Properly speaking, the
map of
Erebor shows six “points”, two of them pointing west, where the secret door in the little alcove above led down to
Smaug’s lair. (The two spurs appear to be pointing south, but remember, East was “up” in Dwarven
maps, while North is “up” for our real-world maps. East is also “up” in real-world medieval maps.)
More like a five-pointed star is
Númenor. (It looks to me like a man with bag over his head running to the left.) Perhaps there is some vague similarity to the
Lonely Mountain, especially since Meneltarma, the volcano at the center of the island and that was shaped like the island , had a little valley in the south, Noirinan, where the
Kings of Númenor were buried. Since South is “down” on the map of Númenor, and West is “down” on
Thrór’s map, both
mountains have something interesting on the “down” side of them on the maps. (The Kings of
Gondor were buried in Rath Dínen on the south side of Mindolluin. Come to think of it, though, I think
Elves drew maps with the West as “up”; while
Men drew maps with East as “up”. Or maybe Dúnedain drew maps like Elves.
Tolkien actually made notes on it, but I think I remember they conflict.)
If you’ve ever drawn lots and lots of imaginative maps – for D&D or another game, a story (as Tolkien did), or just for fun – you’ll probably find you use some shapes over and over. At some point, it becomes tiresome. Tolkien drafted his son Christopher (CJRT; his father was JRRT) into drawing his maps, and Christopher Tolkien’s maps were those originally published in the
Lord of the Rings. I doubt there was any mystical symbolism in Tolkien’s maps: CJRT discusses them and their development at length in
History of Middle-earth, where he published several developmental and intermediate versions leading to the final maps.
There are also preliminary and intermediate versions of the Lonely Mountain that have been published. Douglas Anderson as editor published one in the color plates of
The Annotated Hobbit. In that one, North is “up”, and the Lonely Mountain very clearly and definitely shows six “arms”, not five.
