Tolkien's artwork

A professional philologist, J. R. R. Tolkien prepared a wide variety of materials to support his fiction, including illustrations for his Middle-earth fantasy books, facsimile artefacts, more or less "picturesque" maps, calligraphy, and sketches and paintings from life.

[1][2] The scholars Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull describe his 1912 ink drawing of a cottage in Berkshire, "Quallington Carpenter", as "the most impressive" of these early works, its "sagging walls" and thatched roof "elaborately textured and shaded".

Garth comments that "the angles, proportions, shapes, and arrangement ... are strikingly similar, from the foreground building to the tree-crowned hill", despite the more horizontal painting.

[4] Tolkien worked on making realistic artefacts to accompany his writing; he spent enormous effort on a facsimile Book of Mazarbul to resemble the burnt, torn volume abandoned at the tomb of the Dwarf-leader Balin in the subterranean realm of Moria; in the story, the wizard Gandalf finds the book and struggles to read out a substantial amount of the damaged text.

[T 5] The company however chose not to include an image of the book in the first edition, prompting Tolkien to remark that without it the text at the start of "The Bridge of Khazad-Dûm" was "rather absurd".

[1][T 6] The Doors of Durin were the magical stone gates forming the western entrance to Moria; they were invisible when shut, but could be made visible by moonlight, whereupon their lettering and design, worked in mithril, could be seen.

[1] Tolkien did not live to see The Silmarillion published, but he prepared images for it, including paintings of several symmetrical tile-like heraldic emblems for its kings and houses, and an actual Númenórean tile such as would have been rescued from the wreck of the civilisation of Númenor in Elendil's ships, and brought to Middle-earth.

These served multiple purposes, first as guides to the author, helping to ensure consistency in the narrative, and later to the reader through the often complex routes taken by his characters.

[1][7] Tolkien's profession of philology made him familiar with medieval illuminated manuscripts; he imitated their style in his own calligraphy, an art which his mother had taught him.

[T 9] In 1979, Tolkien's son Christopher began the process of bringing his father's artwork to the world's attention, beyond the images already published at that time on calendars, by editing Pictures by J.R.R.

[1] The Tolkien scholar Patchen Mortimer similarly comments on the "contentious debate" about him, noting that his many readers find his books and "the attendant languages, histories, maps, artwork, and apocrypha"[14] a huge accomplishment, while his critics "dismiss his work as childish, irrelevant, and worse".

Mortimer calls this "an appalling oversight", writing that "Tolkien's project was as grand and avant-garde as those of Wagner or the Futurists, and his works are as suffused with the spirit of the age as any by Eliot, Joyce, or Hemingway".

Tolkien's illustration of the Doors of Durin for The Fellowship of the Ring , with Sindarin inscription in Tengwar script, both being his inventions. Despite his best efforts, this was the only drawing, other than maps and calligraphy, in the first edition of The Lord of the Rings . [ 1 ] In early editions it was printed in black on white rather than, as here and as Tolkien wished, in white on black. [ T 1 ]
Ink drawing of "Quallington Carpenter", Eastbury, Berkshire , 1912 [ 2 ]
Watercolour painting The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the-Water used as the frontispiece of the first American edition of The Hobbit , 1938 [ 1 ] [ T 2 ]
John Garth notes the likeness of Tolkien's painting to Lord Berners 's 1936 painting of Faringdon Folly , used as an advertisement by Shell , 1936. [ 4 ]
The first page from The Book of Mazarbul , in the form of a facsimile artefact created by Tolkien to support the story and bring readers into his fantasy. The publishers declined to include a reproduction of the artefact in the first edition of The Lord of the Rings . [ 1 ] [ T 3 ]
A Numenorean tile, such as might have been saved from the wreck of Númenor by Elendil , and taken in his ships to Middle-earth . [ T 7 ]
Fantasy , cartography , calligraphy: Detail from Tolkien's map of Wilderland in The Hobbit , supposedly a fair copy made by the Hobbit Bilbo Baggins , an illusion reinforced by Tolkien's own "charming hand lettering". [ 7 ]
Multiple dimensions of artistry: Tolkien used his skill in calligraphy to write the One Ring 's iconic inscription, in the Black Speech of Mordor , using the Elvish Tengwar script, both of which he invented. [ 1 ] [ T 9 ]