Men of Dunland

One of a small series of illustrations I'm doing for a game centered around the Long Winter, an event which occurred in middle earth in TA. 2758, some 260 years before the war of the ring, in which the Rohirrim under King Helm Hammerhand held out against the invading Dunlandings in the deeping valley that, centuries later, would still bear his name.

I've always pictured a very celtic/britonic identity for the men of Dunland, opposite the deliberately anglo-saxon Rohirrim. It seems to fit well enough with their history; driven up into the hills, nursing their (completely legitimate) grievance against the straw-heads for stealing their land. In his fictional treatment of the celtic people and the long history of anglo/celtic conflict, Tolkien, like many english academics (especially of his day) was not above a little Anglo-snobbery, essentially dismissing the Dunlandings as backward, livestock-rustling savages (Tolkien does offer up some positive examples among the descendants of the very celtic House of Haleth, most notably the cheery men of Bree, for whom it seems being brought into the fold of Arnor and weened away from their wicked ways was a great benefit ) The Dunlandings are described as wearing "tall helms" for which there are certainly no shortage of prime models in Hallstatt/La Tene culture, but I didn't want to go overboard with woad tattoos and gold torques. I thought wolf hides (or probably black sheep skins in most cases) in addition to heavy wool layers would be a good call for the winter-long siege of the Hornburg (seems a little cold to be rocking the "naked, blue-painted warrior" look) and also fits their perpetual role as marauding pack hunters (plus it just seems a natural choice of sigil for a king named "Wulf," represented here on the field by that windsock) I see them as tough men who live tough lives,  I can imagine their battles with the also very hard-living rohirrim being recounted at court in gondor, with that odd mix of contempt and admiration for the warring "barbarians" that always characterized the writing of roman chroniclers like Tacitus.

one last note, I like the idea (nowhere to be found in Tolkien's writing, but elaboration is the name of the game in fantasy gaming) that scattered in among the cohorts of Dunnish raiders you'd find some really primitive hill-folk types, like the ancient Picts; knotted dreadlocks, huge unkempt beards, rough cut animal hides, and just generally a few steps behind the other dunlandings in their social and technological development. maybe they were the original inhabitants of Dunland, distant relatives of the more advanced former inhabitants of what used to be Calenardhon, who had to come and shack up with them after being kicked out by the northmen. I think they'd probably be the first ones to start jumping to superstitious conclusions about Helm being some vengeful mountain spirit.

see also: Helm Hammerhand turnermohan.deviantart.com/art…
hel's Last Stand turnermohan.deviantart.com/art…