In my etching, “Luthien and Morgoth”, for my suite based on the writing of J.R.R.Tolkien, the scene is lit only by the Silmarills in Morgoth’s crown. I was excited by the chance that this gave me to use a baroque device which involves having roughly one half of an image lit, and well defined, and the other, while appearing almost uniformly dark, actually containing, subtle detail. Contrasting Luthien, the most beautiful child of Iluvatar, with the most powerfully malevolent, Morgoth, deep in Thangorodrim was also interesting to me — a kind of beauty and the beast.
I frequently use goggle images for source material for the various elements in my etchings. In this case I punched in super models, and after looking at dozens found Christy Turlington. Her facial structure came the closest to the rather particular vision of ideal beauty in my head than anyone else I found. Morgoth came entirely from my own head, which may tell you more about myself than I might wish you to know.
In my etching of Feanor battling the balrogs, from J.R.R.Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, I show this great Elf in just one of his personae. Although he eventual died from his wounds, that he could battle to a draw several balrogs at once is testament to his great prowess as a warrior.That created the silmarils makes him also a genius artisan, and one of the greatest of all the elves, almost godlike, at least in my imagination.It’s a pity Feanor lived such a short life (for an Elf), he was such a complex, dynamic, exciting character he could have inspired many great tales. When I first read The Lord of the Rings, I didn’t even know who he was, yet it gave me goose bumps when Gandalf said he wished he could look into a palintir and see, “the unimaginable hand and mind of Feanor at their work”.
Though women play a relatively small part in J.R.R. Tolkien’s mythology, in the etching, “Luthien, Beren and Morgoth”, I address one of the greatest acts of heroism of man, woman, Elf, Dwarf or Hobbit, in all his tales. Though Beren does cut the Silmaril from Morgoth’s crown, it is primarily Luthien’s astonishing courage and abilities that fulfill this quest.
What struck me the most in this scene was the wonderful way that Luthien employed her great beauty as a weapon against Morgoth, turning the tables on him while he is contemplating some perversion against her. And, also, the way that her singing mesmerized him was strange and magical. I was interested in giving a visual representation of this song, and also in capturing Morgoth’s dark sinister lair.
This is the passage from The Silmarillion that inspired this etching:
“Then Beren and Luthien went through the Gate, and down the labyrinthine stairs; and together wrought the greatest dead that has been dared by elves or men. For they came to the seat of Morgoth in his nethermost hall, that was upheld by horror, lit by fire, and filled with weapons of death and torment. There Beren slunk in wolf’s form beneath his thrown; but Luthien was stripped of her disguise by the will of Morgoth, and he bent his gaze upon her. ….. Then suddenly she eluded his sight, and out of the shadows began a song of such surpassing loveliness, and of such blinding power, that he listened perforce; and a blindness came upon him, as his eyes roamed to and fro, seeking her.
….. the Silmarils in the crown on Morgoth’s head blazed forth suddenly with a radiance of white flame; and the burden of that crown and of the jewels bowed down his head, as though the world were set upon it, laden with a weight of care, of fear and of desire, that even the will of Morgoth could not support.”
In my etching of Elbereth, as with Iluvatar and the other beings in The Silmarillion dating from the very early history of Tolkien’s Universe, I used a somewhat less representative, more symbolic artistic style. The Valar with their godlike powers, are of necessity a bit more nebulous than Elves, or Men or other races.
Elbereth, to me, is one of Tolkien’s most inspiring creations, and one of my favorites. She is very pure — the most beautiful being who ever existed — yet completely aware of, and potent in her ability to battle evil. She is one of the most powerful “forces” for good beneath the surface of Middle Earth, being the muse of the Elves in their creative efforts, and a source of strength and courage in their most dire situations. I found it absolutely exhilarating in The Lord of the Rings the way Tolkien connected the most ancient times, with the Third Age, by having Sam call on Elbereth to ignite the Phial of Galadriel when Frodo and he needed it most.
In this etching I decided to represent Elbereth not only with the stars, but also with some of the other elements of the heavens that she must also have created. My model for her face was Ava Gardner, the beautiful old time movie star, and for her body, I used the Winged Nike of Samothrace, which is, of course, one of the most beautiful ladies in our universe.
Giving visual representation to the convoluted thinking of resentment and hatred that brought about Melkor’s descent into the total depravity of Morgoth, and spawned all of Middle Earth’s monsters, was the inspiration for this etching from J.R.R.Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. At the beginning of the book I sympathised with Melkor, and felt Iluvatar was being too inflexible. His only crime initially was that of originality, and as an artist I have some difficulty with this. Ultimately, of course, he became completely irredeemable.
Stylistically this print is more abstracted and emblematic than most in this suite. This is because of the fact that , although Tolkien represents them as real, the Valar (of which Melkor was originally the most powerful), and some of the other Ainur, also fulfill the role of mythological characters. Manwe is associated with the air and clouds; Varda with the heavens; Ulmo with the waters, etcetera. I greatly enjoy that this gives these etchings a freedom one doesn’t have in straightforward illustration. At the same time they still integrate well with my more realistic pieces.
In the etching “The Demise of Gil-galad”, I was interested in giving the sense that the Elf King’s “spirit” was leaving his body, and in the strange fact that Sauron’s “black yet burning” hand is what killed him. This scene has a very strong tragic/romantic quality, with Gil-galad, the last of the Elven Kings in Middle Earth, and Elendil, King of the Numenoreans battling and succumbing to Sauron on the slope of Mount Doom in Mordor. In The Lord of the Rings this event is given as a tantalizing glimps into the remote past by Elrond in his speech to the Council in Rivendell. It is one of Tolkien’s beautiful details that helps give his work its great depth.
This is the first etching I created for this series. It’s been in my mind for a long time, and I made a drawing of it about ten years ago.