Lord of the Rings

It’s been a few months since I last looked at a J.R.R. Tolkien calendar, mainly because I was unable to find my dad’s old copy of the next calendar in the series, The Silmarillion Calendar 1978. But I have finally unearthed it, and I’ve done some research into the illustrations within. The Silmarillion is essentially a collection of myths and stories in the wider Middle-earth setting, covering the history of Tolkien’s fantasy world up to the Third Age. When Tolkien died in 1973, he had created a vast amount of unpublished background material for his legendarium, but most of it was unedited and, in some cases, unfinished. One of Tolkien’s sons, Christopher, selected and edited materials to tell the story from beginning to end, sometimes even devising completely new material to resolve gaps and inconsistencies in the narrative.

In 1977, thanks to the efforts of Christopher Tolkien, The Silmarillion was finally published, so it’s unsurprising that the Tolkien calendar released that year (for 1978) featured illustrations that tied into the locations mentioned in the new book. Most of these paintings and drawings had been done in the late 1920s, when Tolkien’s legendarium was still relatively young. Only two of the illustrations in this calendar had previously appeared (namely Taniquetil and Fangorn Forest, both from the 1974 calendar – although the latter is now called, more accurately, Beleg finds Gwindor in Taur-nu-Fuin).

The front of the 1978 calendar is based on the original cover of The Silmarillion. The front and back of the book feature emblems, or heraldic devices, of various historical figures mentioned in the text, all designed and coloured by Tolkien during his lifetime. The front cover has the device of the Elf Lúthien Tinúviel, ‘the fairest maiden that has ever been among all the children of this world’, whose white flowers, as Christopher notes, ‘are probably to be connected with the flowers of niphredil that sprang at her birth in Doriath, as is told in The Silmarillion, Chapter 10′.

Thousands of years before The Lord of the Rings, in the First Age, a mortal man named Beren, having survived the destruction of his homeland, encountered Lúthien Tinúviel dancing in a forest glade – and immediately fell in love. Thingol, Lúthien’s father, was angered at the thought of his daughter marrying a mortal. As a condition, he set what he thought would be an impossible task: Beren must bring him a Silmaril (one of three forged jewels after which The Silmarillion is named) from the Iron Crown of Morgoth. Lúthien accompanied Beren on his mission and, despite the hopeless odds, they managed to cut a Silmaril from the Dark Lord’s crown. However, as they fled Morgoth’s fortress, the great wolf Carcharoth bit Beren’s hand off, swallowing the Silmaril. But upon hearing the tale, Thingol relented, and Beren and Lúthien were married; this was the first union of Elves and Men.

Beren later participated in the hunting of Carcharoth, where the beast was slain and the Silmaril was recovered, but in the process, Beren was mortally wounded. Lúthien’s grief was so great that she laid down her own life, and her soul fled to the Halls of Mandos, where she moved Mandos, the Doomsman of the Valar, to pity. Mandos gave Lúthien a choice: to dwell in Valinor, immortal but without Beren; or to return to Middle-earth, mortal, to share one life and death with her beloved. Lúthien chose mortality. And so it came to pass that she and Beren were restored to life, and they dwelled together in Middle-earth for a time, in peace, until death finally took them.

The Tale of Beren and Lúthien is one of the most central and moving stories in Tolkien’s legendarium. He called it ‘the kernel of the mythology.’ In The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Aragorn recounts the tale of Beren and Lúthien to the hobbits as they huddle around the fire on Weathertop. Although it is a tale from the distant past, echoes of the story appear in the love affair of Aragorn and Arwen, as told in the appendices.

Tolkien based Lúthien on his own wife, Edith Mary Tolkien, as he explained in a 1972 letter to his son, Christopher: ‘I never called Edith Lúthien – but she was the source of the story that in time became the chief part of The Silmarillion. It was first conceived in a small woodland glade filled with hemlocks at Roos in Yorkshire… For she was (and knew she was) my Lúthien.’ When Edith died in 1971, Tolkien had ‘Lúthien’ inscribed under her name on their shared grave in Oxford. When Tolkien himself died in 1973, his name was inscribed with ‘Beren’.

On the back cover of The Silmarillion, we have several more heraldic devices. The larger one in the middle is that of Idril Celebrindal (daughter of Turgon of Gondolin and mother of Eärendil). This emblem features a cornflower pattern and was named Menelluin (‘Sky-blue’). This is stated to be ‘an inlaid plaque saved from Gondolin and descending through Eärendil and his son Elros to Númenor, whence it was saved by Elendil and taken to Gondor.’ The smaller devices (starting from the top-left and going clockwise) are those of Fingolfin, Eärendil, Fëanor, and Elwë.

January – Gondolin and the Vale of Tumladen

This drawing, dated September 1928 in the bottom right corner, first appeared (coloured by H.E. Riddett) in the 1978 calendar; it wasn’t published in its original form, as a pencil sketch, until 1979, in the book Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien. It depicts the hidden Elvish city of Gondolin, which sits on a rocky hill, ringed by white walls, in the Vale of Tumladen. The viewer is looking into the concealed vale from a high mountain pass, a secret way into the kingdom. The name Cristhorn (seen in the pencilled title ‘Gondolin & the Vale of Tumladin from Cristhorn’) means ‘The Eagle’s Cleft’; it was afterwards changed to ‘Cirith Thoronath’, of the same meaning.

The Fall of Gondolin was actually one of the very first Middle-earth tales Tolkien ever wrote, back in 1917, while recovering from illness after fighting in World War I. Although Gondolin had remained hidden from Morgoth, the dark enemy, for centuries, he eventually discovered its location and attacked the city, with the aid of dragons, Balrogs, and countless Orcs. The attackers forced their way through the hidden entrance to the valley and overwhelmed the defenders. Several Elves sacrificed themselves fighting Balrogs in the mountains to protect the escaping refugees.

February – Lake Mithrim

February depicts a beautiful pastel landscape, enhanced by a striking black-and-white border design. This is Lake Mithrim in the land of Hithlum; about its shores, the divided hosts of the Noldorin Elves made their encampments after their return to Middle-earth. Tolkien painted this watercolour in 1927, while holidaying in Lyme Regis, when he was mapping and visualising the geography of Beleriand – a region in northwestern Middle-earth that had largely sunk beneath the sea by the time of the Third Age. I particularly like the ornate geometric frame, which I think gives the image the feel of a medieval tapestry.

This month also features some of the heraldic devices that Tolkien designed to represent important characters and houses from The Silmarillion. In the top left, the flame motifs represent the passion and fiery spirit of Fëanor, creator of the three Silmarils – forged jewels that contained and preserved within them the blended light of the Two Trees of Valinor. Going in a clockwise direction, we see the symbolic emblem of Fingolfin, High King of the Noldor Elves; Hador, leader of one of the great Houses of Men, renowned for his loyalty and alliance with the Noldor; and Eärendil, a half-elf mariner who, through his sons Elros (first King of Númenor) and Elrond (Lord of Rivendell), is ancestor to both Aragorn and Arwen. It seems likely that these particular heraldic devices were chosen to sit alongside the illustration of Lake Mithrim because all four characters are associated with the larger region (Eärendil through his father, Tuor).

April – Heraldic Devices

April features an image depicting several more heraldic devices. Some appeared on the back of the 1974 calendar (two of them in slightly different forms), while four of them featured alongside Lake Mithrim in the month of February – but there are several new ones here, too. I don’t have time to go through them all (and, to be honest, I think we’ve covered enough emblems for now), but I will mention that Lúthien Tinúviel has two different devices, possibly indicating her central role in the story and her importance in Tolkien’s personal life. Both of her devices are distinct, though clearly related, since each has four arms radiating from a central flower. The emblem of Lúthien’s love, Beren, can also be seen here. It includes a Silmaril (indicating the one he stole from Morgoth) and a red hand, which is likely a reference to the hand that was torn off by the great wolf Carcharoth.

May – Nargothrond (I)

This unfinished watercolour shows the triple entrances to the great underground fortress known as Nargothrond. Founded by Finrod Felagund early in the First Age, Nargothrond was delved into the banks of the river Narog in western Beleriand. It became a major centre of Noldorin power in the region, sheltering many from Morgoth’s dark forces. Ultimately, however, Nargothrond fell when Túrin Turambar persuaded its people to abandon secrecy and fight openly, leading to its sack by the dragon Glaurung (which we’ll learn more about shortly).

June – Nargothrond (II)

This drawing is also of the underground fortress of Nargothrond and was probably created at around the same time (c. July 1928) as the one we’ve just looked at. The fortified doors leading into the Noldorin stronghold can be seen above the River Narog, though they are of a different design to the ones seen in Nargothrond (I). In later years, the Elves built a stone bridge across the river, which ultimately led to the downfall of their kingdom.

Whereas Nargothrond (I) was a watercolour painting, Nargothrond (II) was a pencil sketch that Tolkien never coloured in. A colourised version, created by H.E. Riddett, first appeared in the 1978 calendar, whereas the original drawing was published in Pictures by J.R.R. Tolkien in 1979.

July – Númenórean Tile and Textiles

Rather than the typical Tolkien landscape illustration, July features two textiles and a tile from the island kingdom of Númenor. In his seemingly ceaseless attempts at worldbuilding, Tolkien envisioned Númenor not just as a powerful maritime empire, but also as a highly sophisticated civilisation with its own architecture, shipbuilding styles, dress, and interior decoration. Christopher Tolkien imagined that the tile and two textiles would have been among such precious artefacts to be saved from the Downfall of Númenor in the ships of Elendil and his sons Isildur and Anárion, and then brought to Middle-earth, as is told in The Silmarillion. The tile was also used as the centrepiece on the back of the cover of The J.R.R. Tolkien Calendar 1974, surrounded by some of the heraldic devices already mentioned.

September – Tol Sirion

This image shows Minas Tirith, the watchtower of Finrod Felagund, on the island of Tol Sirion on the upper reaches of the River Sirion. The tower was built here due to its strategic position; its aim was to prevent the forces of Morgoth from invading Beleriand from the plains of Ard-galen. However, Sauron later captured Minas Tirith and turned it into a watchtower for Morgoth from which he spied all that passed through the vale. As Tol Sirion became accursed, it became known as Tol-in-Gaurhoth, the ‘Isle of Werewolves’.

October – Elvish Script

The three pages of Elvish script reproduced may have been published in The Silmarillion Calendar 1978, but in reality, they have no connection with The Silmarillion. The top script is the beginning of (a version of) a poem that Tolkien wrote called Errantry, which was originally unconnected with his legendarium. It’s not known why Tolkien wrote out the opening lines using the Elvish alphabet. The two scripts beneath Errantry are Elvish versions of the poem The Adventures of Tom Bombadil.

The Adventures of Tom Bombadil was first published in the Oxford Magazine in February 1934 and so predates The Hobbit. Originally, Tom Bombadil was not considered part of the legendarium that Tolkien was already creating. He later said that he put Tom in The Lord of the Rings because he had already ‘invented’ the character in this poem, and he wanted an ‘adventure’ along the way. Later, Tolkien explained that the hobbits had written The Adventures of Tom Bombadil, so he revised the poem (and others he had written) to better assimilate it into The Lord of the Rings.

November – Glaurung sets forth to seek Túrin

This striking painting, dated 1927, is probably my favourite new illustration from The Silmarillion Calendar 1978. It depicts a huge, smooth-skinned, wingless, segmented dragon, golden in hue with a green head, staring straight at the viewer, seemingly slithering across the border of the painting. It’s a very stylised image, and the colours are quite surreal, as seen in the blazing pink sun and the trees burnt orange on one side, presumably from the dragon’s breath.

The title is in Old English letters, which Tolkien frequently used in formal writing. At the time the painting was made, the name of the Father of Dragons in the Middle-earth legendarium was Glórund, though Tolkien would later rename him Glaurung. Although it seems like the dragon is emerging from its lair, the cave-like opening behind him is actually the entrance to Nargothrond, which we’ve seen twice already in this calendar. Interestingly, Nargothrond in this painting has only a single entrance, unlike the triple doors seen in Tolkien’s other art.

Tolkien first told the story of Túrin and Glórund in about 1919, where the dragon is described as a ‘great worm’ with scales of polished bronze and breath ‘a mingled fire and smoke’. In this painting, Glórund’s face also recalls ceremonial masks from Africa and Asia. In Tolkien’s tale, anyone who looked into the eyes of the dragon fell under his spell and was powerless to resist his will.

December – The Silmarillion Map

This map was created by Christopher Tolkien to accompany The Silmarillion and was coloured by H.E. Riddett. It depicts Beleriand, the great land of northwestern Middle-earth during the First Age, as seen in Tolkien’s earlier writings. By the end of the First Age, during the War of Wrath, Beleriand was almost entirely destroyed and sank beneath the sea, which is why it no longer appears in the maps seen in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

There is one more Tolkien calendar I intend to look at – the 1979 calendar, which was the final one to include original artwork by J.R.R. Tolkien.