I'm pretty sure I have this map of Middle Earth somewhere rolled up in a tube in the loft. Finding it is another matter but along with my other favourite posters: Undine by Arthur Rackham, Jesus is Coming, Gandalf and Troll by Brian Froud, it took pride of place in my bedroom circa 1979 shortly before I blew the crazy scene back then and went to live on a bird reserve in the Fens. In Middle Earth the Fens would probably have been the flat plains of Rohan home of the proud Rohirim.
Personally I've often fancied myself as Strider, waiting in the shadows for a triumphant return, smiting the Dark Lord and the heinous Nazgul with his mighty SWORD and fulfilling his destiny as heir to Isuldur's throne by restoring the Shards of Narsil to their rightful place in Gondor and becoming the King of Men. Alas, it is not to be but I sure did love Pauline Bayne's map and all her wonderfully optimistic motifs in both Tolkein's and CS. Lewis's Narnia paperbacks of the 1970's. She was an inspired illustrator whose work I adored.
There's much more about Pauline Baynes on one Brian Sibley's blog including links to her orbituaries in the broadsheets.
There's much more about Pauline Baynes on one Brian Sibley's blog including links to her orbituaries in the broadsheets.
Did you really live on a bird reserve?
ReplyDeletePauline Bayne's is my all time favourite book illustrator. So much so that at one point I almost got one of her drawings done as a tattoo! They were (are!) an integral part of the Narnia books for me.
Has her work ever been collected and published as a whole?
I also admire her work. I don't know if there is any study of her work, but a few years ago Narnia books with coloured illustrations (also by Baynes) were released -expect you knew this!
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