Saturday 5 February 2011

Middle Earth Comes to the IPAD

When I purchased my IPAD last July (way back in the days of IOS 4.0) I hoped that there would be a whole library of Tolkienapps for it. However save a Quenya tutor and several Elf name generators for the Iphone there has not been much movement in this area....that is until now.

On Monday I discovered whilst going through the App store a bona fide Tolkien related app - The Middle Earth Map.

The app has been designed by Richard Blum who develped it as a personal resource when he was reading The Silmarillion. What is currently available is phase one which covers the first age and is a great guide to use if you are reading The Silmarillion or the early parts of The History of Middle Earth.

Richard will be bringing out versions to cover the second age with the Island of Numenor and the Third Age of Middle Earth at the time of The War of the Ring.

I am very impressed by this app. it is like having Google Earth for Arda. you can start with an "Iluvatar view" of Arda and then visits your favorite places, peoples,tombs, graves, mounds and hedges with a great navigation system and colour guide





From the walls of the night in the West to the East seas you can explore Arda of the First Age and stop off and visit the Valar in Valinor, Melian and Thingol in Doriath and Turgon in थेhidden kingdom of Gondolin (just don't anyone you have been there)

But not only does this excellent app offer a tour of Arda, it also connects in to several of the best online Tolkien resources including the One Ring.net and the Tolkien gateway so when you are in a certain land or place you can access information and links about it immediately


I wrote my first app store review about The Middle Earth map and gave it 5 stars - a must for any Tolkien lover. i've got my Sillmarillion on my Kindle app and my Middle Earth map app ready to explore the vast realm of Tolkien's Arda.

I applaud Richard Blum's work and look forward to the next editions! An app worthy of Feanor!!




Posted from Andrew Higgins IPAD asthiggins@me.com

1 comment:

Jason Fisher said...

Good effort, good programming, but for me, it’s a little too ugly to use. That must sound pretty harsh, but I suppose I am totally spoiled by the aesthetic of Tolkien’s own maps (which, of course, are protected by copyright).

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