TCG Letter #1259

Rayner Unwin comments that they are delighted that Baynes will do the Hobbit map entitled 'There and Back Again'. There is no urgency and a few months delay is OK. They would like it to roughly match the size of the previous map A Map of Middle-earth but suggests she contacts Tolkien in the early stages of design. he notes that Tolkien's cartography has improved between the The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings and it may be an opportunity to exapnd on names. Tolkien is anxious to keep the decorative elements confined to cartography. He notes that Tolkien cannot express his creatures, or enjoy how others see them, but landscapes are an easier task though. He says that the back endpaper of Thror’s map was intended to be a hasty scribble by a prisoner and can’t be embellished so may have to be dropped.

On the verso PB has made two rough sketches. One shows a troll, a dwarf and a hobbit. Another shows an idea for a landscape shaped poster with circular shapes along top and both sides labelled ‘roundels of places’ and cartouche at bottom labelled ‘title’. The roundels were evidently intended to follow sequentially from bottom right with first three labelled ‘Hobbiton’. ‘Rivendell’ and ‘Gollum’s cave’.

Also includes miscellaneous notes perhaps for reply ‘Could I have blown-up map or at least a flat reproduction’, ‘length big difficulty, hang broadway?’, ‘pipe smoke rings’, ‘provision bags, money bags’, ‘ponies, dwarves and hobbit, hanging up hoods, 2 magic swords, magic wand’.