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A comment on Tolkien's annotated map of Middle-earth discovered in copy of Lord of the Rings. Parent comment

Re:Tolkien's annotated map of Middle-earth discovered in cop... by qznc on Friday October 23, 2015 @05:29PM (#10441404)
On the other hand, Tolkien had no clue about geology. If you think about how rivers flow from mountains to oceans, the map of Middleearth is unrealistic. Anduin heads straight towards hills and mountains (Emyn Muil and Osgiliath)? In the north west, Luhn/Lune flows south to the Grey Havens instead of the short way to the northern ocean? The sea of Rhun and Nurnen are both dead (no outflow)?

(disclaimer: I still love and respect Tolkiens work! Especially the Silmarillion.)

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Re:Tolkien's annotated map of Middle-earth discovered in cop... by vlehto on Friday October 23, 2015 @06:13PM (#10441532)
The map doesn't show elevations. Medieval maps work that way, they only show notable hills and cliffs, but no slow descents.

Here's similar from Norway

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/old-map-norway-11431502.jpg

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Re:Tolkien's annotated map of Middle-earth discovered in cop... by arethuza on Saturday October 24, 2015 @08:42AM (#10443419)
You do get situations where rivers cut through mountain ranges - it can happen when the river existed before the mountain range and as the mountains were pushed up the river continued to cut it's way through:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antecedent_drainage_stream

[NB I sure Tolkien would have approved of the idea of rivers being older than the mountains they cut through].

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Re:Tolkien's annotated map of Middle-earth discovered in cop... by snowwrestler on Monday October 26, 2015 @11:45AM (#10452158)
I studied geology and none of the river paths in the LOTR map seem particularly unrealistic. Tolkien's map shows local elevation but not absolute elevation, which, when it comes to a river's path, matters more than people think.

For example, the plain between the Misty Mountains and Mirkwood could be like the plain in front of the Colorado front range: dead flat, but still at 5,000+ feet in elevation. That would give it plenty of vertical drop to the sea. It's certainly possible that the absolute elevation of the Anduin at the ford at Carrock is similar to the summit of the mountain behind Minas Tirith!

And it takes doesn't take much elevation drop to make a river flow. The Lune would work as drawn if there were cliffs or hills only a couple of hundred feet high on the southern edge of the Bay of Forochel, which could happen with glaciation--and it is known as the bay of ice in the books.

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Re:Tolkien's annotated map of Middle-earth discovered in cop... by selimthegrim on Friday October 23, 2015 @07:48PM (#10441838)
Tolkien being Tolkien, he probably chalks it up to the post Morgoth/Feanor and post Numenor sunderings of the world.
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