Many moons ago (okay, three decades maybe) I remember sitting at my desk trying to recreate Thror’s* Map, several hours later I’d created a crumpled piece of paper covered in ink which looked, if you squinted quite a bit something like a map. It was quickly filed in the relevant section of the waste paper basket.
A few years later and I was at a different desk but my task was the same, to recreate the map so that it looked just as I imagined it to be when reading The Hobbit, this time I baked the paper in the oven, creased it, cut it, rumpled it…. and it still looked, I have to be honest pretty feeble. So, when I first saw The Lord of the Rings on the big screen there was a glimpse of the map, but it was a brief glimpse at that, I still had a glimpse how the map should really look and it put my attempts to shame 😉
Fast forward a few years and The Hobbit is only a few weeks from hitting the screen and an email arrives from Weta announcing some new Hobbit related merchandise, I click the link and there’s Thror’s map 🙂 They’ve made it available in two versions, as a prop replica, and as a parchment art print.
I opted for the print and placed the order. One week later it arrives (not bad going NZ to UK in a week ;-)) and I remove it from it’s tube and packaging. The map is 12.6″ x 16.3″ and is printed on Italian Marina Conchiglia parchment paper and feels nice to the touch. The creases, cuts and stains are very well done and Daniel Reeve has created an excellent version of Thror’s map, now I feel the urge to visit some of the places shown on the map, time to dig out the book and have a read before the first movie hits the screens.
The only question is now, do I buy the other maps in the range…
*Yes, I know many refer to the map as Thorin’s Map, but it’s stuck in my head as being Thror’s Map from when I first read the Hobbit and that’s what it’ll be for me 😉