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Everybody loves the maps of Middle Earth. But has anyone ever plotted on the map of Middle Earth, Frodo's journey throughout the Lord of the Rings? Seeing as the book gives us a description of where he travels.

What about including some of the other characters? It would be interesting to see the extent of his journey. There are a few basic maps, but nothing very artistic or interesting.

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  • 24
    How much research did you do before asking here?
    – curiousdannii
    Commented Jul 6, 2016 at 8:43
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    I found most of those quite crude and wondered if there was anything really artistic and interesting.
    – D. Clayton
    Commented Jul 6, 2016 at 8:46
  • There are almost always maps drawn by the author (or his sone) himself in hardcover versions of the books. For accuracy, those are hard to beat.
    – NKCampbell
    Commented Jul 6, 2016 at 14:51
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    I love those maps, ideally one of those could have the journey overlayed. That was my original thought!
    – D. Clayton
    Commented Jul 6, 2016 at 14:53
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    Yes, of course someone has done it. In the early 1970s, I used a red felt tipped pen to plot Frodo's journey on a poster sized map of Middle-earth that I hung on my wall.
    – Blackwood
    Commented Dec 11, 2016 at 1:00

5 Answers 5

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Karen Wynn Fonstad's The Atlas of Middle Earth

This contains the map of Frodo's journey with all the key locations marked from the book.

Here is a sample picture of Frodo's journey towards Weathertop, each day is marked on the map.

Bree to Weathertop

It also contains Bilbo's journey from the Hobbit, with Frodo's overlaid in brown to show differences in route and time taken.

Bag End to Rivendell

If memory serves other events including those from the Silmarillion such as Beren and Luthien's journey into Angband, the Westward migration of the various tribes of Men and the Host of the Valar coming East to finally deal with Morgoth.

As to whether these are artistic or interesting, this will be personal opinion but I think they are very well drawn, with enough of the flavour of the maps that Tolkien drew.

Stylistically I think it compliments Tolkien's work and is a good visual aid when reading the books.

I have also found the information very interesting, and there is a lot of it too.

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    It does have other events - as well as showing past battles, comparison maps by population from events like Plagues, maps of the different era. It's meticulously (though not perfectly) researched. The map information tracks with the dates that are occasionally (though rarely) given in the book. There's also some speculation (which depending on your level of fandom you may or may not appreciate) about what interior locations may look like in regard to Henneth Annûn or Khazad-dûm.
    – Mark
    Commented Jul 6, 2016 at 13:38
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    I highly recommend the book in question. It might not be 100% "canonical", but it's very good helpful, well-researched, well-drawn, well-organized, and well-written. I hope it's still available.
    – Todd Wilcox
    Commented Jul 6, 2016 at 14:02
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    @ToddWilcox its still on Amazon amazon.co.uk/Atlas-Middle-Earth-Karen-Fonstad/dp/0618126996 my copy is safe in the garage
    – Cearon O'Flynn
    Commented Jul 6, 2016 at 14:04
  • The Atlas is an excellent, highly recommended book. However, my copy (revised edition from 1992) has a few printing errors. As seen in the images, the maps use a two-colour print. For example on p. 137 in my copy, the black colour contours don't match the brown background, which comes from a different page. Later editions may have corrected these errors.
    – Schmuddi
    Commented Jul 6, 2016 at 23:31
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Take a look at The LotR Project

This is an online and interactive map of Middle Earth and my personal favorite. It shows the route each major character took. It also marks the location and dates of events that took place during the travels.
The website also contains a very, very detailed family tree if you're interested.

The project was made by a super fan who also went through all the notes J.R.R. Tolkien left behind. Not just the published works. (Will look for the source)

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  • Excellent map! Thanks
    – D. Clayton
    Commented Jul 6, 2016 at 14:23
  • Pretty sure LotR Project's maps were based completely off of The Atlas. Karen Wynn Fonstad left a gap that has yet to be filled, as there aren't many Tolkien cartographers.
    – ibid
    Commented Jul 7, 2016 at 1:12
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Journeys of Frodo by Barbara Strachey.

Front Cover

I bought this book over 30 years ago when I was a young lad. It plots Frodo's journey day by day as well as the other members of the company of the ring.

Lovely book for a Tolkien fan.

Each map contains the campsites, eating places, and various other stops that Frodo used on his journey to Mordor.

The book is now out of print so would have to be picked up second hand.

Here are some pictures of the maps

Map Map 2

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  • Welcome to Stack Exchange! Could you give us a link or fuller description for this book? (Some pictures from the book would also be nice, but they'd probably be a lot harder to get hold of.)
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    Commented Jul 6, 2016 at 14:05
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    I hope you don't mind but I added pictures to your answer to help flesh it out as requested. Feel free to roll the changes back if you object
    – Cearon O'Flynn
    Commented Jul 6, 2016 at 14:20
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How about the official board game map? The yellow dotted line marks Frodo's path. I don't know where it stands as canon (higher than some fan-made, higher than all fan-made, utter baloney, etc.), but if you're looking for a single map with the whole journey and critical locations marked, this is your map. Just ignore the arbitrary region markings.

enter image description here

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    I've seen many game boards representing Middle Earth. I'd forgotten how out of proportion the one provided by the LOTR edition if Risk is.
    – tjd
    Commented Jul 7, 2016 at 14:28
  • This map is a bit out, but I like it all the same
    – maguirenumber6
    Commented Sep 3, 2016 at 6:46
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I had the same question whilst writing an essay where I thought it'd made a neat frame of reference, and then I found this absolutely wonderful interactive map, that allows you to plot pretty much every single path any single character takes throughout the trilogy (and the Hobbit, too), as well as look at timelines, events and a whole lot of other useful and just fun stuff. Also, the map is absolutely stunning.

http://lotrproject.com/map/#zoom=3&lat=-1315.5&lon=1500&layers=BTTTTT

Oh, and also, it has a map of Beleriand, too.

http://lotrproject.com/map/beleriand/#zoom=3&lat=-758.33903&lon=1528.48291&layers=BTTTTTTTTTT

Hope you enjoy playing around with these two :)

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