Is this map accurate

[Vorondil]

Is this map of The Third Age of Middle-Earth accurate:

 

[mahalmar]

It is pretty okay I guess. I was always thinking the emergence of the western lands where Valinor once was and the making-round of the world must have had an impact on the eastern side as well, which e.g. wasn't shown in Fonstad's atlas, which this map clearly is based on.

I do however have issues with the old (western) coastline of the FA. I guess Fonstad was the first to propose this coastline, which is only in parts correct. Why do I say that? There are some direct indications in Tolkien's writings suggesting that the later Bay of Belfalas didn't exist the way it is depicted on this map (which is clearly derived from the one in Fonstad).

(1) In a writing concerned with the Great March of the Eldar Tolkien (mindlessly?) wrote that some of the Teleri followed the river Isen and settled at the sea while they move across the Misty Mountains. This passage was later struck out and Hostetter argues it

implies that in the First Age the River Isen emptied into the Belegaer at or about the same latitude and longitude that it does in the Third Age, despite the submergence of vast amounts of the western lands of Beleriand in the War of Wrath at the end of the First Age. The realization of this implication of the passage no doubt occasioned its deletion in the act of writing and the note that immediately follows.

I can't say if this was really the reason Tolkien struck this passage, for it could also be he simply didn't want the Teleri to deviate from their path at this point.

(2) That indeed Tolkien didn't intend the Bay to reach as far into Endor as is shown on the map of Fonstad (and this) is supported by his own writing.
He was meticulously writing down the entire journey of the Great March with all sorts of details.
Under the entry for VY 1130/95 [AY 18815] (which is the 2nd year of the March = 210th Year of the Sun after the beginning of the March) it reads:

The Ingar and Ñoldor settle at last about the Isen (near later Isengard). The wandering has taken about four löar (1130/95). The main host halts for a long while. The Teleri straggle in.
NB: All the coast south of the Haradwaith originally extended much farther west (before the ruin of Beleriand and later Númenor) so that they are still very far from the Sea, which they do not see or hear about.

I am a bit confused by the statement that only Haradwaith is mentioned and special emphasis is given to the coast south of Haradwaith. This fact corresponds well with the coast line given on Fonstad's map. Yet Tolkien clearly states, that they are still very far from the sea. And he states that in direct relation to the fact that the coast south of Haradwaith extended much farther west. I think therefor the (later) Bay of Belfalas didn't reach as far into Endor.

If there was indeed a bay this deep into Endor how did it come to exist?


P.S. I know it's not directly connected to your question, but it came to my mind when seeing the outlines of the former cost line.

P.P.S. I was always wondering about the far-eastern landmass on Fonstad's map. They are noticeable absent on this map. What are your thoughts about them?

P.P.PS. I know there is the "Ambarkanta Map" of Tolkien himself where the Bay of Belfalas is already in existence in the FA. Do you think, especially in regards to this cited passage, that he either forgot this, or intended to change it, or maybe this statement simply expresses that reality shown on that map, and I misunderstand it?

We have to keep in mind tho, that on this map the Ered Luin basically reach till the mouth of the Andean, thus making the Blue and the White Mountains basically one single mountain range.

For reference, the map (source: https://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Arda#/media/File:J.R.R._Tolkien_-_Ambarkanta_Map_(colorized).gif):