So last week we were posting about John Blanche’s latest book Voodoo Forest so of course I had to show off my collection of Blanche books.
One book that I’ve never seen much on is “Characters from Tolkien” which is a 2003 republication of the 1979 book, “A Tolkien Bestiary” with text by David Day and art by John Blanche, Ian Miller and others.
(I also have a smaller pile of Ian Miller books, I'll have to take them down)
Between Rings of Power and Kyoto Secunda reading the Hobbit I've been on a bit of a Tolkien kick lately, last night we watched the 1978 animated Hobbit. So let's take a good old Retro Review style look at Characters from Tolkien.
I found my copy in a book seller in Cairo (Volume One in Maadi if you happen to be in the area) for just 80 Egyptian Pounds or ~$5 at the time (now more like $2.50 thanks to devaluation). But it still seems pretty common in the usual places (Amazon, Ebay, etc) going for around $25 or less.
There’s also a copy to be ‘borrowed’ at the Internet Archive if you so choose.
https://archive.org/details/charactersfromto0000dayd/page/n291/mode/2up
David Day is an interesting character, he’s put out several scholarly books on Tolkien some authorized, some not. This book as a guide to characters seems to fall in that grey area of scholarly commentary vs. derived works. Copyright information for example only mentions something called Octopus Publishing Group and nothing about the Tolkien estate.
David Day also has books of poetry, endangered species and decoding Alice in Wonderland. With 46 books and 3 million sold he's definitely had an interesting career.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Day_(Canadian_author)
But really it wasn’t the text that made my spring 80LE, it was the art. With art by John Blanche and Ian Miller among others it’s a treasure trove of work by the people who made the Warhammer games what they are, working on the author who *ahem* “inspired” so much of both
WHFB and
40k (but not in a legally actionable sort of way). It's a rare chance to see how the motifs and themes that mark Warhammer art were being codified and would, in time, give birth to
GW's combination of gritty art, Iron Maiden album covers and skulls everywhere all turned up to 11.
The book itself is an alphabetical guide to places and people in the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, the Syll… Sim… Samm… (checks notes) Silmarillion, and other apocrypha. With most entries accompanied by art.
With even humble flowers, bats and eagles getting some art work. In case you don't know what they look like.
Rather than do a page by page breakdown I thought I would look at some of the major themes of the listings, the places, battles, and people covered in the book.
So still with me? Let's get started!
Places
One thing that marks Tolkien's work is the vividly described and iconic settings from the 'Hobbit in his hole' description that begins the Hobbit, to the floating city of Lake Town, to the White Tower of Gondor and all of them (and more!) are featured here.
One of the main selling points of this book was surely how it pulled out ideas and locations from the Sell... Simm... Sam... Silmarillion and brought them to life like this scene of the Destruction of the Great Lamps by Melkor.
Or the Trees of the Valar.
The caves of the Grey Elves.
Armor strong enough to withstand dragon fire being forged in the Dwarven Kingdom of Belegost.
Rangers watching over the borders of Gondor.
Even the more frequent black and white illustrations are packed with atmosphere like these pictures of the Elven island of Valinor, the shores of Lake Town and the White Tower of Gondor.
Battles
The text for this battle from the Sing.. Sang.. Silmarillion deserves reprinting:
A single Elven princess and one mortal warrior achieved what all the armies of Middle Earth could not. In that Quest, Luthien the Fair took the form of a mighty Vampire and her lover Beren the Edain took on the shape of a great Wolf. In such disguises they entered the very throne room of Morgoth in deep Pits of Angband. There Luthien cast a great enchantment of sleep of Morgoth and his servants. In fulfillment of the Quest, Beren arose from the sleeping shape of the great Wolf and with knife Angrist cut a Silmaril from Morgoth's Iron Crown.
But that was probably obvious from the art.
Other battle scenes went with the wide screen, cast of thousands, sort of art that would later characterize Epic or Warmaster art. Such as this scene of the fall of the Elven City of Gondolin.
The Destruction of Angband, Morgoth's final battle, captures the earth-shattering powers unleashed where orcs and men are barely specks.
While the Downfall of Numendor (uh, spoilers for Rings of Power) captures the destructive force of the waves.
The demonic siege of the Elven capital of Arborlon also brings the chaos and destruction of the battle to life. If you squint you can just make out the White Tree of the Ellcrys dying before Wil and Amberle restore it.
The Last Alliance of Dwarves, Elves and the other guys is also a subject of some awesome art.
The destruction of Lake Town gets a full page color spread.
As with the Battle of Five Armies.
Even quieter moments like the marshaling of the armies of Mordor are packed with great designs and atmosphere.
I think it's easy to draw a clear line between the look of the orcs and goblins here and the Rankin/Bass animated Hobbit and Return of the King from around the same time.
People
Along with places Tolkien's work codified the races and heroic archetypes that continue to shape fantasy writing today.
While Elves, Orcs and Dwarves are probably the most used and abused of Tolkien's creations, Hobbits are among the most beloved and get several pages of art.
The sinister ring wraiths.
And the Witch King of Agmar.
Many of the prominent characters also get the artistic spotlight.
Gollum looks properly creepy.
While the Master of Lake Town has a face you just want to slap.
And you can't leave out Aslan, son of the Emperor Over the Sea.
Thorin and Company make for a diverse group.
While the Balrog is all shadows and flame.
There's also room for some whimsy like this take on the Beornlings.
The book closes out with this memorable image of Eru Ilúvatar the supreme deity of Middle Earth who waits to reward the heroes in the Western Lands.
All in all Tolkien Bestiary/Characters From Tolkien is a fantastic resource, especially since it was written in 1979. And with an all star cast on art you can see that it had influences on later adaptations and uh... derivative works (though not in a legal sense) like Warhammer, D&D and Warcraft. If you can find a copy it's a good book to have on the gaming shelf and take down from time to time.
Even if you're not a Tolkien fanatic (I definitely am not), or a Blanche/Ian Miller fan (I am) you will find a lot to enjoy it and the encyclopedia format let me find connections in the characters which I never knew were there.
And of course the real fun is spotting the influences from this early work that would go on to influence (but not in a legally actionable sort of way) the Warhammer family of games, books and art.
So yeah, if you can find a copy, check it out.