New Harper Collins Tolkien site - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

davem · 04-17-2010, 11:34 PM

The Blue Wizards picture is on the cover of the new Harper Collins paperback of Unfinished Tales, & is the March picture on the 2010 Tolkien Calendar. I love the landscape but, as with most of Ted's work, I don't like the figures - why are they both dressed exactly alike, & both in silly pointy hats? The only wizard referred to in Tolkien's work with a pointy hat is Gandalf, & I think its best assumed that's a bit of eccentricity on his part (actually, I think Tolkien just lazily adopted a standard fairy tale trope when he created the character for The Hobbit, & continued on with it when he came to write the 'sequel' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy...nd_conventions.

04-17-2010, 11:34 PM	#16
davem Illustrious Ulair Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: In the home of lost causes, and forsaken beliefs, and unpopular names,and impossible loyalties Posts: 4,240	The Blue Wizards picture is on the cover of the new Harper Collins paperback of Unfinished Tales, & is the March picture on the 2010 Tolkien Calendar. I love the landscape but, as with most of Ted's work, I don't like the figures - why are they both dressed exactly alike, & both in silly pointy hats? The only wizard referred to in Tolkien's work with a pointy hat is Gandalf, & I think its best assumed that's a bit of eccentricity on his part (actually, I think Tolkien just lazily adopted a standard fairy tale trope when he created the character for The Hobbit, & continued on with it when he came to write the 'sequel' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy...nd_conventions. __________________ “Everything was an object. If you killed a dwarf you could use it as a weapon – it was no different to other large heavy objects."