Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1500164
I have wandered in and out of Middle-earth for many years. When my brother and I read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as teenagers, the runes and the beautiful Elvish scripts caught my attention, as did the languages and the maps, and the 'between-the-lines' hints that the books were scratching the surface of a much bigger world; a world with its own cultures, heroes, discoveries, adventures, triumphs and tragedies. This was indeed the case, as Tolkien had not only laid the foundations of Middle-earth before writing those books; he had largely written its complete history. For many years, I couldn't get enough of Tolkien, and I devoured The Silmarillion when it was published. But real-life intervenes, and it was many years (and an entire career path) later that I became involved in Peter Jackson's trilogy of The Lord of the Rings, providing calligraphy, maps and artwork—my first foray into the world of film and TV. A decade later, I found myself back in that familiar world, working on The Hobbit. I had become, by default, the 'calligraphy and maps' guy of Middle-earth. So when the buzz began—the rumour that Amazon Prime was to make a series based on The Lord of the Rings—my ears pricked up, and I waited to see what would happen. Eventually, in July 2019, the phone rang and a voice from the past—Art Director Jules Cook— asked whether I might be interested in doing some work for the series. A discussion with the prop master Matt Cornelius quickly followed, and before I knew it, I was on an aeroplane to Auckland (I live in Wellington) to join the team. As it turned out, I would be there for two years, creating maps, artwork, calligraphy and indeed (for several cultures) inventing writing systems. Harfoots Creating a writing system for the Harfoots—early Hobbits—was a particularly interesting challenge. It stemmed from the need (in the script) to 'discover' a mysterious star chart which would give the Stranger the spark he needed to start recovering his lost self. Where would he find the star chart? Maybe as one of several loose leaves tucked into a book—the book of the Wayfinder of the tribe. Obviously, the book would need to be filled with, well, Harfoot stuff. The collected knowledge of the tribe, and in particular, the knowledge of generations of Wayfinders, passed down from one to the next, recording seasons and migrations and routes and ways of navigation— including the stars. A. EARLY VERSIONS OF THE 'PROW ROOM' MAPS. B. AT THIRTEEN YEARS OLD, I CUT MY BROTHER'S SINGLE VOLUME PAPERBACK INTO THREE, TO FORM THE PROPER TRILOGY, AND MADE COVERS WITH MY OWN LETTERING AND ILLUSTRATIONS. C. THE HARFOOT WAYFINDER'S BOOK. PRODUCTION STILL. C B