Title: Dust jacket design for The Two Towers
Artist: J.R.R. Tolkien

1954
This was Tolkien's final dust jacket design for The Two Towers, the second volume of his epic work, The Lord of the Rings. It shows the white tower of Minas Morgul, held by the Lord of the Nazgul, and the black tower of Orthanc where the wizard Saruman resided. The Elvish script running through the One Ring in the centre, reads ominously, 'In the land of Mordor, where the shadows lie'.
Drawing by J.R.R. Tolkien. MS. Tolkien Drawings 90, fol. 29r. Reproduced with kind permission of The Tolkien Estate Limited for the Bodleian Libraries exhibition Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth.

© The Tolkien Trust 1992