Introduction
ArdaCraft, since its inception, has been centred around the idea of total lore accuracy and adherence to what Tolkien wrote down in his books, notes and letters. Our primary goal is to create a beautiful recreation of the world so intricately described in the Legendarium, as close as possible to how it was meant to be. So how are we able to ensure we are fully accurate? How can we best represent Middle-earth with the tools we have? What do we do if we have literally nothing to draw from? You can learn all of this and more in this article.
What are our sources?
In order to make the largest recreation of Tolkien’s world ever created, you need to know what you are working with. During his life, the professor published three stories related to Arda: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings (including all three volumes and their appendices and maps) and The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. From these, though maybe less so the latter, we source the majority of our descriptions; from the golden hall of Meduseld to the caverns of Goblin Town there are over a thousand pages of valuable lore we can use, as well as helpful maps (such as the one of the Shire) and timelines.
Furthermore, Tolkien posthumously published a lot of material surrounding Arda thanks to the work of his son Christopher; these include the Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and the History of Middle-earth series. From these we are able to uncover a treasure trove of content surrounding all aspects of life and the history of the world that would have been impossible to implement into the narrative of the Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit. Without these, we would not know that Celeborn and Galadriel’s flet was the highest in Caras Galadhon and that the remaining Dunedain of the North lived in The Angle.
Due to our status as a fan project, we are not subject to copyright, meaning that we are able to use all aspects of the Legendarium in our project, which the films and other adaptations have not been able to do. After Tolkien’s death, some 354 of his letters were published, with some containing excellent information that we can draw upon; for example, Tolkien once in a letter referred to Italy as ‘Gondor’, meaning that we are able to take more direct influence from the country when planning the region. Naturally, some information is more accurate than others; Tolkien sometimes changed his mind or wrote the wrong thing. As a general rule, we use Tolkien’s last and most recent writings on the topic, and we give works such as Lord of the Rings and the appendices precedence over writings such as the letters. Taken together, these sources give us a wealth of information which we can use to create an accurate depiction of Middle-earth.
“In the midst, set upon a green terrace, there stands aloft a great hall of Men. And it seems to my eyes that it is thatched with gold” -Legolas, The Two Towers
How does this impact the world?
There’s no point in having such detailed and in-depth knowledge of Middle-earth without being able to use it properly- so how do we use the various sources of information on Tolkien’s world to get the best and most accurate result possible?
Firstly and most obviously, we use the descriptions provided by the books as a base: Bree is described as “some hundred stone houses [...] nestling on the hillside with windows looking west”, so all we have to do is simply create a village to those specifications, as well as any other descriptions of the village in the text. This is how settlements and projects are planned out in the early stages, with the features mentioned in the legendarium plotted out and any extra buildings placed around them. In the macro scale, the various maps produced by both The Professor and his son Christopher Tolkien are also very useful, especially in regards to the creation of our new map. These maps detail the west of Middle-earth at various scales, the Shire and Wilderland, and give definitive locations to ensure a level of correctness that would not be possible otherwise.
When Tolkien spoke about locations, he wasn’t always direct; he sometimes alluded to locations he never mentioned again, or mentioned things only possible should a certain location exist. An excellent example is where in Return of the King it says that “horses are kept on the hither bank” of the Anduin from Cair Andros. This implies that in that location there are stables to accommodate the horses; in turn, the stables need to be supplied by a town and thus our fictional town of Pelandros was born. All around the project there are instances (mainly based around farming and food supplies) of fictional locations that have very real impacts on the story. Another region we can take inferences from Tolkien’s works in planning is in population. He mentions what percent of a Gondorian province’s men were supposed to turn up in defence of the realm, then mentions how many men actually turned up to fight. If we reduce this number by our scale of 1:58, we can calculate how many people would live in a certain province and therefore how many beds will be needed. This can help us decide how many towns there should be and how big they should be.
Whilst Tolkien spent almost his entire life working on the world of Arda, he naturally could not describe every settlement, every house or every tree. This is where conlore comes in: we use real world history based on where a region would be in real life and what inspired them in Tolkien’s mind. For example, Rohan takes clear inspiration from Norse and Anglo-Saxon culture, so we research the relevant architecture, society and agriculture from those historical settings. This not only helps us plan settlements and regions on a large scale, but it also tells us what the ordinary person would have in their house, what jobs there would be and what they do with their waste. This research and implementation helps the world feel more grounded and realistic, as well as providing a sort of ‘living history’ museum.
Conclusion
On ArdaCraft, we use all of the information left to us by Tolkien to shape our world to be as accurate as possible. The extent of his work has enabled us to recreate his descriptions, make inferences from lines that don’t directly reference a location and fully flesh out realms that were barely touched upon. To discover more about how we use the books in our project, there is no better way than to see it for yourself.
