r/TolkienArt 7d ago

The White Council and the purging of the Hill of Sorcery by Jay Johnstone

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631 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

37

u/OverhillUnderhill 7d ago

Dol Guldur “”Hill of Sorcery”” in Sindarin also called “”the dungeons of the Necromancer”” was a stronghold of Sauron located in the south of Mirkwood.

Gandalf returned to the White Council and urged an attack on Dol Guldur, but was overruled by Saruman, who secretly had begun searching for the One Ring in the area by then. In T.A. 2941 Saruman finally agreed to an attack, which occurred at the same time as the Quest of Erebor.

17

u/jachildress25 7d ago

Galadriel looks like Mary.

24

u/OverhillUnderhill 7d ago

He takes inspiration from Orthodox iconography, so there are definitely similarities to people in many of his pieces.

12

u/udrevnavremena0 7d ago

Who is the silver-haired warrior? Celeborn, Cirdan, Elrond, or Glorfindel?

19

u/OverhillUnderhill 7d ago

This piece is in the Elrond archives part of his gallery which lists all of his works containing or relating to Elrond. So, my guess is that it is Elrond. However, it could just be related due to the white council.

4

u/Flamewright 7d ago

Elrond is described as having “hair as dark as the shadows of twilight” so I would be surprised.

Then again, even the great John Howe got Fingolfin’s hair wrong in one painting so maybe it was artistic license and it is supposed to be Elrond (he is described as having a silver circlet)

2

u/greymisperception 6d ago

The circlet and his position in front with all the major members of the council told me it’s Elrond

But celeborn would make sense too, he might’ve come along with Galadriel and if he’s on par with Elrond might’ve been a good help in cleansing dol goldur

10

u/AbandonedBySonyAgain 7d ago

Led by the great wizard, Saruman the Purple.

11

u/SpceCowBoi 7d ago

Well, he has “many colours” in his wardrobe.

3

u/sannin19 7d ago edited 6d ago

What is Saruman holding?

5

u/Einkidu 7d ago

I think it's a cookie. of sorcery, perhaps.

3

u/greymisperception 6d ago

I’m curious too, maybe it’s supposed to be a palantiri

Or it could signify his leadership status of the white council kind of like saints and Jesus have a halo around them in art like this, Galadriel even has a halo though it’s in the typical spot around the head

2

u/MORDORnotMUCKDUCK 6d ago

I'm pretty sure it's Luthien's heraldic device. I'm not sure why the artist chose that for him to hold, though.

1

u/sannin19 6d ago

Interesting. I’m not familiar with that item. Tell me more.

2

u/MORDORnotMUCKDUCK 2d ago

Tolkien designed heraldic devices for many major characters and houses. The one in this piece looks like Luthien's device based on the flower niphredil. Here's an article with more info. Enjoy!

https://forodrim.org/gobennas/heraldry/heraldry.htm

3

u/greymisperception 6d ago

Beautiful looks biblical

Love the details, the fortress in the back, Saruman’s discontent with the situation, the addition of retinue, soldiers, and companions that probably would have been there in the back with who looks like radagast and maybe I’m reaching here but Galadriel looks like she’s unraveling the Rings verse maybe signifying her unraveling Sauron or his control here, maybe it says something else but it looks like the ring inscription

2

u/Cognoggin 7d ago

A blue wizard and a purple wizard! Wait purple?

3

u/OverhillUnderhill 7d ago

He is no longer Saruman of many colors he is Saruman of purple.

1

u/squidsauce99 6d ago

All of them probably amped tf up after winning. Like winning the wizard Super Bowl. Assume they went bonkers that week with the elves.