Атлас Средиземья Карен Винн Фонстад

1981 book by Karen Wynn Fonstad

The Atlas of Middle earth by Karen Wynn Fonstad is an atlas of J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional realm of Middle earth. It was published in 1981, following Tolkien's major works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion. It provides many maps at different levels of detail, from whole lands to cities and individual buildings, and of major events like the Battle of the Pelennor Fields. The maps are grouped by period, namely the First, Second, and Third Ages of Middle earth, with chapters on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. A final chapter looks at geographic themes such as climate, vegetation, population, and languages around Middle earth. The atlas has been warmly received by Tolkien scholars, who have called it both authorized and magisterial, providing in particular a comprehensive set of thematic maps of Middle earth.

Karen Wynn Fonstad earned a master's degree in Geography, specializing in cartography, from the University of Oklahoma, and worked as Director of Cartographic Services at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh before she focused on raising children and writing atlases of fictional worlds. Tolkien provided overview maps for each book.

The Atlas of Middle earth was first published in hardback by Houghton Mifflin in the United States in 1981. A revised and updated second edition was published in 1991, after Christopher Tolkien had edited and published eight volumes of The History of Middle earth following his father's death. HarperCollins republished the revised edition in London in 1994, reprinting it in 1999, 2016, and 2017.

[[File:KentGeologyWealdenDomeSimple. svg|thumb|upright=1.5|Fonstad compares Gondor's Emyn Muil to the Weald of Kent (pictured), as it has a pair of inward facing downs. Fonstad's discussion includes suggestions as to the geology that could explain various formations, and points that are contradictory between multiple accounts. Fonstad explains in the atlas, and in her article about it, how she came to decide on such matters. For example, she compares the western Emyn Muil with its two ridges to the Weald with its pair of inward facing downs (an anticline). Michael Brisbois, also in Tolkien Studies, describes the atlas as "authorized", while the cartographers Ina Habermann and Nikolaus Kuhn take Fonstad's maps as defining Middle earth's geography. The Tolkien scholar Luke Shelton calls the book the more popular of the two atlases of Middle earth, the other being Barbara Strachey's more specific Journeys of Frodo. In his view, the book isn't perfect "but it is certainly helpful", not least as it covers the First and Second Ages. Stentor Danielson, a Tolkien scholar, notes that Tolkien did not provide the same "detailed textual history" to contextualise his maps as he did for his writings. Danielson suggests that this has assisted the tendency among Tolkien's fans to treat his maps as "geographical fact". He calls Fonstad's atlas "magisterial", and comments that like Tolkien, Fonstad worked from the assumption that the maps, like the texts, "are objective facts" which the cartographer must fully reconcile. He gives as an instance the work that she did to make the journey of Thorin's company in The Hobbit consistent with the map, something that Tolkien found himself unable to do. Danielson writes that in addition, Fonstad created "the most comprehensive set" of thematic maps of Middle earth, presenting geographic data including political boundaries, climate, population density, and the routes of characters or armies.