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“I therefore set myself a task of plotting the journey on a larger scale and maybe doing a few sketches as I imagined the landscapes and locations in Middle Earth.”
Where were they now? I’m sure that some are still around even after 45 years.
So the other day I went off up into my ‘mathom’ attic in search of my old notes and sketches. Well, some good news and some bad news - the maps and notes were still there, but nearly all the early sketches had been thrown away during my last house move. In truth I don’t know why I kept some bits and not others.
But what is done, is done.
It must have been on my second, or third readings of the Hobbit and LotR that I started taking notes as I went. I only did this up to the final destruction of the Ring, as there weren’t any (?) new locations on the return journey to Hobbiton.
The maps/notes were drawn in pencil on, well over, a hundred A4 sheets.
I always use pencil as things can be easily changed as new facts come to light.
It is not my intention here to show all of these scribbles,
but as Doohie enquired.......
“ If you were to paint Rivendell today, would you still have the same vision or would it be completely different?”
……. I thought I would share my notes on how I arrived at the picture in the header at the top of the blog.
My Rivendell notes are on sheet 28, shown below.
(Click on pictures to enlarge.)
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| Bernard's notes - Sheet 28 |
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The notes, (taken from Tolkien’s text.) are -
“They saw a valley far below ….could hear running water…scent of trees,
Saw a light across the other side.
Down a steep zig-zag path through pine trees…..changed to beech and oak lower down.
Open glade above the banks of the stream……narrow stone bridge with no parapet…..as narrow as a pony could walk on, led one by one.”
That red 'eye' symbol at the bottom of my sketch, represents my ‘minds eye’ as this was the viewpoint for my painting.
I think, therefore that my answer to Doohie would be, that I would probably stick with my imagination as it was all those years ago and not be influenced by others.
The recent films are excellent and I am not one to go ‘nit-picking’, although there are very many deviations from the scenes as Tolkien describes them.
Tolkien himself produced quite a few drawings. This first one shows the Last Homely House on the opposite bank to the later two. This might have been his first vision.
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| Tolkien's Rivendell (1) |
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It looks as if he started this and then changed his mind.
Here is a later version.
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| Tolkien's Rivendell (2) |
And here’s what appears to be his final picture.
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| Tolkien's Rivendell (3) |
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I notice he tried different styles of bridge in each of the three and not many Beech and Oak trees in any.
But who cares. He has given us a delightful Silver Birch instead.
In the bottom left of my sheet 28 (above), there are some notes about the lands surrounding Rivendell.
I found these descriptions useful when I painted ’The Flight to the Ford’.
“There appeared to be no trees, valleys or hills…..it was like one vast slope going slowly up.
The colour of heather and crumbling rock with patches of green….grass green and moss green where water might be…..Unexpected valleys, narrow with steep sides….trees in the bottom and running water….deep gullies with waterfalls in them.
There were dark ravines….and bogs, green and pleasant with bright flowers”
Upstairs in the attic I did manage to find a photo of another early painting I did, of the Ford of Bruinen.
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| Bernard's - Flight to the Ford |
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Here Tolkien tells us -
“Tall Pines….deep cutting….steep sides…..red stone.
Ford….brown bank….winding path…tall mountains in the distance.”
And my old picture -
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| "Ride forward ! Ride !" cried Glorfindel to Frodo. "noro lim, noro lim, Asfaloth !" |
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With a little extra ‘framing’ from my ‘photo software‘.
You will probably notice that I only paint landscapes. The reason being, I am hopeless at painting figures, whether Hobbits, Elves or Big People, and especially things like horses.
Going back to Bree, I noticed I did this page of notes (below).
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| Bernard's notes - page 25 - Bree |
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Somehow I never got round to doing a painting of the Prancing Pony, although I do remember doing one of the lines of tall trees on the East Road at the Greenway crossing at sunset.
Bad news - I can’t find it.
I did however find one, deep down in the dark of Moria.
Complete with a Balrog!
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