Under construction

Below are the miniatures to the left come from the a Mithril Fellowship special edition, MS298. It represents King Elessar, Aragorn's royal name, and Queen Arwen in their full royal garb.  I suppose it can be considered to be the climax of the Aragorn/Arwen soap opera.  Their marriage is described thusly in the Lord of the Rings:

 It is still a work in progress here. When I had already painted the face I got the idea that I wanted to customize the miniature a bit more and this process damaged the paintwork on His Highness' face.  Silver and black seems to have been the are the chosen colors of the Royal Household but I wanted to . avoid making him look like a servant of the dark lord and therefore added a bit of off white and gold . It can't be seen very well in the picture, but the lining of the cloak has a pattern of winged crowns. For Arwen, also known as 'the Evenstar of her people' I chose a dark velvety blue trimmed with silver and a black-blue cloak lined with a star patter. Her crown, just like the kings, was painted with pure Vallejo Super Silver, which in my opinion gives an unmatched luster.

Aragorn has the crown of Gondor on his head and the Scepter of Annuminas in his right hand. Of the crown of Gondor it is said that it:

 "...was derived from the form of a Númenorean war-helm. In the beginning it was indeed a plain helm; and it is said to have been the one that Isildur wore in the Battle of Dagorlad (for the helm of Anárion was crushed by the stone-cast from Barad-dûr that slew him). But in the days of Atanatar Alcarin this was replaced by the jewelled helm that was used in the crowning of Aragorn." (LotR, Appendix A, 'Annals of the Kings and Rulers; Eriador, Arnor and the Hiers of Isildur') 

Tolkien drew a picture of the helmet in The Letters of JRR Tolkien (#181) and Chris Tubb at Mithril has made a very good job at sculpting the miniature to its likeness. The wings described and distinctly drawn by Tolkien was not exactly right so I fashioned new ones out of thin sheet brass and plasticard. In the picture above King Elessar The Tower guard wore a similar helm but undoubtedly less impressive.

The King holds in his right hand the scepter of Annuminas, an object of great age and symbolic potency. While Elrond had readily given him Narsil and the ring of Barahir, he had once said to Aragorn:

 "Here is the ring of Barahir," he said, "the token of our kinship from afar; and here also are the shards of Narsil. With these you may yet do great deeds; for I foretell that the span of your life shall be greater than the measure of Men, unless evil befalls you or you fail at the test. But the test will be hard and long. The Sceptre of Annúminas I withhold, for you have yet to earn it."(LotR, Appendix A, 'Annals of the Kings and Rulers; I. The  Numenorean Kings, V 'here follows a part of the tale of Aragorn and Arwen' ') 

In the pictures above and below I have not yet painted the sceptre, but as you can read in the below quote it is supposed to be silver:

'...The sceptre was the chief mark of royalty in Númenor, the King tells us; and that was also so in Arnor, whose kings wore no crown, but bore a single white gem, the Elendilmir, Star of Elendil, bound on their brows with a silver fillet'... 'The sceptre of Númenor is said to have perished with Ar-Pharazôn. That of Annúminas was the silver rod of the Lords of Andúnië, and is now perhaps the most ancient work of Men's hands preserved in Middle-earth. It was already more than five thousand years old when Elrond surrendered it to Aragorn ...'(LotR, Appendix A, 'Annals of the Hiers and Rulers; Eriador, Arnor and the Hiers of Isildur') 

Handing over the sceptre to Aragorn was a very definite and dramatic occasion for Elrond since he had once himself said to Aragorn: 

"...though I love you, I say to you: Arwen Undómiel shall not diminish her life's grace lot less cause. She shall not be the bride of any Man less than the King of both Gondor and Arnor. " LotR, Appendix A, 'Annals of the Kings and Rulers; I. The  Numenorean Kings, V 'Here Follows a Part of the Tale of Aragorn and Arwen ') 

The picture to the left shows how I have started to paint the patterns on the royal cloaks. Arwen's cloak is black, highlighted in dark blue. The star pattern is inspired by the device of the house of Earendil, Arwen's grandfather and the sire of the line of Numenorean kings. My design is still not close enough so I might still work a bit on it.

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