Michael Murray-Fennell goes in search of elves and wizards in the home city of the creator of Middle-earth
Do not write on this margin’ is printed on the top-left-hand corner of a single page torn from a university exam booklet. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (1892–1973) has clearly ignored the instruction, covering both the margin and the rest of the lined sheet with a detailed map in both pencil and black, red and green ink. Geographical features include a river, a forest and contours showing the rise and fall of the land, but there is no doubt that this map is drawn from the imagination; labels include ‘orc-raids’, ‘wandering gnomes’ and a ‘dwarf-road’.
Created in the 1920s, that map is the first one of Middle-earth, a fantasy world of elves and wizards, dwarves and dragons. There would be many more maps. By the end of the 1940s, academic and author J. R. R. Tolkien was sticking together multiple sheets with brown parcel tape to keep up with his expanding universe.
This yellowing map contains countless creases and folds— proof that it was pored over by its creator. To the west of the Misty Mountains, there’s a small burn hole, most likely caused by Tolkien’s pipe. ‘I wisely started with a map,’ he wrote, ‘and made the story fit.’
Denne historien er fra August 08, 2018-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra August 08, 2018-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
