Tolkien Etchings

The Balrog has always been to me the most powerful creation of J.R.R.Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings and the Silmarillion, and his introduction, (in a tie with Eowyn battling the Lord of the Nazgul), the most powerful scene. I have, through the years, made many sketches of how I envisioned him. Above are a few of these. The bottom one drawing is the one I eventually made the final etching off. It is drawn in reverse, with the sword in his left hand, and the whip in his right. This is because an etching prints the reverse of how it was drawn on to the plate, so the sketches must be backwards to come out the right way in the print.

It took three tries, before I got the etching the way I wanted it. This image is the second.

I must say that, although I like Peter Jackson’s movie — it is excellent in many ways, his Balrog, though powerful, bothers me in two respects. One of the most dominant elements in Tolkien’s description, fire coming from his nostrils, is completely absent. And, second, the fact that the sort of African buffalo horns, which are purely his own (through his artist’s) invention, are unquestionably the dominant element. I mean no offense, but I’m much more interested in Tolkien’s Balrog, than Jackson’s. And, though, of course there can be a great range of interpretation within the description, it is a matter of emphasis. Does one emphasize ones own additions to a description, or the element’s Tolkien emphasized.

And, certainly, I am not saying my version is definitive.