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The Lord of the Rings, Book One:
The Fellowship of the Ring,
"Fog on the Barrow-Downs"
This scene is set in small a corner shadowbox and basically contains the MV374 from 'The Lord of the Rings Vignettes 2'. Well, two of them actually for reasons I will explain below. The chapter 'Fog on the Barrow Downs' in the Lord of the rings tells us how the four hobbits as they came out of the Old Forrest and in to the Downs were trapped by the barrow wights there. This shadowbox shows the spine chilling moment where Frodo wakes up to see the wight of the crypt reaching for a cruel blade to put the hobbit's friends to their final rest.
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The framework of the scene is basic: a plywood base with walls and ceiling
of styrofoam and a coat of spackling. Since I knew that I
was going to do a mural on in the ceiling and to allow for better
photography I made the top part a loose piece. The masonry of
the walls is quite intricately made. I had a very clear idea
of what I wanted them to look like. I had seen an illustrated
background in the computer game 'Broken Sword' and knew that it
was exactly what the inside of a barrow looked like. I had seen
an illustration once of a medieval wall and for some reason the
image stuck as the ultimate model for the interior of a barrow.
I set about by building a section of small wall with suitable pebbles using white glue and a papier-mâché clay called DAS-Pronto. When the wall
section had set I used it as a master for a rubber mold. When the
mold had set I could cast as many plaster wall sections as I needed.
The crossbeams, long rocks I once gathered for this very purpose,
and the trimmed wall sections where fitted into a semi-circle with
two portals. They are all held in place with the help of white glue
and DAS-Pronto.
As I have already mentioned, the basic vignette only come with two
hobbits and only one rather narrow stone coffin, it is not portraying
the situation in the book as it was. When Frodo woke up in the barrow
all his three companions, Sam, Pippin and Merry, it says about them in the
chapter 'Fog
on the Barrow Downs':
"They were on their backs, and their faces looked deathly pale; and they were clad in white. About them lay many treasures, of gold maybe, though in that light it looked cold and unlovely. On their heads were circlets, gold chains were around their waists, and on their fingers were many rings. Swords lay by their sides, and shields were at their feet. But across their necks lay one long naked sword."
Since I wanted to scene to be as authentic as possible I bought two vignettes and with the help of epoxy putty and some sheet plastic I put the parts together to one great slab of a marble coffin with no less than three hobbits laid out to rest on it (the third one was a recast ). The hobbits were modified to look different to each other and various treasures were scattered about them.
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'...the mound in which the Ring-bearer was imprisoned had been the grave of the last prince of Cardolan, who fell in the war of 1409 [at the battle of the Barrow Downs]'.
Cardolan was one of the three northern Numenorean realms in (Gondor being the southern one) and its history ended as the last Dunedain of that kingdom fell for the army of the Witch-King of Angmar in the war of 1409. Cardolan is a Sindarin (elfish) name that means 'Land of the Red Hills'. The Barrow-downs was a very ancient burial site for the edain, dating back all the way to the First Age of the Sun before the fathers of men met the elves of Beleriand. It continued to be used as a burial site for the lords of men through out the ages. In the year of 1636,about two hundred years and some after the fall of the Kingdom of Cardolan, the area was almost completely depopulated by the Great Plague that swept over northwestern Middle Earth. At about the same time evil spirits came out of Angmar and Rhudaur and desecrated the Barrow-downs by animating the remains of the ancient lords lying there. A strange thing is that the name of old in what appears to be Sindarin for the Barrow-downs was Tyrn Gorthad. This contains the word 'Gor-' which means horror or dread, which implies that the barrows were rumored to be haunted much earlier than in mid Third Age.
Anyhow, the name of the lord in which the hobbits ended up remains
a mystery. I read through all lists but couldn't find a reference
to anywhere.
So I did what I usually
do when I am looking for ideas: I went to a secondary source. There are several I use, but in this case it was an adventure module
for the Middle Earth Role Playing game called 'Arnor'. I have never
actually played this game but I have bought a few modules that I use
for inspiration (even though I feel the authors often interpret the
theme too liberally). In this module the game constructors have
given the last lord of Cardolan the name 'Ostoher'. If it is a
fabrication, it is still a name as good as any.
I used this research when I sketched the mural (see right). It represents
the Witch-king of Angmar commanding his hoard against the lord of Cardolan.
When I transferred the sketch to the ceiling piece of the shadowbox I made
sure the King was a bit taller than on the sketch. The hills to the right of
King Osthir are the Tyrn Gorthad where he met his destiny. In the sketch I
included the invading evil spirits to, but left them out in the diorama
since that would not have been chronologically correct. The masonry behind the mural showing where the grout
has come loose is pieces of the plaster castings mentioned above,
embedded in the styrofoam. Below I have spelled out the epitaph written
around the base of the domed ceiling. I could have translated it to, but
then I would have taken all the fun away from the Sindarin linguistics pros
out there (who probably has one or two things to say about its correctness).
If you really want to know, you will have to mail me.
old be hand and hart and bone,