From the Bookshelf of J.R.R. Tolkien…

The Art of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Wayne G. Hammond (Editor),

Christine Scull (Editor)

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Tolkien the Artist

New book 'The Art Of The Lord Of The Rings' released in October 2015
By Paul · 2 posts · 37 views

last updated May 06, 2015 02:34PM

The Art of the Hobbit
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last updated Aug 19, 2012 02:41PM

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What Members Thought

Oct 10, 2015 Andrew Higgins rated it it was amazing

Tolkien employed several world building components in the 'soup' of the secondary world he built for his life-long work on his legendarium. It is the specific craftsmanship and 'Elvish skill' of Tolkien's invention and development of each of these components that gives his secondary-world of Arda a much explored sense of 'depth' and 'verisimilitude' that has given Modern Fantasy an incredible work to explore and re-discover again and again. Each of these components (text, invented languages, par Tolkien employed several world building components in the 'soup' of the secondary world he built for his life-long work on his legendarium. It is the specific craftsmanship and 'Elvish skill' of Tolkien's invention and development of each of these components that gives his secondary-world of Arda a much explored sense of 'depth' and 'verisimilitude' that has given Modern Fantasy an incredible work to explore and re-discover again and again. Each of these components (text, invented languages, para-texts) have been and are the subjects of much exploration and more work is to be done on exploring how these components work as a dialectic whole which has created an immersive secondary world that has been the blueprint and inspiration for Modern Fantasy literature. Thanks to the brilliant work of Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull Tolkien scholarship has been given three incredible resources that show how important a part the visual played in Tolkien's world-building. First in 1995 with J.R.R. Tolkien: Artist and Illustrator (London: HarperCollins) and then in 2011 with The Art of the Hobbit (also from London: HarperCollins). To this is now added this brilliant volume which offers many of the drawings and illustrations that Tolkien sketched as he was writing The Lord of the Rings. I highly recommend this beautifully constructed volume which follows the narrative of The Lord of the Rings and offers the pictures, illustrations, and (most importantly and interestingly for this reviewer) maps that Tolkien sketched out as his 'tale grew in the telling' and exhibits the focus and detail Tolkien put into the geography of his expanding world. As a Tolkien linguist I was especially interested in seeing sketches of texts that shows Tolkien's use of his nexus of invented languages - such as in the brilliant drafts of The Ring Inscription and Tolkien's attempt (in the style of the new Romancer H Rider Haggard) of creating the distressed and bloodied pages of The Book of Mazarbul that the Fellowship finds in Moria (which sadly was not reproduced in the original volumes). Seeing some of the original pages (and various versions of Tolkien's always interesting handwriting) was also very exciting. Given the visual was a key way Tolkien conceived and played out his mythology (sometimes using the visual to work out ideas) this volume is an important part of Tolkien scholarship and one that I will be referring to again and again (I am currently working through the three versions of The King's Letter Hammond and Scull provide in Tengwar). I applaud Wayne Hammond and Christine Scull for their excellent work on another volume that offers much exploration and study. ...more

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Jul 29, 2021 Keith rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Stars: 4

This book is great for LOTR fans (specifically of the books, I don't think fans of the movies alone would get a lot from it), but may be of minor interest only if you don't appreciate the LOTR. Calling this artwork is misleading, because much of it clearly wasn't intended to be artwork and was closer to sketches (often very rough sketches) to help Tolkien visualize what he was writing. I still think the book is very good, but people should look up a few of the pictures from the book onli Stars: 4

This book is great for LOTR fans (specifically of the books, I don't think fans of the movies alone would get a lot from it), but may be of minor interest only if you don't appreciate the LOTR. Calling this artwork is misleading, because much of it clearly wasn't intended to be artwork and was closer to sketches (often very rough sketches) to help Tolkien visualize what he was writing. I still think the book is very good, but people should look up a few of the pictures from the book online before buying it so they know what they are getting.

The book fluctuated between being awesome and I was scrutinizing every map to inconsequential and tedious at times. Luckily, they didn't bog done the book with too much writing. They gave enough information to explain what you were looking at and a decent amount of the thought process behind it. I would start to lose interest when they'd be describing how in this map, this river got moved 2 cm to the east and now this area is in the northwest of Mordor and stuff like that. Sometimes it would be interesting, but there is a limit to how much I want to hear about minute changes in the geography. You can always speed read or skip those sections if you don't like them though.

Some of the artwork was very good, and almost all of it was interesting. There were occasionally pictures included that I didn't think were worthy of inclusion, such as one where it was the first time Tolkien had drawn a certain mountain, but it was a tiny little sketch that had like two lines drawn. It'd be something a three year old would draw if you said draw a mountain.

My favorite was reading and seeing what went into the original dust jackets. I think those were the most informative, and they have way deeper meaning than I ever gave them credit for. I've seen them plenty of time but just appreciated that they looked nice. Turns out there is a ton of symbolism that I never bothered thinking about. I'll use the Two Towers as an example.

I always assumed the two towers being referenced were Orthanc and Barad-Dur, but they are actually Orthanc and Minas Morgul. Orthanc is the more obvious of the two since the Hand of Saruman is beneath it. More subtly, the key to Orthanc is pictured on the tower. Minas Morgul makes a whole lot more sense than Barad-Dur once you find out that's what it is. There are nine rings on the tower, symbolizing the nine rings of the Nazgul. The biggest ring is for the witch-king of Angmar. Before becoming Minas Morgul, it was a Gondorian fort named Minas Ithil, meaning Tower of the Moon. It was white. The tower on the cover is white, and has a moon above it. Beneath it, the moon is being eclipsed., symbolizing the enemy occupation. Not all of the explanations are that in depth or enlightening, but some are.

Any serious or semi-serious fan of the LOTR books would likely be pretty fascinated by seeing the places from the books drawn by Tolkien himself.

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