In the winter of 1982 and 1983, as a low man on the totem pole at high school, these images were seared into my brain. My bedroom was in an uninsulated attic; my sole window overlooked snowy roofs and backyards of my neighborhood. I had just read The Lord of the Rings and constantly riffed through the two Tolkien encyclopedias by Tyler and Foster. My buddies played D&D and I ate up everything sword and sorcery, from Stephen R. Donaldson to T. H. White.
And the 1982 Tolkien Calendar, featuring the artwork of Darrell K. Sweet, a Christmas gift, hung from the rafters. The following year, I cut out the pictures and tacked them into the two-by-fours. To me, this is Tolkien, not the images most of the public knows from Peter Jackson.
Like everything under the sun, you can find these images and more online. Let me tell you, these long-forgotten paintings brought back a lot of memories for me, powerfully so.
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