[HN Gopher] Tolkien's Paintings
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Tolkien's Paintings
Author : mhb
Score : 310 points
Date : 2022-03-22 11:44 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.tolkienestate.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.tolkienestate.com)
| aresant wrote:
| These are so vibrant, is there anywhere these are collected in a
| book?
| moultano wrote:
| I would love to have an nice hardback of the books that put as
| many of Tolkien's drawings in them as we have. I have copies that
| Alan Lee illustrated, and they're beautiful, but the subtlety and
| the vagueness of these just captures better how I felt about the
| books when I first read them.
| Spivakov wrote:
| My cousin and I crafted our own fictional adventure on some
| scratch paper when we were kids. We usually started by drawing a
| fantasy/sci-fi map, chose a starting point, and then improvised
| the story as we "travel" in this world purely out of imagination.
|
| Now thinking back this experience is interesting as it sort of
| reflecting what Tolkien said, "I wisely started with a map, and
| made the story fit."
| imperistan wrote:
| These are amazing! I wonder if there are prints available. I
| would love to have 'Lothlorien in spring' on my living room wall
| darkmagnus wrote:
| Check https://bodleianshop.co.uk/
| make3 wrote:
| scrolljacking is terrible. I wish there was an easy way to
| disable it
| jacknews wrote:
| Amazing! Some are quite Freudian.
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| How so?
| jicea wrote:
| My productivity has abysmally dropped since the release of From
| Software's Elden Ring. A small thing (among many) that I loved is
| the "medieval" style of the game map. It's like reading a monk
| parchemin, or an old book. On an another level, the maps drawn by
| Tolkien are really superb, evocative and you just want to zoom in
| and start dreaming in this lands...
|
| [1] https://www.tolkienestate.com/painting/maps/
| hbn wrote:
| From Software has such a neat way of story telling in their
| games. Cutscenes are far and few between, and the ones that are
| there really don't tell much story (aside from intro
| cinematics/game endings, which only give a high-level rundown
| of the world)
|
| Instead, information is drip-fed to you through NPC dialogues,
| item/spell descriptions, and level design. Meaning you'll
| probably pick up very little of the actual story as you play
| the games, and it's something of a community effort to put the
| pieces together and figure out what's going on. And even with
| all that, there's still tons of gaps that can only be theorized
| about. It really makes the games feel like they take place in a
| huge world with tons of history that's much greater than you,
| the player character. The world doesn't seem to care about you
| at all, you're just an observer of a much greater story.
|
| The creator of the games, Hidetaka Miyazaki has credited this
| vague style of storytelling to him reading fantasy novels as a
| kid, without a good understanding of English. There would be
| parts of the story he didn't really understand, so he'd just
| fill in the gaps with his own theories.
|
| https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/mar/31/bloodborn...
| legitster wrote:
| The personal paintings and doodles for his children were so
| touching. It just reminded me of personal doodles my older
| brother used to give me. But technology seems to have robbed the
| boredom and privacy necessary for these types of tiny artistic
| gestures.
| ketzo wrote:
| Wait -- technology has robbed us of the ability to make doodles
| for each other?
|
| How? If anything, digital art and memes are both responsible
| for an explosion of people sending personal, visual creations
| to each other.
| cyberpunk wrote:
| So, question: does receiving an e-card by email feel the same
| to you as receiving a paper card?
| patman wrote:
| If the same thought and effort was put into it then yes.
| webspaceadam wrote:
| tolkiens approach to creativity is truly inspiring.
| bitsoda wrote:
| I had no idea he was so prolific outside of writing. It makes
| me wonder how much I would create if my only media access was
| radio and lived in a world with far fewer distractions. Then
| again, everything's relative and there exist many creators
| today whose genius doesn't seem to be diminished by all our
| screens.
|
| Curse you, internet addiction!
| vlunkr wrote:
| I think the maps really helped sell the world to me as a kid.
| There's such a distinct, foreign style to them. Of course every
| fantasy series now has a map, but the Tolkien maps are still
| embedded deep in my brain.
| nanidin wrote:
| I wanted to open one of the links on the site in a new tab. I
| right clicked, and nothing. They block right click! Why! To
| protect their precious?
| jkingsbery wrote:
| You cannot pass... to the next page by right clicking.
| lelandfe wrote:
| It looks like they're using a WordPress plugin that disables a
| _lot_ of stuff in the name of "content protection":
| https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-content-copy-protector/
|
| Disabled: right click, Cmd-A, dragging images (to e.g. save),
| and even _highlighting text_. Pretty awful.
| vmilner wrote:
| I'm pleased Tolkien's image of the Book of Mazarbul is there, I'm
| currently reading Humphrey Carpenter's biography and there's a
| mention of the fact that Tolkien painstakingly created the look
| of the final page, but it was wasted as Unwin couldn't afford to
| print it in the original edition of LOTR.
| fmajid wrote:
| It's worth recognizing the late Christopher Tolkien for his
| life's work protecting, preserving and collecting his father's
| writings, in a deeply moving example of filial piety.
| [deleted]
| antattack wrote:
| You make it sound like they are doing it for free.
| wolverine876 wrote:
| Because you make money from something doesn't mean it's your
| only, primary or a necessary motivation.
|
| Also, they might not earn as much as you imagine: They sold
| the movie rights in 1969 for PS100,000.
|
| https://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/my-
| father039s-qu...
| morepork wrote:
| PS100,000 in 1969 is nearly PS2 million today, so while
| little compared to the billion dollar adaptations in the
| 2000s, still a tidy sum
| nabeelam wrote:
| To dedicate your life to your father's work, to forgo carving
| your own path, and at great risk of carrying blame for
| tarnishing Tolkien's legacy, and still earning praise for it
| -- I don't think the money offsets it by much.
| iancmceachern wrote:
| Exactly, Tolkien also got paid, but no one could claim he
| did it for the money. Both hid and the work of his son to
| preserve and share his legacy were labors of love.
|
| For something completely different, but the same here is a
| YouTube clip of Billy Strings playing with his dad, a very
| similar dynamic here: https://youtu.be/_6U6NCvOfl8
| [deleted]
| subsubzero wrote:
| I couldn't agree more with that statement. For someone who had
| read the hobbit, LOTR, and the Silmarillion and wanted more
| from that universe. Christopher Tolkien provided a wealth of
| new books from his fathers unpublished papers released since
| the 90's and beyond: things like unfinished tales, the children
| of Hurin, the fall of Gondolin, etc. I couldn't be happier
| having these extra novels to read and am thankful for the
| tireless work of his son to bring these to light who worked
| into his 90's to get them published.
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| nit: Unfinished Tales was first published in 1980.
| subsubzero wrote:
| thanks! you are correct, I thought Unfinished Tales was
| released in the 90's when I first read it. it was released
| in 1980.
| cpfohl wrote:
| I think you're misreading "into his 90s" as "the 90s"? ;)
| xu_ituairo wrote:
| OP says "released since the 90's and beyond," earlier in
| the comment.
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| No - JRR Tolkien was already dead by 1980.
| ar_lan wrote:
| The ideas may have been his father's, but Christopher Tolkien
| is as responsible for execution as his father was in my eyes,
| and I solidly consider him to be just as brilliant of a mind,
| especially for the fantasy-world.
| flir wrote:
| Alternative view: he made a career out of gleaning his father's
| wastepaper bin, and jealously made sure other people couldn't
| play in his sandpit.
|
| (Obviously I've never been a fan).
| wheybags wrote:
| Seriously. Especially When you compare to some other inheritors
| (eg Brian Herbert)
| TedDoesntTalk wrote:
| It is wonderful these maps and artwork is so freely available.
| When I first read Tolkien many years ago (long before the Jackson
| films), you could not get this kind of information, art, and
| maps. Only whatever happened to be in print, which in hindsight
| was remarkably little.
| WHA8m wrote:
| I was a bit involved in graffiti stuff in the past, so I went
| straight to the 'calligraphy' page. I must say, the heading of
| the second script 'Errantry' could come straight from a subway.
| Very sick old school style, mister Tolkien!
|
| On a serious note: big fan. This guy and his work amazes me!
| jahller wrote:
| to anyone that is interested in Tolkiens drawings and especially
| calagraphie I can really recommend his book "Letters from Father
| Christmas"
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Father_Christmas_Letters
|
| it contains letters he wrote to his children posing as "Father
| Christmas" for them.
| rb666 wrote:
| Haha there's an L in Tolkien? Lame.
| rough-sea wrote:
| There are many more paintings than are featured on this site.
|
| https://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/tolkien
| https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/arts/design/tolkien-exhib...
| niix wrote:
| Arg, another website overriding the browser's scroll behavior.
| The art is amazing but I'm a bit annoyed by things scrolling by
| unnaturally.
| nkjoep wrote:
| hn: cool link, check it out
|
| me: click, scrolling messed up, close the website
| [deleted]
| ar_lan wrote:
| I'm not experiencing what you are describing. What browser are
| you using?
|
| I'm using Brave (latest) on macOS (11.6.5) and it's working
| fine for me.
| gknoy wrote:
| Chrome on OSX: Scrolling works fine, but _zoom_ pinching
| instead causes it to scroll as well, rather than zoom.
| chrispine wrote:
| Latest Chrome, macOS 12.1, using the trackpad
|
| The scrolling is awful: feels laggy and... squishy? oily?
| really hard to describe, but it's horrible. Also, it feels
| like the scrolling sticks at random times while scrolling.
| nanidin wrote:
| They also block right click.
| jusonchan81 wrote:
| I first learned of Tolkien on South Park when they renamed the
| character Token to Tolkien.
| RandallBrown wrote:
| It's been Tolkien the whole time. Why would you think it's
| Token?
| SkipperCat wrote:
| I saw this exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum several years
| ago. It was a great experience, not just see the art but explore
| how deep Tolkien went into building the world of Middle Earth.
| Truly amazing when someone devotes that much time and effort into
| their craft.
| lelandfe wrote:
| I'm very jealous, I showed up there a _day_ after the
| exhibition closed.
| danielvaughn wrote:
| I walked by the Morgan Library on my way to work for years, and
| never knew they had these cool exhibits until I heard about the
| Hemingway one right after it closed. Talk about wasted
| potential...
| x3iv130f wrote:
| _Leaf by Niggle_ is one of my favorite Tolkien short stories.
|
| It is a short 30 minute read about an artist's dedication to
| his craft.
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(page generated 2022-03-22 23:00 UTC)