What Might Have Been Worn: Designing the Jewellery of the Edain

The aim of this essay is to articulate the creative process behind the design of a pendant inspired by the House of Hador from Tolkien’s First Age. It seeks to build a thoughtful cultural and artistic framework by drawing parallels between Middle-earth’s peoples and real-world historical art movements and specifically highlighting the Norwegian Dragestil movement from the late 19th century as an ideal visual and symbolic bridge between Elven craftsmanship and the mannish heritage of the Atanatari and their kinship to the Rohirrim.

This pendant is inspired by the Edain (the first Men who fought alongside the Elves in the First Age), most specifically the House of Hador. These people dwelt in Dor-lómin in the North-West of Beleriand, and were vassal to the High King of the Noldorin Elves Fingolfin, and then to his son Fingon after the Dagor Bragolach. Their ties with the royal family were not limited to a political alliance but were deep foundations of their culture and values. The last stand of the men of Dor-lómin at the Nirnaeth Arnoediad illustrates their unwavering loyalty to the House of Fingolfin. Before settling in northwestern Beleriand, they were known as the Folk of Marach and were related to the ancestors of the Northmen of Rhovanion from whom the Rohirrim would later arise in the Third Age.

A piece of jewelry created for the House of Hador, that aims toward authenticity, must primarily reflect this complex lineage in its style: distant kinship with the Northmen and Rohirrim, Elven influence acquired through close contact with the Noldor, and a sense of remote antiquity, the First Age being a distant past even by the time of The Lord of the Rings. I believe that if the piece of jewelry emerges from such a coherent theoretical framework of influences it can be an original piece while at the same time feeling familiar to the fans and can be assigned to the House of Hador without it seeming out of place.

Design philosophy : Establishing visual kinship and artistic parallels

"the Edain of old learned swiftly of the Eldar all such art and knowledge as they could receive, and their sons increased in wisdom and skill"

The Silmarillion, Of the coming of Men into the West

To create a coherent and believable visual identity, I draw parallels between the fictional cultures of Middle-earth and real-world artistic movement or cultures. This is a creative tool, not a scholarly essay on Tolkien’s intent or inspirations regarding real-world cultures or ethnicity and their supposed ties to his fictional world. While my process includes study of art history, archaeology, linguistics, and Tolkien’s own writings, it ultimately serves my artistic pursuits and has no pretence as an analysis of Tolkien’s work or intentions. The following step of the process aims to identify relevant historical inspirations for the Elves, the Rohirrim, the folk of Marach and ultimately the House of Hador at the time they were established in Dor-lómin.

The Noldor of Hithlum were the most important cultural mentor of the House of Hador as they taught the Men many things of art and wisdom. In our world, there is a long standing tradition that draws inspiration from Art Nouveau in order to create Elven architecture and furniture as well as jewelry. Even though the topic of the visual inspirations for the Elves is a lot more complicated and nuanced than that, I will keep that topic for another time and continue with the simple association with Art Nouveau.

Similarly, it is pretty much established that Tolkien’s Rohirrim are inspired by Anglo-Saxons, therefore later adaptations of Peter Jackson used Anglo-Saxon aesthetics and material culture to render the art of the men of Rohan thus crystallizing the parallel in the eyes of many a fan. The Anglo-Saxons were a Germanic people, known for their material culture in the second half of the first millennium CE. This step is the key towards finding the visual identity of the House of Hador. Although distant in genealogy and in time in Tolkien’s work, the two people shared many traits in common, to such extent that the lore-masters of Gondor in the Third Age believed the Rohirrim to be directly descendant from the House of Hador. The kinship between the Folk of Marach and the Rohirrim is crucial to this work as the Rohirrim have a firmly established visual identity. We can thus draw from this basis and visually associate the Folk of Marach with a relative of the Anglo-Saxons : the North Germanic peoples (Scandinavian) of the late first millenium. Drawing inspiration from the North Germanic material culture can convey the sense of kinship tying the Folk of Marach and the Rohirrim. However the North Germanic inspiration itself is insufficient to portray the House of Hador as we need to have a strong Elven influence.

To summarize :

1. The Elves (Noldor), cultural mentors and allies. → Art Nouveau

2. The Northmen/Rohirrim, distant relatives and inheritors of shared traits. → Anglo-Saxon

3. The Folk of Marach, the ancestral group of the House of Hador. → Scandinavian Iron Age

Based on the relations of kinship and inspiration between these elements, there is a real-world artistic movement that would be particularly fitting as a foundation for the visual identity of the House of Hador. It is the short-lived and lesser known movement of the Late 19th-Early 20th century called Dragestil.

Dragestil as an inspiration for the visual identity of the House of Hador.

This movement originated in Norway and was strongly inspired by Norse art and by the recent excavations taking place in Scandinavia at the time but it was also inspired by contemporary movements of Art Nouveau in Western Europe. It is noticeable that the pattern of kinship and influences is thus similar to the House of Hador: from the folk of Marach (Scandinavian) but inspired by the contemporary and neighbouring Elves (Art Nouveau). Dragestil seems an ideal inspiration to create items from the House of Hador, even beyond the creation of jewelry. The Dragestil architecture has features that would suit cultural landmarks of Dor-Lomin. They used exposed timber and carved dragon heads as ornaments. A notable figurehead of Dragestil was Ivar Høyvik who created wooden furniture with intricate knotwork as seen in the Høyviksalen at Kviknes Hotel in Balestrand, Norway.

Sketch of Gustav Gaudernack (1865–1914)

The main inspiration for the knotwork, the focal point of this pendant, were some of the sketches of Gustav Gaudernack, an Austrian designer who emigrated to Norway and was mainly active from 1892 until his death in 1914 at the age of 48. The knotwork I used for the pendant had to have some kind of symmetry as I imagine most Noldor crafts to be very precise as well as expressive. Furthermore the two parallel diagonal lines near the center are slightly higher then most parts of the knotwork and they create a "twisting" motion within the piece. In addition to the knotwork, I created two lines of granulation that frame the piece by following the two quasi-vertical lines on the left and right. This enhances the perceived antiqueness of the object as granulation was a favoured technique of many ancient cultures, both around the Mediterranean and in Northern Europe. Furthermore, these two rows of identical, evenly spaced small spheres contrast with the flowing continuous curves of the knotwork that vary in thickness and direction. This contrast reflects the hybrid nature inherent to the culture of the House of Hador bet

ween Men and Elves. This is the first piece I’ve made for the House of Hador although it will not be the last and the future pieces will follow this same framework and draw partly from the heritage of Dragestil.

The final pendant.

Conclusion

While I argue that Dragestil is an ideal inspiration for designing elements of the House of Hador, it is just that, an inspiration. A piece inspired by it should not aim to copy works of Dragestil but use them as a fertile ground for creating a coherent piece of art that is reminiscent of the House of Hador. It can be said that such a framework is superfluous if the only thing that comes out of it is but one pendant, however I argue that a piece of jewelry, from any culture, was not created in isolation and must, in some way, be representative of its larger culture. For this pendant as for most of my creations, I do not only seek pleasing aesthetics. I aim to honour the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, therefore study and attention to details are not just encouraged, they are necessary. My design process is an attempt in cultural reconstruction within a fictional world. By grounding the design in the lore and drawing from real-world artistic traditions such as Dragestil, this work attempts to give visual form to a culture described in Tolkien’s legendarium but rarely depicted in material terms. The merging of Elven skill, through the influence of Art Nouveau, and the ancient Scandinavian heritage creates a pendant that feels both ancient and believable, as though it could have truly been worn by the Lords of Dor-lómin. This process is ultimately a creative one that aims not to recreate the past as it was, but to suggest what might have been worn.

Edain 1

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