Designed by J.R.R. Tolkien’s son Christopher and included in most editions of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the map of Middle-Earth is one of the best-known examples of fantasy cartography. The iconic map shows the fictional continent in which the action of the three books takes place, from Forodwaith in the north to Haradwaith in the south, and the Gulf of Lune in the west to the Sea of Rhûn in the east (was Middle-Earth deliberately framed to rhyme?)
Equally delightful, if not as yet as iconic, is this flow chart of Lord of the Rings. It charts the itinerary of the story’s main characters, individually and in group, showing when they meet, separate and rejoin each other. The progression is from left to right, not only in tune with the traditional (Western) reading direction but also mirroring the trajectory in the story itself, which starts in the Shire on Middle-Earth’s western edge and leads to Mordor in the east.
The geographic parallel only partly holds up: at the very end of the story, after they have returned to the Shire, some members of the Fellowship board ships to the west, but their trajectories trail off the map on its top right (i.e. northeastern) corner.
The map is however an excellent tool to identify the different strands of the story as it progresses. The main thread, in yellow, follows the Ring itself: first with Bilbo as Ringbearer and then Frodo, who carries it to Mordor to be destroyed. The trajectories are also colour-coded to identify the different races: green for Hobbits, grey for Wizards, light-brown for Men, dark-brown for Dwarves, light-blue for Elves, dark-blue for Ents. Sauron, the Evil One, is a dark red. Black is for the Orcs, Uruk-Hai and his other minions.
Battles, events and important episodes are indicated by a light grey background; the attack at Weathertop, the Council of Elrond, the Breaking of the Fellowship, the Battle at Helm’s Deep, etc.
This map is one of several movie narrative charts designed by and shown at xkcd, the marvellous webcomic of sarcasm, math, and language (the other charts being of the original Star Wars trilogy, Jurassic Park, Twelve Angry Men and Primer). The excellent work of xkcd often has a cartographic slant (as shown earlier on this blog at #118 and #331). This Lord of the Rings flow chart is reminiscent of the Minard map (#229). Other Tolkien-related maps are to be found at #121 and #204.
Many thanks to all those who sent in this map.
PS – please note, as several commenters have pointed out, that this map is based on the cinematographic work, which is not a literal retelling of the literary original.
Hi,
Is it possible for you to put an enlarged map? I can’t seem to read the text on the map.
Comment by Andy — November 8, 2009 @ 5:28 am
This should be better…
Comment by strangemaps — November 8, 2009 @ 5:34 am
Interesting… I saw this on a blog devoted to charts a few days ago, and it is very nice work, but never for a moment did I think of it as a map. I doubt the author did either.
Comment by Mark Whybird — November 8, 2009 @ 9:32 am
Actually the author did think of it loosely as a map. The alt text on the comic points out that up and down correspond loosely (actually, he uses “LOOSELY” to emphasize that it isn’t quite perfect) to northwest and southeast. Left and right represent time. So when the they return to the Shire (furthest up on the map) then head off to the west, it’s quite correct to have that as leaving the northeast corner.
Comment by Brent — November 8, 2009 @ 9:40 am
[...] 423 – Flow-Charting the Ring Trilogy [...]
Pingback by New York OA Trader | Shared Items From Around The Web – November 8, 2009 — November 8, 2009 @ 2:02 pm
I love maps that mix storyline with geography and time.
Thanks!
Is there anywhere to find it in a larger size?
Comment by lauren — November 8, 2009 @ 2:27 pm
I love how much the internet has changed since map #118 was made. So much so that it would be justified to make a new map of the internet. Which is the ongoing situation with current events cartography: each map is a snapshot in time. To keep up requires constant or frequent effort and past work can be looked at side by side to show trends.
In the ned i just love it for what it is and I’m a a big fan of XKCD in general.
Comment by David — November 8, 2009 @ 2:30 pm
xkcd is well worth the add to everyone’s rss feed reader, btw
Comment by Marc — November 8, 2009 @ 2:42 pm
Ahem. Just to nitpick here: this is a chart of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The Ring Trilogy was by Wagner.
Comment by Liam — November 8, 2009 @ 3:39 pm
[...] 8, 2009 by Barliman Via Strange Maps, a rendering of the Lord of the Rings as a flowchart of the progress of the main characters. [...]
Pingback by Flowchart of the Rings « A Seat By The Fire — November 8, 2009 @ 3:47 pm
200 nerdponits for noting that Saruman and Wormtongue don’t die in the Flooding of Isengard.
Comment by mollymooly — November 8, 2009 @ 4:40 pm
[...] Hanna shared 423 – Flow-Charting the Ring Trilogy. [...]
Pingback by Moonlit Minds « Moonlit Minds — November 8, 2009 @ 6:16 pm
except, if I remember right, the 12 angry men one is a little off, because one of the guys went to the bathroom.
Comment by Matthew — November 8, 2009 @ 6:31 pm
note that this is the flowchart of the movie version of LOTR, not the book. You can see Saruman die and not go to the Shire, and elves come to Helm’s Deep, for example.
Comment by Kevin R — November 8, 2009 @ 7:48 pm
Fascinating and different way to view the story, I loved the book and enjoyed the film, the map stirs up memories of both, though I would rather not remember how long ago it was that I read it!
Comment by Mapamundo — November 8, 2009 @ 9:25 pm
Another great one for viewing in Seadragon: http://seadragon.com/view/ey6
Comment by Dan Cory — November 8, 2009 @ 10:35 pm
Is this really a flow chart? I’d consider it a timeline. Usually, a flow chart represents a process for completing some task.
Comment by clamshell — November 9, 2009 @ 1:14 am
The Primer one was the best. Also, on seeing the Jurassic Park map, I realized I had no memory of the film.
Comment by Sam Huddy — November 9, 2009 @ 1:34 am
[...] Visit link: 423 – Flow-Charting a Ring Trilogy « Strange Maps [...]
Pingback by 423 – Flow-Charting the Ring Trilogy « Strange Maps | .............................. — November 9, 2009 @ 6:42 am
Can’t wait for the Back to the Future
trilogy..
Comment by Jason — November 9, 2009 @ 9:41 am
Here’s another Tolkien-related myp you might find interesting: http://lalaith.vpsurf.de/Tolkien/Grid.html
Comment by Berislav Lopac — November 9, 2009 @ 9:54 am
Why can’t Tom Bombadil ever seem to get any respect? He was left out of the movies, and he isn’t shown on this chart. (Though, I guess comment #14 by Kevin R. would kinda explain why Tom doesn’t appear on this graphic.)
Comment by Greg — November 9, 2009 @ 10:46 am
@Liam: Wagner’s Ring Cycle was a quadrilogy: Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried, and Gotterdammerung.
Of course calling LOTR the “Ring Trilogy” is slightly confusing, but it’s immediately obvious once you look at the map.
Comment by wilson — November 9, 2009 @ 3:14 pm
@Greg:
Because Tom Bombadil sucks. “Let’s sing a song about the architecture of my house!” “I’ll freeze your sap!” Come on, he adds absolutely nothing to the story except for a lot of wasted paper and ink.
Comment by 433 — November 9, 2009 @ 3:34 pm
Fab, but wrong – Saruman and Wormtongue went on to the Shire and were killed there and not at the flooding of Isengard. Maybe they did this from the films rather than the books? Great idea though.
Comment by Blackacre — November 9, 2009 @ 5:15 pm
[...] 423 – Flow-Charting the Ring Trilogy [...]
Pingback by Moonlit Minds « Moonlit Minds — November 9, 2009 @ 6:02 pm
Who dared to steal our knitwork ?
The Parques.
( also known as the Moires or the Nornes ).
Comment by lp — November 9, 2009 @ 6:15 pm
Now, I had this idea last spring. I used it to make a map, loosely based on the London Underground paradigm, about the movie Pulp Fiction. In strict chronological order, of course.
(It’s on my lil blog, go see it.)
But the Lord of the Rings version… oh dear god.
Comment by Jyri — November 9, 2009 @ 9:25 pm
[...] home page features a flow chart of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and some cartozoological animals (”the discovery and study [...]
Pingback by Strange Maps | Notes From the Lizard Lair — November 10, 2009 @ 12:40 am
#23 Wilson: the correct term is “tetralogy”.
The flowchart has several errors in it, I think.
It shows Elrond making a great excursion from Rivendell at the time between the fall of Isengard and the siege of Minas Tirith.
It shows Eomer venturing out during the trek through Moria; but Eomer left Edoras to pursue Saruman’s orc-band after they had started west from Emyn Muil. And he returned to Edoras and Theoden’s court before Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli arrived, and before Wormtongue left, and then accompanied Theoden to Helm’s Deep.
It shows Gandalf imprisoned by Saruman till just before the Council of Elrond; but he escaped much earlier, visited Theoden, and then reached the north during the hobbits’ trek from Bree to Rivendell, fighting the Nazgul at Weathertop three days before the hobbits got there.
It doesn’t note that when Frodo left Bag End with Sam and Pippin, Merry went ahead to Crickhollow, and then came back to meet them, nor that Gandalf visited Frodo several times between the Party and the Great Year, nor that Gandalf met with Aragorn and that they tracked down Gollum.
It shows a movement of Elves to Helm’s Deep, which makes no sense at all.
Oh, wait, it’s based on the movie. I think I am even more relieved than before that I never saw the last two segments of the movie.
Comment by Rich Rostrom — November 10, 2009 @ 6:28 am
The websites I visit are visiting each other! First a comic from xkcd appears here, then one from here turns up on Freakonomics.
Comment by Eric — November 10, 2009 @ 6:28 am
As others have alluded to but I think still needs to be stated categorically, this is a chart of the films, not the book.
Comment by Rodger — November 10, 2009 @ 3:55 pm
[...] of the Rings flow chart — Strange Maps shows Flow-Charting the Ring Trilogy, which traces the interactions between the main [...]
Pingback by Around the web — 11/10/09 « The GeoChristian — November 11, 2009 @ 5:24 am
[...] via StrangeMaps. [...]
Pingback by 500 Miles North of Middle Earth « atinygreenpea’s Weblog — November 11, 2009 @ 8:05 am
Hey man, I really enjoy your blog! Here’s another cool map from xkcd:
http://xkcd.com/256/
Comment by Jeroen — November 14, 2009 @ 8:21 pm
You know what would really be cool? A map of the aftermath of the world in the film 2012. I really wanna see that.
Comment by Duboi — November 15, 2009 @ 6:45 am
You were in my paper this morning – I just looked at the list and thought “I know that blog!”
Congratulations.
Comment by Sunday Telegraph Reader — November 15, 2009 @ 9:24 pm
Sam was a ring-bearer for a brief period in Mordor
Comment by john rimmer — November 21, 2009 @ 7:53 pm
Note that Bilbo, Frodo & Co. are not leaving via the “northeast”, they are going UP, into heaven. Ascending to a higher plane, as it were.
Comment by Yinzer — November 22, 2009 @ 6:39 am
The two axes on this chart are ‘time’ and ‘north/south’ so there is no east-west movement shown. It is purely coincidental that the major movement of the narrative is from west to east. The departure point for the Grey Havens is shown at about the same latitude as The Shire, which is correct.
Comment by john rimmer — November 22, 2009 @ 6:46 pm