Beleriand Map

A premium Beleriand map print showing the lost lands of the First Age in shaded relief.

Of all my maps, Beleriand was the most challenging to make. Partly this is because of the nature of Tolkien’s drafts, where places shift and proportions never settle into one final, simple form. But it is also because these lands are unlike almost anything we know today. There are few familiar landscapes to lean on, and that makes the cartography of Beleriand complex, uncertain, and extremely rewarding.

The Silmarillion, and especially The Children of Húrin, is my favourite part of Tolkien’s legendarium. There is such depth and beauty in these stories that they make me want to explore the lands being described, sit there for a while, and paint what I see. This map grew from that wish.

In contrast to most other Beleriand maps, this version includes the Helcaraxë and part of Oiomúrë, with the coast guiding the eye toward or away from Valinor. It also shows the waters leading toward the Encircling Seas. There are many such elements in Tolkien’s world that are easy to pass over while reading, and I have tried to give as many of them a place here as I could.

The style is closer to a modern topographic or relief map than the kind of fantasy map we have seen many times before. I wanted Beleriand to feel like a place you could study and lose yourself in.

This is a wall map first and foremost, made to surround you with the realms of the First Age rather than sit quietly as a small reference map. It is drawn in the same scale as my companion Middle‑earth Map and the larger Beleriand & Middle‑earth Map, so the distances and proportions remain consistent across the series. A part of Eriador is visible as well, giving Beleriand a clearer relation to what we usually call Middle‑earth.

This Limited Edition is the intended form of the map. The artwork was made to be printed on this beautiful paper, which can hold the depth and detail like no other paper I have used. It gives the map a quiet richness that matters especially in the darker terrain, fine labels, coastlines, and subtle tonal transitions. The Regular Edition of the Beleriand Map uses the same artwork at the same size and scale, but on a more economical paper. I print each Limited Edition myself in my studio and check it carefully before it leaves my hands.

• Edition: Limited Edition of 500, signed and numbered
• Scale: 1:3,000,000
• Paper: Canson Rag Photographique, 310 gsm, 100% cotton
• Inks: Epson UltraChrome Pro12 pigment inks
• Paper size: 32.6 × 22 in (82.8 × 55.8 cm)
• Image area: 31.1 × 20.5 in (79 × 52 cm)
• Printed by: Rinus, in my own studio in Sweden
• Frame: Not included