Fridays at the Mathom House: Quimtuk

It's another fantastic friday, and that means we have another fantastic Middle-earth artist to acquaint you with. Today's art is by Quimtuk (and you should definitely check out the rest of his stuff), and is decidedly lighter in tone and style than a lot of the art I've shown so far . . . I think that's why I picked it. Anyways, he doesn't have a tone of Hobbit-related art, but what he does have is fantastic. Jump past the break to take a look:

The Children of Aulë: A Depressing Illustration of the Forced Migrations of the Dwarves

So I've put together geneological charts for both the elves and men of Middle-earth, and I was really looking forward to doing the same for the dwarves––they've always been my favorite anyways. However, I have to admit that after doing the work and the research to make this chart . . . I'm mostly just depressed. Those dwarfs had a crappy history. No, I'm being serious. You probably don't even want to hear about it. It was that bad.

If you don't believe me . . . well, just jump past the break and you'll see:

JRR Tolkien Sings "That's What Bilbo Baggins Hates"

I always enjoy hearing the songs of Middle-earth out of the Maker's own mouth. Enjoy!

The Men of Dale and Laketown, and the Beornings too: A Brief History of Beorn and Bard, and other Men

So have you ever wondered how a bunch of Men ended up in Dale, Laketown and the eaves of Mirkwood, surrounded by dwarves, elves, goblins and dragons and miles of wilderness? It's actually quite an interesting story that involves a lot of migrations, wars and possibly some inbreeding . . . I'm not really sure. Anyways, jump past the break to read more:

I Wish Thorin Looked More Like This:

This is my (unskilled) attempt to craft a Thorin that is more in keeping with the book. There are a lot of things I like about movie Thorin, but at the risk of offending a lot of Richard Armitage fans out there, I'm goint to admit that there are also a number of issues I have with him. Mainly, I just think he's too young, his beard isn't long enough, and his face doesn't look "dwarfy" enough.

So here is my own version of Thorin. What do you think?

And yes, I stole Gloin's beard to lengthen Thorin's. Big deal.

Fridays at the Mathom-House:

Happy Friday! I meant to get this posted up last week . . . but didn't. This week's Mathom-House will be featuring the amazing illustrations of Sceithailm, who has a gallery full of amazing stuff over at deviantart.com. All of her work is great, but to me, her depictions of Middle-earth are the cream of the crop. The texturing she works into the fabrics and skin of her characters is amazing.

Jump past the break to enjoy a feast for the eyes!

Learning to Love Azog

Now, I'll be the first to admit that Azog isn't exactly my favorite character in the first Hobbit movie. Not because I think he was poorly done or anything; I just don't understand why Bolg couldn't have been used in exactly the same way. But I really don't get why people are pouring so much hate on the Pale Orc. I mean, he wasn't that bad, was he?

Well, John Ruddy over at theonering.net seems to think so. He writes a good, well-reasoned argument and you should definitely take a look at it; but for me at least, his logic fails on a few points. So I've decided to play devil's (or is it "orc's"?) advocate and jot down my own thoughts on everyone's (least) favorite orc, in an unabashed effort to get you, faithful reader, to not hate the poor guy so much.

Jump past the break to read on!

Fridays at the Mathom-House: Devin Manning

Its Friday at the Mathom-House again, and we've got some awesome Thorin concept art for you, by Devin Manning . . . check out the rest of his great artwork over at his site, and jump past the break to see some sweet renditions of everyone's favorite (until the lust for gold consumes him, at least) King Under the Mountain!

New Warg Photos

Finally! Some up-close pictures of the Wargs. I have to admit that unlike some fans, I always kind of liked the Wargs in original LOTR movies. But even having admitted that, I must confess that these wargs look a whole lot better. Awesome is the appropriate word here. Jump past the break to see another great pic!

Friday at the Mathom-House: Jian Gou

 It's a long time since we've had a good Friday at the Mathom-House around these parts, but I came across some of these amazing stained-glass illustrations by Jian Gou on theonering.net, and I couldn't resist tracking down all them and showing them off. In terms of awesome-ness, they pretty much speak for themselves, don't you agree? Read on past the break for more.

A Brief History of Wargs

All of a sudden they heard a howl away down hill, a long shuddering howl. It was answered by another away to the right and a good deal nearer to them; then by another not far away to the left. It was wolves howling at the moon, wolves gathering together!

-The Hobbit; Ch. 6: Out of the Frying-Pan into the Fire

Goblins are bad . . . nobody quibbles about that; but goblins plus wolves? That's more than most anybody can handle. Even old Gandalf scrambled up a tree to get away from a pack of these fiendish beasts. Because these aren't just any old, garden-variety wolves . . . these are Wargs, sinister wolves that live in the shadows of the Misty Mountains and have long been allies of the goblins and orcs.

But just what exactly is a warg, anyways? Where did they come from and why--unlike most animals in Middle-Earth--are they servants of the Shadow? Read on past the break to find out!

Fridays at the Mathom-House: Jon Hodgson

¡Veliz viernes a todos ustedes! Get set for some excellent Tolkien artwork courtesy of your weekly Mathom-House. This week we're featuring the amazing Middle-Earth art of Jon Hodgson as seen in The One Ring fantasy RPG game. All of Hodgson's art is great, but I especially like his landscapes . . . he really manages to capture the feel of all the key locations in The Hobbit, from Rivendell to the Lonely Mountain. By far my favorite is this shot of Lake-town below:

Enjoy more of Hodgson's fantastic art after the break!

A little bit of history: Orcrist, the Orc-Cleaver

Dark Jackal has done a fair bit of research leg-work and the results are an excellent and detailed history of Thorin's fabled sword Orcrist, the Orc-Cleaver. Not only that, but she's collected a lot of photos of both the sword and Thorin in action.

Jump over to Heirs of Durin to read the post in full.

A little Radagast for your morning

There's a report from the folks at theonering.net about Radagast the Brown and how much we can expect to see of him in the first installment of The Hobbit. Read the article in full right here!

Fridays at the Mathom-House: Joona Kujanen

The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a ‘mathom’.

–The Fellowship of the Ring; Prologue 

A little late, but always better than never, it's Friday (almost) at the Mathom-House. Luckily, Blogger let's me set the date and time automatically, so I can cheat and still make this a Friday post.

This week we're be featuring the artwork of Joona Kujanen, better known as  Tulikoura, who maintains a great gallery of his work at deviantART.com. The artist has a great sub-gallery dedicated to some fantastic LOTR and Hobbit images.

Just like the artist we featured last week, Tulikoura's work caught my eye for its use of traditional mediums instead of the ever-more-common digital stuff we're seeing all over online. Some of of these images look like the lithographic prints you'd find in an old Dicken's novel or something . . . really good stuff. So, get ready to enjoy a whole lot of good art right after the break:

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again

The Grey Pilgrim: Gandalf's Origins

Gandalf! If you had heard only a quarter of what I have heard about him, and I have only heard very little of all there is to hear, you would be prepared for any sort of remarkable tale. Tales and adventures sprouted up all over the place where he went, in the most extraordinary fashion.

––The Hobbit; Ch. 1: An Unexpected Party

It's impossible to imagine a Middle-Earth without Gandalf. Who would have booted Bilbo out his front door? Or rescued the Thorin & Co. from the clutches of the goblins? More importantly, who would have realized that Bilbo's small ring was actually the One Ring and had the foresight to start one small hobbit on a quest that would eventually lead to the destruction of the Dark Lord? The truth is, Middle-Earth would have been a very dark place without the Grey Pilgrim, yet few people––even among those who'd known the wizard longest––knew the full history of Sauron's greatest foe.

Fridays at the Mathom-House: Anke Eissmann

The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a ‘mathom’.

–The Fellowship of the Ring; Prologue 

Seven days done and now it's time for a batch of amazing Tolkien art. Yes, good reader, it's that time again: Fridays at the Mathom-house. This week we'll be showcasing the art of Anke Eissmann, who's website has an awesome section dedicated to her Tolkien art. Anke's art caught my eye because of her use of traditional mediums like watercolor and pen-and-ink, instead of the digital art you see everywhere nowadays. In fact, her watercolor paintings remind a lot of Tolkien's own watercolors. So, limber up your scroller-finger and sit back to enjoy some great Hobbit art:

Durin's Day

History of the Dwarves: Update

So, thanks to my tech-savvy wife, I've fixed the issue with the dwarf infographic. You can now access it by clicking on the image below, which has a link to the full-resolution image. Enjoy!

A bit of dwarf-ishness: Bilbo's Contract

So, I'm  a little late getting this posted (it's been up on theonering.net for a while now) but it's pretty cool, so I thought I'd better put it up anyways.

Using some high-res images of Bilbo holding the contract from Thorin & Co, DarkJackal managed to decipher some of the test of the contract. You can read more about the process over on his blog, Heirs of Durin. And even if you don't want to read the whole process, you should head over anyway 'cause there's some cool content over there.

To keep this post shorter, I'll just put down the finished "translation" that DarkJackal came up with. Note that he's divided the contract up into lettered sections that correspond to the pictures you can see to the right.

Fridays at the Mathom-House: Justin Gerard

The Mathom-house it was called; for anything that Hobbits had no immediate use for, but were unwilling to throw away, they called a ‘mathom’.

–The Fellowship of the Ring; Prologue 

After too long a break, it's Mathom-time again! Friday is here, freedom is near . . . and I've stumbled upon what might just be my favorite Tolkien artist of all time. Here for your enjoyment is the fantastic work of Justin Gerard. He maintains several great websites, all of which can be found through the previous link; but, his blog is a particular treat, since the artist goes into detail explaining the process behind his artwork. Enjoy: