Eofor wrote: ↑Thu Sep 22, 2022 11:32 am I find the whole tableau the most fascinating of Tolkiens works, possibly because of the detail and for the insight into how he himself pictured what he was writing. Just look at the large jars of gold, the crowns, strands of jewels and very Sutton Hooesque drinking horns!
Where is Iodo Ionite?!?!?! I need her to translate the runes on the jars as she's far better with them than I am.
Apologies Eofor, I've had a busy week at work and spent my evenings working on a new project
The rune you see on the jars, written twice, is one of the bind runes that you see on Thror's map:
^ "Five feet high the door and three may walk abreast. Th. Th." note that; "ee" and "th" are both represented by single bind runes, that Door is written as "dor", possibly because it's spelled phonetically to save space or alternatively the "O" rune can represent one or a double-o depending on use, and that in the word "walk" an "O" rune is mistakenly used in the place of an "A" rune
It translates as the letters "Th" and written twice as "Th. Th." Just as on the map, it is the initials of Thror and then Thrain
-----
[EDIT] Just another thought on Tolkien's artwork, notice how the pattern in the strip around the top of that front most big jar is almost exactly the same as the dwarven pattern motives that I have used in my kit, the ones I lifted directly from WETA, is it possible someone in the design team was inspired by this very thing???