Fantastical Maps From Legendary Stories

Abstract

Maps have long served not only to represent geographical space but also to convey religious, political, and philosophical ideas and to structure narratives. From medieval mappae mundi onward, cartography has combined geography, mythology, and imagination. The spread of printing in the early modern period encouraged the development of fictional geographies. Works such as Thomas More’s Utopia (1516), Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719), and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels (1726) created spatially coherent worlds that could be represented cartographically. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, maps became increasingly important in adventure and children’s literature, guiding readers through imaginary landscapes. William Morris’s map for The Sundering Flood (1897) anticipated modern fantasy cartography by organizing its fictional world spatially. Influenced by Morris, J.R.R. Tolkien established maps as fundamental instruments of worldbuilding rather than merely decorative illustrations. Digital technologies have since extended this relationship between cartography and storytelling into roleplaying games and video games, where maps function as navigational interfaces, narrative devices, and interactive environments. Switzerland occupies a distinctive place in this history. Tolkien’s journey through the Bernese and Valais Alps in 1911 significantly influenced his later conception of Middle-earth. However, the impact of the Swiss landscape on fantasy literature and its cartographic dimensions has received limited scholarly attention. This publication accompanies the exhibition Fantastical Maps From Legendary Stories, jointly organized by the private collection Ex Carta and the Zentralbibliothek Zürich, while also constituting an independent scholarly contribution. Its six essays examine medieval mappae mundi, the functions of maps in fantasy literature, Tolkien’s cartography, collaborative mapping in Dungeons & Dragons, and the geography of foundational video games: Jost Schmid and Helen Sunderland, Overview – Creating Worlds with Fantastical Maps ; Asa S. Mittman and Jost Schmid, Fantastical Features on the Edge of a Fantastical World: Medieval "Mappae Mundi" and their Literary Origins ; Thomas Honegger, From "The City" to Westeros – Maps from Fantastical Worlds and their Functions ; Marie Christin Kümmerling, Features and Functions of Tolkien’s Maps in "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" ; Lisa Weigelt, Collaborative Cartography in "Dungeons & Dragons" ; Eric de Broche des Combes, Maps and Geography in Seven Foundational Video Games