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Submitted: July 28, 2007
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Thingol and Melianby ~aautio

Traditional Art / Drawings / People

The Meeting of Thingol and Melian

“_{Elwë, Lord of the Teleri, went often through the great woods to seek out Finwë his friend in the dwellings of the Noldor; and it chanced on a time that he came alone to the starlit wood of Nan Elmoth, and there suddenly he heard the song of nightingales. Then an enchantment fell on him, and he stood still; and afar off beyond the voices of the lómelindi he heard the voice of Melian, and it filled all his heart with wonder and desire. He forgot then utterly all his people and all the purposes of his mind, and following the birds under the shadow of the trees he passed deep into Nan Elmoth and was lost. But he came at last to a glade open to the stars, and there Melian stood; and out of the darkness he looked at her, and the light of Aman was in her face.

She spoke no word; but being filled with love Elwë came to her and took her hand, and straightway a spell was laid on him so that they stood thus while long years were measured by the wheeling stars above them; and the trees of Nan Elmoth grew tall and dark before they spoke any word. ”

-- J. R. R. Tolkien: The Silmarillion, Chapter 4: Of Thingol and Melian}

Here's a scene that has been depicted many times over, but I believe there's still room for another interpretation.. Elwë Sincollo and Melian the Maia meet for the first time in the starlit forest of Nan Elmoth. I've sketched these characters before but haven't been happy with my previous efforts. I think this is better, even if they are slightly caricatured..

I didn’t have time to do the Photoshop part before now, but the pencil piece was drawn and scanned sometime in April-May..ish, I think, mostly as an experiment.. I've drawn with such heavy outlines in my recent works that I felt like doing things slightly differently this time. I wanted a more dreamy, mystical tone on this one.. Especially with the background, where I’ve "gone all Alan Lee" a bit and tried to create shapes without hard outlines.. Another source of inspiration for the background was my love of etchings.. I wanted to create a somewhat similar effect here. I quite like the result – let me know what you think of it.

HB pencil on copy paper + the usual Photoshop treatment.

Oh, and in case you're wondering "what on Arda is she wearing..?" – It’s.. a bed sheet. That’s right.

She a goddess-of-sorts and goddesses wear bed sheets. (What, they don't teach you such basic facts about mythologies anymore?

Pssh, schools these days..

)

detail closeup

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~AmAndArInI Nov 21, 2012

I featured your illustration in my journal
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*MACHINE-BIRDY Feb 27, 2012

This is wonderful. I love everything about it!

~Ryuk88 Oct 17, 2010

Looks just like i pictured it. Really captures the moment in the book perfectly.

~luminor21 Jul 30, 2010

it's beautiful

just the way i imagined their first meeting

thanks for drawing this

~kiniro-no-hana Oct 16, 2009

excellent the only criticism i can think of is that thingol look too, well for a lack of more eloquent phrasing, he looks like some old dude from Star Wars. There is too much care written on his face when the world has only just begun for it to look good. plus he seems too thin, ive sorta always thought he'd have very strong, broad shoulders, but still look graceful cuz elves rock like that. but i could be wrong, who knows? i love your scenery though!

!sallamarja Aug 11, 2009

i love this picture! It's just so beautiful <3

~GreenInkling Aug 29, 2008

Of course she has a bedsheet - goddess don't wear clothes, so she had to do something to be decent when a man stumbled in!

It's really utterly lovely.

Re: naked body. I'm a woman and a devout Catholic. I find nothing offensive about a naked body, especially because the intention is not to sensualize and subjectify. I don't find anything offensive about a naked man. And if you know the Catholic company of the Professor's day, they were ANYTHING but prude Victorians. See: G.K. Chesterton.