There have been hundreds of maps of Middle-Earth drawn, some official, some copies, some augmented and altered to suit the uses of their cartographers. I always found the maps drawn by Christopher Tolkien to be the best, although I have often wished for further information to be put therein.

The (Tolkien) map of Beleriand does not show the location of Angband, a fact which always disappointed me. What is more, there is no official map showing both Beleriand and the lands east of the Ered Luin - which according to the later maps of Middle-Earth should be Eriador.

I've come across a few interesting maps in my search for the above, some of which can be found via the links in this entry. One I thought was of particular interest, if not overly accurate, is one which appears shows north-eastern Europe overlaid with a map of Middle-Earth. This is in direct contradiction of the words of Tolkien himself, who vociferously denied any correlation between the lands of Middle-Earth and any present-day geographical location. Either way, it's an interesting image to look at, if you can overlook the glaring inaccuracies of the cartography.

There are many such maps of Middle-Earth circulating on the internet, and to write something about even a tenth of that number would take too long. One in particular, however, caught my eye. It is described as A Map of Middle-Earth and the Undying Lands. Obviously drawn by someone with no small amount of knowledge of Tolkien-Lore, it is nevertheless full of holes, mistakes and anachronisms. They obviously knew something of Tol Eressëa, and the Trees of the Valar etc - and yet the depiction of Númenor is that of a round island, not the five-pointed one mapped out in Unfinished Tales. What is more, we are told that Beleriand was broken and destroyed, and yet the map shows both that and the lands in which the War of the Ring was waged. Utumno is depicted very close to Illuin (one of the lamps of the Valar), yet we are told that Utumno was built under the Ered Engrin, where the light of the two lamps was very dim!

I could go on, as I have barely touched on the full tale of inaccuracies in this map, but have a look for yourself and you'll see what I mean! Having said all this, the map itself is a well drawn piece of art, and I would have liked to have spoken with the artist about it as some of his ideas and styles are very good indeed.