Middle-earth Journeys

Lindariel, thank you! Of course it's the Star of Elendil which had completely skipped my memory. The Elendilmir has a very complex history laid out in 'The Disaster of the Gladden Fields' in The Unfinished Tales, something about there being two, the original which was lost - and which is later discovered by Aragorn in Orthanc after his Coronation - and a lesser gem which is the one he inherits and wears in LotR. I'll have to read it all again as it's confusing.

Sounds to me there is an essay there somewhere on signs and tokens of kingship....

Iolanthe wrote:Sounds to me there is an essay there somewhere on signs and tokens of kingship....

Interesting idea and topic. I'm all ears.

First pass...


Click on image to enlarge.

© Riv Res

Riv, this is absolutely beautiful - your best yet. I LOVE it!!


The colours are wonderfully evocative and the lighted Elvish windows are brilliant. The pine cones are gorgeous - they put me in mind of the ones we collected at the foot of Tolkien's favourite tree in the Oxford Botanical Gardens - so there is a reference here to his real life as well as his work! The trees are great, the sky . . . if it were mine, I wouldn't change a thing!!

Just lovely Riv! I love the autumnal feel of the painting, evoking the late September weather in which the hobbits set out on their journey.

Just one quick little correction to the text. In the final line, "can not" should be "cannot." I double-checked it in my gorgeous special edition of LOTR (with the 50 fabulous Alan Lee paintings) released by Houghton Mifflin in celebration of The Professor's birth.

Lindariel wrote:Just one quick little correction to the text. In the final line, "can not" should be "cannot." I double-checked it in my gorgeous special edition of LOTR (with the 50 fabulous Alan Lee paintings) released by Houghton Mifflin in celebration of The Professor's birth.

LOL...you're correct!! He always does it that way and I do not.

I love it too Riv, it really fits the atmosphere of the poem! I agree with mabreterese, the pine cones are particularly well done, I could pick them off the page .

Next one...

First pass...


Click on image to enlarge.

© Riv Res

RR, I agree that Rivendell is your best one yet--not surprising for Riv Res! And I love the last one, too. That poem is so evocative, and the simplicity of your art matches it well.

Isn't this great?!!

I'm a bit late catching up here and missed that we had a new Riv Res! Very nice Riv . I think you are getting a surer and surer hand the more you do! I have to know - what's the plant around the door?

Iolanthe wrote:I have to know - what's the plant around the door?

Those are buttercups around the window.

Iolanthe wrote: I think you are getting a surer and surer hand the more you do!

I agree - Riv, you are becoming more and more adept. These latest ones are in a class of their own!

Thanks so much ladies. It is encouraging that some progress is noted.

Very, very nice, Riv! After being so moved by Billy Boyd's haunting rendition of portions of this poem as a song for Denethor in Minas Tirith, it is interesting to see it again in its full form and returned to its original context.

My . . . that bed looks inviting!

Lindariel wrote:Very, very nice, Riv! After being so moved by Billy Boyd's haunting rendition of portions of this poem as a song for Denethor in Minas Tirith, it is interesting to see it again in its full form and returned to its original context.

Very true Lindariel! I can't read that poem without hearing Billy Boyd singing it!

I like the little peek inside the hobbit hole (I assume that's what it is?), and I like the yellow of the buttercups mixed in with the greens. Bravo Riv! Now where's the front door?