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~*~
"Mirkwood" from the first edition of The Hobbit, 1936:~
The illustrations that inspired jan-u-wine's poem for this entry have interesting histories.
The first picture, a black and white drawing, was made specifically by Tolkien to illustrate The Hobbit, published in 1936. It is clearly titled "Mirkwood" on the bottom border and there is a large black spider. Tolkien wanted the drawing to appear as the book's front endpaper, but the publishers placed it in chapter 8, "Flies and Spiders", the one that takes place in Mirkwood. The forest, once Greenwood the Great, is shown as ranks and ranks of trees, both thick and slender, with extensive surface roots, the trees so high no leafy branches are visible. A jet black distance visible through the boles suggests either gloom or deep night. The style, clean, decorative and elegant, gives the impression of an eerie, silent, enchanted forest. It is not quite the brooding, dense, stifling Mirkwood of the book, but perhaps an aura of dark enchanted silence mattered more to Tolkien than one of a forest bearing down travelers, hemming them in, close and suffocating.
There was an earlier picture, though, clearly the model for the black and white made for The Hobbit. In 1928, Tolkien painted a watercolour depicting the Taur-na-Fúin, the dark, evilly enchanted forest that sank beneath the waves at the end of the First Age. This picture was made to illustrate the Silmarillion tale of Túrin Turambar when the elf Beleg finds another elf, Flinding (later called Gwindor), recently escaped from Morgoth's fortress-dungeon Thangorodrim. If you look closely at the left foreground you will see a small figure with long black hair, red pointed shoes and a sword hanging at his waist climbing over a sprawling tree root. That's Beleg. To the right at the base of the largest tree is the prostrate body of another elf, Flinding, his red cap and lantern beside him on the ground. It is a scene set in the Taur-na-fúin, yet the name at the bottom of the picture is "Fangorn Forest". How is that?
As it turns out, the title was put there by Tolkien for inclusion in the The J. R. R. Tolkien Calendar 1974. Tolkien obviously loved this picture, working from it to make his illustration of Mirkwood for The Hobbit, later letting it stand in for Fangorn Forest for the calendar. (Perhaps Tolkien didn't think people would notice the two figures with their shoes, long hair, lantern and sword, who could not be Merry and Pippin.)
In any event, both "Mirkwood" and "Taur-na-Fúin" aka "Fangorn Forest" are fine works, drawing in viewers and kindling imaginations just as good illustrations ought.~*~
Mirkwood
Great and unbowed, the trees which dwell here:
slender-pale beech,
spread-finger'd oak,
dark-crown'd fir.
Black as midnight's pocket,
the beasts:
harts,
wary and
shadow-stricken,
ebony-webb'd spiders....
sable clad
squirrels.
A waiting chill lives,
always,
beneath the sombre
canopy,
leaf-cloak denying the Sun
her merry passage,
staying, with twined limbs,
even the gentle
rain
from a night'd floor.
Greenwood the Great
it was called once,
this darkened forest,
trees
singing
with the happy burden
of a warm Sun,
glades washed with
colour
and the warm scent
of life.
Beneath these trees,
within this place,
dark or light,
good or
evil,
the Elves dwell,
listening, ever,
to the song-speech
of their wards,
waiting,
ever,
for the turning of this Age.
The leaves drift slow
in the ending.....
Once again,
soft light blesses them
upon their final journey.
The River Running
murmurs to itself,
threading its way
among grey stones,
banks
green with new grasses.
A curious wind
courses
like a blooded hunter,
running upon the ground,
twisting in tangled branches,
unveiling the moonlight
after the Sun has journeyed
West,
urging the Enchanted Stream
along its laughing way to
the Sea.
The Sea:
that it is where the Elves have gone,
their long day in the Greenwood
at last done,
the songs of the forest
diminished,
silenced,
at the last,
by those of a shore
unknown.
And the trees
stand,
still
and wait,
their songs
rising
to sunlight
or moonlight,
the music of them
borne upon the back
of the wind.
Until World's end,
they endure.
Until World's end,
their Song rises.
~*~
~ "Beleg Finds Flinding in Taur-na-fúin", 1928, later titled "Fangorn Forest" by Tolkien for the 1974 Tolkien Calendar.
Previous entry:~ "Moonlight on a Wood": picture by Tolkien, poem by jan-u-wine.
Other Links:~ All entries featuring jan-u-wine's poems.
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Until World's end,
they endure.
Until World's end,
their Song rises.
Oooooh. That gives me (good) chills. You both let me think about our beloved Middle-earth in new ways.
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Linda does such beautiful work with these posts. Knocks me out, every time!
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Brrr...!
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Re: Brrr...!
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Tolkien’s drawings give you the impression of being in vast, limitless forests. And Jan’s poem evokes the image of a forest that will persist for all eternity. That makes you feel quite small, like Beleg.
(I still have the 1974 calendar).
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(I think i have that calendar somewhere, too. I kept all my calendars, intending to do a collage sort of thing....never got 'round to it.....ah, well....)
so glad you enjoyed the post. How are you doing? All healed from the accident?
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Thanks for asking, Jan. The bone hadn't yet healed after 4 weeks so they gave me a new cast. I'm trying to be patient but it's not easy.
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I confess I read your exchange with jan-u-wine above and I cannot refrain from asking: what did you break? I'm so sorry!
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I simply love your idea of combining Tolkien's paintings with jan-u-wine's poems. Must confess I'm looking forward to the Old Man Willow ;-)
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I simply love your idea of combining Tolkien's paintings with jan-u-wine's poems. Must confess I'm looking forward to the Old Man Willow ;-)
It was one of those joint inspirations. I'd sent jan-u-wine files of a bunch of the landscape scans I'd made from my book, simply excited to share with her what a wide range Tolkien had as an artist. I was thinking of presenting his pictures featuring trees, just so there'd be a central theme for posting a series. Jan said she'd like to try writing to some of the pictures.
So far jan-u-wine has not written a poem for 'Old Man Willow'. Perhaps a nudge from you....? :)
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How true. These definitely drew me in - so many little details to discover.
Jan's descriptions of Mirkwood in her beautiful poem are, quite simply, perfection.
Many thanks both for another wonderful post:)
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Oh, la la, Paulie! Your praise is praise indeed. :)
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Get well soon, Ambree!
Sincerely,
Diem Kieu
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Re: Get well soon, Ambree!
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Namarie, God bless, Antane :)
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I admit to being quite Frodo-centric, though, and it is difficult for me, indeed, to even begin the task of writing with a voice that isn't his. And yet. Frodo did not accomplish anything (the Quest or anything else) without the aid of others. So it wouldn't be right, in speaking of his world, to only look at it through his eyes, with his voice. All of those other eyes, those other voices, they have so much to say.
Someday I hope you'll have time to visit my spot on the Scrapbook. There are many Frodo poems there that I think you'll enjoy. Even though Mecthild has combined many into her posts (and some poems written for her post exclusively), there are still many that have not been posted here. Like a parent, I am fond of them all and note their good points, and rub my thumb fondly, in an erasing motion, across their faults......
In any case....i doubt that Frodo and I shall ever cease conversing. So i believe that, with patience, you will certainly see more of him.
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Namarie, God bless, Antane :)
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I favor the painting over the print and the love he lavishes on the bark variations. Those are a very tiny Beleg and Gwindor, or those are gigantic mushrooms that to look upon would kill a hobbit with instant, overwhelming, culinary joy. :-P
I see Charles and Elsa icons! (-: Saki says hello!
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I want to write a separate piece for Beleg and Gwindor, just have had no time....yet!
It is a damn good thing that the Ring was not a mushroom. THe claiming might have occurred a great deal sooner. And it should have been the Saute Pan of Doom!
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You know, those really are tremendous mushrooms. I thought the elf characters looked awfully small, looking at the picture, but I ascribed it to the great size of the tree roots. But your comment prompts me to think it's the mushrooms that make the elves look so tiny, now that my attention is drawn to them. They're whoppers! I wonder if in 1927-28, the year when the picture was made, Tolkien still thought of the elves were as diminutive? His very early pieces depicted elves as small, as was then the traditional portrayal. But, no, of course not. Even the earliest versions of the Silmarillion stories were peopled by elves and humans that shared the same [basic] stature.
I guess they're just giant mushrooms! :)