Pretty much anyone who knows me, knows how much I love The Lord of the Rings. I have watched the extended edition films over and over again. I’ve also had the books for a good ten years, my copies look slightly battered now. I was lucky enough to get The Art of Lord of the Rings for Christmas and it was my favourite present.
As you can it is in this gorgeously designed black hard cover. The cover actually has the artwork of The Return of the Kind book. I’m really happy about this as I have those covers for my books so they match. Although my books are at my mums house instead of with me near my dads.
The book itself is also hardback. It’s just so simplistically beautiful as a book. I just love hardback books. If I could have an library with old leather bound books, I would. Just imagine hundreds of books in blacks, golds, greens and reds.
Unfortunately, most of the artwork is sketches and not very colourful. But this Hobbiton drawing and the Lothlorien one below are coloured. The Hobbiton drawing is also one of the most detailed images. I really loved it, the colours made it look happy and cheerful which is very similar to how it’s shown in the book.
I especially love Lothlorien because there’s a soft glow to it. It just makes me think of the elves, which is perfect really.
Now this is Helm’s Deep, and this is where it gets weird. The film has made it look very different I think. A lot of the drawings I could recognise, like Hobbiton, but I couldn’t for this one.
These sketches are of Orthanc in Isengard. Again very different to how they made it in the film. I like it though and you really see the progression of thought into it. I think a lot of writers dont think about these things as much as Tolkien did. Which is a shame, because this is why Middle-Earth is so deep and well written.
The map of Middle-Earth is my favourite book map. I just had to take a photo of it.
The design on the right is one I have on my copy. Tolkien had so much input into the designs, which just excites me as a reader. Plus, it’s still his design on my cover.
I really love the inscriptions so again I had to include an image.