J. R. R. Tolkien's artwork
J. R. R. Tolkien's artwork was a key element of his creativity from the time when he began to write fiction. 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. Some of his artworks combined several of these elements.
Ink drawing of "Quallington Carpenter", Eastbury, Berkshire, 1912
Watercolour painting The Hill: Hobbiton-across-the-Water used as the frontispiece of the first American edition of The Hobbit, 1938
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.
A Numenorean tile, such as might have been saved from the wreck of Númenor by Elendil, and taken in his ships to Middle-earth.
Tolkien and antiquarianism
J. R. R. Tolkien included many elements in his Middle-earth writings, especially The Lord of the Rings, other than narrative text. These include artwork, calligraphy, chronologies, family trees, heraldry, languages, maps, poetry, proverbs, scripts, glossaries, prologues, and annotations. Scholars have stated that the use of these elements places Tolkien in the tradition of English antiquarianism.
Tolkien intended to include many antiquarian-style elements in The Lord of the Rings, including drawings and paintings. This illustration, of the Doors of Durin, was, despite his best efforts, the only one that the publishers included in the first edition.
The first page from The Book of Mazarbul, a facsimile artefact that Tolkien carefully created in the style of a forgery to support the story and bring readers into his fantasy; he had hoped to include it in the first edition of The Lord of the Rings.
