Category: Art

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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Tolkien March Extended into April

… because I’ve been having that much fun, that’s why. Below, Saruman of the Many Colors, by Harold Jog. Known in some circles as “Saruman shows his Gay Pride.”

The Russian Hobbit, Part 6

I thought I was finished with this series, but there’s just too much good material, and a few book covers I overlooked. So let’s proceed. First of all, it occurred to me I never included pictures of non-Russian hobbits to serve as comparisons. So here’s the first ever, drawn by Tolkien. And isn’t it amazing …

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Valinor

Valinor was where the gods, or Valar, of Middle-Earth dwelt; it lay far over the western sea. In the age of The Silmarillion, there were comings and goings to it all the time (by the standards of elves that is) but by the LOTR, it was only a legend to mortals. This illustration by Michael …

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