Lord of the Rings: The Animated Musical | Characters: The White Council
The White Council was a name given to wise immortals who protected Middle-earth from Sauron and his vassals. The White Council in The Lord of the Rings that drove the dark forces from Mirkwood was actually the second White Council. The first White Council is described in Unfinished Tales (263) and was formed to remove Sauron from Eriador (northwestern Middle-earth, including the Shire) after he had tortured Celebrimbor to death. The second White Council likely emulated the first White Council and was formed for a similar purpose, this time to drive Sauron from Mordor and be rid of him for good.
In “Races: Maiar, Wizards & Barogs”, I already discussed the three wizards who were part of the White Council: Saruman the White, Gandalf the Grey, and Radagast the Brown. This time, I will describe the portrayals of the three other immortals: Círdan of Lune, Galadriel of Lothlórien, and Elrond Half-elven of Imladris. All three fall under the wide umbrella of Elves, but each has a unique design style based on their background and occupation. I will discuss the personality and heritage of these characters more in-depth in future essays; today, I am concentrating on what appears in their “default” portrait, including a weapon, clothing, and depictions in other media.
Círdan
Círdan was best known as a shipwright. In fact, that is the literal meaning of his nickname from the Sindarin words cair meaning “ship” and tân meaning “builder, wright”. His birth name was Nōwē, which has no known meaning. Círdan loved the sea. According to The Silmarillion (55), he was friends with Ossë and Uinen, the Maiar who represented rough and calm seas. Accordingly, I wanted his weapon to reflect his seafaring abilities.
Elf Harpoon
Círdan holds a harpoon, a type of spear attached to a rope used by fishermen throughout the maritime world. I modeled Círdan’s harpoon after those made in New Bedford, MA during the 19th century, which I saw many years ago at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The city was known for the most advanced harpoon technology of the time, as African-American inventor Lewis Temple had created the toggle-head system. The spear was jabbed into the side of a whale, and the tip turned ninety degrees to keep the spear embedded in the wound. Today, Temple is recognized for his contributions as an inventor, including signage at Mystic Seaport Museum and a statue in New Bedford.
This specific harpoon was based on a real tool created by Josiah Macy around 1850. According to Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts… published in 1912, Macy spent most of his life on Nantucket, an island off the coast of Massachusetts, but he created the harpoon at his blacksmith shop in New Bedford. These efficient weapons devastated the whale population, and the technology kept getting more sophisticated. By the late 19th century, harpoons such as the bomb lance were fired from guns held on the hunter’s shoulder. By the early 20th century, harpoons were fired from guns bolted to the railing of a ship. Amazingly, whales survived some attacks. In 2007, Alaskan natives harvested a fifty-ton whale with a bomb lance harpoon in his head. The harpoon dated from about 1880, and the whale was believed to be between 115 and 130 years old.
As for the way this weapon would function on land, I imagine Círdan’s harpoon would act like a spear thrown by an atlatl. Anecdotally, I tried atlatl throwing in 2024 at an event co-hosted by Massachusetts Archaeological Society and Rebecca Nurse Farm in Danvers, MA. Even though I was out of practice with javelin throwing, the tool allowed me to throw farther and faster. The current Guinness World Record with advanced atlatl technology is almost 850' (260m), and I imagine Círdan would have used his construction skills to invent a similarly long-ranging weapon.
Actors & Fan Art
Círdan’s physical description is not as thorough as some characters in Tolkien’s legendarium, and depictions of him are accordingly divided. Some appear to take inspiration from Charlton Heston as Moses in The Ten Commandments (1956). This is best seen with the casting of actor Ben Daniels as Círdan in the Amazon Prime The Rings of Power series and the beautiful painting of Círdan on his wharf at sunset by Jef Murray. A Círdan created by French artist gresetdavid on DeviantArt resembles Noah more than Moses.
Other fans tend to keep his fair elf face and add a beard. On DeviantArt, the depiction by alystraea wears shiny earrings and appears to put on his makeup every morning, while the depiction by kimberly80 looks more like the average bearded hipster except with pointed ears. Silly descriptions aside, all of these artists are talented and show great creativity when portraying the harbormaster of the Grey Havens.
In my portrayal, Círdan has a stronger build than most Elves due to his occupation. He wears the same style of clothing as other Elves, but his colors are those of the sea: purples, blues, and browns. Contrary to many depictions, I portray Círdan as having blue-black hair streaked with seaweed-like green. This was the same hair color I used during my depiction of Saruman when the wizard first arrived in Middle-earth. Just as the wizard’s hair turned white over time, Círdan’s hair will turn silver from the stress of many wars by the time he appears in the final chapter.
Galadriel
With accolades like the “greatest of Elven women” in Appendix B along with “most beautiful of all the house of Finwë” and “the mightiest and fairest of all the Elves that remained in Middle-earth” in The Silmarillion, Galadriel was a force to be reckoned with. Tolkien even referred to her as an Amazon in a letter to a fan in 1973, a contrast to his characterization of Éowyn in a different letter, who he believed was brave but not naturally prone to political ambition or violence. Athletic and aggressive, Galadriel ruled Lothlórien, was the only female member of the White Council, and was related to multiple royal families of Elves. Her own mother called her Nerwen or “Man-maiden” for her physical size and masculine-coded personality. Then why do people keep portraying her as a pretty little princess?
Etymology
Part of the confusion may lie in Tolkien’s controlled vocabulary. He describes Galadriel as “slender”, a word from Old French that came to English around 1400 meaning “thin, lean, not fat or fleshy”. Since then, slender has shifted in meaning to include weakness or feebleness, but this does not seem to be the intended meaning in Tolkien’s “translation”. Synonyms include “lean” from Old English and “thin” from Middle English. “Slender” may have been preferred because words of French origin are considered elevated in English. As for the word Amazon, a mythological woman warrior from Scythia, this arrived in the late 14th century from Greek via Old French or Latin.
Strong Women in Art
False claims about the lack of strong women in art are no excuse for weak portrayals of Galadriel. In the United States, one of the most famous strong women is Rosie the Riveter, who appeared on the “We Can Do It!” poster around 1942. The Westinghouse Company’s War Production Co-coordinating Committee hired J. Howard Miller of Pittsburgh to paint Rosie. An even more powerful and gritty version appeared the next year on a cover for The Saturday Evening Post painted by Normal Rockwell. Her iconic blue work shirt and red bandanna have inspired the fashion of feminists in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Across the water in Russia, portraits of physically strong women were popular during the years of the Soviet Union. Among the most celebrated artists was Vladimir Aleksandrovich Serov who created a style now known as socialist realism. Among his most recognizable works is The Builder (1964), an extremely muscular female brick layer stretching her arm during a brief break at work. Serov won multiple prizes for his art, including the Stalin Prize in 1948 and 1951, and the People’s Artist of the USSR in 1958. However, he is not studied as often in the West since his work was state-sponsored propaganda. At the same time as Serov’s paintings, the world’s tallest statue of a woman was constructed in Volgograd, Russia between 1959 and 1967. Called The Motherland Calls, it acts as a memorial to soldiers who died during the Battle of Stalingrad. With flowing garments, a muscular body, and a large sword, it is easy to imagine this as young Galadriel rather than the spirit of Russia.
A third example of muscular women in art comes from the ceilings of the Sistine Chapel painted by Michelangelo. The most muscular of the women may be The Libyan Sibyl. According to a 1925 discovery by American artist and MET employee Bryson Burroughs, the original model for the Sibyl was a boy who posed nude. Burroughs describes the finished piece as “beyond sex—beyond mankind”. While historian Jill Burke is frequently cited as referring to Michelangelo’s portraits of women as “men with breasts”, and art critic Yael Even believes he “masculinizes female figures beyond recognition”, the artist’s intention was likely rooted in a Renaissance religious belief known as divine androgyny. While initially baffling to modern viewers, Renaissance people believed that men who looked somewhat feminine and women who looked somewhat masculine were the prettiest, as these people looked like heavenly angels. This version of beauty is exemplified by the androgynous Elves throughout the legendarium, so we will return to this concept in future essays.
Crown Braids & Ukrainian Politics
While scouring the internet for braid references, I discovered the hairstyle of Ukrainian politician Yulia V. Tymoshenko, known in English-language media as “the Braid”. The traditional Ukrainian hairstyle made Tymoshenko instantly recognizable while she served as a leader during the October Revolution, an attempt to prevent Russian from influencing Ukrainian politics. She served as the first female Prime Minister of Ukraine from 2005 to 2010, except for a two year period when her own party turned against her, although whether this was due to jealousy over her popularity or actual corruption on her behalf seems unclear.
According to the reporters Oleg Sukhov and Kateryna Denisova writing for the Kyiv Independent, Tymoshenko has since fallen from popularity due to voters becoming tired of the same people being in power, along with Tymoshenko allegedly offering bribes to fellow lawmakers to remove current president Volodymyr Zelensky from his position. Now sixty-five years of age, Tymoshenko may be nearing the end of her career. It will be interesting to see if she can negotiate redemption or become a hated figure in Ukrainian politics. Because of her role as a politically powerful woman with a controversial past, I thought a variation of her hairstyle was perfect for Galadriel.
Actresses & Fan Art
The two most common fallacies of drawing are directly based on the two most notable aspects of her physical character: she is an unusually strong woman to the point of appearing masculine, and she keeps her hair in a crown braid, especially when completing athletic feats. The actress Cate Blanchett appeared in the Peter Jackson interpretation, and Morfydd Clark took up the role in the Amazon Prime interpretation. While they are highly skilled at their work, both have a slight build rather than merely slender. Popular WNBA player Caitlin Clark may be closer to Tolkien’s original intention.
For artistic representation, my favorite examples come from Ted Nasmith, who successfully conveys the subtle aging process of an immortal. His painting Galadriel and Celeborn at Lake Evendim based on a scene from Unfinished Tales shows the pair as younger Elves. In part due to perspective, Galadriel appears to tower over Celeborn, clearly the larger and stronger of the pair. Nasmith painted two depictions of Galadriel in her garden: one as she walks down steps with Frodo and Sam, and the second when she reveals her Elven-ring to them. While she is still tall and strong, especially compared to the hobbits, her posture is more feminine and graceful, rather than powerful. Perhaps her confidence in her magical abilities has grown so that she relies less on physical strength, or she has less interest in sport as a grandmother than she did as a maiden.
My depiction of Galadriel may appear overly tall and muscular as I counter the many short and skinny Galadriels. She is taller than Círdan, and her hair is bound up in a gleaming crown around her head. She wears the light blue gákti-inspired costume that I first designed for the Elves of Lorien. I also included sparkling freckles across her cheeks, which look like tiny stars, a reminder that Galadriel saw the light of the Two Trees.
Elrond
Elrond Halfelven descends from the lines of the three kindred of Elves, the three houses of Men from the First Age, and the one Maia to have a child. His multiracial heritage allows him to befriend people from the many races of Middle-earth, and yet he maintains feelings of superiority over mortals. In future essays, I will dive into Elrond’s skills as a writer and architect, along with better understanding his psychology. For now, I will concentrate on his depictions by actors and in fan art.
Actors & Fan Art
Both actors chosen to play Elrond in recent live-action productions have baffled me. Hugo Weaving and his eyebrows were Peter Jackson’s Elrond, while Robert Aramayo and his Jonas brothers haircut were Amazon Prime’s Elrond. Most artistic depictions of Elrond portray him with long, black hair and an ageless, androgynous face. DeviantArt users Tatyafine and alystraea exemplify this portrayal, although to my mind, his skin appears overly smooth. One of my favorite Elronds is drawn by Michael Bucci. Whether Elrond is discussing ancient swords in The Hobbit or posing for a portrait, he wears bold disk earrings.
My version of Elrond does not regularly wear bling but instead has athelas in his hair and wears a deep green outfit. I had already designed him as the default representation of Rivendell elves and half-elven, since it seemed to be a small population. Elrond is the tallest member of the White Council in my portrayal, as his ancestor Thingol was eight feet in height, and I assumed he would be similarly tall. I also gave Elrond the most realistic human skin tone, referencing his mortal ancestors. With the designs of the White Council members complete, they are now ready to defend Middle-earth from the forces of darkness.