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TurnerMohan — Dwarvish Armor
Published: 2014-05-07 08:18:31 +0000 UTC; Views: 82376; Favourites: 1130; Downloads: 437
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a couple harnesses of the first-age dwarves, as would have been worn by Azaghal's host at the Battle of Unnumbered Tears (complete with their "hideous" dwarven war-masks) This one, along with my recent numenorean studies, is another entry in the "middle-earth historic costume in pictures" book that I would make if I planned on living to a thousand (honestly though, since discovering this pen-and-marker medium, making such a volume seems infinitely more possible, I'm kicking myself in the head for not having ventured into markers sooner)The First Age in Beleriand seems to have been something of a golden age for Dwarven craftsmanship; between them the artisans of Belegost and Nogrod had the building of Menegroth and Nargothrond, the Nauglamir, the Dragon Helm of Dor-Lomin, the knife Angrist, the sword Narsil and, perhaps most significantly in the long run, the invention of chainmail (more on that below) to their credit. I see it as this Italian Renaissance-like time of heated competition between the two dwarven city states, resulting in a lot of never-to-be-equaled high notes in weapons, armor, architecture and finery (I can imagine some magnificent but sadly not-remembered geniuses among the craftsmen of Belegost, living their whole lives and carreers in furious competition with the insurmountable Gamil Zirak and later his brilliant pupil Telchar) it was also a time of rare cooperation between the Dwarves and other free folk (I suppose having the Evil of the World incarnate and living a few days march away will do that) evidenced perhaps most compellingly by the dwarves' apparently open use of their khuzdul names (unheard-of in the later ages, even during the days of friendship between the dwarves of Khazad-Dum and the Noldor of Eregion)
The warriors who took part in the battle with Glaurung and his brood represent an all-time high water mark for dwarven strength and courage, and I wanted their armor to match. In the silmarillion it is remarked that the dwarves wore masks into battle as part of their custom, but I like to imagine that, in response to the first generation of fire breathing dragons (perhaps in later generations the dragons simply grew too big and their fire too hot for any armor) the dwarven armorers created a new style focused on effectively fireproofing the face and figure, with the traditional war-masks rendered as these elaborately detailed forge visors, and offering full body coverage (with the armor probably worn over some pre-modern type of asbestos cloth) I can see it as a proud, fearsome style, with many armors (once they'd been proven affective against dragon fire) adorned with mocking images of the beasts, gold teeth and mustaches, even horns, claws and fangs of the monsters themselves (probably cow horns in reality for the most part, meant to represent dragon-trophies, but perhaps one of the lesser members of glaurung's brood had been brought down under similar circumstances to Fingon's mounted hunt)
design-wise, I see dwarven armor as both eastern and western stylistically. They invented chainmail and are the best at making it, so I think they probably would have played around with all styles, from the simple, classic four-in-one weave pattern, to denser six-in-one, to those crazy intricate patterns you see in indian and persian chainplate (they came up with the stuff, i think they can play around with it some
) and since middle-earth is pretty much an all-chainmail world, I like to think (and this is my attempt at sort of retroactively assigning a consistent art history to a fictional universe) that you can sort of tell -very broadly speaking - where someone is from by the style and make of their maille; whereas the elves and the men in the west favor that classic european style four-in-one, guys out east are more inclined toward persian/turkish style chain plate, or more exotic weaves. Dwarves are the real geniuses when it comes to armor and, being far flung as they are out into the east and south, chainmail is their big "gift to the world" (kind of like Russia with the AK-47) so i like to think that in their armor you can see the origin of a lot of styles imitated (usually by less-skilled human craftsmen) by people and cultures all over the world, both good and evil.Part of the Weekly Tolkien Sketchblog (now in technicolor!)
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Comments: 102
That is awesome! I love the design. They definitely look like people you don't want to mess with. Khazad!
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What I can say but... marvelous! This fits my mental image of the first age dwarves splendidly. The armors really suit the dwarvish mentality and sturdines and also the description given to us in Silmarillion. Especially the "hideous masks".
I have always loved chainmail but came to realize only quite resently that professor himself descriped it to be the almost one and only armor type of the Middle Earth. (Finnish translations do not specify the armors the way the original language does you see) There are some hints to scale mails and to some extra plate protection like vambraces though. Still I have always imagined that those extra plates were used only by kings, commanders and other "nobility" while the common rank and file soldiers used plain chainmail or even lighter gear.
And what comes to the first age being the golden age, it seems that in Tolkien's world everything is waning what more time passes. At the beginning all craftmanship and everything in general was at its peak. During ages all skills are only deteriorated or forgotten. But this suits the whole idea of the Silmarillion, Middle-Earth amd the overall story well.
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Lovely Dwarven armour! Dwarfs need more love
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thank you, glad to hear you think so!
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Oh my fucking god! You did it your bastard! The perfect concept! Hell you are good mister Turner. This one brought tears to my eyes
Seriously man, I offer my most deep and sincere admiration! this piece is a jewell. Later when the shock is gone I'll be back to express a point or two. Fuck this is just amazing! I see some of the stuff we talked and showed each other in the past here and I am so happy to see that we where able to feed each other ideas and art! So much good art stuff happened since I knew your art bro. This kind of inspirational exchange is just priceless. Damn! i need to draw some dwarves now!
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i'm glad you like 'em man, i had a lot of your design work in mind when making these (particularly those few guys of yours in scale coats, which i could see fitting in with these two) i'll be interested to hear your more collected, technical thoughts on it, but it's a real treat, and a serious affirmation, to read a comment like yours
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Well better late than never yes?!
I finally have some time to read and admire and comment your stuff .
This one was like a punch in the face. You know I am a dwarf person, and I obviously love your work, I was really looking forward to see some dwarven stuff from you....And as always you didn't disappoint at all. You always manage to somehow go a step further and create something absolutely new. In this case it is those masks! Maybe you based your helmets in historical eastern models as well in the LOTR movies aesthetics with a bit of influence from other artists and maybe even mine own, but those masks I did not see anything close to that nowhere! The bevor thing is just perfect. Dwarven and functional. It will be very difficult to get rid of those mouth design in my own works, it is just so perfect to ignore. I really like the drawing style you are using on your new works, expressive and honest, with just the right amount of details.
The dwarf on the right is my favorite, I love the way his armor looks real and solid. The overlapping panels, the Japanese like leg guards, the helmet and the buckle of the belt are just perfect! I like the crest, you just made it amazingly believable and dwarven.
The one on the left is also very good, but to me the helmet appendages looks too fat too. And I think his armor looks too much real world eastern if you know what I mean. Maybe some different cut on the plates, I don't know. besides it the only thing that could be different is the thickness of the axe shafts. The position of the axes and warriors are just perfect and natural tough. You are great!
I am mesmerized by the way you draw your scales, it looks so real. I am studying it with very limited success right now. I also am very impressed by the shape of the scales in both armors, it is so original and pleasing. The scales in the helmet of the one on the left are made of which material? They look like bronze or leather, and both will be amazing options.
I got really inpired by your latter works, and started some sketches too. The first one is Turin and his helmet, that was also influenced by your work here: artigas.deviantart.com/art/Tur…
You are a little silent lately, I have not seen any new works in a while, I hope you are all ok.
Thank you for the good work and inspiration.
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good to hear back from you and to hear your thoughts in greater detail. certain elements of this piece were unspired by your own work, or by discussions we've had on the subject, so i was interested in your opponion on the finished product.
the masks repesented a combining of my favorite elements from those dwarven war masks pen studies i did a while back. i'd really wanted to do them in color because i had some very definite ideas about the very sutton hoo-like steel and gold look.
the harness on the right was the one i was mainly interested in and i can easily agree it's the better and more original of the two. i wanted for the one on the left to be a little bit closer to the all-maille look tolkien so often describes, and also to maybe be a cheaper, more common suit than the one on the right, although i've sort of revised my ideas there: there really is no such thing as a "cheap" or low quality dwarven harness, certainly not by any non-dwarven standards, their work with armor being renowned even by the sindar and the noldor (it is mentioned somewhere that the armor and weapons of even the least of the gondolindrim host that issued forth at the ninearth arnoediad was worth more than the ransom of any king of men, and i'd think that the same at least would have to be true of the armor worn by azaghal's army) the armor itself i think has a nice cut overall, but the flat plates and square cut bottom edge are a little plain, i think if i did it over i'd do those a little more like the sleeves. the "mountain crest" on that one does appear a little thick, honestly that was basically a mistake; the crest (which i'm quite proud of) was based on some pre-roman gallic helmet crests, turned sideways, roman centurian style, and squared off for the "dwarven" look, but it really should be thinner. the scale flanks are supposed to be leather, "green" and treated in some way that makes them very resistant to burning (which was a thing in the middle ages)
i was really impressed drawing you did of turin, i'll comment on that one later. i've been working on a few sketches of the dragon helm myself, taking alot of inspiration from that awesome masked helmet in "gladiator" (the dragonhelm having been a present to maedhros, given by azaghal in honor and recognition of the mighty elven warrior, i thought it'd be interesting for it to be fitted with a beardless, more humaniod face) i'll post them up soon
I've been working lately, but it's mostly been on this painted scene featuring the two blue wizards (i've been trying for the last year or so to teach myself how to paint in watercolor, it's slow going as i'm not that used to either painting or even working in color, but it's alan lee and john howe's preferred meduim for finished illustrations, so i'd like to be able to do it) additionally, i've been trying to up my game with the pen illustrations (i always try to move forward in terms of technical quality with each new piece i do, or at least not move backward, and looking at braun an schnieder's "historic costume in pictures," my primary reference for this project, i can see that they really are still quite a few significant steps ahead of me as artists. actually, looking closely at their work, I think their "pen illustrations" are not pen at all but super-fine wood engravings, jesus 
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I actually dig the helmet crest design, it is just that little detail that is a bit off. The rest is amazing and original.
I read this part you are talking about yesterday, on Children of Hurin, I was amazed to imagine the kind of equipment the Gondolindrin had.
Possibly there are cheaper armor and weapons for the low-ranked poorer citizens in the dwarven kingdoms, and even differences in quality between the clans themselves and over periods of time. But I see that even the lowest acceptable work of a dwarf will compare to a premium human work, and will have some kind of decoration also.
Man I’m really looking forward to see your version of the Dragon helm. I think there are too few renditions of it around, and even fewer that are actually good (more like decent).I prefer to think that the helmet was left unaltered, it is a work of the great Telchar and I will be too much daring and disrespect to alter it. Also the owners did not seem much interested in wearing it before Turin himself, so I conclude it is too heavy and uncomfortable for anyone beside a dwarf to wear it.
But this is my opinion, yours is also very possible, we are in the helm of the unsaid, between the lines of the books, so everything is equally possible and interesting. As I said I am really looking forward to see your vision of it.
Man I am so glad you are interested in my Turin Drawing. It will be a huge pleasure if you drop a line or two with your opinions, both conceptual and technical, because you are teaching me a lot on bot.
I am struggling with the media, watercolors are not so friendly as it might seem. Also I have to develop a better inking and technique, I like the way your B&W looks losse and precise, dynamic and fast, even though detailed. I am searching for that kind of approach right now. A question: wich size of paper do you use? And wich tool to aply black Ink? The earlier drawings seems like A4 but the Haleth one looks bigger like a A3.
For Braun’s works you can bet that those are Litographs. Artists of old were real bad asses for sure. But I think you nailed it pretty good, if my vote counts. Of course we both can use some improvement, but yours is perfectly nice stuff.
Finally, it is good to hear that despite your busy schedule you still find the time to work some new ideas up. I am looking forward to see those come true. And thank you very much for the time you took for replying me.
See you friend.
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Outstanding piece! You perfectly managed to convey the "gateway to the East" feel you were aiming for, as you anticipated me last month (btw, sorry for the terrible lack of feedback from me, i've seen your new works but I've had a very busy period, so i never found the strength to patiently review them as they deserve: I hope I will in the close future). As I was saying, this is a very intelligent blend of Western and Eastern elements, and it makes me a bit sad that these very ornamental, artistic armours will end up becoming dull Viking chainmails by the end of the Third Age. Not that I wouldn't be curious to see your ideas about Third Age Dwarves, eh! In general I'd be really curious to see this half-utopistic project of yours, this illustrated encyclopedia of fashion over millennia of Middle-Earth history - actually I'd pay GOLD for it! By the way, do you think you're going to colour up at least some of your previous works? I thought I liked too much your black-and-white style to risk ruining it with colours, but you convinced me otherwise with this piece and your awesome Nùmenoreans
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thank you my friend, I'm glad to hear you think so.
while i do think of the dwarves as being a bit "shaggier" and more experimental in their materials and styles at this early time, and honing into a more conservative look of chainmail and open-faced helmets by the third age (sadly i think they'd have probably lost the horns by then aswell) i think that third age style would definitely bear strong evidence of having come from this (chainplate and scale armor can definitely find a place among the dwarvish harnesses of thorin and dain's time
I am more-or-less planning at this point to go ahead with that crazy idea of mine to do a middle-earth historic costume picturebook; i find that for some reason I can crank out these pen-and-marker plates alot quicker than I do with my pencil work, and sofar I'm very pleased with the results. one of my friends on deiantart is urging me to try and make a kickstarter type project out of it, which i may well do (actually i'll probably put out a message asking people to feed me some ideas of cultures and styles they'd like to see me do plates of, that way i don't just end up doing the ones that occur to me, so if you've got any ideas let me know 
I will probably not go in and retro-color my earlier work, mainly because most of it was done in pencil, which has it's own look that i love and wouldn't want to tamper with (also the soft shades of pencil arent as good for markering over as the more defined "technical illustration" style offered by pen)
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I think you are too critical of yourself Turner, I love these 1st age dwarves you have given us!
I for one would love to see more! I greatly enjoyed the scale muttonchop one and the viking-like helm you did in the sketches, I would love to see your version of the Armor that would go with those! (or the combination of those stylistic elements.)
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no I hope I didn't send the wron message in my notes, I'm very happy with these myself,
Maybe I'll do another batch of these guys, extrapolating from my other mask designs, but these two have pretty much all of my favorite elements from my mask designs incorporated already, so i may have to "recharge" for a while before attempting more like this.
thanks!
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Beard armor, the most important and meticulously crafted piece of any dwarfish set. A dwarf would forgo even the most vital pieces of armor if it meant choosing between protecting his beard over their organs. Only the most daring and elite of the warrior caste wade into battle with out there bristly locks safely armored. To gaze upon an unarmored beard is to see wrath and woe itself.
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Your continuing experimentation with colored markers is really working for you these days. The colors really bring out the visual texture between ferrous metals, precious metals, and non-organic components quite nicely here. I can understand your fondness for using more plate in your armors for the artistic appeal. It's no surprise that after the disappearance of Classical armors that Western craftsmanship had to wait for the Renaissance-era development of plate armor to have a metallic canvas for artistic expression.
The intimidating splendor of the two Dwarves of Belegost depicted here is definitely along the lines of the Dwarven elite warriors that I envisioned from the old days, before the Dwarves got booted out of all their fine underground cities in the Third Age. The martial attitude of the Blue Mountain Dwarves can be summed up at a glance in their armor, which is a fine touch. The layered nature of the armor with the emphasis on maximal protection for likely targeted areas is excellent, and any worries over extended wear can be shrugged off since Dwarves "make light of burdens". The bulky, stocky body shape automatically given by heavy armor regardless of age, race, or gender is present here in a way that I wish more artists would emulate. The added metal plates help explain the ineffectiveness of dragon-fire against Azaghal and his guardsmen, since the reflective/deflective properties of the plates & platelets would make a fine defense against the initial heat, and then they would simply advance through the grass fires that would be of small consequence compared to the heat given off by an industrial-class smelter working at full capacity.
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i like to imagine the dragon helm of dor-lomin with it's golden glaurung-crest as existing in the particular style of dwarven helmets at the time, many of which displayed images of dragons, as if already killed, stuffed and mounted. It's an aggressive fashion, and the helm of dor lomin, being made originally for Azaghal, would be a great renowned entry in the cannon. I may have to draw it at some point; it'd be interesting to do it in this style but with a beardless, more human (or elvish) looking face-mask, as if it'd been reworked by telchar when Azaghal gave it as a gift to Maedhros.
thank you for the very astute (and for me very rewarding) remark about my capturing that padded, stocky look of armored figures; it's something I almost always strive for in armor and dont always hit, but the dwarves in particular are tailor-made for that look. for some reason (probably the sheer lack of anything better to compare them to) i tend to think dwarves in armor should look somewhat like russian hatching dolls in terms of the form they cut; thick and stocky but not particularly broad shouldered, people in armor (particularly the less form fitting armors of the East) often look like they're wearing heavy, clunky dresses made of iron.
In a sense these suits function like modern day fireman's gear, I can imagine the dwarves marching through the charred, smouldering anfauglith in them, undaunted by the blasting heat.
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Your version of the Dragon-helm would be very interesting! Turin must have liked it; in Nargothrond he used an Elven helm coupled with a Dwarven war-mask found in the armories, and frightened all the orcs a great deal! 
It is impossible to wear heavy armor and not gain the profile of a defensive linebacker.
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at the rate i've been going lately the dragon helm will be forthcoming (maybe i'll try and throw in the rest of turin to boot, his harness - what with maille from doriath and sword by eol - is pretty impressive)
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Dude i fucking love these guys! And your thoughts about their armour style and culture, makes a lot of sense i think. I like that you used the "square" idea from the movies!
The helmet to the left is badass as hell!! Im guessing the one on the right is a commander or somthing?
I can se before me a dwarven king or something with this eastern style chainmail with plates woven in it, but the plates are like the decorative plates of the Vendel era helmets:37.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lbp…
I mean would that be awesome? An armour like these two but filled with pictures of dwarven mythology
Also what markers did you use?
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yes those raised vendel helmet plates were in my mind while working on these guys, I wanted the dwarves, while defining the "western" style of armament with the invention of chainmail, to have this "gateway to the east" feel to them, as in the books it's remarked that, between the seven houses, the dwarves have been just about everywhere (the armor incorporates elements of viking, indo-persian, semetic, and japanese influences)
i would imagine the guy on the right is probably an important dwarf, a captain or lord of some house. these guys come from a part of the silmarillion during a really ugly battle against morgoth's forces, where the dwarves really shine:
"Last of all the eastern force to stand firm were the Dwarves of Belegost, and thus they won renown. For the Naugrim (*dwarves) withstood fire more hardily than either Elves or Men, and it was their custom moreover to wear great masks in battle hideous to look upon; and those stood them in good stead against the dragons. But for them Glaurung and his brood would have withered all that was left of the Noldor, but the Naugrim made a circle about him when he assailed them, and even his mighty armour was not full proof against the blows of their great axes; and when in his rage Glaurung turned and struck down Azaghâl, Lord of Belegost, and crawled over him, with his last stroke Azaghâl drove a knife into his belly, and so wounded him that he fled the field, and the beasts of Angband in dismay followed after him. Then the Dwarves raised up the body of Azaghâl and bore it away; and with slow steps they walked behind singing a dirge in deep voices, as it were a funeral pomp in their country, and gave no more heed to their foes; and none dared to stay them."
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Then i hope i'll get to see more of these dwarves of yours, because obviously you have put a lot of thought in them.
That's a pretty epic piece! Although i'm a bit surprised that knife was enough, to get the dragon running.
Perhaps you should illustrate that battle? Would bee awsome
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oh I've been considering it, but the only problem is that the Battle of Unnumbered Tears (as it is called) has a dozen or so great scenes in it, included among them the killing of the elven king Fingon by balrogs, the charge of the high elf gwindor into the ranks of orcs, and the last stand of hurin - of which you have already seen some of my sketches, and which i still plan to turn into a big, frazetta-style painting - and the "hill of the slain," a mountain made by the orcs and trolls of the piled bodies of the fallen men and elves. maybe I'll make it a series.
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Yeah man that's a lot of stuff, and as you say a series probably would be the only thing giving it justice.
And i'm still looking forward to the last stand of Hurin
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Prior to the films this was certainly very much what I had in mind when it came to the look of dwarves in times of war. I am rather fond of those harnesses of mail panels that you and Devin Manning use, such as the dwarf on the right- one of the problems I tend to have with the 'mail only' attitude to armour is the lack of variety and shape which comes much more naturally with plate armour, but having backed panels like that provides some structure to it.
Couple of critiques- I think the blocky crest on the left-hand's helmet seems a bit too 'cinematic' compared to the rest of his armour. Those big square constructions don't seem quite organic or 'real' enough. And while I love the bloke on the right, the horns on his helmet seem a bit tacked on. What's more, i'm left wondering what kind of animal they actually come from- they look like the kind of thing you get on highland cattle but their horns would be much too large for a dwarf.
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honestly I havent seen devin's stuff in quite a while and don't remember how much of these lines and forms were taken from his designs. A big influence for these were some of the concept work done by Artigas, with whom I've had alot of back and forth on the subject of dwarven armament.
Maille can get a bit monotonous, which is why I think almost everyone depicting middle-earth armor tries to add some elements of plate/scale/lamellar, just for added visual interest.
I disagree on the "mountain" crest. the design was adapted from a couple ancient gaulic helmets and (while probably a bit too thick, granted, although the dwarves are pretty sturdy) I think it gives a very strong graphic edge to the figure without seeming a-historical (I tend to stick to the films' geometric style for the dwarves, keeping it realistic, which often restricts you to small square forms like plate-maille, but when i can go for broke on a strong, right angled element, I'll try for it)
As for the horns, I'm quite pleased with them myself. they seem a good ornamentation to the otherwise interesting but kind of conservative silhouette. I think when you're going for face masks (which are kind of a funky thing themselves) it helps not to have them framed by these conservstive lines and forms. I like the idea of the dwarves of the first age being somewhat wooly and experimental in their style choices, perhaps not so pigeon holed into the "miniature viking" look I associate their third age descendents with their mannish names with; these guys are comparatively fresh in the world, use their Khuzdul names, and are proud, fierce warriors, standing and fighting dragons instead of running and hiding from them, so a little panache (or alot) in their armor seemed worth going for (also it seems a good opportunity to give the always dubious horned helmet a cameo in middle earth)
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It is a pleasure to read that my work was also a source of inspirations. Yours is the same for me. I think our works work well togueter, feeding the whole thing.
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Well fair play to you, I was simply speaking from my tastes in the armour. I think if the 'mountain' crest had been slimmer i'd have liked it more, it's certainly a strong shape, it was simply too boxy to my eyes as it stood- like he's got a slab of concrete coming out his head.
I agree with you on the woolly and experimental appearance though. I'm sure i've said it before but I do tend to think of those hugely elaborate late Samurai suits of armour when I think of the dwarves and they have all kinds of strangeness in them. I just think in the case of the horns, they don't seem to 'grow out' of anything - they don't seem like a feature 'designed into' the helmet, just tagged on, and perhaps instead of horns they should be antlers like a roe deer's, or goat horns or even walrus tusks instead of the 'up and out' look of a full grown highland cow.
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the crest is supposed to be the same thickness as that angled bar coming from the front which bisects it, but I can see how it appears thicker.
horns, antlers or metal antennae (whenever they appear in real, historical armor) almost invariably look tacked on to helmets that could have gotten along just fine without them, and I would almost say that that is part of the point. with these specifically I imagined that they were (or, probably more commonly, represented) claws or teeth taken from killed dragons (it's fun to speculate that a few of morgoth's reptilian beasts had debuted before the ninaerth arnoediad, and been successfully cut down) that in a sense it's a really grizzly way the dwarves have devised of mocking the dragons and even throwing some of the terror of these huge, fanged monsters back at them (kind of a "cook 'em in their own fiery gizzards and eat em" attitude, which if it was ever actually tried, almost certainly resulted in fatal indigestion) for those reasons i tend to favor horns over antlers (when dragon parts were not available) but i wouldnt rule those out as part of the trickle-down of the style. it's anybody's guess as to what kind of horns they are, but after several days recently spent sketching the stuffed animals in the natural history museum, I'm fairly confident you can pretty much make up a horn shape and find a real life creature it belongs to
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Quite blatantly magnificent, as I am sure you are well aware Master Mohan!
I will agree that markers do add something to your latest works, but please allow me to reassure that they merely add colour and not quality - for your art was already excellent, colours or no!
In all seriousness I tend to see the dwarves as less predisposed to the Shield Wall than to a more late-medieval reliance upon their armour to soak the blows and their individual prowess to wreck havoc upon foes while they rely upon their fellows to watch their back and their sides; it's possible that there would be a certain amount of rotation to allow fighters to recoup their energies when even the noted stamina of the dwarves begins to flag.
I believe that shields are mentioned in connection with the dwarfish assault on Glaurung (as well as much later in the Third Age during the War of the Dwarves and Goblins), but I tend to see this in my minds eye as more like a cross between a medieval siege and tank-hunting during the Second World War - dangerous, dirty work and extremely technical (in other word perfectly suited to Dwarvish temperament).
One final thought; it occurs to me that when drawing up your own rendition of Narsil, it might be interesting to hint that while the dwarf-forged blade has survived almost two Ages of wear-and-tear, the hilts of the sword have been replaced (quite possibly in the interest of changing fashion, if nothing else!). I also remain fond of your own idea that Narsil being a blade passed down from remote ancestor to recent descendent would of course look OLD in the same way that the better-preserved relics of the Middle Ages show their venerability.
I imagine that you refer to something very like the appearance of this sword, a sort of hard-used, rugged quality without apparent frailty
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they seem to have had more of saxon "individual warrior" approach to battle (really almost everyone in middle earth does, except the regimented orcs) so yeah, while i can see them working together with their comrades to make shield walls and such(like they used to hedge in glaurung) it's not how i see them fighting for the most part.
The comparrisson to a company isolating and taking on an armored tank is a good one, and would require both the dwarven teperment and armamament. I can see them coming forward through the fire, over the scored bodies of elves, men and horses, to face glaurung, who edges forward like some huge heavy crocodile before them.
It's fairly obvious from the many many descriptions of just this point, that dwarven-tempered steel has tremendous durability. That sword has about the right cared-for-but-really-fucking-old look that I associate with narsil (which is some 6,000 + years old at the time of LOTR) The actual design of narsil is a prepetual question mark to me. It almost cries out to be a late medieval greatsword (like it was in the film) but I'd bet money tolkien had something more like a viking longsword in mind for it. It'd be a fool who tried to rework a dwarven piece of workmanship, chainging styles or no, so I think however narsil looked when it was first made is how it would look throughout the ages, but it's a trickiy one, i'll admit (and one which I'll have to face before too long)
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See my answer to Libra1010 below for details on styling and usage issues. That is even setting aside the claim that Telchar actually created the sword in the first place. I got caught up in a historical error in my MERP campaigns about Narsil, since "forge-mate swords" allegedly from Numenor were campaign features. The idea that Aragorn seriously considered his sword to have been created by a Dwarven master smith for the leaders of the Edain did not fully strike me until it was too late for a retraction. In-game I got around it by saying that the Telchar in question was Telchar of Romenlos, Swordmaker to the Kings of Numenor, and that a certain confusion had crept in over the centuries.
To my mind Narsil was no battered looking old sword, but as the personal weapon of the leader of the Faithful was tended with great care, and polished to mirror reflection when it needed sharpening. Like the coronation sword of France, it might have been honed thinner across the centuries, but it kept its appearance as a symbol of command and defiance of the Darkness. It's worth noting that Narsil owed a great deal of its continued survival to being a damaged artifact held in esteem and carefully preserved for over three millennia of the Third Age. Tolkien states in the text in FOTR I: 10 that the sword had snapped a foot past past the hilt about where the forte would be, a critical failure that made the blade unable to be welded together with any degree of utility. Nevertheless, the shards of Narsil were kept & tended by many hands, and then carried about by Aragorn as a sign of his impending destiny. The elven-smiths of Rivendell, themselves Noldor master-smiths of some renown, did a complete rebuild in FOTR II: 1, re-forging Narsil into Anduril, the name change reflecting a new weapon made from the stock of the old. Anduril would have fit Aragorn like a glove, but it would still have used Telchar's steel, and kept its hallowed spirit of Light seeking victory over Darkness, with a little Elven magic added for extra effect.
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I must admit that bit about 'changing fashions' was a joke more than anything; it DOES occur to me that the non-metallic elements of the hilts of Narsil would need renewing every so often (I imagine that the guard and the pommel would be made out of the same metal as the blade, but that the grip would be wound in some organic wrap - perhaps wolf-hide? - which would not last as long).
Concerning the design of Narsil, why not try to make it a 'missing link' between the Viking brand and the Medieval great sword? (something that would have been far ahead of its time when it was forged, with other smiths borrowing from and expanding upon it's design features to improve their own blades!).
I've been looking through the Oakeshott Sword typology and something like XII(a) strikes me as a plausible compromise between the blades that Beowulf might have known and the weapons familiar to the first Knights of the Garter (who would have been to Edward III what the Table Round was to Arthur Pendragon).
Please compare type XII to the others seen here ...
… and please click here if you want a more detailed explanation of the Type
I think that whatever design you go with for Narsil, it will have to be very long; albeit I suspect that in proportion to Elendil even a long, great sword is going to be a single-handed weapon - even though Aragorn would probably use Anduril as a hand-and-a-half sword (since he's 'only' two metres tall!).
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It's quite likely that Narsil underwent several changes in handle, guard, and pommel style over its operational lifetime. Medieval swords were sometimes recycled, with old blades given up to date furniture. Oakeshott pointed out a couple of swords from the late 15th & early 16th century that upon inspection were 13th century blades that had been given Renaissance era refurbishing. Oakeshott himself stated that his descriptions were more useful as a cataloging device for scholars and not a very reliable guide for the implementation of changes in sword use. In his Archaeology of Weapons Oakeshott gave an example of an unusual late Roman cavalry sword that was not the usual spatulate spatha-style cutting sword. Instead, it had a stiffened, slightly tapering blade shape with a defined point, looking very much like a 14th century cut and thrust sword blade in its shape and probable function, some 10 centuries before such blades were thought to exist by the usual studies!
In my MERP campaigns the question of sword sizing had come up, given that the Numenorian-decended Dunedain were tall, and would have had proportionately matching swords. Even before the movies came out I had theorized that a bastard sword might have the game stats reflecting a "proper" broadsword from the legendary times of Numenor & Elendil. The movies did not exactly follow through there, since the fight choreography had already set on Viggo Mortensen using a bastard sword (Lichtenaur's langschwert) and the weapon was kept proportional for the Last Alliance scenes for sake of continuity. Still, Viggo in his athletic & skillful performance as Aragorn really lent some weight to the idea, and it has been a house rule of sorts for me since then. (I was quite envious, since a yard-long cutting blade is a real test of my limited skill, and awkward to carry and use as I am only 5'7", with shorter than average legs. Boromir's cut & thrust broadsword as wielded by Sean Bean is more my speed.)
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One thing I've learned reading history; if an idea is good enough it has probably been recycled more than once! (but it may have been a long while since it last enjoyed any popularity); concerning the hilts of a sword, my guess is that the number of times they have to be refurbished would depend on what they're made of - at a guess the more organic materials in the composition the more frequently they need to be renewed, whereas metalwork likely requires less in the way of refurbishing (consider that some of the best-preserved, oldest sword hilts we know of are all metal or near enough to being so).
In any case I must admit that my acquaintance with the Oakeshott typology is more of a passing acquaintance than any great familiarity with the system, which rather sums up my knowledge of martial arts from the pages of History; I know quite enough to be keenly aware of how little I know!
In any case I whole-heartedly trust Master Mohan to design an incarnation of Narsil well worth the wielding! (I suspect he'll make a fine study of Gil-Galad's spear when the time comes too!).
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Loving the art AND the encycolpedic article that comes with it.
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probably. I was thinking "elvish maille," always remarked to be beautiful, form fitting, and sitting lightly on the wearer, deserves it's own study.
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Cool. I would also love to possibly see your take on dwarven women too. ;D lol
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Cool. I would also love to possibly see your take on dwarven women too. ;D lol
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Cool. I would also love to possibly see your take on dwarven women too. ;D lol
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Love it! Especially the beard protection. What do you think of the new movie armor designs? Looking forward to the new ones? Guess we will see plenty of dwarfen armor in the last one.
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eh, i think they're kinda bland, too standardized looking and too mechanical (in the modern sense)
Middle-earth seems a pretty solidly pre-mass-manufacture world, and especially for the dwarves, unparalelled craftsmen with a cultural emphasis on individual stength and courage, i think you'd never see two armors exactly alike.
glad you like these, and especially the beard protection, it seems a necessary measure for these hairy little fuckers to be going up against dragons.
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