The Second and the Third Map of The Lord of the Rings

[Akhôrahil]

Does anybody know where I can find an image of J.R.R. Tolkien's Second Map of The Lord of the Rings (not the redrawing of the Second Map in The War of the Ring in HOME, but a photo or scan of it), preferable on the internet and for free? I managed to find an image of The First Map of The Lord of the Rings on the thetolkienist.com blog. I think that the map behind the door to Moria on the tolkienestate website that looks similar to the General Map of Middle-earth that was included in earlier english and german editions of The Lord of the Rings, but that uses contour lines instead of drawings of mountains could be the Map that is called the Third Map in HOME. Maybe it is in one of the books about the pictures that were drawn by J.R.R. Tolkien. I wonder whether the river Harnen was really missing on the Second Map of whether Christopher Tolkien forgot to include it in his redrawing of the Second Map in HOME and what its course was like on the Second Map.

 

[Alcuin]

My expertise in not in the maps (though I once noticed that there is a “Nargil Pass” between Mordor and South Gondor (or northern Harad or western Khand) at the source of the Harnen River in the southern Mountains of Mordor).

Are you talking about the “Second Map” discussed and reproduced in the chapter at the end of War of the Ring? My understanding of this text was that JRR Tolkien used the “First Map”, now “limp, torn, wrinkled, stained, and rubbed,” to write the first half of Return of the King (“Book V of The Lord of the Rings”).

I had to reread this chapter. I suppose you are correct, that JRR Tolkien made himself a larger map for this purpose, different from the “First Map”. No, I have never seen another map like that other than the published versions in The Lord of the Rings or Return of the King.

Christopher Tolkien says he redrew the Second Map “in squares of 2 cm. side (= 100 miles), the squares being lettered and numbered according to the First Map.” My bet would be that the original “Second Map” likely had major grids are at one-inch distances with fainter marks at tenths of an inch: Such engineering graph paper used to be quite commonly sold at American university bookstores forty years ago in both letter (8½ inch x 11 inch) and ledger (11 inch x 17 inch) sizes, typically with light green lettering and gridding; I suspect it was also common at English universities before the UK changed to metric in 1965.

I have seen reproductions of the large map of northwestern Middle-earth from Lindon to Umbar with lots of JRR Tolkien’s scribbling on it. I think it is kept at Marquette University. But I’ve not seen a reproduction of an original “Second Map” (other than Christopher Tolkien’s published version) with detail of Gondor and Mordor.

So if I understand you correctly, Akhôrahil, there is a “First Map” that consists of the big view of northwestern Middle-earth from Lindon to Umbar, a “Second Map” with close-in details of Gondor and Mordor (to better write the second half of the story) that Christopher Tolkien has redrawn for War of the Ring, and a pair of “Third Maps” (one large scale and one detailing Gondor and Mordor) for the published version of Lord of the Rings. Is that right?

In any case, the Harnen River was well out of the theater of action in Lord of the Rings, is it not?