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Painting ‘the most beautiful of all the Children of Ilúvatar’: Aesthetic Beauty in The Silmarillion and its Illustrations — Online Midsummer Seminar, 2025

In August 2025 I gave a talk at the Mythopoeic Society’s OMS (which I’d attended for a few years without daring to apply). This presentation is, as is often the case with my talks, largely taken from a chapter of my PhD. This time, I explore the concept of visual beauty in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Legendarium, through the rather telling example of Lúthien, and what that means for artists commissioned to illustrate her in official editions sanctionned by the Tolkien Estate, namely Alan Lee and Ted Nasmith. Depiste focusing on these two well-known names, I made it a point to include a lot of stunning fan-art in my powerpoint presentation, and to add a coda at the end about diversity.

The recording is available to watch here (click). Please ignore the technical glitch at the start.

Journey to the Lands of The One – part 2

Travel diary of the Sur les Terres de l’Unique convention in Plouha, Brittany.

Part 1 is available here.

Sunday started with a blissful sleep in, after which Ted, his partner and I were at our station a little before 10 in the conference room for the signing session.

Continuer la lecture de Journey to the Lands of The One – part 2

Highlights from the 40th anniversary illustrated edition of Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth

As you may or may not know, my research is focused on illustrated editions of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth texts in English. It means a corpus of around 18 volumes with interior illustrations. So far, only one had been illustrated by a duo of artists: the Folio Society 1977 The Lord of the Rings, illustrated by Ingahild Grathmer and Eric Fraser (see my talk on the topic in the upcoming proceedings of Tolkien2019).

In 2020, HarperCollins celebrated the 40th anniversary of the publication of Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth with a new, illustrated edition. To make it even more special, they commissioned not only Alan Lee, who had worked on the Three Great Tales, but also Ted Nasmith (who illustrated the 1998 and 2004 Silmarillion, a new edition of which is announced for 2021) and John Howe (who has created numerous covers and calendars, as well as a pop-up Hobbit).

Continuer la lecture de Highlights from the 40th anniversary illustrated edition of Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth

An introduction to the 2020 illustrated edition of Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth

40 years ago Christopher Tolkien published Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth, a collection of fragments of various lengths concerning topics of interest for in-depth readers of The Silmarillion, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

Continuer la lecture de An introduction to the 2020 illustrated edition of Unfinished Tales of Númenor and Middle-earth

Highlights from Ted Nasmith’s illustrated Silmarillion

[version française ci-dessous]

During Nanowrimo last November, one of my goals was to re-read The Silmarillion in Ted Nasmith’s illustrated edition and study the pictures as I went, so that the text would be fresh in my mind and I wouldn’t let an important detail slip unnoticed. Here you will find some of my thoughts and notes looking at the way Nasmith reads Tolkien and blends all the complexity of the tale into his illustrations. Continuer la lecture de Highlights from Ted Nasmith’s illustrated Silmarillion

An introduction to Ted Nasmith’s illustrated Silmarillion

[version française ci-dessous]

The end of October was devoted to a close reading of the Silmarillion illustrated by Ted Nasmith. I only had a dim memory of the book, having read it years ago in its French translation, in a couple of days, absorbing every new name as quickly as I forgot them. I remember feeling enthralled and enthusiast, discovering for the first time the Ainulindalë, the tale of Túrin Turambar of the downfall of Númenor between the pages of the yellowed Christian Bourgois edition adorned on the cover with the emblem of Lúthien Tinúviel.

Continuer la lecture de An introduction to Ted Nasmith’s illustrated Silmarillion