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#1 | |
Wight of the Old Forest
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Unattended on the railway station, in the litter at the dancehall
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Illustrations of Tolkien before his time
This thread takes its inspiration from a remarkable little incident Tolkien reported in one of his letters:
Quote:
Nowadays, of course, Tolkien has been illustrated (with varying success) by hundreds of artists, but I wonder which "old pictures" the unnamed visitor could have been thinking of. We'll never know, of course, but I can think of some pre-Tolkien paintings which I somehow associate with LotR myself, and I suppose you may have one or the other in your minds as well. So, my question is: Are there any works of art, ancient or modern, famous or obscure, which seem to you to illustrate scenes from Tolkien's works without being meant to, or which otherwise strike you as 'Tolkienish' in style, spirit or subject matter? This is not about whether the Prof was in fact inspired by those works, so you can be as subjective as you like. To give two examples of the kind of thing I'm looking for: The Battle of Alexander at Issus by Albrecht Altdorfer, aka The Battle of the Pelennor Fields: ![]() The city/fortress in the background doesn't look too much like Minas Tirith, and the lie of the land doesn't quite fit either, but here are the Rohirrim charging at the Haradrim forces, and the panoramic view gives the battle a feel of cosmic relevance, like the fate of all Middle-earth is at stake. The Surrender of Breda by Diego Velazquez, aka The Steward and the King: ![]() Never mind the baroque costumes - what I see here is Faramir, last Steward of Gondor, surrendering his office, and Aragorn replying: "That office is not ended, and it shall by thine and thy heirs' as long as my line shall last." Just imagine Gandalf and our four Hobbits among the bystanders. (For some hilarious examples with a humorous twist, see this site, but I'm actually quite serious about this!)
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Und aus dem Erebos kamen viele seelen herauf der abgeschiedenen toten.- Homer, Odyssey, Canto XI |
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#2 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
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Henri Rousseau "Eclaireurs attaques par un tigre" aka Huan and Carcharot's fight
![]() Pretend that the tiget is a wolf, and the horse (is it a horse?) is a dog. It all works! And you can even see Beren lying there ![]() Edit: sorry, I can't post the actual image for some reason.
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#3 |
Wight of the Old Forest
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Unattended on the railway station, in the litter at the dancehall
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Intriguing choice, G55! It doesn't look too good for Huan and Beren, which is quite fitting, since both of them died in that fight; and the tiger has that crazy stare, just like Carcharoth driven mad by the Silmaril.
Interesting parallel, too: Both Tolkien and Rousseau were non-professional artists (one as a writer, the other as a painter) whose works breathe an atmosphere of dreamlike enchantment; both were ridiculed by academic critics during most of their lifetime, but were widely recognized and became very influential later. It took me quite a while to figure this out myself. Try this: 1. Right-click on the picture you'd like to post and select 'copy picture address' (or whatever it's called in English). 2. Go to your post window, click on the 'Insert Image' icon above the text box (the one that looks like a postcard of the pyramids, left of the 'Quote' Icon), and paste the URL of your pic into the pop-up window. That worked for me.
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Und aus dem Erebos kamen viele seelen herauf der abgeschiedenen toten.- Homer, Odyssey, Canto XI |
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#4 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 10,360
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That's what I did, but the picture still didn't show up. My computer just doesn't like me, that's all!
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#5 |
Relic of Wandering Days
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: You'll See Perpetual Change.
Posts: 1,480
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From Gandalf's account of what happened on Celebdil as it appears in The White Rider, (sans the smoke, vapor and ice like rain and with an excess of balrogs)
![]() ![]() The Torment of Saint Anthony by Michelangelo, painted after the engraving by Martin Schongauer. Another work that shouts Gandalf... ![]() Saint Anthony by Albrecht Durer |
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#6 |
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Lonely Isle
Posts: 706
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People on this thread might be amused to look at this link:
http://flyingmoose.org/tolksarc/gallery/gallery.htm It's an online art gallery of familiar works, but which are said to be specifically inspired by Tolkien! ![]() |
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#7 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
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This picture, "The Joy of Life" by Henry Matisse, clearly illustrates the Waters of Awakening. It's a bit inappropriate, but let's blame it on Matisse.
![]() Well, you see people getting up, and there's water in the background, and the people aren't really...*whats-the-right-word*...civilized? - *nah, bad word* ![]()
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera Last edited by Galadriel55; 12-24-2010 at 08:32 PM. |
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#8 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
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Lawren Harris' "Maligne Lake, aka the Calacirya
" ![]() Arthur Lismer's "Sunlight in a Wood", aka the March of the Ents ![]()
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#9 |
Cryptic Aura
Join Date: May 2002
Posts: 5,992
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Galadriel55, you and I are going to have to meet some day at the McMichael Gallery.
![]() Years ago I posted some pictures of medieval battles. I shall go off and attempt to find them so I can add a link here. EDIT: Yes, I have just accomplished something with the search function here. Here's a link to the pictue (just one), in a discussion of Book 5, Chapter 6 Bruegel battlefield. The interesting point here is that the picture has no central focus. I wonder if Tolkien's many chapters which repeat events occuring at the same time but in different places is something of an attempt to present this idea of art without one central perspective.
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I’ll sing his roots off. I’ll sing a wind up and blow leaf and branch away. Last edited by Bęthberry; 02-11-2011 at 07:15 PM. |
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#10 | |
Wight of the Old Forest
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: Unattended on the railway station, in the litter at the dancehall
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Quote:
![]() ![]() Thanks everybody for your responses so far, it's fascinating to see what resonates visually (sorry for the awkward metaphor) with Tolkien for each of you!
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Und aus dem Erebos kamen viele seelen herauf der abgeschiedenen toten.- Homer, Odyssey, Canto XI |
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#11 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
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Continuing with the Group of Seven, A. Y. Jackson's The Brown Lands:
![]() "Wilderness Deese Bay" Tom Thompson's Death of the Two Trees ![]() "Night"
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#12 |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
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Barad Dur.
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#13 |
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: under the bed
Posts: 4,737
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The Baleful Head, or is it The Mirror Of Galadriel?
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Gordon's alive!
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#14 |
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
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The Hill?
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Gordon's alive!
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#15 |
Curmudgeonly Wordwraith
Join Date: Jun 2007
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Ah, the hyphenated Pre-Raphealite painter whose name always escapes me! I just came across his "Beguiling of Merlin" as I was researching something completely different.
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And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision. |
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#16 | |
A Mere Boggart
Join Date: Mar 2004
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Quote:
![]() The other one is by Samuel Palmer. I'd like to think that The Baleful Head is one of the paintings that actually did influence Tolkien as he was quite a fan of the pre-Raphaelites and used to go to Birmingham art gallery quite a lot (where they have a good collection), but looking it up, this one is displayed in a gallery in Stuttgart, and I doubt it would have been sold by Birmingham art gallery since Tolkien's youth (most public art collections are held in trust).
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Gordon's alive!
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#17 |
A Voice That Gainsayeth
Join Date: Nov 2006
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Nicholas Roerich (1930) - Totally Vale of Erech.
![]() And the same artist, maybe a bit metaphorically... ![]() "A sign that Gandalf was here on October the third: that is three days ago now. Not alone: Shadowfax was with him..."
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"Should the story say 'he ate bread,' the dramatic producer can only show 'a piece of bread' according to his taste or fancy, but the hearer of the story will think of bread in general and picture it in some form of his own." -On Fairy-Stories |
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#18 |
Shade of Carn Dűm
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: The Elvenking's Halls
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Starry night by van gogh (sp?)? hahahahahaha!
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"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit..." "'Well, I'm back.' said Sam." |
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#19 |
Loremaster of Annúminas
Join Date: Oct 2006
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Not visual, but musical: the soundtrack to the passage through Moria was written by Rachmaninoff, his Prelude in G Minor op. 23 no. 5:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...v=CpdoYLMgVfM#!
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The entire plot of The Lord of the Rings could be said to turn on what Sauron didn’t know, and when he didn’t know it. |
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#20 | |
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
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Quote:
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You passed from under darkened dome, you enter now the secret land. - Take me to Finrod's fabled home!... ~ Finrod: The Rock Opera |
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#21 |
Wight of the Old Forest
Join Date: Dec 2008
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I just came across this while browsing some old threads and was delighted by Legate bringing up Nicholas Roerich above, since I had just discovered and fallen in love with Roerich's art at the time I started this thread. For a while I had several of his paintings rotating as wallpapers on my computer, and many of them have struck me as rather Tolkienish, such as this:
![]() Bogatyrs Woke Up, or The Awakening of the Dwarves? (Yes I know, they didn't all wake up in the same place, did they, but this just screams DWARVES! to me.) or this: ![]() Boris and Gleb, aka Alatar and Pallando? (Cloaks are the wrong colour, but hey, there's enough blue in the picture.) Others remind me of Tolkien in more subtle ways, more in their technique than their subject matter. One thing I really love about Roerich's art is his way of painting clear light and luminous colours, which IMHO is rivalled by few painters if any, and for me this resonates somewhat obliquely but very strongly with Tolkien's myth of the Two Trees and of a light that is older and holier than that which we perceive in these later ages. It can be guessed in the pictures Legate linked, but it's most obvious in his Himalaya landscapes or a work like this: ![]() (Terra Slavonica, 1943)
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Und aus dem Erebos kamen viele seelen herauf der abgeschiedenen toten.- Homer, Odyssey, Canto XI |
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