Artwork by J. R. R. Tolkien
Tolkien's illustration of the
Doors of Durin
for
The Fellowship of the Ring
, with
Sindarin
inscription in
Tengwar
script, both being his inventions. Despite his best efforts, this was the only drawing, other than maps and calligraphy, in the first edition of
The Lord of the Rings
.
In early editions it was printed in black on white rather than, as here and as Tolkien wished, in white on black.
[T 1]
Tolkien's artwork
was a key element of his creativity from the time when he began to write fiction. A professional
philologist
,
J. R. R. Tolkien
prepared
a wide variety of materials
to support his fiction, including illustrations for his
Middle-earth
fantasy
books,
facsimile
artefacts,
more or less "picturesque" maps
,
calligraphy
, and sketches and paintings from life. Some of his artworks combined several of these elements.
In his lifetime, some of his artworks were included in his novels
The Hobbit
and
The Lord of the Rings
; others were used on the covers of different editions of these books. Posthumously, collections of his artworks have been published, and academics have begun to evaluate him as an artist as well as an author.
Early work: sketches
[
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]
Ink drawing of "Quallington Carpenter",
Eastbury, Berkshire
, 1912
Early in his life, Tolkien, taught by his mother, made many sketches and paintings from life. He drew with skill and depicted landscapes, buildings, trees, and flowers realistically. The one thing he admitted he could not draw was the human figure, where his attempts have been described as "cartoonish", as if "a different hand" was involved.
The scholars
Wayne G. Hammond
and
Christina Scull
describe his 1912 ink drawing of a cottage in
Berkshire
, "Quallington Carpenter", as "the most impressive" of these early works, its "sagging walls" and
thatched roof
"elaborately textured and shaded".
Illustrations for his books
[
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Tolkien's illustrations for his books consisted of drawings, paintings, artefacts, more or less "picturesque" maps, and calligraphy.
The Hobbit
[
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]
Watercolour
painting
The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the-Water
used as the
frontispiece
of the first American edition of
The Hobbit
, 1938
[T 2]
Tolkien's illustrations contributed to the effectiveness of his writings, though much of his oeuvre remained unpublished in his lifetime. However, the first British edition of
The Hobbit
in 1937 was published with ten of his black-and-white drawings.
In addition, it had as its
frontispiece
Tolkien's drawing
The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the-Water
. It depicts
Bilbo Baggins
's home village of
Hobbiton
in
the Shire
. The old mill, based on
the mill at Sarehole
, and The Water are in the foreground, an
idealised English countryside
in the middle distance, and The Hill and Bilbo's home
Bag End
(tunnelled into The Hill) in the background.
[3]
The American edition replaced the frontispiece with Tolkien's full-colour watercolour painting of the same scene; this was then used in later impressions in England also.
[T 2]
The American edition had in addition four of his
watercolour
paintings.
The Lord of the Rings
[
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]
The Book of Mazarbul
[
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]
The first page from
The Book of Mazarbul
, in the form of a facsimile artefact created by Tolkien to support the story and bring readers into his fantasy. The publishers declined to include a reproduction of the artefact in the first edition of
The Lord of the Rings
.
[T 3]
Tolkien worked on making realistic artefacts to accompany his writing; he spent enormous effort on a
facsimile
Book of Mazarbul
to resemble the burnt, torn volume abandoned at the tomb of the
Dwarf
-leader
Balin
in the subterranean realm of
Moria
; in the story, the wizard
Gandalf
finds the book and struggles to read out a substantial amount of the damaged text.
[T 4]
Tolkien carefully stained the artefact's materials, actually burning in the burn-marks and tearing the paper to make it as authentic as possible.
He anxiously wrote to his publisher
Rayner Unwin
asking about the reproduction of the artefact.
[T 5]
The company however chose not to include an image of the book in the first edition, prompting Tolkien to remark that without it the text at the start of "The Bridge of Khazad-Dum" was "rather absurd".
[T 3]
Tolkien realized late in his life that he had made a mistake in the artefact: the text was written in runes, as if somehow the
Book of Mazarbul
had surprisingly survived thousands of years from the
Third Age
, but the text itself was English, not the Common Speech that the book's scribe would have used.
The Doors of Durin
[
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]
The Lord of the Rings
, despite Tolkien's best efforts, appeared with only one illustration other than its maps and calligraphy. This was
The Doors of Durin
, in the first volume,
The Fellowship of the Ring
, in 1954.
[T 6]
The
Doors of Durin
were the magical stone gates forming the western entrance to Moria; they were invisible when shut, but could be made visible by moonlight, whereupon their lettering and design, worked in
mithril
, could be seen. That lettering in fact contained a welcome and the password, to those who could read the
Feanorian script (Tengwar)
and understand the
Elvish language (Sindarin)
. Tolkien gave the design elegantly curled trees, mirroring the curls of the script.
The design's clean lines cost Tolkien much effort; he made numerous sketches, each one a simplification of the last, to attain the apparent simplicity of the final design.
A Numenorean tile, such as might have been saved from the wreck of
Numenor
by
Elendil
, and taken in his ships to
Middle-earth
.
[T 7]
He wrote to Unwin that while he was drawing it in black ink "it should of course properly appear in white line on a black background, since it represents a silver line in the darkness. How does that appeal to the Production Department?"
[T 1]
The image was accompanied by a calligraphic caption in English, made to resemble "both the insular characters of
Old English
manuscript and the very Feanorian characters [that] it translates".
The Silmarillion
[
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]
Tolkien did not live to see
The Silmarillion
published, but he prepared images for it, including paintings of several symmetrical tile-like
heraldic emblems for its kings and houses
, and an actual
Numenorean
tile such as would have been rescued from the wreck of the civilisation of Numenor in
Elendil
's ships, and brought to Middle-earth.
[T 7]
One of his emblems, for
Luthien Tinuviel
, was used on the front cover of
The Silmarillion
, and another five (for
Fingolfin
,
Earendil
,
Idril Celebrindal
,
Elwe
, and
Feanor
) were used on the back cover.
[T 8]
Maps
[
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Fantasy
,
cartography
, calligraphy: Detail from
Tolkien's map
of
Wilderland
in
The Hobbit
, supposedly a fair copy made by the
Hobbit
Bilbo Baggins
, an illusion reinforced by Tolkien's own "charming hand lettering".
Tolkien's maps
, like his illustrations, helped his readers to enter his
subcreated
world of
Middle-earth
.
The Hobbit
had two maps;
The Lord of the Rings
had three, redrawn by his son
Christopher Tolkien
;
The Silmarillion
had two. These served multiple purposes, first as guides to the author, helping to ensure consistency in the narrative, and later to the reader through the often complex routes taken by
his characters
.
Calligraphy
[
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]
Tolkien's profession of
philology
made him familiar with medieval
illuminated manuscripts
; he imitated their style in his own
calligraphy
, an art which his mother had taught him. He applied this skill in his development of Middle-earth, creating alphabets such as
Tengwar
for his invented languages, especially
Elvish
.
Tolkien applied his skill in calligraphy to write the
One Ring
's iconic inscription, in the
Black Speech
of
Mordor
, using Tengwar. The calligraphic inscription and a translation provided by Gandalf appear in
The Fellowship of the Ring
.
[T 9]
Multiple dimensions of artistry: Tolkien used his skill in
calligraphy
to write the
One Ring
's iconic inscription, in the
Black Speech
of
Mordor
, using the Elvish
Tengwar
script, both of which he invented.
[T 9]
Publication
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In 1979, Tolkien's son
Christopher
began the process of bringing his father's artwork to the world's attention, beyond the images already published at that time on calendars, by editing
Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien
.
[T 10]
It had 48 plates, some in colour.
[7]
Two major books have addressed Tolkien's artwork: Hammond and Scull's 1995 collection of his paintings,
J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator
;
and Catherine McIlwaine's 2018 book accompanying the exhibition she curated at the
Bodleian Library
,
Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth
.
Hammond and Scull have also published two further collections;
The Art of The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
(2011)
and
The Art of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
(2015).
Analysis
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]
Influences on Tolkien's artwork identified by scholars include
Japonisme
,
Art Nouveau
,
Viking design
, and
William Morris
. Japonisme is seen in stylised features like Tolkien's mountains, waves, and
dragons
. The influence of Morris's book
Some Hints on Pattern Designing
, which Tolkien owned, appears in his designs for tiles and heraldic devices for
The Silmarillion
.
John R. Holmes, in the
J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia
, states that given the struggle faced by literary critics to establish Tolkien's position as a writer, in the face of an enduringly hostile literary establishment, "the problem of evaluating Tolkien's status as a visual artist is even more daunting".
The Tolkien scholar Patchen Mortimer similarly comments on the "contentious debate" about him, noting that his many readers find his books and "the attendant languages, histories, maps, artwork, and apocrypha"
a huge accomplishment, while his critics "dismiss his work as childish, irrelevant, and worse".
Mortimer observes that admirers and critics treat his work as "escapist and romantic",
nothing to do with the 20th century. Mortimer calls this "an appalling oversight", writing that "Tolkien's project was as grand and avant-garde as those of
Wagner
or
the Futurists
, and his works are as suffused with the spirit of the age as any by
Eliot
,
Joyce
, or
Hemingway
".
The Tolkien scholars Jeffrey J. MacLeod and Anna Smol write that as an artist, Tolkien "straddled the amateur and professional fields", something he did also in his fiction and his scholarly studies. They note that he always had pencils, paper, coloured inks, chalks, and paintboxes to hand, and that his metaphors of creativity, as in his essay
On Fairy-Stories
, constantly refer to colour, or as in his poem
Mythopoeia
, to
the theme of light
,
[14]
something that the scholar of mythology and medieval literature
Verlyn Flieger
calls central to the whole mythology, seen throughout
The Silmarillion
.
[15]
MacLeod and Smol write that images and text "merge" in his creative work in four ways: in drafting his tales; in shaping his descriptions of landscapes; in his explorations of the visual appearance of text, as in his invented alphabets, his calligraphy, and his "JRRT"
monogram
; and in his view of the relationship between illustration and fantasy. In short, they conclude, "Tolkien's art and his visual imagination should be considered an essential part of his writing and thinking."
Artists inspired by Tolkien's writing
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]
Many artists and illustrators have created drawings, paintings, and book
illustrations of Tolkien's Middle-earth
. Tolkien was critical of some of the early attempts,
[T 11]
but was happy to collaborate with the illustrator
Pauline Baynes
who prepared the iconic map of Middle-earth.
Among the many artists who have worked on Middle-earth projects are
John Howe
,
Alan Lee
, and
Ted Nasmith
; as well as illustrating books, Howe and Lee worked as conceptual artists for
Peter Jackson
's
The Lord of the Rings
film trilogy
.
[17]
References
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]
Primary
[
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]
- ^
a
b
Carpenter 2023
, #137 to
Rayner Unwin
, 11 April 1953
- ^
a
b
Tolkien 1979
, Figure 1
- ^
a
b
Carpenter 2023
, #141 to Allen & Unwin, 9 October 1953
- ^
Tolkien 1954a
, book 2, ch. 5 "The Bridge of Khazad-Dum"
- ^
Carpenter 2023
, #139 to
Rayner Unwin
, 8 August 1953
- ^
Tolkien 1954a
, book 2, ch. 4 "A Journey in the Dark"
- ^
a
b
Tolkien 1979
, Figure 46
- ^
Tolkien 1977
, Front and back cover
- ^
a
b
Tolkien 1954a
, book 1, ch. 2 "
The Shadow of the Past
"
- ^
Tolkien 1979
, Foreword
- ^
Carpenter 2023
, #107 to Sir
Stanley Unwin
, 7 December 1946.
Secondary
[
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]
Sources
[
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]
- Campbell, Alice (2013) [2007]. "Maps". In
Drout, Michael D. C.
(ed.).
J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia
.
Routledge
. pp. 405?408.
ISBN
978-0-415-86511-1
.
- Carpenter, Humphrey
, ed. (2023) [1981].
The Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien
Revised and Expanded Edition
. New York:
Harper Collins
.
ISBN
978-0-35-865298-4
.
- Fimi, Dimitra
(2010) [2008].
Tolkien, Race, and Cultural History: From Fairies to Hobbits
.
Palgrave Macmillan
.
ISBN
978-0-230-21951-9
.
OCLC
222251097
.
- Flieger, Verlyn
(1983).
Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien's World
.
Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing
.
ISBN
978-0-8028-1955-0
.
- Hammond, Wayne G.
;
Scull, Christina
, eds. (1995).
J. R. R. Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator
.
HarperCollins
.
ISBN
978-0-261-10322-1
.
- Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (2011).
The Art of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
. London:
HarperCollins
.
ISBN
978-0-00-744081-8
.
- Hammond, Wayne G.; Scull, Christina (2015).
The Art of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
. London:
HarperCollins
.
ISBN
978-0-00-810575-4
.
- Holmes, John R. (2013) [2007]. "Art and Illustrations by Tolkien". In
Drout, Michael D. C.
(ed.).
J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia
.
Routledge
. pp. 27?32.
ISBN
978-0-415-86511-1
.
- Huttar, Charles A.
(1975).
"Hell and the City: Tolkien and the Traditions of Western Literature"
. In
Lobdell, Jared
(ed.).
A Tolkien Compass
.
Open Court
. pp. 121?122.
ISBN
978-0875483030
.
- McIlwaine, Catherine (2018).
Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth
.
Bodleian Library
.
ISBN
978-1-851-24485-0
.
- MacLeod, Jeffrey J.; Smol, Anna (2008). "A Single Leaf: Tolkien's Visual Art and Fantasy".
Mythlore
.
27
(1). article 10.
- MacLeod, Jeffrey J.; Smol, Anna (2017). "Visualizing the Word: Tolkien as Artist and Writer".
Tolkien Studies
.
14
(1): 115?131.
doi
:
10.1353/tks.2017.0009
.
S2CID
171923300
.
- Mortimer, Patchen (2005). "Tolkien and Modernism".
Tolkien Studies
.
2
(1): 113?129.
doi
:
10.1353/tks.2005.0025
.
S2CID
170640541
.
- Tolkien, J. R. R.
(1979).
Tolkien, Christopher
(ed.).
Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien
.
Allen & Unwin
.
ISBN
978-0-04-741003-1
.
OCLC
5978089
.
- Tolkien, J. R. R.
(1954a).
The Fellowship of the Ring
.
The Lord of the Rings
. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin
.
OCLC
9552942
.
- Tolkien, J. R. R.
(1977).
Christopher Tolkien
(ed.).
The Silmarillion
. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin
.
ISBN
978-0-395-25730-2
.
External links
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