Category: Art

Narnia French Editions, 1973

Last year I posted these two interesting French editions of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian from the early 1950s. Back then foreign publishers, once they acquired the rights, usually had their own artists create the covers, likely because it was too much bother to ship over the original artwork and …

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Jadis and Her Sleigh, Part 1

Without bells, remember. It’s one of the most iconic images from the first book and also iconic to the Snow Queen story, which inspired Lewis to include it in the first place. Most artists don’t stray too far from the text. There’s a dwarf, at least two reindeer, and a luxurious sleigh which includes furs …

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Narnia Church Sculptures at St. Mary’s

This is a bit of old news, but in 2020 fifteen sculptures were created and then consecrated to decorate the interior of St. Mary’s Church in Beverley, Yorkshire in England. Before being hoisted into the clerestory, they were displayed at ground level so churchgoers could see them up close. Visit the church’s site for more …

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Dungies and Dragons

I saw someone wearing a tshirt with this design and thought it was hilarious! The “dungie” refers to the Dungeness crab at the lower left, which are renowned as a delicacy in the Pacific Northwest. The artist’s name is Ray Troll. He’s a native Alaskan known for his unique style and scientific accuracy of the …

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A Few Substandard Hobbits

Slavic nations certainly had some unusual Hobbits, but what of the rest of Europe? Let’s see. This underground comix- inspired Bilbo is tied with this one as the most horrible Hobbit depiction of all time. It’s a J’ai Lu publication, which is par for the course. Is he fighting a troll? An aardvark? Who knows. …

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A Middle-earth Music Festival

I wonder if the promoters got permission from the Tolkien Estate for this?

Beren and Luthien, Egyptian Style

One of the First Age tales in The Silmarillion is how Luthien, an elf, falls in love with Beren, who is human, and aids him in his quest to recover the three Silmaril jewels from Morgoth. This part of The Sil has a more fairy tale flavor than the rest of the book, involving overt …

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Smaug the not so great and often terrible.

Today comes one the crueler parts of Tolkien March/April — mocking Smaug! Of The Hobbit fame. He’s been depicted many times over the years, and in my judgement most of the artwork has been appropriate for the story and, in many cases, superlative. But many renditions fall short in depicting the giant reptile’s majesty and …

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