Pauline Diana Baynes was an English illustrator, author, and commercial artist. She contributed drawings and paintings to more than 200 books, mostly in the children's genre. She was the first illustr
Even in her old age, Baynes never forgot the sights and sounds of Mussoorie.
An illustration by Edmund Dulac, one of Baynes's inspirations
An illustration by Arthur Rackham. In 1961, Tolkien urged Baynes to "avoid the Scylla of Blyton and the Charybdis of Rackham - though to go to wreck on the latter would be the less evil fate".
Baynes's illustration The Hoard for J. R. R. Tolkien's 1962 book The Adventures of Tom Bombadil. The image was Baynes's favourite among the book's illustrations, but it disappointed Tolkien as he felt both the figures were implausible: the knight should have had a shield and helmet, while the dragon should have been watching the cave's entrance.
Gondor is a fictional kingdom in J. R. R. Tolkien's writings, described as the greatest realm of Men in the west of Middle-earth at the end of the Third Age. The third volume of The Lord of the Rings,
The lifeless White Tree of Gondor has been compared to the Dry Tree of medieval legend. Medieval manuscript illustration of the Dry Tree (centre) with the Phoenix, flanked by the Trees of the Sun and the Moon. Both the Dry Tree and the Phoenix are symbols of resurrection and new life. Rouen 1444–1445
James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Hamilton holding the white staff of the Lord Steward of the King's Household, Scotland, the same symbol as that of the Stewards of Gondor. Portrait by unknown artist after Daniël Mijtens, 1622
Bold colourful Rohan, modelled on the Anglo-Saxons (here in an 11th-century illustration), "the bit that Tolkien knew best", is contrasted by critics with the solemn but colourless Gondor.
Sandra Ballif Straubhaar notes that in Roman legend, Aeneas escapes the ruin of Troy, while Elendil escapes that of Númenor. Painting Aeneas flees burning Troy by Federico Barocci, 1598