The Last Hunt

Ar-pharazon goes out hunting with Amandil and his son (any time of day's a good time for a little fan fiction)

It is remarked that the king of Numenor and the lord of Andunie were once great friends, before politics and resentments and the king's greed for power (and most notably, sauron) irreparably made enemies of them. I pictured a scene of the last time that he invites his friend and councilor for a sporting afternoon together, like they used to do. It seems fitting to me that Pharazon, a physical man by nature, would try to heal a friendship under considerable strain not with hard conversations behind closed doors but with an outing. like so many well laid plans, I wonder if the afternoon didn't end badly, maybe Sauron was brought up too many times, maybe Gil-Galad or the Valar, maybe the outing ended in cold disappointment, maybe in heated shouting. in any case I would put this shortly before Amandil removed to Romenna permanently.

I see Amandil as a template of the beorian type; a naturally lean, reserved man, ascetic, quiet, deep thinking, somber, and (increasingly with age) kind of a Noah-like (or, more recently, Fred Phelps-like) isolated patriarch and misanthropic doomsayer; the break with Pharazon hurt him, and hurt his faith in the prospect of a redemption, if un-aided, for his people. I don't see him as particularly old here, probably around the dunedain equivalent of his mid-forties, but a serious man by nature, and care-worn (for some reason David Carradine kept coming to mind while drawing him). Ar-pharazon I could draw again and again. there's something about the man, even written as sparingly as he is, that is magnetic. I tend to picture him, especially before old age set in, as the face of that hurin/boromir style hardihood (the platonic Ideal of which, i suppose, would be tulkas) if i ever colorize this piece I'll be sure and make his tunic pink (only a real man's man can rock a pink shirt)

paper allowing, (which it did not) I would have liked to include more figures in here, as i picture more - though maybe not too many - in my mind; perhaps a few committed kingsmen glowering behind Amandil's back, or some haradric water-boy looking up in awe at the young giant Elendil, who stands behind, in quiet deference to his father. I imagine Elendil at this age as a generally quiet, shy young man (in part on account of how everyone can ALWAYS see him) he hasn't yet grown into himself, his strength, his enormous frame, or the mighty destiny that is upon him. I decided, as with my most recent attempt at the Karma, to take Tolkien straight at his word concerning the ridiculous height of "elendil the tall." considering that the King, being the shortest of the three, is probably about the size of Hulk Hogan, that's pretty damn lofty.

Part of the Weekly Tolkien Sketchblog