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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Architecture in Middle-earth | 4/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Architecture_in_Middle-earth | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T13:58:59.702167+00:00 | kb-cron |
the hobbit houses of the Shire are molded under the contours of gently rolling hills; ... the human city of Minas Tirith takes the logic of its form and defences from the rocky pinnacle it encircles. ... [while] both Saruman’s and Sauron’s towers soar abruptly out of desolate plains over which they exert panoptical control."
This mirroring of psychology in architecture relies on both external form and interior design. Bag End has comfortable British vernacular wooden panelling, whereas the Elves's dwellings are designed with the intricately curving naturalism of Art Nouveau. The scholar of humanities Brian Rosebury comments that Jackson presents the Elves as sophisticated, where Tolkien made them close to nature. All the same, he writes, the film Rivendell's "architecture and ornaments are dominated by natural motifs", suggesting "integration with nature, but at one remove", something that works well for the "Portmeirion-like idyll" of the portrayed Rivendell. Rosebury describes the design as "post-Ruskinian", as in pre-Raphaelite paintings, William Morris's Arts and Crafts designs, and Art Nouveau architectural details. These differ from Tolkien's own illustrations, but in a way, Rosebury suggests, that Tolkien would have liked as it matches his dislike of industrialised manufacture. Lee's sketches of Rivendell give more detail than Tolkien's, the interior vistas structured by light and delicate curving timbers and furniture in Art Nouveau style. The evil realms have in Woodward and Kourelis's view "the dark, metallic forms of an ultra-Gothic grotesque, invoking caves, dark pools, vaulted arches lit by firelight", suggesting torture, contrasting with Gondor's heroic "archaeological signature of medieval monuments: vast reaches of white marble, ashlar courses, draftsman’s elevations." They comment that "without [the] deployment of an architectural typology [for Minas Tirith], the exact nature of the conflict in Middle Earth would likely remain unclear." Finally, Rohan's Golden Hall of Meduseld has "lavishly decorated stables befit[ting a] horse-based culture", made grand with "Celtic gold ornamentation" and horse motifs; Lee based his drawings on the mead-hall Heorot in Beowulf. Woodward and Kourelis end by quoting Tolkien's description in his 1936 lecture "Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics" of the "historical space" in Beowulf, stating that it could unreservedly be applied to the extraordinary spatial vision of Jackson's films:
The whole must have succeeded admirably in creating in the minds of the poet's contemporaries the illusion of surveying a past, pagan but noble and fraught with deep significance—a past that itself had depth and reached backward into a dark antiquity of sorrow.
== J. D. Payne and Patrick McCoy's vision ==
The showrunners J. D. Payne and Patrick McKay developed and produced The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The series is based on clues in The Lord of the Rings about events set mainly in the earlier Second Age. Middle-earth locations used include a port in the island Kingdom of the Men of Númenor – recalling the legend of Atlantis in being lost beneath the waves at the end of the Second Age; and the Elvish realm of Lindon, all that was left of the Elvish region of Beleriand, destroyed at the end of the First Age. Payne and McKay created architectures to help to convey the character of each race involved in the story. Howe prepared 40 sketchbooks full of drawings for the project.
The Númenor set was described as "an entire seaside city" with buildings, alleyways, shrines, graffiti, and a ship docked at the harbour. The production designer Ramsey Avery used different styles for each location: Númenor's "looming marble structures" were inspired by Ancient Greece and Venice, while he used the colour blue to reflect the culture's emphasis on water and sailing; Lindon was inspired by Gothic architecture, with "tree-like columns and arboreal details" to reflect the Elves' love of nature.
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