Middle Earth Ranger Forum

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


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[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???

If you fancy something early and want to avoid round shields there always the Germanic elongated hexagonal ones.
https://v-cg.etsystatic.com/video/uploa ... cytipd.mp4

Not as easy to form formations like shieldwalls, phalanxes or testudo, but being narrow and tall (basically like a human) a better design for fighting in open skirmish with a sword.... Plus being square at the bottom means you can prop it against your leg when shooting the bow.

A Pointy boss is right for this type..... And make sure the handgrip runs up and down, not left to right like a scutum

ForgeCorvus wrote: ↑Fri Sep 23, 2022 7:09 pm If you fancy something early and want to avoid round shields there always the Germanic elongated hexagonal ones.
https://v-cg.etsystatic.com/video/uploa ... cytipd.mp4

That is NICE, I can just see a fancy version of that, possibly slightly less elongated, being used and made by dwarves, cool

Heres a 'stubbie' version



Sorry the image is so big

ooooo.... and the engraving on that boss

I really like that hexagonal shield!...when I tackle a Beorning shield Mk2, and have the funds for a nice hexagonal boss, I'll probably do something similar with my existing footprint theme. Gets away from the round shield 'viking' look while still being Germanic, but not so divergent as something like a Battersea shield (perfect for Dunland etc tho!).

I suppose you could make a case for Dwarves (or at least Erebourian Dwarves) using a flattened hexagonal shield and the Dalemen using an even more 'squashed' version (because humans are taller and narrower on average then Dwarves)

While that shape fits in with the Geometric theme evident in the Jackson films, its also not a direct lift as a cosplay piece would be. I'm not doing down cosplay, its just that in RL form follows function. In cosplay and (to a lesser extent ) LARP, form is function.
A brief flex of my google shows me octagonal, a squared-off heater with a notch in the top (used by the Ironhills schiltron) and this weird winged tower shield


As a sometime user of shields I can tell you that the more points and sticky-out bits you have the harder it gets to control, and that Kite and Heater shields make more sense when mounted as you can brace them against your leg and body to receive the lance hit but they're really not that easy to handle in open formation

I would go with a round shield, Early Middle ages/Carolingian. Probably paint it in a nice red or yellow.