Where Do Fantasy Maps Come From?<\/a><\/strong>\u201d looks at the influences on and origins of the fantasy map style\u2014the existing traditions, stretching back as far back as the sixteenth century, that the fantasy map drew upon when it came into being in the early to mid-twentieth century. (Tolkien couldn\u2019t have made it up out of whole cloth, after all.)<\/p>\nThis is a speculative piece that draws upon a large and diverse number of sources\u2014everything from Forlani to Berann, from bird\u2019s-eye views of cities to children\u2019s book illustrations\u2014to come up with \u2026 well, something interesting, at least. To do proper justice to the subject would require a Ph.D. dissertation. This is a start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New from me at Tor.com this morning, the latest instalment in my series on the history and design of fantasy maps. \u201cWhere Do Fantasy Maps Come From?\u201d looks at the influences on and origins of… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,4,960],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-1787798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-antique-maps","category-maps-and-literature","category-my-stuff","tag-fantasy-maps","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1788230,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/01\/celebrating-christopher-tolkiens-cartographic-legacy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787798,"position":0},"title":"Celebrating Christopher Tolkien’s Cartographic Legacy","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"22 January 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"It turns out that I wasn\u2019t finished talking about the maps drawn by Christopher Tolkien. My latest piece for Tor.com, \u201cCelebrating Christopher Tolkien\u2019s Cartographic Legacy,\u201d went live at Tor.com this morning. It looks at the collaborative process between J. R. R. Tolkien and his son Christopher as father and son\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/christopher-tolkien-header-cc.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/christopher-tolkien-header-cc.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/christopher-tolkien-header-cc.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/christopher-tolkien-header-cc.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/christopher-tolkien-header-cc.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/christopher-tolkien-header-cc.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1787185,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/03\/what-does-a-fantasy-map-look-like\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787798,"position":1},"title":"What Does a Fantasy Map Look Like?","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"19 March 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"New from me on Tor.com this morning: \u201cWhat Does a Fantasy Map Look Like?\u201d This is the first of several planned pieces that will take a deep dive into the look and feel of fantasy maps:\u00a0their design and aesthetic, their origins and inspirations, and where they may be going in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1786334,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/10\/malazan-globe\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787798,"position":2},"title":"Malazan Globe","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"1 October 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"I knew that chalkboard globes were a thing, but one excellent use for them did not occur to me: drawing fantasy maps on them. This is precisely what one Reddit user has done with the map from Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen. Now there is no official overall\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/malazan-globe-300x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1788038,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/11\/the-writers-map-wins-a-world-fantasy-award\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787798,"position":3},"title":"The Writer’s Map Wins a World Fantasy Award","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"4 November 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"The Writer\u2019s Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands, which I reviewed on Tor.com last year, has won a World Fantasy Award for its editor, Huw Lewis-Jones. The 2019 World Fantasy Awards were announced yesterday at the World Fantasy Convention, held this year in Los Angeles; Lewis-Jones won in the Special\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Writer\u2019s Map (cover)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/the-writers-map-209x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1787384,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/05\/fantasy-maps-dont-belong-in-the-hands-of-fantasy-characters\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787798,"position":4},"title":"Fantasy Maps Don\u2019t Belong in the Hands of Fantasy Characters","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"28 May 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"My latest piece for Tor.com went live this morning. It\u2019s called \u201cFantasy Maps Don\u2019t Belong in the Hands of Fantasy Characters\u201d and it deals with the question of in-world fantasy maps: the maps that characters inside a fantasy novel might use. (Hint: They wouldn\u2019t look like the maps found on\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Screenshot from Game of Thrones","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/got-dragonstone3-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/got-dragonstone3-1024x576.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/got-dragonstone3-1024x576.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/got-dragonstone3-1024x576.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1787906,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/10\/a-fantasy-maps-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":1787798,"position":5},"title":"A Fantasy Maps Update","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"15 October 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"It\u2019s been a while since my last post. That\u2019s because I spent most of last week with my head down, working on a presentation about fantasy maps for a science fiction\/fantasy convention that took place over the weekend. The presentation was called \u201cThe Territory Is Not the Map: Exploring the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1787798"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787798\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1787801,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1787798\/revisions\/1787801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1787798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1787798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1787798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n