A fan of the work of J.R.R. Tolkien and medieval art? Then you’ll love this.
Benjamin Harff graduated from the Rhein-Sieg-Akademie für realistische bildende Kunst und Design in Hennef, Germany in Illustration and Graphic Design in 2009. For his final thesis for his degree, he created a hand-illuminated version of J.R.R. Tolkien’s book The Silmarillion. The Silmarillion tells the fictional history of Middle-Earth before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy took place.
[See also: The Confusing Mythology of Lord of the Rings Explained in One Video]
“All the initials, the calligraphic pages and illumination was drawn and painted by hand,” Harff told Tolkien Library. He then scanned his work and added in the rest of the text digitally.
Along with admitting that, due to time constraints, there are typographical errors in the final product, Harff also said he printed the final pages “at home with a Canon-Inkjet.” And yet it seems to have turned out so well form the pictures!
[See also: The Fascinating History of the Ring in the LOTR, Explained]
Here are some pictures of the final product:
