The Lord of the Rings: The Uruk-Hai [Part Three] (Baby Steps, For Today)

 

‘Pick up those prisoners!’ shouted Ugluk. ‘Don’t play any tricks with them! If they are not alive when we get back, someone else will die too.’

Merry and Pippin are picked up, their arms, tied at the wrist, are thrust over the necks of a couple of Orcs. The troop moves out, and Pippin falls again into evil dreams. It is early night when he is thrown down on the stony ground again. He hears that the scouts have returned. They’ve seen a single horseman, but he road off, and all’s clear. For now, Ugluk growls. The fools have let him go and the horsebreeders will know of them by morning. ‘Now we’ll have to leg it double quick.’

Bits and Bobs

Just a note that these illustrations are by 1) Denis Gordeev, a Russian artist who I think is one of the better illustrators of Tolkien [Denis Gordeev (Денис Гордеев), born 1964, is an artist from Moscow, Russia. He is a book illustrator and on his portfolio he presents i.a. The Three Musketeers, Treasure Island, Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, The Sons of Hurin, The Hobbit and The Witcher ("Ведьмак"). Gordeev often draws detailed pencil drawings, but he's also a painter and has created many coloured scenes – The Witcher Wiki.] and 2) Joan Wyatt, whose 1979 A Middle-earth Album has been a long-time favorite of mine, noted for her sweeping and removed perspective of scenes, though her interpretations of living beings have sometimes been criticized as ‘cartoonish’. I prefer to think of them as ‘stylized’.

Sorry for the drop in the bucket, but sometimes I have to walk when I can't run.