In 1970 Allen & Unwin published a poster-sized Map of Middle-earth, executed by the artist Pauline Baynes, and based upon that included in The Lord of the Rings. On the map itself are a series of vignettes portraying various locations significant to the story, such as the Barrow-Downs and Minas Tirith; and above and below the map proper, Baynes depicted the members of the Fellowship of the Ring, the Black Riders, Gollum, Shelob, and other enemies of the West. On seeing the finished art, Tolkien wrote a set of comments on these depictions of places and characters. Some of these comments are appreciative: e.g. Tolkien found four of the vignettes, sc. those depicting the Teeth of Mordor, the Argonath, Barad-dûr, and Minas Morgul, particularly well-executed, and described them as agreeing “remarkably with my own vision … Minas Morgul is almost exact”; and he found the depiction of Aragorn good, those of Sam and Gimli “good enough”, and that of Boromir to be “the best figure, and most closely related to the text”. Other comments are less positive: e.g. of the vignettes he singled out those of Minas Tirith and Hobbiton for particular dislike; and of the depictions of characters he most disliked those of Gandalf, Legolas, Gollum, the Black Riders (though he found them “impressive as sinister cavaliers”, he decried the addition of “hats and plumes” and the “relief” of “their hell-black with elvish green”), and Shelob (faulting in particular the positioning of her legs as “all apparently growing out of her head”) – also that of Bill the Pony: “On the scale of the men and the hobbits Bill is no pony. Also he was represented as having become the special care and friend of Sam, who should be leading him”. In the course of these comments he offers details of how some of these characters appeared in his own vision (some of which have been presented elsewhere),as well as on the personality and roles of some, and these details are selected and arranged for presentation here.
