HOME | DD
TurnerMohan — The Heir Of Durin
#azog #durin #dwarves #thorin #tolkien #thror #lordoftherings
Published: 2015-06-10 09:02:13 +0000 UTC; Views: 18278; Favourites: 319; Downloads: 125
Redirect to original
Description
the third in a series of ten illustrations I'm doing for an italian-language audiobook of the "Durin's Folk" section of the Lord of the Rings appendices. the tape runs roughly half an hour, so each drawing will play onscreen for about three minutes, quite a chunk of story to have to account for in each image.the murder and desecration of the heir of durin by the orcs of moria is a tragic and pivotal moment in the history of the dwarves, and one which had great consequences. durin's folk were already a wounded and desperate people at this point, having been deposed from their home by smaug, and the terrible fate which befalls their king seems the spark that finally ignites the powder keg; their war for vengeance which follows is one of the ugliest and most grimly recounted events in all of tolkien's writing.
here we have Nar, Thror's traveling companion and the only eye witness to the horrific event, bent in grief over his lord's body, which lies broken and bloody from torture. the king's head, detatched and mutilated, sits slumped nearby, his killer's name carved brutally into his once kingly forehead. I was tempted at first to pull back and depict the gaping door of moria and the dimrill dale below, but staying tight in on the tragedy, horror, and terrible insult seemed the way to go. besides, we'll be getting a good enough look at the valley and the owner of the voice in the doorway farther down the road
more to follow.
Related content
Comments: 30
Geez this is amazing. Makes me wish that Tolkien's heirs would greenlight an attempt at working on the Silmarillion...not something as weirdly done as the Hobbit trilogy, mind, but perhaps something animated that focuses more on accuracy rather than screen time. I'd love to be able to see the tale of Durin's Folk in full, perhaps someday it will happen.
👍: 1 ⏩: 0
I wonder what happened to the old retainer who returned to the Blue Hills with the tale of King Thror's end?
One would like to think that he was there at the fateful Battle of the Burned Dwarves* to ram that blood money down what's left of the defiler's throat In Person (although it is interesting to wonder if Thorin or Lord Thrain would permit any other to perform that somewhat-brutal act of filial piety).
*(Not the right name, but I fear one cannot spell the proper name off the top of my head!)
👍: 1 ⏩: 1
Nothing further is said of Nar, whose role had pretty much been played out. He was an aged Dwarf, so no one would have expected him to wield an axe. I would expect his role in the war would have been to remind the others why they fought, and why it was necessary to take Azog's head in return for Thror.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Very true; I wonder if he did so via public speaking or simply by his very visible presence as part of Lord Thrain's retinue?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
A little bit of both, I would say.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Magnificently heart-breaking Master Mohan; seeing this image makes your previous image of Thrain reaching his fateful resolution seem positively mild-mannered when one considers the fury beating at the heart of any son who has not merely lost his father but been obliged to hear of his body being outraged in such a fashion and then subjected to still greater insults.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Such a tragic scene and so beautifully drawn nevertheless. 
Uhm, doesn't seem right to say - upon gazing at this particular picture - that I am looking forward to the other pieces ...
Ps.: I don't know - in the hatching of the background, there seems to be a rather straight line hovering over Thror's left ear, which is a bit irritating?
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
yes that was from the scan (this piece was done pretty large and so i had to use a roll-through scanner) and unfortunately I'm not good enough with photoshop as of yet to know how to fix it
thank you for the nice comment, i'm glad you agree with the decision to keep the background vague.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Beautifully done and very, very disturbing. *shudder*
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Another scene with great emotional power and posing from you, which resonates a great deal with the viewer. It's the emotional climax to the sad finish of a Dwarf who had been King Under The Mountain, and whose life had begun in a gold-filled kingdom in the Grey Mountains. This scene is the utter nadir of the fortunes of Durin's Folk, the casual murder of their lord and exiled king. There is another Kurosawa parallel here too, in the Ran mode. Undone by tragedy like the ex-daimyo, Thror's last lucid thought is to give his son a ring and a message. Then he takes one old retainer (more of a friend than a servant) and wanders off to Khazad-dum, for reasons only he might know. And then in the ancestral home of his people, he finds no treasure but death, dishonor, and insult, from a jumped up Orc warlord to boot. (The purse of small change, like the necklace of dragon's teeth, is a period insult with a nice bite.) The pain goes all the way through Nar's heart, as you show here. From him it will go to all the Dwarves of the Longbeards, and their allies as well. The modern first world view of conflict resolution, posturing non-violence, and moral relativism does not exist. Lost kingdom or not, dragon or not, the Longbeards must avenge this crime and shame upon their collective honor. What follows is a blood feud at the level of a war, fought to the bitter end to ram home the message that even at their worst level the Dwarves are not to be so casually treated!
As a mild corrective to the illustration I will note that Azog had the name branded onto Thror's forehead, just to make sure Nar and anyone else could read it! I suppose you didn't want to mar Thror's face in its final dignity and peace more than you had to.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
as per the usual you read my mind (maybe that's because i have a tendency to write it
yes, I think it's not only the death of thror but the fact that he's killed like a wandering vagabond by an orc (of all lowly things) that riles the dwarves the way it does. it's this final, horrible indicator of how low they've sunk and how fast, only a few years earlier this was the king under the mountain and the descendent of durin, who is basically this religious figure to them; he drank from golden chalices and presided over a prosperous people, and now their home and treasure, the sum of generations of hard, skilled work and much pride, is taken from them by essentially this force of nature, they're forced to wander and make shit deals with men for their survival, and their king, wandering off presumably to find good fortune for them (i like to think that perhaps thror is not the first king of durin's line to have done so in hard times, and is perhaps even operating somewhat in the fulfillment of tradition in his lone, kingly wandering; it seems so abrahamic and in keeping with the dwarven way) is killed by some self proclaimed orc-king, in the dwarves' sacred ancestral home no less (from which they were driven by another insurmountable enemy) it brings home for the dwarves how much they've lost, even reopening the old wound of moria, and it seems like their retaliation, as much as it is about exacting revenge on their king's killer, is in part driven by wounded pride and a need to reassert themselves in the world (the dwarves, especially those of durin's line, undoubtably reckon themselves as the "chosen people" in middle-earth)
i can't imagine azog really knew what he was doing or intended to start a war that would get him and so many of his people killed. he probably just tortured and killed thror and sent his companion off weeping because he thought it was fun, did he even know (or, if he was told, believe) who thror was?
oh the name's there, right on the forehead; i drew the letters dark instead of the raised white you'd expect from a branding because in the first few days after a bad burn the burned area is a scabbed-over wound.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
For the brand I always thought it was done following Thror's death, with the marking being as dark and ugly as if it had been seared into wood with an iron hot enough to mark steers. Probably no very realistic, but that was the image associated with the burning imagery (sic). I don't think Azog knew or cared about Thror's rank. Word of the Dwarves being evicted from Erebor doubtless had gone before Durin' Folk, so Azog combined a warning and a cruel jest without much thought of consequences. It goes well enough in comparison with the thoughtless actions that caused the feuds so carefully detailed in the Norse and Icelandic sagas. Along with the grief of the Dwarves the murder of Thror is also a lesson on the moral skewing of the Orcs. Compassion and her children hospitality and charity are unknown to the Orcs, and so an unwanted war is fought to avenge a great wrong. Along with loyalty to one's lord/tribe and loyalty to one's family/clan, hospitality and guest-right extended to the peaceful traveler was a cornerstone virtue of pre-Christian Europe, and woe to the lord who did not honor it! So Tolkien makes a sad lesson of the tragic consequences of bad behavior.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Awesome drawing. Very simple, yet very good. I like especially how Thror's head looks so noble and kingly, even detached from his shoulder, though it may have been more horrifying if he looked a little more hideous.
Considering that the goblin's weaponry was my favourite I can't wait to see Azog clad in mail and with his helmet and scimitar.
#wanttocommentmore #fuckthedamnthesis
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
thanks! i didn't want to send the image into zombie-territory by having him all slashed up, although that's probably closer to how i imagine it in my mind's eye. this is comparatively reserved, and yes, retaining thror's regal countenance even though dead and decapitated was on my mind while drawing this.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
Well, the gore came later when Nar looked back once to see Azog's guards carving the corpse into crow snacks. It was quite alright to skip that part and focus on the moment of Nar's heartbreak and fears made horribly real.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
Amazing and sad drawing. One does know rightaway which moment is depicted here!
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
wow wish I could draw like that. Awesome, the boots are very well done I'm impressed.
👍: 0 ⏩: 0
I always found this such a powerful episode, not to mention Thrain's response. It was unfortunate (in my opinion) that it was altered in the recent movie; didn't have quite the same effect.
lovely piece of drawing,btw.
👍: 0 ⏩: 1
thanks, and i agree, thror getting killed on the battlefield doesnt really have the same terrible impact as what happens to him in the book, which much better explains the heirs of durins' burning hatred for azog and his line (a thing which, ironically, was itself quite ramped up in the hobbit films)
👍: 0 ⏩: 0