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The Ebony Horse in Arabian Nights and Iron Dragons in The Fall of Gondolin shared fascination over mechanical beasts in classic fantasy tales, and how they are viewed in the lens of folktale/fairy tale and modern eyes. 1/4
#TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday #Tolkien
#TolkienTrewsday #TolkienTuesday #Tolkien
In The Ebony Horse, the flying horse was made by a craftsman who was later imprisoned over a disastrous flying test; he tampered with the horse for revenge. Meglin (Maegln) suggested the Iron Dragons to Melko, who ordered his smiths and sorcerers to make them. 2/4
Note that Tolkien started The Fall of Gondolin after his experiences in the battlefield of Somme. The Iron Dragons, with their "hearts and spirits of blazing fire" and clanging hollow bellies from where Orcs poured out, sounds like magic infused with the image of tanks. 3/4
Their depictions crossing boundaries between magic and modern marvel. To us, they're mechanical. To the people in the tales, they looked like a strange, dangerous magic. It's said that, after Gondolin, devices like the Iron Dragons wouldn't be seen again until the Great End. 4/4
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The ebony horse: Edmund Dulac, Swede Gustav Tenggren
Iron dragons: Roger Garland, John Howe (from their Fall of Gondolin paintings)
The ebony horse: Edmund Dulac, Swede Gustav Tenggren
Iron dragons: Roger Garland, John Howe (from their Fall of Gondolin paintings)
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