The Journey to Weathertop – Strider Leads the Hobbits Through Midgewater Marshes – Preliminary Drawing Illustration Art sketch LOTR Tolkien

“This is where we leave the open and take to cover,” said Strider.

Here we are, returning again to Hobbits, and a marsh, and a plan for a future oil painting with a heavy focus on the landscape this time around. My last painting of a similar scene was ‘The Passage of the Marshes’ but I intend to take this one in a different direction.

This new piece is inspired by The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring, Book One, Chapter XI – A Knife In The Dark. In this scene we join the four Hobbits; Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin as they follow Strider to Rivendell, before that though is the journey to Amon Sûl (Weathertop) which takes them through the Midgewater Marshes.

The ground now became damp, and in places boggy and here and there they came upon pools, and wide stretches of reeds and rushes filled with the warbling of little birds. They had to pick their way carefully to keep both dry-footed and on their proper course.

At first they made fair progress, but as they went on, their passage became slower and more dangerous. The marshes were bewildering and treacherous, and there was no permanent trail even for Rangers to find through their shifting quagmires. The flies began to torment them, and the air was full of clouds of tiny midges that crept up their sleeves and breeches and into their hair.

As has been my custom with these Middle-earth artworks that I’ve been doing, I like to post some teaser passages from the books with the preliminary drawing and then to do a more in depth post once the painting is finished.

The Farewell Speech!

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Until next time, farewell!

JGlover