Ideas for drawing Fingolfin vs. Morgoth
 

And now for something completely different:

I've gotten into pencil art the last couple years. One scene I really want to draw is the tragic, heroic duel between Morgoth and Fingolfin. It's been done before by such amazing artists as John Howe and Ted Nasmith, but it's such a powerful story and l want to draw it myself. I don't want to copy their visions; however, they drew the scene much as I had pictured it when reading the book, so I can't make it too different.

I have a picture in mind of what I want my drawing to look like, but thought it would be fun to ask ye knowledgeable folk for ideas. What kind of armour did the combatants wear? What did Grond look like? Is there anything that bothers you about previous artistic renderings of the battle?

I'd love suggestions. :D

I don't really picture Morgoth as the 'demonic' looking figure. I know some make him look like evil incarnate or somewhat similar to an orc. I don't see him looking this way. I see him looking like other Vala just a more twisted and corrupt. Look at those humans we deem evil for example, there isn't anything in their face that is necessarily 'evil' so why should Morgoth be such. Another feature that is often exaggerated for effect is his height. I don't usually picture him as a towering giant standing stories above humans and elves. I do picture them taller than the other races but not to the point the Fingolfin would come to his knees.

Morgoth would have a cruel face to be sure and Fingofin would have an exceptionally fair face, a difficult thing to draw. Fingolfin's armor would be radiant and noble.

Grond is a wicked looking weapon, not just an ordinary hammer. It has to be depicted as such too. I'm not an artist but it's always been such in my mind. It will have runes and engravings to show the malice and hatred of Morgoth in it. It would be in a unique shape or design.

Good stuff! :) Morgoth's visage is going to be tricky to get right. It has to be scary in some way, but I like your argument for him being more "human." Although, remember, the body that he got stuck with was supposed to be terrible - what that word implies exactly, who knows?

Ai ai ai guess if I too feel like drawing that now! As if I hadn't enough works under process...

I might draw Fingolfin on horseback, just because it's cool to draw mounted combats. And my Morgoth would be handsome, even if in a rough way - the evillest people are often also the most strikingly good-looking, at least that's how I like to imagine them. ;) You don't have to be an orcish insect-faced giant to be described as terrible, it's enough if your bearing is arrogant and haughty; and that can be achieved with proper facial expressions instead of giving Morgoth horns and tentacles and whatnot.

I love Howe's picture but Nasmith's (even though it's technically fine) is somewhat ridiculous, just look at his Morgoth!

As for armoury then... You could emphasise Morgoth's northern barbarism by giving him a leather armour, but then again a full plate armour might fit the coward better. And even though he's a half god or whatever, don't make Grond unrealisticly big. The fact is, however strong he is, even he couldn't probably wield a 70kg mace effectively.

Anyway, I'd love to see the picture when it's finished. :)

I like that idea. Maybe he shouldn't be handsome (although I would enjoy seeing someone like Christian Bale play Morgoth in Silmarillion The Movie) but at least he should be human-like, not some monstrous horned freak no...

As for his size I totally agree with Morm. Morgoth is big and tall yes but certainly not like a three story building. I mean, if you look at the actual text you see that despite the dramatic phrasing that emphasises Fingolfin's heroism against all the odds, the two combatants seem to be roughly the same size. Yes, Morgoth is bigger and more imposing, but not that much bigger.

For example: when Fingolfin grows weary trice Morgoth presses him down to the ground shield to shield, and each time Fingolfin gets up again.

Imagine fighting a man say half your height and a quarter of your weight. Why on earth would you have any need to do that then? And if you did nevertheless, how could that tiny man get up again? The answer is, he couldn't.

Also, Morgoth kills Fingolfin by stepping on the High King's neck. The neck, and not the head or upper body mind you. If Morgoth were huge, like 10 metres tall, his feet would be huge too and he could have squished the whole Elf under his boot like a bug.

So, in conclusion, Morgoth is not taller than say two and a half metres or at the very most three metres (for you metrically challenged people, that's 8-9 feet).

Would love to go on speculating about Morgoth's appearance but no time for that now.

I agree with skip. (Even about Christian Bale... that would actually be brilliant. I actually imagine Morgoth looking something like that. That's not to say I consider him handsome, though, but that's exactly the reason.)

That's not to say, though, that you cannot paint a big Morgoth next to a smaller Fingolfin. The picture, after all, does not have to be realistic: if you draw a big Morgoth, it can be menacing etc., although it does not have to mean that he was really fifteen meters tall. Personally, I really like Howe's illustration (and now that I looked at it, Morgoth actually is not THAT big there, I thought he was bigger in the picture). It is very clever that he covered Morgoth's head with the helmet there: he avoided the how-to-make-menacing-face-should-he-look-human-or-not dilemma people have discussed above. Although of course, a really skilled artist could probably be able to make Morgoth menacing also otherwise. But this move from Howe was likely also a clever way to avoid being dissed by fans who say "no, Morgoth should have cat eyes/reptile tongue/moustache/Mangekyou Sharingan". It also preserves the mystery.

One more thing about the height: I think it's really the crucial problem and I can see why most of the authors (at least all I can think of right now) have painted Morgoth considerably bigger, and that is, if you paint him about the same height as Fingolfin, you risk that it will look like just two guys fighting, two men (Elves...).

I think Morgoth has a bit of a similar problem like, say, the Balrog: with the Balrog, you also should not be able to determine its size. Alas, for the Balrog, it is far easier to make it unclear! (And it is actually the point.) If Morgoth is to be humanoid - like I think he should be, even though, in fact, the text does not make it necessary - you either have to make him a giant or risk making it look like a court duel between Éomer and Túrin Turambar. Not making him humanoid is of course a nice way to do it (or: in this case rather, not human), but that's a bit... well, see above for the horns and stuff.

So that's my opinion. As for the other gadgets, black plate armour is no doubt from my part at least.

Might I also point out that Barad-Dûr's stories are more man sized, not 3 stories=1 Sauron sized story. So if he wanted to get around easily he must have been relatively normal sized.


Edit: I went swimming, took a shower and ate lunch before I realized I'm think Sauron and you guys are talking about Morgoth

Haha, I'm seriously considering using Christian Bale as a reference for Morgoth now! :D

Thanks for the suggestions everyone! I tend to agree that Morgoth was not ridiculously tall like Ted Nasmith painted him, but, if I'm not mistaken, the words "tower" and "towering" are used to describe the way he appears. He should appear as tall as makes physical sense (keeping in mind the things that skip pointed out), perhaps even larger for the purposes of art, because Legate is right: if Morgoth looks like Fingolfin's equal the drama is lost.

I plan to be tricky and arrange my drawing in such a way that the heights of the two combatants cannot be compared, though I still have to make Morgoth appear towering and menacing. I'm not sure if I can pull that off, but I'll try. I think the face will be the most challenging aspect to draw right.

Post it when you're done! :)

Yeah, of course I will!