HOME | DD
TurnerMohan β Beor
#lordoftherings #tolkien #tolkiensilmarillion #berenluthien
Published: 2015-07-19 23:59:11 +0000 UTC; Views: 5631; Favourites: 59; Downloads: 40
Redirect to original
Description
quick sketch of Balan son of who-knows, leader of the first tribe of men to reach the west and interact with the High Elves, earliest named forebear of Beren, Dior, Elrond, and the line of the kings of Numenor, as he is woken from sleep by the song of Finrod.the scene where the people of Beor (as he is after known), having just crossed into beleriand, wake to the music of the elven prince is a long favorite of mine, and seems one of those moments of what you might call religious importance in middle-earth's history. Ea, the World of Tolkien's mythology, was created in music, traces of which echo through time like ripples in water, and it always seemed to me that in hearing for the first time the music of the elves of Valinor (and in their later interactions with them) humans, so new in the world, are uplifted and in a sense touched by that divine grace themselves. It's a moment akin in my mind to the famous image of adam reaching out to touch fingers with god, or prometheus giving the gift of fire to men in greek mythology.
Related content
Comments: 12
Β I'm also fond of the fact that he looks like a very fine fellow to pass a sociable evening with.Β
π: 1 β©: 1
I'd want to have a drink and a burger with him
π: 1 β©: 1
Β I'd suspect that you'd have to lay on a full barbecue, just in case he decides to bring his whole tribe along with him!Β
π: 1 β©: 0
Β Splendid work Master Mohan; I like the balance you've captured between "Beor the Old" and 'Younger than you'd think' which seems fitting to an elder from the First Days of Men.Β
π: 0 β©: 1
I think he's only forty five or so when he first comes into beleriand.
π: 0 β©: 1
Β Which is old-middle aged by the standards of pre-Antiseptic cultures; rather sobering when one thinks about it.Β
π: 0 β©: 0
Hadn't gotten around to this one yet. It is an elegantly simple picture, and I really got into your theme of quasi-divine awakening at the moment when the Noldor and the Aftercomers first met. I have to agree that it was a special moment, and Tolkien wanted us to recognize it as such. As someone who has had some musical education and expression in his life, I always liked the scene setting of Finrod following the firelight to its source, and then hearing the music and song of the Beorians, and recognizing the kindred intellect and spirit that identified the much-rumored Second Children. The first impression the Beorians receive of the Noldor then is one of their leaders seated beside their fire, and playing on their instrument a music unlike any they have heard. It's Tolkien's version of Isaiah 2:2, very profound and movinglike all his key scenes in Quenta Silmarillion.
π: 0 β©: 1
Humanity couldnt have done much better for their first brush with the high elves than to run into finrod, the ever curious, outgoing, open hearted, eager to meet new people. We get the impression the race of men had had a pretty hard run of things before that first contact, having been tempted in their early infancy by morgoth, and (for the three tribes of the edain) wandering westward with their families and belongings in tow, most likely beset by orcs andother creatures of darkness along the road, picking up scraps of language culture and technology from (probably not always friendly) brushes with the dwarves and avari. I picture them, arriving in ossiriand, as a hopeful and seeking but hardened and fearsome people; rough-hewn crimean types who dont expect much from life except to struggle and fight off enemies if need be, always with the hope of the west in their hearts. Beor as a cheiftain of such folk would have to be a real mighty specimen in that "dawn of man" way; physically strong, smart, brave, emotionally astute, caring for his people, a seeker and (with caution) a natural optimist. I'd hoped to depict him here as Man in that promethean moment of first awakening to a higher inteligence, an intelligence and an uplift they had known existed before and had sought for; really one of those "moment that changed everything" moments (all these dubious history chanel theories about mankind's early brushes/incemination by superior alien beings, ridicuolous as i tend to find them, find a suitable home in middle-earth, first with the essentially nordic-alien-like noldor, and then again with the interactions in the second and third ages between the dunedain and the middle men)
π: 0 β©: 0
Great little sketch, and great idea for a pic. Seeing these obscure Silmarillion characters brought to life is always fun. Beor is pretty interesting, since he's the first human to make contact with the Elves. His meeting with Finrod is definitely a "Gift of Prometheus" moment, and the comparison to Adam is also good - keep in mind that Men are a fairly young species at that point, while the Elves are their wiser older brothers.
Giving him a long shaggy beard and crude rock-cut facial features is about right - the "Cro-Magnoid" look fits these early humans, a hardy people made for a hard world, not quite yet evolved into modern humanity but recognizably our ancestors. There's definitely a "caveman" vibe to them. (Keep in mind that people like Chesterton and Tolkien didn't think "caveman" was a negative word - to Chesterton, the caveman was a more childlike forerunner of humanity, more artistic and intellectually curious, primitive but full of infinite potential. I imagine this Catholic view of cavemen would also apply to Tolkien's secondborn.)
Interestingly, there's still a lot of Cro-Magnon genetics on the west coasts of Europe and North Africa - it's really debatable if they were a middle phase between pre-humanity and humanity, or fully modern humans.
Β
π: 0 β©: 1
As far as i understand it "cro magnons" (generally regarded as an antiquated and unscientific term these days, but one of my favorites) were just early modern homo sapiens, and that is how i tend to picture the opening generations of humanity in tolkien's world, more rough-hewn and brutal than they would later become, but identifiably modern men (in contrast to this i tend to picture the druedain, their contemporaries and in these early days their friends, as neanderthals) also, as i mention in my description for an earlier sketch of turin, i think it's important that these early specimens of humanity appear somewhat larger than life, as if in their stony bodies is contained the germ of all the endless generations of humanity to come (it was an idea inspired by michelangelo's depiction of adam and eve, and as you mentioned, seems in keeping with the biblical account of humanity's earliest generations as consisting of these titans that lived for centuries) for this drawing, rather rare for me when depicting tolkien's world, i had a particular model in mind; the basque rugby player sebastien chabal, who if you've never seen his picture, is most definitely worth a look (and at 6'3" of what looks like granite, is exactly what i'm talking about regarding the physical presence of the first age edain)
π: 0 β©: 0
Beor dont fuck around. Thanks
π: 0 β©: 0