NogrodtheGreat
11-19-2013, 03:36 AM
I just finished reading a fascinating essay by Dimitri Fimi in the collection “Picturing Tolkien”, edited by Janice Bogstad. In the essay Fimi analyses several ways in which external non-Tolkien folklore influenced the visual design of Jackson’s films. In one interesting example, she shows how Jackson’s Elves are heavily dependent on “Celtic” images – curvilinear forms, “natural”, “graceful” and “flowing” art design and the creation of “celtic” moods evoking melancholy, enchantment and “otherworldliness”. As Fimi argues, Tolkien’s Elves might occasionally evoke these kinds of feelings, especially in their sense of retreat and disengagement from Middle-earth, but more generally their ‘real world’ analogues are to be found in Old Norse alfar and Irish Sidh.
Fimi explains that these “Celtic” sensibilities arise out of the anti-English and nationalistic Celtic revival movements from the early 20th Century – especially in Ireland – and that this movement influenced neo-celtic artwork, characterised by interlace work and “natural” forms and contrasted to “Anglo-Saxon” motifs supposedly more rigid and artificial (never mind that historically Anglo-Saxon art was a fusion of La Tene “Celtic” pre-Roman art and continental ‘Germanic’ art). Certainly, as an archaeologist I am perhaps more aware than most that supposedly “Celtic” art from pre-Roman times can only be very dubiously categorised as such. All we really know is that the people who produced it lived in modern France and Germany and may have spoken languages with a common ancestry. This does not demonstrate that these people thought of themselves as Celts nor that their artwork inspired identical aesthetic responses in them as it does for modern people. As Fimi argues, that these design choices were made with regards to the Elves because they evoke for modern people notions of natural authenticity, completeness and purity, all qualities the Elves are supposedly associated with.
Rivendell (https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Rivendell&rlz=1C1GGGE___AU542AU543&espv=210&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=wTCLUuPCOMTOiAfm7IHgAg&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1241&bih=605#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=iFS0CLwV9d90lM%3A%3BtDY9VKjXXYF9NM%3Bhttp%25 3A%252F%252Felvenesse.net%252Fblog%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2012%252F10%252Fgandalf-frodo_rivendell.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Felvenesse .net%252Fblog%252Ftag%252Frivendell%252F%3B960%3B4 04)
Take this image of a Rivendell interior. Gandalf’s chair, Frodo’s bed, even his bedspread, are all elaborately decorated with “flowing” and “interlacing” tree patterns evoking natural imagery. The effect is enhanced by the openness of the set, which implies an architectural oneness with nature. Even the slightly melancholic figures are wrapped in branches, suggesting the absorption of the anthropomorphic into the natural. There don’t appear to be any straight lines anywhere. All this is very “Celtic”, in the New Age sense – Jackson’s Elves are “one with nature”, they are “close to the earth” as the saying goes.
These kinds of architectural motifs are repeated ad nauseum in Lorien (where this kind of design is perhaps more appropriate, anyway). In the Hobbit films, an even more blatant “elves as natural” theme is produced in Thranduil’s Halls, though using a smaller repertoire of motifs. For Thranduil’s Halls, there appear to be even fewer anthropomorphic forms, and the design is less abstracted in places to evoke and even imitate the interlacing branches of trees and even more abstracted in others, evoking even more directly La Tene pattern designs found archaeologically.
Thranduil's Hall (http://heirsofdurin.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/thehobbit2-sneakpeek_h1080p-mov-mp4_000068985.jpg)
We can see in this image that Thranduil’s throne room is decorated with pillars carved to with branching designs. The bridge leading up to it is similarly carved – clearly these Elves are deeply connected to a forest environment and their art design reflects this. Indeed such designs bring to mind Tolkien’s description of Menegroth in the Silmarillion, with its pillars carved to look like beeches and the natural imagery that is evoked for the great hall of Thranduil. Even there, however, the suggestion is not that all Elves subscribe to this aesthetic vision, merely that it was something clearly relevant for Thranduil’s halls and the woodland culture of the Sindar. I can’t really imagine Gondolin as a glorified Rivendell, for example, covered in kitschy Celtic interlace work.
This rambling discussion leads to a question: what do you think of the designer’s choices for Elves in the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies? Were they justified in using “Celtic” imagery as an appropriate artistic influence for Elvish culture? Are they Elves really that “one with nature” anyway.
It seems to me that the filmmakers misunderstood the Elves’ relationship with the natural world, which is (contrary to the Rivendell design) not one of acquiescence and accommodation, but is far more “industrial”. Lothlorien is the best example. At a superficial level, it is a kind of otherworldly “Celtic” paradise, where the Elves live without distrupting the natural processes that go on in the forest. But in fact – and this is crucial – Lothlorien is a completely ‘artificial’ environment. It’s ‘purity’ is sustained by some kind of Magic, emanating from Galadriel and her Ring. The relationship is at its core one of control and mastery. I’m not sure how such a relationship might be evoked through architecture, but at the very least I would argue that the filmmakers’ conception of the Elves as ‘natural’ is flawed and reflected a superficial reading. Furthermore, that their choice of Celtic imagery is actually misleading in this respect. What say you?
Fimi explains that these “Celtic” sensibilities arise out of the anti-English and nationalistic Celtic revival movements from the early 20th Century – especially in Ireland – and that this movement influenced neo-celtic artwork, characterised by interlace work and “natural” forms and contrasted to “Anglo-Saxon” motifs supposedly more rigid and artificial (never mind that historically Anglo-Saxon art was a fusion of La Tene “Celtic” pre-Roman art and continental ‘Germanic’ art). Certainly, as an archaeologist I am perhaps more aware than most that supposedly “Celtic” art from pre-Roman times can only be very dubiously categorised as such. All we really know is that the people who produced it lived in modern France and Germany and may have spoken languages with a common ancestry. This does not demonstrate that these people thought of themselves as Celts nor that their artwork inspired identical aesthetic responses in them as it does for modern people. As Fimi argues, that these design choices were made with regards to the Elves because they evoke for modern people notions of natural authenticity, completeness and purity, all qualities the Elves are supposedly associated with.
Rivendell (https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Rivendell&rlz=1C1GGGE___AU542AU543&espv=210&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=wTCLUuPCOMTOiAfm7IHgAg&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1241&bih=605#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=iFS0CLwV9d90lM%3A%3BtDY9VKjXXYF9NM%3Bhttp%25 3A%252F%252Felvenesse.net%252Fblog%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2012%252F10%252Fgandalf-frodo_rivendell.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Felvenesse .net%252Fblog%252Ftag%252Frivendell%252F%3B960%3B4 04)
Take this image of a Rivendell interior. Gandalf’s chair, Frodo’s bed, even his bedspread, are all elaborately decorated with “flowing” and “interlacing” tree patterns evoking natural imagery. The effect is enhanced by the openness of the set, which implies an architectural oneness with nature. Even the slightly melancholic figures are wrapped in branches, suggesting the absorption of the anthropomorphic into the natural. There don’t appear to be any straight lines anywhere. All this is very “Celtic”, in the New Age sense – Jackson’s Elves are “one with nature”, they are “close to the earth” as the saying goes.
These kinds of architectural motifs are repeated ad nauseum in Lorien (where this kind of design is perhaps more appropriate, anyway). In the Hobbit films, an even more blatant “elves as natural” theme is produced in Thranduil’s Halls, though using a smaller repertoire of motifs. For Thranduil’s Halls, there appear to be even fewer anthropomorphic forms, and the design is less abstracted in places to evoke and even imitate the interlacing branches of trees and even more abstracted in others, evoking even more directly La Tene pattern designs found archaeologically.
Thranduil's Hall (http://heirsofdurin.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/thehobbit2-sneakpeek_h1080p-mov-mp4_000068985.jpg)
We can see in this image that Thranduil’s throne room is decorated with pillars carved to with branching designs. The bridge leading up to it is similarly carved – clearly these Elves are deeply connected to a forest environment and their art design reflects this. Indeed such designs bring to mind Tolkien’s description of Menegroth in the Silmarillion, with its pillars carved to look like beeches and the natural imagery that is evoked for the great hall of Thranduil. Even there, however, the suggestion is not that all Elves subscribe to this aesthetic vision, merely that it was something clearly relevant for Thranduil’s halls and the woodland culture of the Sindar. I can’t really imagine Gondolin as a glorified Rivendell, for example, covered in kitschy Celtic interlace work.
This rambling discussion leads to a question: what do you think of the designer’s choices for Elves in the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit movies? Were they justified in using “Celtic” imagery as an appropriate artistic influence for Elvish culture? Are they Elves really that “one with nature” anyway.
It seems to me that the filmmakers misunderstood the Elves’ relationship with the natural world, which is (contrary to the Rivendell design) not one of acquiescence and accommodation, but is far more “industrial”. Lothlorien is the best example. At a superficial level, it is a kind of otherworldly “Celtic” paradise, where the Elves live without distrupting the natural processes that go on in the forest. But in fact – and this is crucial – Lothlorien is a completely ‘artificial’ environment. It’s ‘purity’ is sustained by some kind of Magic, emanating from Galadriel and her Ring. The relationship is at its core one of control and mastery. I’m not sure how such a relationship might be evoked through architecture, but at the very least I would argue that the filmmakers’ conception of the Elves as ‘natural’ is flawed and reflected a superficial reading. Furthermore, that their choice of Celtic imagery is actually misleading in this respect. What say you?