A new view of Smaug?

[Herald_of_Mandos]

Originally Posted by Mithalwen

Indeed. Black is one of the finest Tolkien illustrators and sadly underrated. Of course the Black dynasty is highly influential in Seriffean culture. Aeonis and Absara have also made their marks in their own way. Only perhaps Raleigh Roman is in the same league....

You should try the Goudy version, Herald, I think the opening conversation between Bilbo and Gandalf is particularly effective. However the illustrations by Arnold Boecklin are somewhat crude in comparison to the elegance of the others.

I know, that's what's always put me off. Too heavy, dark, and well, symbolic. I really am curious now to read "The Hobbit" in the original, though. I did know some things were different– for example, "Blackoak" is "Mirkwood", "Elrod"* is "Elrond", "Lithos" is really "Legolas" and Italica the Elf-maiden is "Itaril" in English. Of course I'll always think of them by their Serriffean names...

You know, I heard Jackson and Walsh were so impressed with Arial Black's work they had the Carolingian Minuschool edition translated back into English and used that as the basis for their screenplay! You can imagine how proud that makes me, as a San Serriffean!


*A poor choice of name. I know many readers here were just confused by the similarity to Port Elrod in the Upper Caisse!