baynes’s version,” said Gott. “The degree to which it is properly
collaborative was not previously apparent, and couldn’t be without a
document like this. Its importance is mostly to do with the insight it
gives into that process.”
Blackwell’s is selling a range of works by Baynes, who died in 2008,
aged 85, including a range of her original signed drawings from the
Narnia books.
https://t.co/q6CcQzwGLf
of the Rings
Map goes on sale in Oxford for £60,000 after being found at
Blackwell’s Rare Books inside novel belonging to illustrator Pauline
Baynes
Alison Flood
Friday 23 October 2015 13.48 BST
Last modified on Friday 23 October 2015 18.19 BST
A recently discovered map of Middle-earth annotated by JRR Tolkien
reveals The Lord of the Rings author’s observation that Hobbiton is on
the same latitude as Oxford, and implies that the Italian city of
Ravenna could be the inspiration behind the fictional city of Minas
Tirith.
The map was found loose in a copy of the acclaimed illustrator Pauline
Baynes’ copy of The Lord of the Rings. Baynes had removed the map from
another edition of the novel as she began work on her own colour Map
of Middle-earth for Tolkien, which would go on to be published by
Allen & Unwin in 1970. Tolkien himself had then copiously annotated it
in green ink and pencil, with Baynes adding her own notes to the
document while she worked.
Blackwell’s, which is currently exhibiting the map in Oxford and
selling it for £60,000, called it “an important document, and perhaps
the finest piece of Tolkien ephemera to emerge in the last 20 years at
least”.
It shows what Blackwell’s called “the exacting nature” of Tolkien’s
creative vision: he corrects place names, provides extra ones, and
gives Baynes a host of suggestions about the map’s various flora and
fauna. Hobbiton, he notes, “ is assumed to be approx at latitude of
Oxford”; Tolkien was a professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford University.
The notebooks reveal that Hobbiton is on the same latitude as Oxford,
and imply that the Italian city of Ravenna could be the inspiration
behind Minas Tirith.
The notebooks reveal that Hobbiton is on the same latitude as Oxford,
and imply that the Italian city of Ravenna could be the inspiration
behind Minas Tirith. Photograph: Blackwell’s Rare Books
The novelist also uses Belgrade, Cyprus, and Jerusalem as other
reference points, and according to Blackwell’s suggests that “the city
of Ravenna is the inspiration behind Minas Tirith - a key location in
the third book of the Lord of The Rings trilogy”.
“The map shows how completely obsessed he was with the details. Anyone
else interfered at their peril,” said Sian Wainwright at Blackwell’s.
“He was tricky to work with, but very rewarding in the end.”
Correspondence between Tolkien and the late and acclaimed illustrator
Baynes, who also worked on books for CS Lewis, as well as Baynes’s
unpublished diary entries, gives further details about the sometimes
thorny relationship between the two. On 21 August 1969, Baynes
describes a visit to Tolkien and his wife in Bournemouth, “to chat
about a poster map I have to do – he very uncooperative”.
The author later apologies for having “been so dilatory”, and a later
lunch sees the author “in great form – first names and kissing all
round – and pleased with the map”.
Henry Gott, modern first editions specialist at Blackwell’s Rare
Books, said the map was “an exciting and important discovery: new to
scholarship (though its existence is implied by correspondence between
the two), it demonstrates the care exercised by both in their mapping
of Tolkien’s creative vision”.
“Before going on display in the shop this week, this had only ever
been in private hands (Pauline Baynes’s for the majority of its
existence). One of the points of interest is how much of a hand
Tolkien had in the poster map; all of his suggestions, and there are
many (the majority of the annotation on the map is his), are reflected
in Baynes’s version,” said Gott. “The degree to which it is properly
collaborative was not previously apparent, and couldn’t be without a
document like this. Its importance is mostly to do with the insight it
gives into that process.”
Blackwell’s is selling a range of works by Baynes, who died in 2008,
aged 85, including a range of her original signed drawings from the
Narnia books.
https://t.co/q6CcQzwGLf
--
Steve Hayes
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
http://www.goodreads.com/hayesstw
http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius
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Steve Hayes
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
http://www.goodreads.com/hayesstw
http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius
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