Are you eagerly anticipating next month's release of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug? Already worked through the recent extended version of An Unexpected Journey and its mountains of extra features? A Tolkien fan eager to pinpoint what aspects of Middle Earth geography the films have gotten wrong? Google has you covered: they've released an interactive map of JRR Tolkien's iconic fantasy realm (the cinematic version, anyway) to tide you over for a while.
As well as providing a detailed aerial overview of the world featured in the films, visitors to the site can click on specific locations to find out more information from the deep depths of Tolkien lore. At the moment only three areas are 'unlocked', with others presumably sealed off until their importance is revealed in the next film. For the moment, though, you can find out more about Rivendell and its elves, the creepy Dol Guldur and the iconic Trollshaws and its ever-hungry inhabitants. It's all narrated by Gandalf (Ian McKellen) himself in his ever authoritative tone.
The map is one of Google's 'Chrome Experiments', so as the name suggests you might need to have Chrome installed to get the slick interface working 100% correctly.
You can check out the map for yourself by clicking here.
