Children of Hurin
Christopher Tolkien has come out with a new book based on his father’s work called Children of Hurin. It is an episodic book that covers moments in the tragic life of Hurin’s son Turin, thousands of years before the Lord of the Rings. When I opened the book last night, it took a few minutes to find the map at the end of the book. The locations on the map are not found in the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings. So, I went searching for a full map of the world Tolkien created. I searched the term Arda (Tolkien’s word for his planet) and found this map. I just cleaned up the image a bit in Photoshop. It turns out that the locations in the book are far to the North of where the Hobbits live in the movies.
It would be difficult, if not impossible, to adapt Children of Hurin into a screenplay. It it takes place over the entire course of Turin’s life, and it does this in only 250 pages. If I used film terminology, the book has a story but it doesn’t focus on a plot. What I mean is, the book covers many possible plots that could be extrapolated into movies, but it covers them briefly. If it had only covered a specific part and spent 250 pages covering that, it would be more easily adaptable. Instead, the new work shifts between a history book and a novel.
November 7th, 2007 at 9:35 am
This map, which appears to have come from one of David Day’s unreliable thibngs, is quite inaccurate. Beleriand, where the First Age legends are set was located due *west* of where the Shire would be six thousand years later (by Bilbo’s time, all that region had sunk beneath the sea, save only the strip marked as “Lindon” in the Lord of the Rings map- the remnant of ancient Ossiriand.
November 15th, 2007 at 7:24 am
That is good to know. Still, you have to admit that it is a well made map. I guess I need to keep hunting for the proper one. I’ll be sure to post it if I ever come across the right version.
January 2nd, 2008 at 6:43 am
The Children of Hurin doesn’t take place north of where the hobbit takes place. Actually it’s located west from that place. Now you thing: uhh, there is only sea there. Your totally right. The land (Beleriand) changed after the last war against Morgoth. It ripped open the land and that sunk in to the sea. More on this story is in the Silmarillion
April 6th, 2008 at 10:13 am
As well notice that Numenore looks nothing like Tolkiens map from the unfinished tales, Numenore is supposed to be shaped like a star.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:45 am
don’t think there is a proper map yet, looked for it too.. but the comments are all right, though some things in the map do fit in with the stories of middle-earth and Aman. as far as I can see, nothing is wrong with the part of aman, but beleriand and the middle earth of the Lord of the Rings saga can not be drawn into one map. Almaren is positioned pretty good though, and a lot of things are OK on this map, but yeah, the beleriand-middle earth part is just plain wrong.
October 9th, 2009 at 7:35 am
There are very good, and accurate maps available. There is the ‘Atlas of Middle Earth’ by Karen Wynn Fonstad. She is a certified map maker, and a lover of Tolkien’s works. It includes maps of the very first creation, all the way through the first, to fourth ages. She also includes short but detailed descriptions of the battles and other important events and demographics of each map. She even plots out the path traveled by the fellowship, and the travels of Bilbo.