Why Can't Movies Be Like Books?

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Sauron the White

Bethberry... I have always like that Alan Lee illustration from the big red edition of LOTR. Notice that Lee selected architecture as his focal point and shunned the visual of Bombadil himself. I cannot speak for Mr. Lee - but it seems a very wise decision.

Wise of course than none of us can speak for Alan Lee as we can't say that he choose The House of Bombadil because he rejected depicting Tom. The chapter after all is called In the House of Tom Bombadil and the evocation of place seems to me to be Lee's great talent in his Tolkien illustrations. In fact, most chapter titles in LotR emphasise place or event rather than character; indeed, in this book, of the twelve chapter titles, only one is given to a character (Strider).

Despite your feelings that Tom's description is unfortunate, many have found this enigmatic character's description something worth putting to ink, paint and paper (as well as more contemporary methods of illustration). To my mind, the least successful is probably one of the first attempted, that by the Brothers Hildebrant, which often "sets" the style many think of as Tom. Yet their work lies in a particular style and vein of folk art and there is more to Tom than their sentimental rustic style captures.

Here are just a few attempts, which may or may not tickle your fancy. They do suggest, however, that Tom tickles many other people's imagination.







. . . to be continued in a next post, due to the limitations on images . . .