John Howe annotated artwork

Tolkien art by John Howe

Contained on this page are small versions of all the original art work by John Howe that I have with some simple annotation. The original full size versions are available by selecting the requested picture using the Select button and the submiting the request with the Submit button. Clicking on the picture itself or on the small blip, if you are viewing the nonpicture page, will retreive the small version of the picture, should your Web browser be unable to deal with inline JPEG images. The small versions of the pictures are usually no larger then 25k, the full sized versions can be several hundred kilobytes long.

These pictures can be found at ftp.sunet.se and ftp.ncu.edu.tw. Or perhaps at nic.funet.fi, but I have not been able to access the pictures at that site from here.

Some of the following artwork appeared in various J.R.R. Tolkien calenders that have been printed over the years or in Tolkien's World - Paintings of Middle-earth ISBN 0-261-10276-1.

Should you have better information about any of these, please send email to brad@anduin.eldar.org.

Archive type:

Select (JPEG 239338 bytes)

JPEG image This painting is titled Glorfindel and the Balrog and is featured as November in the 1991 J.R.R. Tolkien calendar.

The elflord Glorfindel battles the fell servent of Morgoth.


Select (JPEG 420617 bytes)

JPEG image This painting is titled The Company of the King Approaching Caradhras and is featured as January in the 1991 J.R.R. Tolkien calendar.

Frodo and the other eight search for a way through to Lorien.


Select (JPEG 431260 bytes)

JPEG image This painting is titled The Dark Tower and is featured as February in the 1991 J.R.R. Tolkien calendar and is present in Tolkien's World and well as the cover art of the same.

"In a low hesitating voice Pippin began again, and slowly his words grew stronger and clearer. 'I saw a dark sky, and tall battlements,' he said. 'And tiny stars. It seemed very far away and long ago, yet hard and clear. Then the stars went in and out - they were cut off by things with wings. Very big, I thing, really; but in the glass they looked like bats wheeling round the tower. I thought there were nine of them. One began to fly straight towards me, getting bigger and bigger....'" -- The Two Towers


Select (JPEG 382155 bytes)

JPEG image This painting is titled Eowyn and Nazgul and is featured as September in the 1991 J.R.R. Tolkien calendar.

The shieldmadden, Eowyn, slays the Lord of the Nazgul.


Select (JPEG 410270 bytes)

JPEG image This painting is titled At the Ford and is featured as June in the 1991 J.R.R. Tolkien calendar.

Frodo confronts Nazgul at the Ford of Bruinen.


Select (JPEG 279899 bytes)

JPEG image This painting is titled Galadriel and is featured as April in the 1991 J.R.R. Tolkien calendar.

The Queen of the Golden Wood.


Select (JPEG 425136 bytes)

JPEG image This painting is titled Gandalf and is featured as May in the 1991 J.R.R. Tolkien calendar and is present in Tolkien's World. 

When evening in the Shire was grey
his footsteps on the Hill were heard;
before the dawn he went away
on journey long without a word.


From Wilderland in Western shore,
from northern waste to southern hill,
through dragon-lair and hidden door
and darkling woods he walked at will.


Select (JPEG 272587 bytes)

JPEG image This painting is titled Turambar and Glorund and is featured as August in the 1991 J.R.R. Tolkien calendar and is present in Tolkien's World .

"Then abiding until a very vital and unfended spot was within stroke, he heaved up Glurtholfin his black sword and stabbed with all his strength above his head, and that magic blade of the Rodothlim went into the vitals of the dragon even to the hilt, and the yell of his death-pain rent the woods and all that heard it were aghast." -- The Book of Lost Tales, Volume Two


Select (JPEG 473259 bytes)

JPEG image This painting is titled In Mordor and is featured as October in the 1991 J.R.R. Tolkien calendar and is present in Tolkien's World .

"It was hard enough for poor Sam, tired as he was; but for Frodo it was a torment, and soon a nightmare." -- The Return of the King


Select (JPEG 618196 bytes)

JPEG image This painting is titled Old Man Willow and is featured as the cover art as well as July in the 1991 J.R.R. Tolkien calendar.

One hobbit notices another trapped by Old Man Willow in the Old Forest.


Select (JPEG 460462 bytes)

JPEG image This painting is titled Sam and Shelob and is featured as March in the 1991 J.R.R. Tolkien calendar and is present in Tolkien's World .

"Now the miserable creature was right under her, for the moment out of the reach of her sting and her claws. Her vast belly was above him with its putrid light, and the stench of it almost smote him down." -- The Two Towers


Select (JPEG 396118 bytes)

JPEG image It is a little bit of a mystery where this exact painting came from, the center, city only, part is titled Minas Tirith and is featured as December in the 1991 J.R.R. Tolkien calendar and is present in Tolkien's World .

"And there where the White Mountains of Ered Nimrais came to their end he saw, as Gandalf had promised, the dark mass of Mount Mindolluin, the deep purple shadows of its high glens, and its tall face whitening in the rising day. And upon its out-thrust knee was the Guarded City, with its seven walls of stone so strong and old that it seemed to have been not builded but carven by giants out of the bones of the earth." -- The Return of the King


brad@anduin.eldar.org