Maglor's Fosterling

Though only given the briefest of mentions in the Silmarillion (like, regrettably, almost everything in the silmarillion) the relationship between Maglor and the sons of Earendil - how love grows between this cursed figure and his hostages/foster sons - is something I wish we could have seen more intimately. It's little mystery to me why the sons of Feanor (particularly Maedhros and Maglor) are such perpetual fan favorites; they are caught in the friction of wanting to do good but being compelled to evil, they know it, and it tortures them. they are complex and tragic like few other characters in Tolkien's writing. Of the two of them, Maglor, the younger, more passive brother (and ultimately repentant) sort of functions in the 'Silm' similarly to Ishmael in Moby Dick (or Robert the Bruce in Braveheart for that matter); this well meaning but weak and compromised character, who is pretty tertiary throughout most of the story but arrives at the end as pretty much the central figure and practically sole survivor. I tend to picture him as the silmarillion's narrator, his recountings finally catching up to the present tense on the shore, minutes before chucking the silmaril into the sea (I think every fan artist is privately a frustrated film-maker )

By this point Maglor, as I envision him, is a wretched, worn-down figure; three times he has taken part in the murder of his fellow elves, too weak to stand up to his father and, later, brothers, and compelled by the Oath himself. All he worked to build has been destroyed and all his family are dead except Maedhros, who has turned into a lusting, bitter monster. The guilt, loss and sorrow have whittled him down like wood; he's no longer the beautiful, full-faced youth, harp in hand, that he was long years ago in the Blessed Realm. His clothes and hair hang off him in lank, heavy folds, his fleshless face and hands seem to shiver against some inner cold. he and his brother are universally cursed by elves and men at this point; feared and hated, welcomed nowhere, loved by no one, and then this beautiful, wise, extraordinary child - whose people he slaughtered, whose mother he hounded off a cliff to (for all either of them know) her death, who has every reason to hate him - sees him for what he is, a soul in pain, and offers him compassion through the simple act of touch. Elrond, the healer, the child of both races, the wise, patient, kindly being that he is always later remarked to be, seems like he would have been such a boy, capable even at a young age of understanding and sympathy far beyond his years. He pities Maglor (that all-important religious concept in Tolkien's world) and his pity itself offers some healing and redemption, yet on some level he probably knows that this figure before him is not yet done on his long road down. The two grow from having known each other.

I've been doing a fair amount of experimentation with "white on black" drawing methods recently; wood engraving and it's far easier, cheaper modern cousin, scratchboard. It's the first time I've been using it since middle-school, but I thought the dark carivaggio-esque feel i envisioned for this scene would be well served by it. some areas came out more successfully than others, but I'm especially fond of the way "white on black" allows you to render skin tones (that was the main reason i started looking into it in the first place) and I'm pretty happy with how Feanor's strong (and quintessentially noldorian) genes come through in Maglor (see also Feanor and Maedhros)

Part of the Weekly Tolkien Sketchblog ('bout f***ing time )