The Wisconsin cartographer who mapped Tolkien's fantasy world

Summary

If you’ve ever wanted to explore the world of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings,” the best place to start might be Oshkosh. That’s where a Wisconsin cartographer created dozens of maps that went into “The Atlas of Middle-earth,” the official geographic guide to the world of author J.R.R. Tolkien. Her work went on to influence “The Lord of the Rings” movie trilogy. Cartographer Karen Wynn Fonstad was featured in this Jan. 30, 1992 issue of The Oshkosh Northwestern. Photo courtesy Mark Fonstad Stay informed on the latest news Sign up for WPR’s email newsletter. Like many readers, Karen Wynn Fonstad fell in love with the fantasy series and went through multiple readings. Unlike most readers, she was trained as a cartographer, and came up with an ambitious plan to use the texts to create realistic maps from Tolkien’s texts. Fonstad passed away 20 years ago. Now, her husband and her son — both geographers themselves — have embarked on a new quest: to digitize her original maps and find an archive to house them. Rob Ferrett and Beatrice Lawrence of WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” secured an invite to see this process firsthand. Preserving a legacy Mark Fonstad grew up with his mom’s maps of Middle-earth and other fantasy settings. Todd Fonstad, Karen’s husband, has been storing those maps for decades at his home in Amherst. Mark is now an associate professor of geography at the University of Oregon. He spent spring break this year in Wisconsin, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Robinson Map Library. For a week, he covered the library in fantasy maps as he worked to scan and digitize the collection. It’s a tall order. Mark Fonstad, left, shows “Wisconsin Today” host Rob Ferrett, right, his mother’s work Friday, March 28, 2025, in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR “It’s a little bit of an overwhelming process because, first of all, there’s hundreds of maps. Secondly, the maps are built in such a way that they have many layers to them,” Mark said. “I barely scratched the s...