So, I was looking for a map of Beleriand to use as wallpaper, as a substitute for ye' olde Middle-Earth map. The reason being that I'm finally reading the Silmarillion and thoroughly enjoying it. While searching for it, I came across a myriad of more or less obscure maps and attempts to place Beleriand alongside the map from the Third Age. Which is of course silly considering the amount of damage and alteration done to the landmass meanwhile.
This one hurts my eyes:
http://images.wikia.com/lotr/images/...ds_(color).jpg
This is a weird thing considering what I said before, but it's a nice try and I like the style:
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/3...andmecompo.jpg
And... of course the best map - or rather, the depiction most true to Tolkien, in my opinion, was posted on this very site:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...beleriand2.jpg
Well, anyway, I was looking for an actual map of Beleriand, but none of them was to my liking (in appearance that is). So I took a plain one (the one in the actual book, by Christopher Tolkien) and made it look more rugged. Some of you may think it's too dark, but that's the way I like it, considering the content of the Silmarillion. It's not perfect, but at least I tried to make most of the place-names readable - also, to make it fit my screen, I had to include the empty space to the east, but after all there's a line where the map ends and the rest was rather unknown to the inhabitants of Beleriand in the first place I believe:
Cheers! And keep appreciating J. Ronald R. Tolkien!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...6GpisIQ#t=690s
EDIT: Mind you, the map shown on the forum is compressed. The actual size is 1600:900