Glorfindel, a pencil drawing

Glorfindel and Asphalot

35x50 cm

My Glorfindel (I do admit that he might do just as well as Lady Oscar). Bit of a porn-for-little-girls kind of picture, My Little Pony and all. Oh well, so sue me. Must we really be grown-up all the time?

Glorfindel is a minor character in the Lord of the Rings (in the movie he doesn't appear at all, because he was replaced by Liv Tyler, that giggling strumpet), but he has by far the most astounding back-story of any character in the whole book. Please note that he was out and about already in the Silmarillion, where he single-handedly *killed a Balrog* , getting himself killed in the process, admittedly, reincarnated, and came back to Middle Earth again on a mission from the Valar.

Remember when Gandalf challenged the Balrog on the Bridge of Khazad-Dum, fell in the abyss, and came back again? Well, Glorfindel was like, been there, done that, got the t-shirt, yawn.
He was one of the very few who could ride openly against the Nine. Frodo saw him as a "white figure that shone and did not grow dim" and Gandalf said, "yes, you saw him for a moment as he is upon the other side: one of the mighty of the Firstborn.". Plus, he was pretty hot. "Glorfindel was tall and straight; his hair was of shining gold, is face fair and young and fearless and full of joy; his eyes were bright and keen, and his voice like music; on his brow sat wisdom and in his hand was strength".
As far as I know he's the only re-embodied elf in the whole of the Lord of the Rings.

It was Glorfindel who prophesied that the Witch King of Angmar, chief of the Nazgul, would not be killed by the hand of mortal man.

His white horse, Asphalot (but Glorfindel already had a white horse ages before... was it the same horse?) was very fast, and very clever. It should never be forgotten, that it was the horse alone who saved Frodo at the Fords of Bruinen. There was no elf-chick on the saddle.

Back in Gondolin, Glorfindel was the head of the House of the Golden lower, hence the tapestry. When I started this, pretty much the only thing I knew was that I wanted Glorfindel's pale hair (Glorfindel=golden-haired) to mingle with the horse's white mane. Everything else was pretty random.




Model is of course the wondrously beautiful and ever-kind Danila Kovalev (an elf sloppily disguised as a human, if I ever saw one).

 

Faber Castell Graphite-Pure B to 9B