Why Every Fantasy Map Looks the Same

Why Every Fantasy Map Looks the Same Open almost any fantasy novel and you get the same map: north at the top, mountains drawn from the side, a dark forest, a kingdom in every corner. Why does every fantasy map look the same? In this video I trace where that picture comes from. It starts with medieval maps that put Jerusalem in the middle, runs through Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, and lands in 1950s Oxford, where Christopher Tolkien drew the map of Middle-earth for his father's books. Then I follow that map as publishers, game designers and map software copied it for seventy years, and ask what idea is hiding underneath: the 19th-century belief that the world is naturally divided into nations, each with its own land and its own language. Real countries almost never look like that. So which corner of the map would you belong to? Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:33 Part 1: The wrong century 2:59 Part 2: Before Tolkien 4:27 Part 3: The Tolkien map 7:07 Part 4: How everyone copied it 9:38 Part 5: What's hidden in the map Books and articles mentioned J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (1954-55), maps by Christopher Tolkien; The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien (letters 163, 165, 294) Stefan Ekman, Here Be Dragons: Exploring Fantasy Maps and Settings (2013) Diana Wynne Jones, The Tough Guide to Fantasyland (1996) Terry Brooks, The Sword of Shannara (1977); Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea (1968) Alex Acks on the geology of Middle-earth (Reactor) Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities (rev. ed. 1991) Thongchai Winichakul, Siam Mapped (1994) Johann Gottfried Herder, Auch eine Philosophie der Geschichte (1774) Peter Melville, "The Critique of Colonial Cartography in N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms", Fafnir 10:1 (2023) N.K. Jemisin, The Inheritance Trilogy (2010-11) Images and footage Maps, paintings and photographs via Wikimedia Commons (public domain / CC licences as credited on screen), the Bodleian Library, Internet Archive and Prelinger Archives. Archive footage: BBC Archive (Tolkien in Oxford, 1968), WCVB Boston (1978), CBS 8 San Diego and WBIR Knoxville (1980). Film excerpts from The Lord of the Rings trilogy (New Line Cinema), via Warner Bros. official trailers and Movieclips, shown for commentary and criticism. Full credits appear on screen with each clip. Christopher Tolkien's maps and the annotated Blackwell's map are © The Tolkien Estate and are shown for commentary. This video is not affiliated with the Tolkien Estate, New Line Cinema or Warner Bros. Tell me in the comments If you lived in a fantasy world, which corner of the map would you belong to? Or, like most people in real life, would you need more than one? #fantasymaps #tolkien #lordoftherings #middleearth #worldbuilding #maps #fantasy #cartography #videoessay