Is that an island in the Sea of Rhun (or did I spill coffee again)?

[Inderjit S]

The Sea of Rhun was the north-western tip of the great Sea of Helkar. Perhaps there were other such islands dotted around the Sea of Helkar. Cirdan and some other Elves also used the Sea of Rhun to experiment with boats and navigation during the journey to Aman, he may have used the islands to navigate back and forth from the islands to the mainland. Perhaps he cleverly stranded one of his wives on one of the islands when she started to annoy him. Maybe she is still there now!

 

[Barliman Butterbur]

For those who wish to do the digging, I offer

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q="sea+of+rhun"

In the meantime, I've contacted The Tolkien Society with our question. If I hear from them, I'll post their reply forthwith.

Barley

And I have just today (5-19-05) heard from them, and here is the reply:

===============================

Hello. Sorry about the delay. A staw poll revealed that in a very early
version of the map, the Sea of Rhun had a large island in the middle.
(Unfeasibly large, given the scale of the Sea, which is very big.) By
the time the map hit publication, this had vanished and the dots
appeared.

Those who have looked carefully at the various maps point out that there
are similar dotty effects at the Mouths of Sirion and near Balar
(Silmarillion), and references to "sands" in the Sil. The dots in the
Sea of Rhun (on scale) could quite easily represent a constellation of
small islands, but are more likely to mean sands, swamp or sand bars.
(Actually small islands would make better geography on that scale.)
There appears to be no actual reference to what is going on there.

There is a discussion of this also at
http://greenbooks.theonering.net/questions/files/020202.html#dots
Which adds some details worth having. I don't however understand
Quickbeam's reference to CRT "finding later manuscripts etc." as CRT
drew up this map in co-operation with JRR while JRR was still alive and
well and writing the books - there have AFAIK been no revisions by CRT
to these maps on the basis of stuff he found after his father's death,
when he started editing the unpublished mss. Indeed, it would be against
his whole attitude of respect for his father's decisions to start
"editing" LotR material subsequent to publication. I have asked QB what
he means, but have not had a reply. As this was some time ago and you
are waiting, this is my conclusion!

I would say "be careful of taking any craft with deep draft through
these waters. You may get stuck."

Helen

===============================

Barley

 

[Arthur_Vandelay]

Another Middle-earth mystery cleared up. Thanks again, fellas!