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Sunday 25th April 2021

Coming across some old sketches and drawings, I thought they might prove of interest to visitors. Two or three might make a good T-shirt design i.e. Dain Ironfoot, Scatha the Worm, Ringwraith, and Shire.
Nearly all have featured within the pages of or graced the covers of Amon Hen, the Tolkien Society's bulletin. Others have appeared as 'below grid artwork' in several Beyond Bree calendars.
I have also included a variation of 'Morwen seeks Turin', the original appearing in 2019's Beyond Bree calendar. I was never happy with it and so moved a few things around whilst adding others to make it more a more pleasing image.

It’s that time of the year again when one’s thoughts turn to, among other things, next year’s Tolkien calendar. And there’s certainly enough around to take your pick. However, if you want to purchase some fine artwork and help support the charity that produces it, then you can’t go far wrong with the Beyond Bree calendar for 2020. The theme is the First and Second Ages of Middle-earth, and is illustrated by a number of very talented international artists. For those interested please see the attached.

Today celebrates the birthday of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, the ‘Father of High Fantasy’, who was born on the 3rd January 1892.
Tolkien fans the world over raise a glass in remembrance, and thanks for one of the greatest works of literature in the English language: The Lord of the Rings.

To Tolkien fans the world over, a very Happy Hobbit Day to you all, and especially those at the annual Baggins Birthday Bash in Los Angeles. I hope it's a fine day for you!

TOLKIEN: Maker of Middle-earth.

Every now and then a book comes along that makes a huge impression, and the forgoing book is such a one. Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth by Catherine Mcllwaine, and published by the Bodleian Library to coincide with their exhibition in Oxford, which ends in October 2018.
It measures 9.5” x 10.5”, and has for a cover Tolkien’s own illustration of ‘Barrels out of Bond’ from The Hobbit, with part of the title embossed in large gold lettering repeated on the spine, and has 416 pages. Some might be deterred by the price: £40.00, but be assured it is more than worth it; this book is a pure delight
Although some of the material has been published before, equally as much, if not more, has not and is full of old family photos, newspaper doodles, watercolours et al, which go to reveal the various aspects of his persona, so much more than a gifted author and philologist.
Readers will find something new to delight, inform or simply dwell upon each time. I certainly did not know that C. S. Lewis was such an influence on Tolkien in getting The Lord of the Rings completed.
Some have described it a coffee table volume, but it’s so much more than that. It’s the kind of book a Tolkien devotee would have to have on their bookshelf, and needs to be read from cover to cover. It does not disappoint.
Between them Catherine Mcllwaine and the Bodleian Library have produced a little masterpiece.

Beyond Bree Calendar 2019

Yesterday the 29th July 1954 saw the first publication of The Fellowship of the Ring. Little did the Professor and indeed the publishers realise what a phenomenal success it would go on to be. I sometimes wonder what he would have thought of it all were he still alive. What he would have made of the films, the games et al. I can’t help thinking that somehow, he would not have been overly impressed.
It’s that time of the year again when one’s thoughts turn to, among other things, next year’s Tolkien calendar. And there’s certainly enough around to take your pick. However, if you want to purchase some fine artwork and help support the charity that produces it, then you can’t go far wrong with the Beyond Bree calendar for 2019. For those interested please see the attached.

For a lot of people, myself included, Peter Jackson’s characterisation in his Lord of the Rings trilogy was fairly accurate, ably capturing how most people had envisaged them from reading the book. However, his adaptation of The Hobbit for me was a different matter. And the most unforgiveable character interpretation is Radagast the Brown. His first introduction to readers is in The Hobbit when Gandalf introduces himself to Beorn, saying: “I am a wizard,”continued Gandalf. “I have heard of you, if you have not heard of me: but perhaps you have heard of my good cousin Radagast who lives near the Southern borders of Mirkwood?” And then in the Lord of the Rings, at the Council of Elrond, when Gandalf tells his audience that he ‘… came upon a traveller sitting on a bank beside the road with his grazing horse beside him. It was Radagast the Brown…’ Later in the book when in conversation with Saruman the White the wizard reveals his scathing dislike of Radagast, describing him thus: ‘”Radagast the Brown!” laughed Saruman, and he could no longer conceal his scorn. “Radagast the Bird Tamer! Radagast the Simple! Radagast the Fool! Yet he had just the wit to play the part I set for him…’” And it’s from these few lines that Peter Jackson conjured up and elaborated upon this character interpretation, making him out to be some eccentric, mushroom doping, sylvan oddity. Then to compound it further he has him travelling in a sleigh pulled by giant hares! Why, Mr. Jackson? What was wrong with a horse? If it was to add to his eccentricity then for me it failed miserably, for it served only to make him and the story appear even more ridiculous.
Radagast as a character deserved far more gravitas.

Doubtless most readers of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings have their own favourite cover. For those of a certain age, myself included, it is the 1968/9 single edition paperback, published by George Allen and Unwin (at the unbelievable price then of £1.95!) with the cover by the late Pauline Baynes. It’s seeming simplicity, colour and content have made it one of the most attractive and recognisable Lord of the Rings covers ever. Both front and back successfully conjured up the mystery, strangeness and delights that would unfold to the reader.
Sadly, many people have come to and will continue to come to the book via the trilogy of films by Peter Jackson and probably never bother reading the book regardless of its cover, but that’s a different matter.
There have been countless dozens of covers worldwide and yet this one for me always stands head and shoulders above them all. In fact, I don’t recall any other fantasy book cover having quite the same impact. It was like a defining moment, a bit like coming across Chris Foss’s science fiction covers, or a Roger Dean album cover.
It is said one should never judge a book by its cover; well, there are always exceptions to rules, and Pauline Baynes cover for The Lord of the Rings is most certainly one of them.