Atlas data and documentation

Read the atlas without running the interactive map. These static JSON files expose places, ordered journeys, chapter locations and historical events with stable IDs and source links.

Download places.json — all mapped places, names, descriptions, chronology and sources.
Download journeys.json — travellers, ordered waypoints, date labels and reconstruction notes.
Download chapters.json — all 62 Lord of the Rings chapters and the tracked characters present at mapped locations.
Download events.json — historical events, fictional dates and uncertainty flags.

Version and identity

Each response has schemaVersion, a reproducible content revision (SHA-256), shared coordinate and calendar documentation, a reuse notice and a records array. Version 1 lives at /data/v1/. Breaking changes require a new version; additional fields may be added. Clients should ignore unknown fields and revalidate cached files.

Place, journey, chapter and event IDs are persisted in the source data and must not change when a title or date is corrected. Join using placeId, never array position or display name. Journey sequence is an order, not a stable waypoint identifier. A null place ID means the waypoint has no separately identified place. A missing source for a waypoint must not be inferred from its coordinates.

Field guide

Places: name, alternateNames, type, region, description, peoples, book, coordinates, recordedPeriod, chronicle, sourceUrl, references, url and mapUrl.
Journeys: name, travellers, references, reconstructionNotice, waypoints, url and mapUrl. Each waypoint retains a human-readable dateLabel, optional note and place link, coordinates, and any intermediate via points.
Chapters: work, book, chapter, title, mapUrl and mapped locations. Each location lists the characters explicitly tracked there and a short note.
Events: title, description, age, year, absoluteYear, dateLabel, timeLabel, dateUncertain, place identity, coordinates, source and map links.

Dates and coordinates

Coordinates use a 2600 × 2300 schematic drawing with a top-left origin. They are not Earth coordinates. coordinates.approximate indicates additional positional uncertainty; false does not establish geographical precision. via coordinates use the same drawing.

absoluteYear = year + calendar.offsets[age]. Ages are YT, FA, SA, TA and FoA. This is an internal ordering convention, not a duration or Gregorian timestamp. Preserve uncertain date text; a sorting anchor must not be presented as an exact historical year. Waypoint date labels may describe ranges and reconstructed daily timing, so do not parse them as ISO dates.

Direct links

/?place=rivendell opens a place.
/?journey=fellowship opens a journey.
/?chapter=lotr-b1-c01 opens a chapter map.
/?place=rivendell&age=TA&year=3019 combines a place and year.
/?event=EVENT_ID opens an event at its recorded time; use the event’s exported mapUrl.

Only one of place, journey, chapter or event is selected at a time. An event supplies its own year. A chapter spans time and cannot be combined with a timeline year. Age/year pairs must be complete and within the map’s supported timeline. Invalid selections show a message and fall back to the atlas. Reading pages have their own canonical URLs; query-based map views share the map’s canonical URL.

Sources and reuse

Full source URLs and available reference scopes accompany the records. A waypoint’s placeSourceUrl provides location context, not evidence of its journey date. No computed distance is exported as canonical fact. Follow the methodology and reuse notes; these downloads grant no additional rights in Tolkien’s works or third-party illustrations.