The anatomy of Glaurung - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

skip spence · 08-05-2009, 07:51 AM

Great Galin, you can always be trusted to provide substance, if there is any. Since I don't own that particular book, would you mind trying to tell us how the picture looks like?

So it is pretty safe to say that Glaurung is a serpent-creature. Since serpent is a synonym for snake (as opposed to lizard, crocodile, dinosaur) I suppose that Glaurung indeed looked pretty much like I tried to describe in the op. Yet I've never seen him illustrated anything like how one must assume he looks like, given the texts and background material. On my HoME XI paperback, there he is on the cover, looking rather like a monstrous grub with a dental condition:

That's just awful (although I quite like the colours on the original).

On a google-search lots of other images pop up, but none showing a lithe serpent creature. Why is that, you think?

Galin · 08-05-2009, 08:23 AM

I'm not sure this is allowed, but if the link works it seems there is an edition of Unfinished Tales with Tolkien's early Glorund painting used as a cover illustration.

http://www.tolkien.co.uk/Pages/Produ...=9780261102156

If not allowed, apologies.

08-05-2009, 07:51 AM	#1
skip spence shadow of a doubt Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Back on the streets Posts: 1,125	Great Galin, you can always be trusted to provide substance, if there is any. Since I don't own that particular book, would you mind trying to tell us how the picture looks like? So it is pretty safe to say that Glaurung is a serpent-creature. Since serpent is a synonym for snake (as opposed to lizard, crocodile, dinosaur) I suppose that Glaurung indeed looked pretty much like I tried to describe in the op. Yet I've never seen him illustrated anything like how one must assume he looks like, given the texts and background material. On my HoME XI paperback, there he is on the cover, looking rather like a monstrous grub with a dental condition: That's just awful (although I quite like the colours on the original). On a google-search lots of other images pop up, but none showing a lithe serpent creature. Why is that, you think? __________________ "You can always come back, but you can't come back all the way" ~ Bob Dylan

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08-05-2009, 08:23 AM	#2
Galin Ghost Prince of Cardolan Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 1,036	I'm not sure this is allowed, but if the link works it seems there is an edition of Unfinished Tales with Tolkien's early Glorund painting used as a cover illustration. http://www.tolkien.co.uk/Pages/Produ...=9780261102156 If not allowed, apologies.