I have lots and lots of books with maps inside the front cover. Maps of Middle-Earth, Pern, Britain in the time of King Arthur; maps of the kingdoms of the Alorns and Angaraks, of Narnia, of Discworld, of Earthsea and Westeros and Fionavar and the Peninsula of the Palm.
The late Diana Wynne Jones didn’t think much of these maps. In her Tough Guide to Fantasy Land, the ultimate guide for anyone planning a sojourn in Middle-Earth or the kingdoms of the Alorns, she said of such maps:
you will look in vain for inns, rest-stops or villages, or even roads. No-wait another minute – on closer examination, you will find the empty interior crossed by a few bird tracks. If you peer at these you will see they are (somewhere) labelled ‘Old Trade Road – Disused’ and ‘Imperial Way – Mostly Long Gone’. Some of these routes appear to lead (or have led) to small edifices enticingly titled ‘Ruin’, ‘Tower of Sorcery’ or ‘Dark Citadel’, but there is no scale of miles and no way of telling how long you might take on the way to see these places. In short, the Map is useless, but you are advised to keep consulting it, because it is the only one you will get. And, be warned. If you take this Tour, you are going to have to visit every single place on this Map, whether it is marked or not. This is a Rule. Continue reading
