Helm Hammerhand by TurnerMohan on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

One of a small series of illustrations I'm doing centered around the Long Winter, an event which occurred in middle earth in TA. 2758, some 260 years before the war of the ring, in which King Helm, along with his people, held out against the invading Dunlandings in the deeping valley that, centuries later, would still bear his name.

Helm Hammerhand is a great hero in Rohirric tradition, very much in the vein of ancient heroes in our world like Hercules or Beowulf; said to have stalked out alone in the snow for his foes and to have killed men with his bare hands, he is one of the "greater sires" alongside whom Theoden (prompted in part by the poisonous words of Saruman) considers himself a "lesser son." It is a running theme in tolkien's world (as it was in very nearly all of pre-modern human society) that we today are living in a diminished world, that in the past everything was bigger and grander; enemies were more dire, winters were harsher, and heroes were greater. I wanted to portray that kind of feral, old-school heroism with Helm; having him draped in rough-cut animal furs (over mail, ofcourse) with his famous horn at his side, staring out over the Deeping Wall day and night, ever vigilant, his mighty hands clenched into fists, eager for Dunnish heads to smash.

the Rohirrim (especially of this earlier time) I see as a very stoic, hard people; basically still in the "barbarian" phase of culture, prizing strength and courage over received knowledge, people who live very much in the moment. the kind of people who would love and revere a king like Helm, who at nearly seventy still sets the gold standard for not-to-be-fucked-with.

Part of the Weekly Tolkien Sketchblog

see also: Helm's Last Stand turnermohan.deviantart.com/art…