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TurnerMohan — Noldor Armor Concepts
#elves #noldor #armor #feanor #silmarillion #tolkien
Published: 2015-06-14 09:11:53 +0000 UTC; Views: 19822; Favourites: 198; Downloads: 116
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some old concept sketches for noldor armor made in valinor during the period of mutual suspicion and kin-strife that arose as a result of morgoth's meddling. the whole story of the noldor elves' time in valinor is told in these very broad, archetypal strokes, and in this elevated tone that feels distinctly biblical - these mighty humanoid beings, still young and new to the world, raised in the eden-like bliss of the realm of the gods, seduced and turned to evil by this lucifer figure, banished from paradise after a cain and abel-like kinslaying - so a style more ancient, more lofty, more biblical even, than the dark-age northern-european aesthetic of maille and longswords that seems the fallback for middle-earth seemed fitting for it. I drew a lot of inspiration for these from egyptian, assyrian and early greek (mycenaean/phonecian) styles, looking for those shapes and designs which those styles might be said to have in common. the foremost harness is based rather closely on ancient pharaoh armors; i imagine it is not one solid shirt but two eagles wrought in silver and gold scale which wrap about the wearer, hooking into each other at the shoulders and held tight by sashes at the waist and under the chest, with "tails" protecting the flanks below. the one behind is based on the same idea but simpler and more fish-scale-like; elves being instinctive imitators of the lines and forms found in nature. i figured these could be harnesses made by feanor for himself and his sons, a style which largely fell out of fashion after his death simply because his methods and craftsmanship were inimitable. i can picture feanor decked out in something like these when he comes to confront fingolfin before their father, it's good "strutting armor."ultimately these are probably a bit too far over on the mediterranaen end of things for tolkien's world, even in aman, and more importantly it seems the noldor, despite smithying swords shields and helmets at this time, didn't actually bother with body armor, which lends this wonderful note of supreme confidence and swagger to them as they gear up for possible bloodshed, but they sure were fun to draw. Oh and that's a take on Mahtan in the top left; feanor's father-in-law and the only elf except for Cirdan who is remarked to have a beard (tolkien's thoughts on elven facial hair are a bit confused and confusing; later in life he seems to have played around with the idea of the elves being beardless - imrahil's lack of facial hair being an indicator of his elven heritage - but this conflicted with his description of cirdan in the already published LOTR as bearded, and so he settled on the somewhat shoddy explanation of elves growing beards upon entering their "third life cycle," how mahtan could possibly be so old relatively early in history is a never-resolved mystery, but personally my money's on Aule's considerable beard-mojo rubbing off on him)
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Comments: 14
Fantastic of wings and scales. I'm trying to do winged armour for Vanyar, but I haven't found what I was looking for, yet, it always look awkward or like something I've already seen. Your idea looks fresh to me. But as I said I imagine wings and eagles in the Vanyarin aesthetics since they are closest to Manwe and his eagles (and on some helmets in Gondolin are winged, house of the king it was?). The scales would be perfect for Falmari and Falathrim, though maybe it's too obvious idea. Anyway impressive concept, I love the pharaoh feel
Regarding the bears and cycles of life - Mahtan as an exception was "early in his second" when he grew a beard. (Source Vinyar Tengwar #41 p. 9)
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Sorry it took me so long to get around to your comment, it's been a busy year 
yes i also envision the "winged" crowns and helmets which appear so often throuhout the history of elves and men throughout the 1st to 3rd ages as an inheritance from the vanyar, being the closest to manwe. I expect there would be a good degree of aesthetic crossover between the vanyar and the noldor in aman, especially those of the larger noldor factions of fingolfin and finarfin, being princes of half-vanyar heritage through their mother. Fingolfin's line imparticular seem to have a close, vanyarian relationship with the birds of manwe, who aid fingon, bear fingolfin's body off the field, and roost in turgon's mountains, also turgon it seems may well have initiated the whole winged-helmet style that became such a classic in middle earth. In a way i tend to see the winged helmets as being in a sense of a piece with the overall more nordic, vagnerian aesthetic of the mostly golden-haired vanyar and their (though often dark haired) descendants/influencees; fingolfin (foolishly on tolkien's part, in my opinion) is dark haired, as are his three children, and yet turgon's daughter (who is three quarters vanyarian) is blonde haired, as is his human son-in-law (for whom probably the most famous winged helmet of the elder days was commissioned at ulmo's behest) and his half human, silmaril-bearing, shining-savior figure grandson, and many of his descendants in the line of elros (though more often than not those seem to favour the dark haired beorian/luthien-descended side of their heritage) in contrast to this, i tend to see feanor, his sons, and their faction (all those who took the telerin ships to middle earth) as being much more purely, classically noldorian in everything from their appearence to their dress to their character and ability (i imagine many of the greatest smiths and craftsmmen of the noldor, as well as many of the most fearsome, brooding, superior assholes, were among their ranks) the typical noldorian "dark hair and grey eyes" combo, coupled with the feanorian 'tall helms with plumes of red" (which i tend to envision as kind of a cross between a greek corinthian and a spangenhelm) is what i picture when i think of them. Finarfin's people, like his own children, are likely the most ethnically and culturally diverse of the noldor, with a lot of cultural cross polination (and likely alot of intermarriage) with the teleri, his wife's kin, as well as the vanyar (the line and house of finarfin seems the most open-minded and progressive in regards to diversity, finrod's love was of the vanyar, galadriel marries a sindar, and aegnor even falls in love with a human, contrasted with the contemptuous, seemingly eugenically minded attitude of the feanorians)
i've been traveling lately and so havent had much time to draw, but i've got a lot of concepts i'd really like to get down on paper for the vanyar and the teleri (the teleri as referred to in their broadest sense; the people of alqualonde and tol eresea, the falathrim under cirdan, the sindar) as it seems to me that in many ways the havens under cirdan's rule in the late firt age became this melting pot of elves (falathrim, sindar refugees from doriath, survivors from gondolin and hithlum) and men from the houses of beor and hador, a sort of little golden age of cultural sharing -typified by the marriage of two hybrid children - out of which the very elven influenced culture of the early numenoreans was born (i was thinking it'd be cool if the numenorean karma-helmet, which as you've probably seen, i've drawn many times, and which was made popular by aldarion's guild of venturers, was originally inspired largely by headwear and adornments (possibly actual sea shells) worn by the telerin falathrim, and bound up with the worship of uinen)
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Well, all I can say is that your style of drawing armor is inimitable. (Believe me, I've tried
Strangely enough, your illustration of Mahtan and my version of Aule resemble each other (although, my version of the Dwarf-maker has a mustache, a longer beard, and has a sort of El Dorado vibe going on. 
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thank you! i'd be interested in seeing your take on aule.
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Wow! Well, first I gotta do a proper drawing of him... The best doodle I have so far of Aule shows him measuring Thingol and Beorn's heights to see which one is taller (I dunno, I was bored... Mr. Mountain Vala is taller than both of course). Maybe I'll post that one.
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That's the best take on Elves and beards that I've seen in forever.
I suppose that once the Noldor met the Dwarves and learned about mail of linked rings then it was a turning point of sorts. To a certain extent by the Second Age mail was become the metal armor type of choice, and the imaginations of the Free Peoples would have been set. But it's fun to think about what the High Elves might have worn before then. Of course it would have been made with great craft, and would have been useful, but exactly what.... Aye, there's the rub. I can understand Feanor and his smiths initially making armor where form triumphed over function, only for the armorers of Himring and Gondolin to shift to mail and the more practical designs that you have already featured after the initial battles.
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that's precisely what i was thinking while drawing these, about the decorative nature of the armor and the eventual switch to/complete takeover of chainmaille (the dwarves are the celts of middle- earth in this regard, having created this armoring strategy that everyone imitates and that endures, largely un-improved as the default, for millenea) the noldor in aman, despite giving eachother nicknames like "fingon the valiant" are totally untested in battle or violence, except presumably against animals. it's why, whenever i depict the noldor in valinor, i almost always present them (including the women) in these very dynamic and violent activities; hunting or ferocious, ancient greek-style athletic competitions, usually with weapons in their hands, not ones used against their fellow elves at this point, but you get the sense that violence and the opportunity to test their courage and physicality is a thing these young, strong, somewhat pent-up demigods are all kind of itching for, a tension that erupts at alqualonde. following this, my thoughts were that feanor's early attempts into armor making were all as much about style and splendor as they are about defense. these harnesses are almost more like armored (and magnificent) additions to their clothes and fashion styles, gold and silver plated in order to show off the workmanship and the wearer and display the heraldry of houses as much as for defense, that way it's also a rather covert development of armor, which i expect would be the case for the noldorin factions during the time of unrest, with both sides arming up but neither openly admitting it; metal wrist cuffs that were at first worn solely for beauty become lengthened out into vambraces, shields are carried around like great standards bearing the devices of various houses, but would be plenty functional in a fight, and other such evolutions of fashion in response to the growing pride and eagerness for combat among them.
that, combined with the pre-dark-age ancientness of the ages of the trees, and the lofty, biblical feel of the story of the fall of the noldor, and the warmer climate of valinor compared to the northern-european lands of beleriand, and the great, grecian athleticism of the noldor in their youth, is what drew me to this very ancient greek/phonecian/egyptian/ancient (bronze age) germano-celtic look for their garments and emerging armor styles; i can picture feanor and the others strutting around in these open, marble-floored palaces of tirion like yule brynner in the ten commandments, proud and imperious, heavily bejeweled and ornamented in metal - as we see is the case with mahtan here - no doubt a byproduct of their friendship with aule's people, wearing light, airy and mostly sleeveless and short-hemmed geek/egyptian style garments to show off their physiques. I'd thought these went perhaps too far over in the ancient greek/biblical direction, but to tell you the truth they're winning me over again; a little more hallstat/la tene influence in the design aesthetic perhaps, to find the right "never-actually-existed" blend of historical influences for the elves, and they'd be pretty solid, i think, as a look at the pre-middle-earth, pre-maille, pre-long-sleeves raiment of the high-elves in aman.
also I'm glad you think so highly of the beard, i was extremely pleased with it myself. the "amish" beard (no mustache) seemed a good route to go with the facial hair patterns (when they do finally develop) of the elves, something different from men and especially dwarves - who's faces just become buried from the nose down around puberty and are mostly never seen again - and a very elegant and wise looking style in it's own right; it's a style often seen on greek kings as well, and in many depictions of wandering wise men from germanic mythology (it also functions as a nice tie in to the mustacheless, ape-like facial hair patterns i've used for the orcs) in mahtan's case of course he keeps it braided tight, like those ancient egyptian pharoah beards, which may be a way of keeping it under control; it seems safe to say (given how much younger he is than cirdan at the end of ROTK) that mahtan is perhaps just a naturaly hairy one as elves go, which is not the worst mental image - for one, his also-redheaded grandson maedhros is near universally depicted as possessing this bursting glorious red mane, perhaps it runs in the family - and is why i also opted for those huge, bristling eyebrows. he would seem quite the imposing venerable figure among the noldor in tirion, a plaited elf-dwarf ornamented in copper, one of aule's greatest pupils.
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Could Mahtan's magnificently profuse facial follicles be due in part to his numbering amongst the Firstborn? (Not merely the First of the Eldar, but the very first generation of Elves PERIOD). Although I have to agree that close proximity to magnificently hirsute aura of The Maker is an equally-if-not-More plausible explanation of that hairy muzzle!
By the way, please allow me to compliment you once more upon your notable knack for making the expressions of Elvish Material Culture suitable sublime.
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there's really no telling how long the elves' history runs from the awakening at cuvienen to the first rising of the sun and moon - for one, it'd be impossible to say in years since an annual cycle is tied to the sun, and there are no days without it either, so the moriqundi left in middle-earth are in a constant state of starlit night - but i tend to lean toward a-fuck-of-a-long-time, all time itself seeming to move faster after men awaken and the whole world becomes more mortal. maybe even so much time that perhaps some event like the birth of feanor in valinor actually occurred closer to the time of the war of the ring than to the time of the awakening of the eldar (similar to those crazy buzzfeed factoids like how cleopatra was actually born closer to today than she was to the time the great pyramids were built) so an elf who was part of the first generation (one of the original 144, which may include cirdan and mahtan, among others) could possibly be quite old already by the time the noldor left valinor after the killing of finwe.
the first generation of the elves - those who simply "woke up" rather than having parents - and who among the elves belongs to it is a bit of a puzzle for me; elwe and olwe are called brothers, which suggests that they would have had parents in common, similarly finwe's second wife indis is remarked to be a "kinswoman" of ingwe the vanyar king. I've often wondered if the big names of the "ambassador generation" (ingwe, finwe, elwe, olwe) were actually members the first generation or if they were born to parents in middle-earth. in either case there should be a good number of VERY old elves in the world, probably only some of whom took the road to valinor at the three ambassadors' encouragement, which could very well mean, old as figures like galadriel, elrond, or thranduil are ath the end of the third age, there are many elves considerably older in middle-earth.
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It is interesting to wonder if the most ancient elves feel a kind of superiority over their juniors (by virtue of their own immense antiquity) or if amongst a species of immortals one stops putting on airs over seniority because unlike elves that sort of thing gets old FAST …
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I love the designs! I think they do seem pretty ancient high elven.
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Brilliant! I have been looking for a good fantasy piece like the center one for some time!
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