Posted: December 10, 1999 at 06:16:00: by Martin Read
: : : Unfortunately, Jackson's hobbits are dressed in medieval
: : : clothing, and I guess we'll have to wait and see if they have
: : : clocks. In general I agree with Martin's comments, although
: : : the Guards of the Citadel should indeed have an Egyptian look
: : : and feel to their helms (they're wearing chainmail, so the
: : : Norman knight comparison, conceded by Tolkien, is acceptable
: : : in that respect).: : Big excision: : : The ancient Egyptians weren't very overt with their helmets.
: : Indeed, until the Hyksos invasion there is little evidence for
: : them at all. The only helmet much shown is the Blue or War
: : Crown of the king himself - which doesn't resemble those of the
: : Tower Guard in any real way. Most Egyptian helmets seem to
: : have been simple bronze skull-caps worn beneath their
: : traditional head-dress (hetef?) - the stripey cloth with stiff
: : folds. Other Egyptian helmets seem to be composite affairs
: : made of overlapping bronze scales attached to some sort of
: : underlying frame. : The helms for the Tower Guards were modelled on the Gondorian crown, which was modelled on the Egyptian crown. Well, that's somewhat debatable. The DISTINCTION of headress between the Northern and Southern Dunadan kingdoms was based, by Tolkien, on the crowns of Upper and Lower Eygpt. However, the forms of the two headresses of the Dunedain do not resemble the Egyptian crowns in any real sense (other than the fact that they fit on the head and the Southern crown is "lofty"). Both Dunadan royal headresses incorporate jewels, no jewels were found on either Egyptian crown (though in later periods gold snake and vulture heads were added). The Crown of Lower (Northern) Egypt (Red Crown) has a deep rim covering the whole depth of the head and has two considerable upward projections one to the front (curling) and one to the rear (straight), the Dunadan headress of Arnor is a mere fillet or diadem with a single large stone. The Southern Egyptian crown (White Crown)was made of stiffened linen or other such woven material - it was tall like the Gondorian crown but here the similarity ends. The Crown of Gondor was made of metal had prominent wings and was decorated with jewels - none of which rather important qualities are shared with the White Crown of Egypt. I would agree that Tolkien based his distinction between the royal insignia of the two Dunadan kingdoms on the different crowns of Egypt but he cerainly did not base the shapes of either on their respective forms in Egypt. If anything the shape of the Crown of Gondor (as depicted by one of Tolkien's sketches) is far more like that of the Papal Tiara than the White Crown of Egypt. Both lack wings of course, but at least the Tiara is conical like Tolkien's sketch not double curved and bulbous tipped like the White Crown.
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