Tolkien Etchings

Etching 12 x 9 inches

This is the final version of my etching of Eowyn, with Merry looking on, confronting the Ringwraith, Lord of the Nazgul, The Witch King of Angmar in the midst of the battle of the Pellenor Fields from J.R.R.Tolkien’s, The Lord of the Rings.

I feel that I captured the nightmarish feeling of this scene, of being face to face with the second most powerful malevolent being in Middle Earth. And also the thing that was most important to me, and most appropriate to capture in an etching, that the Lord of the Nazgul, on his winged beast, was as “a great shadow descending like a falling cloud”. This along with Eowyn’s tremendous courage in standing erect in defiance, and her long blond hair showing very clearly that she was not a man, where some of the elements that inspired me in this most powerful scene.

Also there are some important details in this piece that I felt it very important, and exciting, to represent, (and that, I have to say, are often missing or altered in other depictions) .  One is that the winged beast has a beak, (as I mentioned elsewhere).  And also, something that I found very striking in the Witch King’s description, the fact that between his crown and robe there was nothing to be seen except,”a deadly gleam of eyes”.