The maps J.R.R. Tolkien drew to accompany his tales are their own form of story, sketching out the boundaries of his imagined worlds. But could our own, real cities be just as dramatic a fantasy setting? The answer is yes.


In our show-and-tell thread today, commenter and assistant geography professor at Pennsylvania's Slippery Rock University Stentor Danielson showed us these Tokien-inspired maps he's been working on which, though inspired by fantasy, use real landmark and geographic cues to show us a slightly different take on mapping our cities.

In addition to Boston which is drawn out above, Danielson also has maps of Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Washington, DC, which you can see below. Or you can check out more of his maps over on his Etsy page.


Pittsburgh, PA

Cleveland, OH


Washington, DC


Images: Stenthor Danielson