The Crossing of Helcaraxe b/w

The Tragedy during the Crossing of Helcaraxë

“-- and finding no other way they endured at last the terror of the Helcaraxë and the cruel hills of ice. Few of the deeds of the Noldor thereafter surpassed that desperate crossing in hardihood or woe. There Elenwë the wife of Turgon was lost, and many others perished also; and it was with a lessened host that Fingolfin set foot at last upon the Outer Lands.”

- J. R. R. Tolkien: The Silmarillion, chapter 9: Of the Flight of the Noldor


Now that I have this Tolkien inspiration rolling, here’s again a Silmarillion illustration. I wanted to study the characters of Fingon and Turgon in particular and I chose a less illustrated scene this time (at least I have seen no illustrations of it.. of course it doesn’t mean there weren’t any.) It’s the painful crossing of Hecaraxë, more specifically Turgon devastated by the loss of his wife. Again a sad scene, I know, but those make often the best illustrations if one manages to get some emotion into them.. I’d like to think that with this one I succeeded to some extent at least.

Tolkien doesn’t tell how Elenwë died in the Silmarillion, but here (to make it more dramatic) I’m assuming she fell into the grinding ice. [EDIT: I read later on the description from HoME that she indeed drowned in the icy water, but i didn't know it when i drew this]. Fingon stares in horror at the crevice where she disappeared while Aredhel, also shocked, tries to comfort her brother together with his friend Finrod. Behind them Idril clings to her grandfather Fingolfin, who silently curses the name of Fëanor, adding yet this tragedy to his half-brother’s ever growing list of sins. Galadriel and Orodreth stand further away.

I tried to get the feeling of cold into the drawing with the wind and snow.. I don’t know if it really works though (especially in this scan).. I also wanted to show that the clothes and equipment of the Noldor were not meant for these conditions. They have a couple of animal hides they have managed to hunt during their journey but mostly they’re just wrapped in their thin cloaks and fancy clothes. Fingon, ever the warrior, wears parts of his armour even in the bitter cold and carries with him his bow and two-handed sword (I never thought he’d one to use a shield..)

HB pencil and 0.5 mech. pencil. I’m not sure how much time I put into this because I was working on it an hour here and an hour there, but probably 8-9.

I’m quite pleased with this.. I hate my scanner though -- just like with the previous pencil drawings, it just loses all the fine lines.. I put quite a lot of work into the sky, snow and the wind effect and almost nothing is visible, no matter how I try to tweak the curves or levels in photoshop. Stupid piece of junk scanner ..all these look so much better on paper, damnit!

[ EDIT: Updated with a better scan, looks much better.. also no more evidence of weird hair colours and nonfunctional bows! ]

A sepia version can be found here .