Airyyn

This maps show the landforms of the white Mountains, from Edoras to Minas Tirith. 
The contour lines are different according to the cartographer, J.R.R.Tolkien or Barbara Strachey.

This infography presents the four designs of official poster maps of Tolkien's Middle-Earth drawn by John Howe, and published in various products along the time, in collaboration with Brian Sibley.

The meaning of colors are the following : the shaded blue surface is devoted to the map itself, the green frames contain pictures from J.Howe and the white frame contain he map's title.

The table gives : year of publication, title, editor, ISBN, and the poster map(s) included.

Website of John Howe : www.john-howe.com/

Link to the map of Middle-Earth : www.john-howe.com/portfolio/ga…

Link to the map of Wilderland : www.john-howe.com/portfolio/ga…

Link to the map of Belerian : www.john-howe.com/portfolio/ga…

Link to the map of Númenor : www.john-howe.com/portfolio/ga…

This infography is litteraly a "map of maps" : it shows, under the form of a phylogenetic tree, the relation between Middle-earth maps and cartographers. 

As in a Sankey diagram, the branch thickness is proportional to the importance of the map. 

I retained only influential or interesting maps, on my point of view (limited and subjective). I apologize for the cartographers I forgotten.

This infography was created at the same time as the writing of an essay about cartographers of Middle-Earth :
www.tolkiendil.com/essais/geog…

The frames concerning J.R.R. Tolkien and Chr. Tolkien are based on the list of maps published by the french website Tolkiendil :
www.tolkiendil.com/essais/geog…

John Howe produced 4 "official" maps. See details in this infography :
airyyn.deviantart.com/art/Maps…

Version of the file: V6
Updated : 24/06/2018

This map represents the town of Thiepval (France) during the Battle of the Somme in World War 1. 
J.R.R. Tolkien was engaged in the conflict as a Lieutenant in Lancashire Fusiliers. 
This experience was very important in his writer life, as revealed by Jonh Garth in his book Tolkien and the Great War, Boston, Houghton Mifflin (2003).

British army was located below the blue dashed line, and red lines represent German positions (principal trenches and redoubts).  

Note that the vertical scale is deliberately exaggerated, two lines are vertically separated by 20 meters : the real battlefield is flatter than this representation. It is clear that the German troops are entranched in a favorable position compared to the British troops. 

The contourlines, and the river course, were extracted from a trench map available at the following adress : http://maps.nls.uk/view/101723165.