Tolkien Calendars

Artists including the Brothers Hildebrandt and Ted Nasmith produced popular work on themes from The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit; later calendars also illustrated scenes from The Silmarillion.

[1] Diana Paxson noted in Mythlore in 1984 that Lester del Rey hired Tolkien Calendar artists to illustrate Terry Brooks's 1977 The Sword of Shannara, the whole product "as closely modeled on [The Lord of the Rings] as could be managed without actually committing plagiarism.

"[18] Mike Perschon, writing in Tor.com in 2012, similarly noted that del Rey hired the Brothers Hildebrandt, in Brooks's own words, to "mimic the Lord of the Rings calendar illustrations they had previously done.

[20] "At the Court of the Fountain" revealed the "splendor of the Númenóreans" with its image of the citadel of Minas Tirith, its "low vantage point" allowing the White Tower to soar high in the sunshine.

Among The Silmarillion scenes, "Morgoth and the High King of the Noldor" gives, according to the review, an epic sense of "Hell-on-Middle-earth" as Fingolfin faces the enormous figure of the Dark Lord.

The 1977 Lord of the Rings Calendar presented mostly new artwork, adding strongly, he wrote, "to my suspension of disbelief, and [it] enhanced my impression that Middle-earth was a 'real' place."