Title: The Elvenking's Gate
Artist: J.R.R. Tolkien

1936

This is one of eight drawings of the entrance to the Elvenking's halls, made by Tolkien as he experimented with the shape of the entrance, different types of gate and the perspective of the drawing. This is certainly the most striking image and was the one chosen for publication in the first edition.

Drawing by J.R.R. Tolkien for The Hobbit, 1937. MS. Tolkien Drawings 19.

Reproduced with kind permission of The Tolkien Estate Limited for the Bodleian Libraries exhibition Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth.

© The Tolkien Estate Limited 1937.