Gouache, 17″ x 12″
Among the illustrations submitted for this new edition, this one in particular was key. It astonished me that up to then I had not carefully read the Unfinished Tales account and picked up on this detail. In The Silmarillion, despite that Tuor and Voronwe had come to Gondolin through a winter sojourn, the Vale of Tumladen is described as a “green jewel”, a phrase that guided my earlier 1990s version. But of course it must be winter, and it was very gratifying to correct the error for this piece, and which includes as many of the figures described as present at this moment.