Tolkien Etchings

Etching

12 x9 inches

For my etching titled Gandalf the Mastermind 2nd state, I added in the middle of the background the One Ring, and, going clockwise from the upper left, The Grey Havens, Hobbiton, Rivendale, Lothlorien, Rohan, Minas Tirith, and finally Mordor, which where some of the important places in The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R.Tolkien, visited by the heroes on their quest to save Middle Earth from the Dark Lord Sauron. These immages where added to the same copper etching plate from which the original Gandalf the mastermind was printed.

I had in mind to do something that would indicate how Gandalf was contemplating the entire strategic situation in Middle Earth, and thus to show what made him a mastermind. I considered different approaches, such as showing the most important characters, like Frodo, Aragorn, Sauron, Elrond, Saruman and Galadriel, or simbols, like the Three Rings, The Winged Crown of Gondor, Barehir’s Ring and so forth. Finally, I went with the important locations because it showed the path of the quest, and I even drew a tiny road passing through the Ring, the significance of which is obvious.