HOME | DD

Description
I thought I'd try some elven armor after my recent pen-and-marker work on the dwarves and men of numenor; consider this another entry in some huge middle-earth historic costume catalogue (a project which, god help me, I seem to be more or less actively engaging at this point)

In addition to Tolkien's descriptions of tall, pointed helmets, the elves are always remarked to wear very fine maille, form-fitting, light and (of course) unexpectedly strong. really most of tolkien's descriptions of armor (barring a rare curiosity like the numenorean "karma" helmet) seem to be typically dark age/vikingish maille shirts and conical sprangenhelms, and I thought it'd be worth trying with the elves (especially those of the Eldar Days) to ignore all impulses toward more elaborate high-fantasy design and just take him close at his word. Ecthelion's corslet here is of scales rather than chain, and the collar is higher than you'd see on a dark-age shirt, but other than that "cut" of it is pretty much in the historic cannon. as always with the elves i wanted to give them a sort of superhuman elegance of lines and forms, despite the archaic look of their raiment. they're like vikings but not, and i imagine (or would like to imagine) that when the vikings themselves spun their stories of the great, tall, immortal "Alfir" maybe this is something like what they would have had in mind.

This piece started as simply an anonymous "costume plate" for the kind of armor commonly worn by the first age noldor, but I had extra room on the page to do a second figure, and I thought it was high time for the two great balrog-slayers of antiquity (a very rare distinction, unprecedented even, depending on the text you're going from) to get their own picture. Glorfindel and Ecthelion interest me because, for one, unlike almost all other named noldorian characters in the silmarillion, they are not members of the house of Finwe; they're not royals (it don't run in their blood ) rather, they are Turgon's guards and loyal retainers, and seem to share this profound connection with one another; they are often mentioned as a unit, they escorted Aredhel (unsuccessfully) together, and they each killed (and were killed in turn by) a balrog on the same day (again, a feat which, depending on what source you go on, seems had never been accomplished by anyone - not even feanor, fingolfin or fingon - up to that point) I like to think of them as classical "greek companions" like Achilles and Patrocolus or Alexander and Hephaestean; close, devoted friends or possibly even lovers (there seem to be several iterations of this in tolkien's writing, Meadhros and Fingon, Merry and Pippin, and Frodo and Sam all share elements of it) they compete to bring out the best in each other, even up to the very end, where Glorfindel, in sacrificing himself to save the refugees of gondolin an take out this timeless, near-insurmountably powerful servant of evil, will get to meet his friend in the Halls of Mandos, having matched his matchless deed.

I don't know why but while working on this it occurred to me to give them pointed shoes, it's fun to think that, after all the names of the great elven kings and heroes and cities had been long forgotten by men, this one incidental detail of their garmentry (possibly even one limited to the noldor of gondolin) would survive in nursery rhymes well into the fourth age and beyond.

Description
I thought I'd try some elven armor after my recent pen-and-marker work on the dwarves and men of numenor; consider this another entry in some huge middle-earth historic costume catalogue (a project which, god help me, I seem to be more or less actively engaging at this point)

In addition to Tolkien's descriptions of tall, pointed helmets, the elves are always remarked to wear very fine maille, form-fitting, light and (of course) unexpectedly strong. really most of tolkien's descriptions of armor (barring a rare curiosity like the numenorean "karma" helmet) seem to be typically dark age/vikingish maille shirts and conical sprangenhelms, and I thought it'd be worth trying with the elves (especially those of the Eldar Days) to ignore all impulses toward more elaborate high-fantasy design and just take him close at his word. Ecthelion's corslet here is of scales rather than chain, and the collar is higher than you'd see on a dark-age shirt, but other than that "cut" of it is pretty much in the historic cannon. as always with the elves i wanted to give them a sort of superhuman elegance of lines and forms, despite the archaic look of their raiment. they're like vikings but not, and i imagine (or would like to imagine) that when the vikings themselves spun their stories of the great, tall, immortal "Alfir" maybe this is something like what they would have had in mind.

This piece started as simply an anonymous "costume plate" for the kind of armor commonly worn by the first age noldor, but I had extra room on the page to do a second figure, and I thought it was high time for the two great balrog-slayers of antiquity (a very rare distinction, unprecedented even, depending on the text you're going from) to get their own picture. Glorfindel and Ecthelion interest me because, for one, unlike almost all other named noldorian characters in the silmarillion, they are not members of the house of Finwe; they're not royals (it don't run in their blood ) rather, they are Turgon's guards and loyal retainers, and seem to share this profound connection with one another; they are often mentioned as a unit, they escorted Aredhel (unsuccessfully) together, and they each killed (and were killed in turn by) a balrog on the same day (again, a feat which, depending on what source you go on, seems had never been accomplished by anyone - not even feanor, fingolfin or fingon - up to that point) I like to think of them as classical "greek companions" like Achilles and Patrocolus or Alexander and Hephaestean; close, devoted friends or possibly even lovers (there seem to be several iterations of this in tolkien's writing, Meadhros and Fingon, Merry and Pippin, and Frodo and Sam all share elements of it) they compete to bring out the best in each other, even up to the very end, where Glorfindel, in sacrificing himself to save the refugees of gondolin an take out this timeless, near-insurmountably powerful servant of evil, will get to meet his friend in the Halls of Mandos, having matched his matchless deed.

I don't know why but while working on this it occurred to me to give them pointed shoes, it's fun to think that, after all the names of the great elven kings and heroes and cities had been long forgotten by men, this one incidental detail of their garmentry (possibly even one limited to the noldor of gondolin) would survive in nursery rhymes well into the fourth age and beyond.