Tumblr crosspost (21 October 2020)

[anghraine]

Not to harp on the same points eternally, but…

Tolkien denied that using Old English to represent the language of the Rohirrim meant they are functionally old English, but at the least they seem to be roughly northern European. OTOH, he very heatedly insisted that Gondor is not northern European and compared it at varying points to Italy, the Byzantine Empire, and ancient Egypt. In particular, he described Minas Tirith as analogous to Rome and Byzantium (which one depends on the context).

Nothing is 1:1 in Middle-earth, but those are at least the closest inspirations.

And sometimes I wonder about … aesthetics, you know? Not just horses vs trees, but say—Éowyn and Faramir’s wedding in Rohan, with Éowyn in her Eorling gown and Faramir and perhaps Lothíriel et al in Byzantine Gondorian robes, and all the different hairstyles and different musical traditions and so on. And like, is the starry mantle a sort of whatsit … chlamys? What about hairstyles/pieces? Does Aragorn switch from Ranger gear (whatever that looks like) to robes like Justinian’s?

Or … I don’t know, but I’m just curious about what the contrast between Rohan and Gondor could look like. 

Tagged: #i am genuinely thinking of commissioning faramir/éowyn art that really shows a contrast between their backgrounds and cultures #there's a lot of pretty art but i think the generic medieval conception of rohan and esp gondor touches quite a bit of it