Aaron Diaz’s ‘The Silmarillion’ Project

Aaron Diaz, author and illustrator of Dresden Codak, started a side project about a year ago based off of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion (you can visit the Tumblr blog here). He created an illustration to go along with each chapter and provided additional drawings and information about the places and characters involved.

In this post, Aaron addresses questions about the project and discusses his reasons for starting it in the first place. “My motivation is to create a Middle-earth visually unique from the style of the Peter Jackson films. I like the movies, but I miss the days when there was more diversity and interpretation to Tolkien illustrations. A second motivation is to provide a greater representation of women and people of color in the narratives. While Tolkien made more than a few missteps regarding race and gender, the ‘everyone is white’ trend in adaptations is a symptom of other people ignoring what’s in the texts.”

Unfortunately the project has not been updated in a while, but you can see the work for each chapter with the following links:

1. Ainulindalë – The Music of the Ainur
2. Valaquenta – Account of the Valar and Maiar in according to the lore of the Eldar
3. The Monsters of Middle-Earth
4. The Free Peoples of the First Age
5. Silmarillion Chapter 1 – Of the Beginning of Days
6. Silmarillion Chapter 2 – Of Aulë and Yavanna
7. Silmarillion Chapter 3 – Of the Coming of the Elves and the Captivity of Melkor
8. Silmarillion Chapter 4 – Of Thingol and Melian
9. Silmarillion Chapter 5 – Of Eldamar and the Princes of the Eldalië
10. Silmarillion Chapter 6 – Of Fëanor and the Unchaining of Melkor
11. Silmarillion Chapter 7 – Of the Silmarils and the Unrest of the Noldor
12. Silmarillion Chapter 8 – Of the Darkening of Valinor
13. Silmarillion Chapter 9 – Of the Flight of the Noldor