{"id":6221,"date":"2014-01-09T23:57:02","date_gmt":"2014-01-09T23:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/steampunkopera.wordpress.com\/?p=6221"},"modified":"2014-01-09T23:57:02","modified_gmt":"2014-01-09T23:57:02","slug":"the-illustrated-silmarillion-by-dresden-codak-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/the-illustrated-silmarillion-by-dresden-codak-4\/","title":{"rendered":"The Illustrated Silmarillion by Dresden Codak"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Today we’re going to feature a project in development by Dresden Codak where he illustrates each chapter of Tolkein’s Silmarillion. If you’re interested, he has an ongoing Tumblr where he’s posting the art as he goes which you should totally check out.<\/a><\/p>\n

With The Hobbit movies in full stride, this is a lovely idea and his desire to interject a diversity of artistic visions into Middle Earth in a point in time where one vision, the Jackson movie version is uber dominant, is worthy. In his own words:<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a side project I do in my free time to create a painted illustration to accompany every chapter in J.R.R. Tolkien\u2019s Silmarillion, as well as provide supplementary illustrations to round out the characters and world in general. My motivation is to create a Middle-Earth visually unique from the style of the Peter Jackson films. I like the movies, but I miss the days when there was more diversity and interpretation to Tolkien illustrations. A second motivation is to provide a greater representation of women and people of color in the narratives. While Tolkien made more than a few missteps regarding race and gender, the \u201ceveryone is white\u201d trend in adaptations is a symptom of other people ignoring what\u2019s in the texts.<\/p>\n

Additionally, all of Tolkien\u2019s writings are presented as if they\u2019re written from a limited and flawed historical perspective (LoTR and The Hobbit were \u201cwritten\u201d by Hobbits, etc). The position of my adaptation is to present what \u201cactually\u201d happened- the events upon which the flawed or biased history is based. Just like with real historians, the presence of women and people of color, and their achievements, are frequently ignored. I\u2019m never going to contradict what\u2019s written, but I\u2019m definitely going to use all of the tools at my disposal to emphasize the importance of those who don\u2019t always get their rightful share of historical credit.”<\/p>\n

Occasionally i include the descriptions the artist has included in his Tumblr post, but most often not and you should really head over to the Tumblr to check it all ou<\/a>t.<\/p>\n

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Silmarillion Project Part 2: \u201cValaquenta – Account of the Valar and Maiar in according to the lore of the Eldar\u201d<\/p>\n

The second chapter of The Silmarillion introduces us to the various divine beings (Ainur) who enter Earth (Arda) at its conception: the Valar (a godlike pantheon), the Maiar (lesser spirits) and the Enemy, who at this point is called Melkor. Although Melkor is mightier than any individual Vala, he is not counted among them, as their mission is to craft and preserve the world, while Melkor is hell-bent on twisting it to his will. Several Valar are pictured here. They are, from front to back:<\/p>\n

Mandos – Judge of the Dead and Master of Doom. He has foreknowledge of everything that will come to pass on Arda until the end times, but will only reveal pieces at Manw\u00eb\u2019s order.<\/p>\n

Yavanna – Queen of the Earth and Giver of Fruits. She created the Ents to protect the trees from the axes of Orcs and Dwarves.<\/p>\n

Aul\u00eb – Craftsman of the Earth and husband of Yavanna. He created the Dwarves with Il\u00favatar\u2019s (God\u2019s) blessing, who gave them actual life.<\/p>\n

Varda – Queen of Stars. Creator of light and the stars (naturally) and also the first to see Melkor for what he truly was.<\/p>\n

Manw\u00eb – King of the Valar, master of the sky and husband of Varda. He is also the \u201ctwin\u201d broth of Melkor, the Enemy.<\/p>\n

Ulmo – Lord of Waters and the sole wandering Vala (never taking residence in the the Undying Lands as they do). Ulmo prefers the open oceans and is an eternal friend to Men and Elves, of whose plight he is always keenly aware.<\/p>\n

The accompanying illustrations are of the Enemies:<\/p>\n

Melkor – First and mightiest of the Ainur. Obsessed with creating life of his own, which he cannot, so he forever strives to corrupt Creation itself and rule over it. The source of all discord and Evil in Arda. Later called Morgoth, \u201cThe Great Enemy,\u201d he is the central antagonist of the Silmarillion.<\/p>\n

Sauron – A powerful Maia originally in service of Aul\u00eb, Sauron was corrupted by Morgoth, ultimately becoming his second-in-command. Master of all shapes and forms, as well as the crafting of objects of power.<\/p>\n

Notes: The Valar don\u2019t have permanent incarnations, so I tried to keep many visual details vague and focus on broad themes. Conversely, while Melkor could take on many forms in earlier days, by the time he stole the Silmarils and was known as Morgoth, he was essentially trapped in the form of an imposing Dark Lord, \u201ctall and terrible.\u201d I wanted to emphasize a weary, corporeal form in contrast to the Valar, a form that will become further scarred before the end. Sauron, on the other hand, is less imposing and more of a crafty sorcerer. While he could change into the form of Elves or Men, I doubt that would have been his default in the First Age, when his main job was ruling an island full of werewolves. Hope you enjoy this one! There are many more to come.<\/p>\n

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“Silmarillion Chapter 2: Of Aul\u00eb and Yavanna” Of all the Valar, Aul\u00eb and Yavanna are my favorites, the ultimate husband & wife combo.<\/p>\n

Aul\u00eb is functionally the god of craftsman, and is said to be most like the villainous Melkor in personality (his servants Sauron and Saruman both turn evil, plus he trained troublemaking F\u00ebanor) but Aul\u00eb himself remains virtuous and humble. Even when he created the Dwarves in defiance of Eru, it was meant to be a tribute to the Elves & Men (Eru\u2019s personal creations). As such, the Dwarves were given true life and allowed to be awakened after the Elves. Aul\u00eb represents the creative ambition of Melkor without the jealousy or vanity.<\/p>\n

Yavanna, creator of the Ents, is great because she\u2019s one of the only Valar who actively tries to keep Middle-Earth from becoming overrun with evil, as her interest is with the actual plants and animals of the world. She\u2019s also the one who chose Radagast to be one of the Istari sent to Middle-Earth. It\u2019s also worth noting that while they got along very well, Aul\u00eb\u2019s and Yavanna\u2019s creations or servants did not. Dwarves and Ents have never had good relations, and Saruman despised Radagast to the end of his days.<\/p>\n

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Silmarillion Chapter 7: Of F\u00ebanor and the Unchaining of Melkor For F\u00ebanor, being come to his full might, was filled with a new thought, or it may be that some shadow of foreknowledge came to him of the doom that drew near; and he wondered how the light of the Trees, the glory of the Blessed Realm, might be preserved imperishable. Then he began a long secret labour, and he summoned all his lore, and his power, and his subtle skill; and at the end of all he made the Silmarils.<\/p>\n

Here is the beginning of the end for the peaceful days of the Elves. Never before nor after would anything as beautiful or tragic as the Silmarils ever be created again. Not an easy thing to illustrate, so I kept it pretty abstract. On the topic of F\u00ebanor\u2019s appearance: the Noldor are only described as being more muscular than other Elves, and having darker hair and features. Additionally, we know the Noldor resemble the human House of B\u00ebor, who are described as having brown, \u201cswarthy\u201d skin and dark features. Tolkien\u2019s characters are often all portrayed as white Anglo-Saxon, but in reality this frequently conflicts with his ethnic descriptions.<\/p>\n

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Today we’re going to feature a project in development by Dresden Codak where he illustrates each chapter of Tolkein’s Silmarillion. If you’re interested, he has an ongoing Tumblr where he’s posting the art as he goes which you should totally […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","clearfix"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6221\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulshapera.com\/temp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}