The First Fantasy Map

I have loved maps of all sorts since my youth. In fact, I'd go so far as to credit my love of maps with my attraction to fantasy and fantasy roleplaying games. I can still remember the first time I beheld Tolkien's map of Middle-earth, which roughly coincided with my discovery of D&D. In my memory, the two events are very closely intertwined, to the point where it's hard to separate them. Since then, maps and fantasy are inseparable concepts and I tend to assume that all works of fantasy will include maps.

As it turns out, that's not true. There are plenty of fantasy settings lacking maps contemporary with their creation (Eddison's Mercury is one example). Thinking about this then led me to ponder the first map created specifically to describe an imaginary world. What was it? Answering this question isn't easy, because its terms need to be defined. For my purposes, I'm interested solely in what are sometimes called "secondary" worlds, which is to say, wholly imaginary settings with no direct connections to the real world. In this way, Plato's Atlantis or More's Utopia don't count, as they're both supposed to be places on Earth rather than some other world. Further, I'm looking for secondary worlds that have maps approved by the creator, if not necessarily drawn by him.

This narrows the range of possibilities quite a bit. Prior to the 20th century, there aren't many serious candidates that fulfill both requirements. The earliest one that comes to mind is Edwin A. Abbott's 1884 novella, Flatland, and it only works if one considers its title page to be a map, an interpretation that is apparently controversial.

A map or an illustration?

There are a number of significant secondary worlds created after Flatland, but none of them have contemporary maps, not even Barsoom, which, as I've argued recently, is one of the underappreciated primary inspirations for Dungeons & Dragons and, therefore, all roleplaying games. In 1936, Robert E. Howard sketched out a map of the lands of the Hyborian Age, but, alas, it does not meet both my criteria, as Conan's world is just our own in the prehistoric past.

Sadly not a contender but I like the map anyway

1936 was also the year in which Tolkien's The Hobbit was published and it includes not only a map but one drawn by its author. But does Middle-earth meet my criteria above? Like the Hyborian Age, it, too, is a prehistoric – perhaps a better word is "mythic" – Earth. I'd love to let it pass, but, if I stick to my own rules, I must exclude it and look elsewhere.

Is there a contemporary map of Nehwon? Narnia? At this point, I'm honestly not sure and have begun to wonder if perhaps my criteria are too specific and, therefore, limiting. Still, it's an interesting question. Having only just begun to dig into the matter, it seems as if my long-held association of maps with fantasy might be of more recent vintage than I thought, a development of the 1960s, in the aftermath of the wider dissemination of The Lord of the Rings. If anyone has any additional thoughts on the matter, I'd love to hear them.