Tolkien portraits - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

Estelyn Telcontar · 07-09-2009, 04:39 AM

Thank you very much for that link, Mithalwen! I had never heard of, much less seen the Snowdon portrait, and it does have something disturbing about it. I think the angle, taken upwards, has something to do with that - he looks like he is desperately holding on to keep from falling. That could well be metaphoric for his emotions at that time of his life. I am reminded of the feeling he describes in Smith of Wootton Major, the loss of the key to Faërie, written only a few years earlier.

The other impression I get from the portrait is a Treebeard-y feeling, only hopeless and desolate. A very moving photograph indeed!

07-09-2009, 04:39 AM	#2
Estelyn Telcontar Princess of Skwerlz Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: where the Sea is eastwards (WtR: 6060 miles) Posts: 7,500	Thank you very much for that link, Mithalwen! I had never heard of, much less seen the Snowdon portrait, and it does have something disturbing about it. I think the angle, taken upwards, has something to do with that - he looks like he is desperately holding on to keep from falling. That could well be metaphoric for his emotions at that time of his life. I am reminded of the feeling he describes in Smith of Wootton Major, the loss of the key to Faërie, written only a few years earlier. The other impression I get from the portrait is a Treebeard-y feeling, only hopeless and desolate. A very moving photograph indeed! __________________ 'Mercy!' cried Gandalf. 'If the giving of information is to be the cure of your inquisitiveness, I shall spend all the rest of my days in answering you. What more do you want to know?' 'The whole history of Middle-earth...'