The White Council

Re: Tolkien's Pictures

Tolkien and Inklings Discussion

: I've been puzzled by a couple of pictures that Tolkien : drew/painted to depict scenes from the Hobbit. If you will : follow the link to Rolozo Tolkien and click on images, the : first picture is of the interior of Bilbo's home at Bag End. If : you look behind Bilbo (right side) on the wall above the chair, : do you see a clock? A clock with counterweights and a pendulum. : That's what I see, but just in case I'm wrong I wanted some one : else to confirm or deny it.

That's pretty much what you see. The clock is even mentioned in the story, although the mantelpiece is missing (the letter for Bilbo from Thorin and Company was sitting on the mantelpiece under the clock).

: And Bilbo is certainly dressed differently than other artists : have depicted him. I had said that the culture of the Shire : seemed more akin to Victorian England than to some ancient lost : civilization, though that shouild not be a surprise to any one. : Tolkien himself said that the Shire was more or less a : representation of England.

Actually, he based it on the village of Warwick, though as other people have noted he tossed in many names from around England as place-names (and family names) for the Shire.

: The next picture I want you to look at is of Bilbo lying on : the mountain top next to the eagle. Is he wearing boots?

Yes, Bilbo is wearing boots in the picture. Tolkien even comments on it in one of his letters. He says the text erroneously fails to mention that he had acquired the boots (probably for travel in the mountains).

: If they are boots, doesn't that contradict Tolkien's statement : that Hobbits always went shoeless due to the leathery soles of : their feet?

Ah, but they didn't always go shoeless. Don't forget that many Stoors often wore dwarf-boots.

: Of course I don't know what Tolkien himself had to say about : his own artwork. Are we to take these pictures as "gospel", : rather than any of the other artists who have done : illustrations for the Hobbit and LOTR?

Gospel? Canon? I don't know. The pictures were usually drawn/painted with specific stories in mind, but each story, though it might be retold in new form, was unique with each telling. Hence, we have pictures of Glomund who eventually became Glaurung. Also, Tolkien reused at least one picture (or, his publishers did). That was the forest picture, originally titled "Taur-nu-fuin" an depicting Beleg finding Gwindor. It was reused for Mirkwood one time, and I think reused again for another purpose.

I do try to look at the pictures when doing my research, but as with all the other sources I have learned to take them with a grain of salt. The pictures are undeniably as close to an accurate realization of Tolkien's visions as we'll ever see, but they should be studied within the framework of the development of the stories, and not simply taken all together.