Heraldry of Middle-earth

[T 2] According to The Book of Lost Tales, the active male Elves of Gondolin, a city in Beleriand in the First Age, belonged to one of the 11 "Houses" or Thlim, plus the bodyguard of Tuor, a Man, which was accounted the twelfth.

[T 3] Hriban writes that the Gondolin emblems are simply figurative, depicting familiar objects, and that similar devices can be found in standard British texts on heraldry.

[4] Richard Taylor, creative director of Weta Workshop, responsible for manufacturing weapons and equipment, stated that he insisted on "invest[ing] the props with a high level of richness and heraldry and realism".

He comments that first-time readers may notice the descriptions of emblems simply as part of the rich detailing of Middle-earth, but that closer attention reveals an accurate match between the symbols and the "histories and cultures, the allegiances, characters and natures, of those who bear them".

[5] However, Hammond and Scull note that Tolkien created this heraldic device after deciding in favour of the Round World version of the cosmology, according to which the Sun existed during Finwë's lifetime.

[1] Catalin Hriban comments that although Tolkien makes only light use of heraldry, he transformed it "into a mythographer's tool and artifice, like all the rest of [the] primary-world cultural items that are woven into the Tolkienian cosmos".