Q: How Accurate is Emil Johansson’s Middle-earth Genealogy?
ANSWER: Very inaccurate at the time of this writing. I applaud the effort to create a usable resource that organizes all the available information (it’s an idea that others have approached me about since the 1990s but I have never seen a successful execution). Nonetheless, the amount of work that such a project entails almost ensures that no one will get it completely right — certainly not in a short period of time, although according to his TEDxGöteborg Talk Mr. Johansson has invested a lot of time in this project and his efforts merit respect.
For those who absolutely want to know how (in)accurate the project is, here is a brief overview of some of the major shortcomings (at the time I write this article). Please don’t take this as an attack on the young man. He is not the first and won’t be the last person to attempt to document Tolkien’s world with graphs and charts. In fact, Robert Foster led the way with his Complete Guide to Middle-earth in the 1970s.
There are many errors and inappropriate entries in the genealogy. Mr. Johansson’s mistakes replicate many of the mistakes others have made (such as implying there is a “canonical” genealogy for any of the families, which is not really true) but he also includes names that were devised by commercial post-Tolkien projects without any explanation or annotation. For example, he provides names for the Kings of Cardolan and Rhudaur — kings whom Tolkien neither enumerated (we have no idea of how many there were supposed to be) nor named.
Many of the dates associated with his map are also unrealistic projections, perhaps mandated by whatever software Mr. Johansson is using or has developed (such that he is using a “date-formatted” object or field that must include a month and day, and so incomplete dates default to YEAR-01-01). Again, there are no annotations indicating sources.
The timeline is probably as good as any that I or anyone else of whom I know has written. The transition between “Years of the Trees” and “Years of the Sun” is problematic for everyone because you have to make choices. There is no canon to follow. I have seen more extensive timelines where others have included all the birth and death dates published for various kings, princes, lords, etc. Some people have included dates from “Aldarion and Erendis”, etc. So Mr. Johansson’s timeline is (at this time) fairly conservative, thus limiting the potential for error or controversy.
You can browse the LoTR Project here. Mr. Johansson has provided an error reporting function if you want to contribute to improving or expanding the quality of the site.
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