Middle Earth Ranger Forum

Yeah, history geek pun.

Anyhow - The Angle between the Hoarwell and Loudwater: we know that's where many of the Dunedain coalesced after the fall of the Northern Kingdoms.
And I think it's the perfect place for my first attempt at a proper "period" map.

But how much do we know about what's actually THERE?
There's the Last Bridge and the Great East Road... the Ford of Bruinen.. I can't think of anything else explicitly mentioned in the text, and Fonstand's "Atlas of Middle Earth" is pretty spotty in this area if I recall.

What else might be worth documenting there?
I imagine LOTRO and MERP and such have filled out the area, but they always seemed a little hit-or-miss on the lore side to me. Anything there worth keeping?

I'd think some old fortifications and ruined towns of Rhudar.. perhaps some older legacy yet from Eregion.

What do y'all think?

Yeesh, I don't think you're going to have much to go on! Even LOTRO's map is pretty blank - aside from Rivendell, a few 'camps' of Elves occupying ruined outposts (Elrond's sons have one) is about it. Lots of caves for trolls, tho.

Soon after crossing the Last Bridge, Frodo sees some "ancient walls of stone, and the ruins of towers", and Strider explains that "No one lives in this land. Men once dwelt here, ages ago; but none remain now. They became an evil people, as legends tell, for they fell under the shadow of Angmar. But all were destroyed in the war that brought the North Kingdom to its end."

His statement does conflict with this passage, written for the 1960 Hobbit: while looting the Trolls' cave, Thorin's crew finds “…plunder, of all sorts from buttons and rusty brooches to pots of gold coins standing in a corner. There were lots of clothes, too, hanging on the walls – all that was left of many poor wood-men and shepherds who had still lived here and there in the wild lands near-by.” (Rateliffe 799).

I would be curious if this population increased following the Quest of Erebor – which removed three predatory trolls from the area and increased east-west trade in its wake. I wonder if these people would have been familiar with (or related to?) the Dunedain?

We do know a bit about the flora of the Trollshaws--treewise, aside from beech-logs at the Trolls' fire, it's all pine until you get to Rivendell, where there's also oak, beech, and birch. West of the Ford are heather, bilberry, and hazel. And across the Bruinen, in Eregion of course are the hollies.

Thank you Udwin! That helps a lot!

I found this from a map of Eregion online - it's from (I think?) an RPG dating to the 1980's?
It was my impression that game was fairly well researched - at least to the extent possible then. Is that true? I'm afraid it's before my time.
It is interesting, though I confess I'd always pictured the area being a little more wooded.
I do see what look to be old roads through the Angle, and perhaps a tower? I'm assuming those are additions by the game designers?

Ooh, I like that full map of the area! Slightly skewed perspective, but it depicts the same geography in a different style, as one would expect, so it works. I don't think we should be using Tolkien's standard map anyway. I might have to make use of the Wilderland one for my pack-map...once I remove the apocryphal placenames.
*Note that Tolkien never draws the Loudwater making a sharp 90-degree turn (on the MERP map to the left of the 'Bruinen' label).
*Also note that 'Egladil' does mean 'Angle', but refers specifically to the one at Lorien between the Silverlode and Great River.
*Any idea what the small divisions (like around Ost-in-Edhil) are for?--they look like a county map of Kentucky! 'Playable' areas in the game? I personally wouldn't include them.
*I would be sure to emphasize the East Road and the Last Bridge (3 arches), and personally would use English labels...neo-Elvish is too fantasy for me, plus even a Dunedain (wo)Man would be speaking the C.S.

And I agree, the Angle should definitely be more wooded, and pine-y.

Great information Udwin - thank you!

I got the impression the small divisions are indeed parish / shire / fiefdom boundries - but yes it is odd they'd be around the ruins of Ost-in-Edhil. I don't know.

I've been torn on Tengwar vs. Latin characters - it's my impression that Sindarin mode Tengwar is the standard alphabet even for Common Speech... but I think Latin chars make more sense in this application. And certainly makes it usable for more casual fans!

... And we're off!
I scaled and printed the MERP map, the WETA Eregion map, and one of Tolkien's own maps all to more-or-less match as references.

I suspect I'll be mostly splitting the difference between the original Tolkien map (which was at a far coarser scale) and the WETA one, and using the MERP one primarily as inspiration for routes of old roads and such.

I'll be providing a full resolution scan when complete, of course.

I have most of the maps and accompanying supplemental material to the MERP games and though it is pretty well researched they do "flesh out" a lot of it with names and places and "more of the same" to give us a more complete place to play. I can pull up some of the "Keys" to these maps if it would help.
They seem to have tried very hard not to conflict with canonicle information.
The green bordered sections (in Eregion especially) was to show what they considered many hegerows and estates in the well cultivated countryside before the fall of the Elves of Ost- In- Edhil. Though I do believe they were inspired concerning the towers and ruins by the reference in the Hobbit to there being evil looking towers and castles high on ridges and rock formations. (I will go find the actual quote).
The other thing mentioned about this area is that it was home to many Hobbits (mostly of the Stoorish variety) after comming over the mountains, when they lead a wilder existance. and before war pushed them west to Bree and the Shire.
I often imagined a less egrarian culture as may have pertained to these Hobbits as hunter/gatherer types who may have lived around marshes or forests for protection from the "Big Folk" Did some writings and drawings based on these wilder Stoor cousins of the angle a while back. Sheerly fantasy but fun never the less.

Ah! So is the MERP map set during the time Eregion stood as a kingdom? That would make sense.

I had forgotten Hobbits passed through there! But I suppose if they came west to the Shire, they must have. Hunh.

Looking at what terrain can be inferred, I'd imagine it was decently settled in the days of Rhudar, especially near where the rivers join. There must be no small amount of ruins about.

As an aside - the more I look at the history of Middle Earth, the more I appreciate how truly desperate things must have seen in the era of the War of the Ring.. Original homeland destroyed, living among the shattered ruins of the even the petty successor states in the North...and then Sauron returns?

You could forgive those who thought it hopeless. :/

Most of the modules, and therefore I assume the maps, are set in TA 1640 or so, right after the great plague. Each seemed to have alternate scenarios for different time periods and would tell you what was there and what was not. The Module that had Lorien also had Ost-In Edhil and they gave several time period scenarios. I ran a campaign That had Rangers and Hobbits of the angle as well as some Blue mountain Dwarves from Thorin's Halls on a quest into the ruined city to find some of Celebrimbor's Smithing journals. they formed in the Shire, travelled to Tharbad then went up the Swanfleet till they reached the city and I of course had made the city map into ruins for them.
The fact that all those hedgerows are still visible up to the fourth age just has to show where they were originally formed and as you know once a hedgerow forms, it grows emensly and is very hard to eradicate. so they may have become rather large and imposing by the time of the war of the ring.

I ADORE this project, Elleth! Wonderful stuff! When you're all finished, would you mind if a ranger were to print off a copy or two to carry with him into the wild? I'd love to have one of my own.

That's the idea! I'll certainly be providing a print-sized scan when it's ready.

I've got the basics sketched out the other night, but it will be later this week before I get to inking.

The one thing that does come to mind: I don't think a Ranger would necessarily carry a map with sensitive information: the exact location of Rivendell for instance.
I'm thinking of omitting those sorts of things, but I'm not certain.

I'll certainly be adding ruins, old roads, water sources... maybe even a mysterious circle of stone trolls north of the Great East Road...

Love it!

I love your idea! I can't wait to see it, I like maps (like Bilbo), and yours would be like a Traveller's Guide to the region. I do understand about leaving sensitive locations off the map. I guess Rivendell is the Area 51 of Middle-earth lol

Ken

I guess Rivendell is the Area 51 of Middle-earth lol

Ha!

Yes, I think I'm marking the whole area north of the Great Road, west of the Loudwater, East of the Misty Mountains as "Lord Elrond's Realm" and leaving it at that.

I'll be using a mix of Latin and Tengwar characters, each for the appropriate tongue. For instance, "Eregion" is in tengwar but "Hollin Ridge" in latin.
The rangers seem to switch back and forth between Sindarin and the Common Speech fluently, so doing the same here makes sense.

Bad photo, but an early sketch:
I like the long island WETA placed in the Hoarwell, so I'm keeping that. Terrain wise, my thought is that "Loudwater" implies a fairly swift loud river with good drop coming out of the Misty Mountains (something like the Colorado?) so I'm making the area around there more hills and gorges. Then a gentler grade down to the Hoarwell to the west and up to a high plateau for Eregion to the east.

I don't know that's right, but it seems plausible.

Also ruins around points that would have certainly been settled in the days of Rhudar: the remains of a bridge over the Hoarwell where it meets the Loudwater, ruined ferry quays near the Long Island... intermittent fortifications along the eastern edge of the Hoarwell from the days of their war with Arthedain (in fact I imagine the ruins Aragorn points out to the Hobbits after passing the Last Bridge might have dated to that era: it's a strategic spot if you're expecting trouble from the west. )


The more I do the background work on this project though, the more I see the layers of settlement and occupation: elves from Eregion and men from before Arnor.. then Arnor proper followed by the splinter kingdom of Rhudar.. since Rhudar was destroyed by Angmar there may be orcish defacements - or odd artwork from the hillfolk turned by Sauron. Evil places one does not wish to go near.

So deep a history for such a little corner of earth.

Any suggessions?

Solid start! Looking forward to seeing it inked!
FWIW, I figured up that from the Last Bridge south to the Hoarwell/Loudwater confluence, it's about 105-110 miles--just for an idea of the scale you're looking at. Maps are funny that way.

Thinking about how to label places on my own ME maps, I would really like to use Angerthas for non-elvish names, and while it would be shiny to translate them, it would be more readable--though not as 'in-universe'--to use those runes that resemble Latin letters, and tweak those that don't.
For example, instead of using the runes that spell TUKLAND, use the runes R-U-U-J-flippedKW-Ä€-HY-superimposed H&I, which look like Tookland using Latin characters.
Too convoluted?

Hunh - no, it makes sense.

... I'd thought that the descendants of Numenor used tengwar in the 3rd age, even for C.S.
No? It was Cirth?