Mapping Middle-earth:
An Interview with Pete Fenlon
This is the second installment of the series of interviews I will be conducting with those individuals at ICE and elsewhere who have played an important part in the development of the MERP line. In this issue you will be eavesdropping on a conversation I had with Pete Fenlon, former MERP editor and the skilled hand behind those beautiful color maps we have all come to know and love. On numerous occasions, Tolkien underlined the centrality of maps to the evolution of The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien himself insisted that the experience of fantasy was, in its pure form, an aural rather than a visual affair; this notwithstanding, I think it would not be going too far to say that, as an "auxiliary" medium, maps have performed an invaluable role in bringing Tolkien's world to life for millions of readers (and role-players) the world over. One of the most enduring strengths of ICE's treatment of Middle-earth (I believe) has been its awareness of and attention to this all-important dimension of Tolkien's sub-creation.
Chris: Do you have any previous background or experience in cartography and map-making that contributed to your work for the MERP stuff?
Pete: Well, in terms of formal cartographic training, no; in the sense that a geological survey guy might have cartographic training, I have studied it quite a bit as a hobby and pastime, and in that context have been drawing maps since I was about five. I have been a map collector as well, and for as long as I can remember. Also, I have used maps of every kind and ilk in the context of traveling in the wilderness (which I have spent a great deal of time in)�using geological survey and topo maps and that sort of thing, and traveling around the world, which is one of my other hobbies. In either case, I have had ad hoc classes in graphic arts of this sort (that is to say, in the drafting of maps) and a little work with regard to different map theories (bent earth versus flat earth), but nothing of the sort that a true cartographer would have in the modern sense.
Chris: One of the first things that came out of the MERP series was the Endor continent map. What sort of considerations went into deciding the shape of Middle-earth, outside of what we know from Tolkien own maps?
Pete: I had access to a photocopy of a sketch map from a guy from Oxford that later appeared in The Shaping of Middle-earth; that was a pretty important thing to have. Using it as a rough outline, taking into account and weighing the similarities versus the differences with our own world, I started to work on my own rough outline. I think I went through about three of them before I was able to reconcile the rough shape with what I understood to be the migration and weather patterns, extrapolated distances, and the like. So, reconciling all three of those, I came up with the published interpretation, which is based on a reasonably good grounding in geology, weather, and the like. I am a generalist in the strongest sense of the word. These things are highly interrelated; and, in a sense, I tried to apply all that knowledge as best as I could. Then I had to twist it a little bit, given the fact that I was trying to apply it to a globe instead of a flat earth map. As a result, that gave it a little bit different shape�a little "perverted," if you will�because I was using real distances.
Chris: Did you also play a role in determining the linguistic bases or real-world analogies that were going to be used for the different place-names that appeared in the east and the south of that map?
Pete: Yes. I have to confess that was really a matter of simply taking what limited knowledge we have of these regions, and applying it in a broad stroke theme. The only issue I was dealing with there was that of Mannish (or "Hildo") versus Elvish groups, assuming that the place-names in most areas would have some sort of Hildo origin, and the names in the old Elvish areas might still reflect some connection with the Quendi. Then my main goal was to create names that were evocative, wild, and dissimilar from the sorts of names that you might find in common fantasy. I think Tolkien was quite good at blending the original fantasy�the original creation�with historic creation (and quite a bit better at it than the run of the mill fantasy guy), and that really was my principal concern. I did not want a bunch of "yellow" guys running around in the east by the name of "Chung," and a bunch of guys running around in the south by the name of "Bantu," so the names were a big factor. I did go back and play around with some dictionaries: Indo-European and others. (I collect dictionaries�everything from Hawaiian to Basque�and, as Tolkien was, I'm a big fan of language, although I am not the linguist or philologist that he was.) There is some word-play in the map names, and some names reflect ecosystems and places which might be analogous to our world, but which don't on the face of it resemble anything that you might commonly come across in our history.
Chris: Let's move now from the big map to the more detailed ones you've done for the individual modules at the 1" = 20 miles scale. What led you to present the maps the way you did�in a way that evokes the visual character of the places they represent; rather than, say, a topographical style?
Pete: Obviously the scale is a tough call in and of itself. I have found in my years of running Middle-earth games (since 1975) that small, quarter inch hexes�and I use transparent hex grids sometimes superimposed on these things�work real well as far as running a campaign. Twenty miles is also a pretty common increment in terms of daily travel times for people. (This is to say, people who have horses or wagons.) So it just seemed like a natural sort of mileage thing. As far as the rendering style of the map, it really evolved over time, but was originally essentially a style that I drew from Tolkien's own maps. (That is to say, a "twisted view" style, which was used in our own world by cartographers to depict fanciful places and real places going way way back. It's a pretty commonplace style, although I obviously have my own little twist on it.) I have adapted it over the years but, generally speaking, I was trying to create a flavor that is somewhat true to the large maps of Christopher Tolkien, and that would be usable by a role-playing group.
Chris: I think the detail and the visual sense one gets from your maps has been very useful, especially in the module work I myself have been doing.
Pete: Tolkien was very much an advocate of good maps, and maps say a whole lot. Frankly, for somebody who is thinking about another world and who is actually trying to visualize it, one has to have some basic idea of the landscape�some feel, some flavor, is simply indispensable. I might note also that the map style of the eastern map-makers�particularly the late colonial map-makers through the Civil War map-makers�evolved the sort of style that I have adapted into my maps, with the idea of depicting ridgelines and canyons in a certain way (having lived amid Civil War and Revolutionary war battle field areas, and having collected the maps pertaining to them). They are pretty flavorful, and give you a good compromise between a topo map (which has to be read in a certain way) and a photograph.
Chris: You've also mapped some of the areas outside of northwestern Middle-earth for modules like Greater Harad, Shadow in the South, and The Court of Ardor. In fact, there was a recent on-line discussion on the MERP list about the map for Ardor.
Pete: Which was a renegade module.
Chris: I was uncertain as to its status, but I remember that John Curtis from ICE was saying that there were some objections to it from Tolkien Enterprises, because it was not one of the areas that Tolkien himself had described. I was wondering whether that objection came from or included the actual mapping of the area.
Pete: The objection wasn't really from Tolkien Enterprises at all. John wasn't really here then. All the objection to Ardor really came from me, because I was the original Middle-earth editor. Ardor was done during a period of my absence by one of our older designer-founders, a guy who ran an Elvish campaign in that area. This was Terry Amthor, and his module had a very different sense of Tolkien and, in that respect, created a fairly impactual piece. It's a pretty heavy piece of work and pretty controversial internally. In that sense, Ardor was an experiment that I would not repeat. I addressed a part of it in Shadow in the South. I'm a big advocate of rationalization as an art form, because, to a large degree, I have a Zen or Taoist sense of things. Things just happen. Sometimes the best things come out of these controversies (or mysteries, or dilemmas) and, in reconciling and dealing with them, you discover and sometimes create things that are actually better in many respects than something designed out of new or whole cloth. In either case, Ardor was a rather bizarre piece, and very different than most of the other things in the line.
Chris: But as far as Tolkien Enterprises is concerned, there aren't any restrictions about actually mapping the east and the south?
Pete: We have never incurred any restrictions. The main point with these maps�and this is the main point I want to make to any reader�is that they are not Tolkien's maps, nor do they represent Tolkien's interpretation of specific places; these are our interpretations on a broad canvas (and a view that sometimes may not be altogether perfect from another vantage point of how these places might be). In that sense, the only thing we can do is speculate. To have anybody take it to heart as Tolkien's own would be tragic. I would not advocate that, and we try to be clear in each of our pieces about this. I think that everyone we have ever dealt with knows that. The bigger issue is: 1) do we make that point clear, and 2) how do we go about doing what we do? Because if we are to describe Middle-earth, we have to do it reasonably well and (to my mind) with a pretty consistent scheme that doesn't conflict with Tolkien. Of course, that's a gray area in and of itself; because if one uses sound cartographic and anthropological methods, then one is probably going to create something that is pretty good and consistent; and beyond that, that is all one can do.
Chris: You have put together an (unpublished) gazetteer for all the names that you have come up with for the continent map. Are there any plans at present to publish it?
Pete: If it is to be published at some point, this gazetteer will probably appear along with a revised map of the continent. I am not sure what our immediate plans are in that area.
Chris: By "revised," do you mean you would be redrawing it?
Pete: I would re-render it. It is a thirteen-year old map, and there are a few tweaks and changes I would make in it now. I would try and keep it as consistent as I could. The different areas outside of northwestern Middle-earth are areas we would like to explore sometime in the future, but they would need to be done very carefully and, as noted before, in the proper context. We like to think of ourselves as adept explorers with regard to role-playing themes, and mapping them. It is something we haven't done yet, because we really have to have the right maps and the right program, and lay it out very carefully.
Chris: I get a sense from talking with Jessica Ney-Grimm about potential MERP projects that there is an imperative to "finish up" with northwestern Middle-earth before proceeding on to the other parts of Endor not described by Tolkien.
Pete: I don't think we can effectively tackle the unknown places without really having a lot more experience with the known places. I am pretty confident in my secondary creative ability; but the point is that there is still much to be explored in the northwest. We still have to learn a few more tricks and get a better grip on things before we move on to the rest of the continent. It is our hope that by the time that we do reach that point, we will employ a much broader team of people, a fairly strong team of folks who come from a variety of Tolkien-related interest groups, to put together a comprehensive program.
Chris: Were the maps that have already been drawn for northwestern Middle-earth conceived with any particular date in mind? In other words, were they written to correspond to the T.A. 1640s, or to some other period?
Pete: They were drawn to correspond with the very late Third Age (about the time of the War of the Ring); however, it is not quite so simple. You will note that, had they been drawn for the 1640s, many of the sites that are ruins on these maps would actually be inhabited. That is your first clue that they are drawn toward the later Third Age. In addition, some of the town symbols, which indicate that towns were still occupied�at least in part�during the War of the Ring, don't necessarily reflect the size of the town at that time. Tharbad and a lot of the towns in Cardolan would be a case in point. Town sites there really reflect Cardolan when it was better populated so that, while the physical site is there, the people may not be. To take another case, the tower at Amon Sûl is depicted as a ruin because it really was a ruin for a while back; whereas some of the places that fell into decay were depopulated or whatever are depicted as towns. Roads are there; but we know that at the time of the War of the Ring a lot of these were in disrepair, as were the great hedge walls of Cardolan and Eregion.
Chris: In order to account for the forms of many of the place-names that appear on the maps covered by the Southern Gondor gazetteer, one of the first things Patrick Wynne and I had to postulate was the date and occasion for which those maps were produced. Given the "late" time frame of some of the sites (like Henneth Annûn) and the temporal scope adopted by our gazetteer entries (which cover all the way up through the reign of Aragorn), we decided that the maps had been drawn up and compiled by the Cartographers' Guild of Minas Tirith in honor of the seventy-fifth anniversary of King Eldarion's ascension to the throne. Pat, then, assumed the persona of Findegil, the King's Writer, in order to provide a linguistic commentary on names whose forms appeared to have been "corrupted" with the waning of knowledge of the Elven tongues over the centuries. This exercise had the unexpected effect of making the maps themselves seem all the more "real" and part of the history which they depicted.
Pete: Which is good. Any good history�even any fanciful history�must deal with sources, as Tolkien did. I did a history major and an anthro major both, and got appropriate degrees at UVA here. I remember that at least the first third of one's history paper dealt with the sources.
Chris: Thank you very much for your time.