Honestly, I’ve never cared much for Tolkien’s renditions of Middle-Earth — a bit too cute and folk-tale-ish for my fantasy tastes for what Middle-Earth should look like.* But I’ve always deeply appreciated that he made them, and they are very pretty in their own right.
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* I was more of a Bros. Hildebrandt guy back in the day.
BBC Arts – Middle-earth in colour: How Tolkien drew his fantasy universe – BBC Arts
The author was a talented illustrator of the maps and legends of his epic imaginary world.
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"…a bit too cute and folk-tale-ish for my fantasy tastes for what Middle-Earth should look like…"
But it's literally his world. 😛
An author looses control of their creation the moment someone else starts to read the story.
+L Gorrie Yes.
I deeply respect that this was the imagery that Tolkien had in mind while writing (though as someone who has both written and drawn, I know that sometimes the translation is not exact, but bounded by talent limitations in either domain).
I would never say that Tolkien's drawings are wrong or incorrect. I will just say that they don't match how I picture the world he presented in what I read.
Understandable for sure. I get the same way when I think about Martin’s world.
Well he wrote the books for his children. Of course they're going to be cutesy