Lord of the Maps: Rendering Vermont as Tolkien's Middle-Earth

MIDDLEBURY | Mapmaker Isaac Christian Dushku is a talented young artist and budding cartographer who came up with a brilliant idea. The idea was to capture the imaginations of a small, but growing number of Vermont fans of the epic "The Lord of the Rings" fantasy trilogy by rendering maps of real places in the fantasy style of the author J.R.R. Tolkien. The now-classic trilogy, with its related volumes, was penned by the late Oxford professor between 1937 and 1949. Many young people born during the 1990s became familiar with Tolkien through a series of popular, feature-length motion-picture series based on the trilogy, including the prequel "The Hobbit". The film series kicked off in 2001. A Tolkien fan, Dushku's idea was to create (and sell to fans) a handcrafted map of the Green Mountain State in the now-classic style of Tolkein's own pen-and-ink literary map of his fictional land of Middle-Earth. Tolkien's beautifully rendered Middle-Earth map appeared as a front piece to various editions of his trilogy including both hardbound and paperback versions. Tolkien's map inspired Dushku to adapt it and recast Vermont in the now-famous fantasy style. He has added other state maps, too; all are drawn in the style of the "Rings" master. "... 'The Lord of the Rings' is one of the best-selling books ever written, with over 150 million copies sold," according to Canadian journalist Vin Wagner. Mapping the imagination Duskin fell under the spell of Tolkien (and his maps) long after the author's death in 1973. "Like most of you, I grew up spending hours on Google Maps exploring insanely remote places and trying to find tiny islands," the artist said. "Needless to say, the world is awesome. My maps are different. Sure, you can look online and find 99 percent accurate maps that are perfectly vectorized and whatever. But where is the magic in that? Give me a map that is raw and wriggling. Something that has real soul put into it. Something that takes me, not just to the places depicted, to other worlds, different times." John R. Holmes, an expert of Tolkein's art style wrote a scholarly paper about the maps and art of the "Rings" for the 2006 edition of the "J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia". "(Tolkien's books)... included both maps and (scene) illustrations in his books," according to Holmes. "(He)... worked on the text using his maps of Middle-Earth as a guide, to ensure the elements of the story fitted together in time and space... He prepared a variety of types of illustration – maps, calligraphy, drawings, cover designs, even a facsimile painting of the 'Book of Mazarbul' – but only the maps, the inscription on the ring, and a drawing of the 'Doors of Durin' were included in the first edition." Hobbits, dwarves, trolls (and humans) Looking at Vermont through a Tolkeinized cartographic lens, Dushku stirs up the imagination of a magical land where Green Mountains, marshy lowlands, streams, lakes, and forests primeval appear just as they do in Middle-Earth. And while Vermonters don't often encounter hobbits, dwarves, and trolls hereabouts, there are indeed Tolkein's "Men" (humans, the descendants of Ilúvatar) on our landscape, so perhaps a tiny sliver of Tolkien's fantasyland may yet exist in our backyards? Dushku adds that, because of time and the amount of work involved, he gets help in producing his highly detailed state maps rendered in the Tolkein style. "I was not the sole artist on this map," he told The Sun-Vermont Eagle. "I trained someone...an apprentice...to help me with it and he did the majority of features on the map." No matter, the artist said his Vermont map, and others like it, was an "absolute joy" to draw. "I'm 22 years old and still figuring out what to do with my life," he said. "Fortunately, I've got a companion for this journey: my dear wife. She is basically just like me minus all the bad things and plus all the good things I lack. Actually, she isn't just like me, but it all works out." For more details about the map, visit the artist's website at https://lordofmaps.com.

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Lord of the Maps: Rendering Vermont as Tolkien's Middle-Earth

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