Dragon-Helm

[Elemmakil]

Originally Posted by Galin

The image of the Dragon on the helm appears to have been the head of the Dragon, though the description used in the new Children of Hurin more easily allows for Alan Lee's interpretation.

Anyway, I wonder what people imagine the visor itself to look like (I can't remember any artistic renderings of it myself).

Anyway, any ideas? I thought maybe (and perhaps like one of the battle-masks) a distorted image of an angry dwarf-face? for one possibility.

My suspicion is that the description Tolkien wrote in UT was probably influenced by this real life Anglo Saxon/Swedish helm from the early 7th century:

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore...burial_at.aspx

Can't prove it, but the original reconstruction was published by Herbert Maryon in 1946, and I find it hard to believe that it would not have struck Tolkien's fancy, as enamored of that culture and time period as he was.