Tiny Wooden Aragorn

[bunn]

Here's a tiny wooden Aragorn I have made for lindahoyland.  He's not quite three inches tall.   I was terribly keen to carve him once I had the idea, because I thought Aragorn in his Ranger's outfit would work well in the style of a Lewis Chessman.  He's come out a little less cartoonish than they are, but I am pleased with him.  For one thing, he stands up!  I find that quite hard to achieve: this is why many of my carvings are designed to hang up rather than stand up.

I agonised over which wood to use.  I had almost settled on oak, for its durability, and I even cut a piece of oak for the job, but I kept looking at it and it was *just wrong*.  So I went out and wandered around looking at trees, and realised that actually, I have the perfect tree for an Aragorn figure in the front hedge: Rowan.

 It's not a long-lived tree, as trees go: it lives perhaps two hundred years - but it pops up in unexpected places from seed.  It has white blossom like the White Tree of Gondor, the fruit has been used to flavour beer, it's a tree that hybridizes easily.   It is sometimes called the Wayfarer's Tree, or the Traveller's Tree.   And of course it is well known to have strong powers to ward off evil.

It carves quite well too, although I think the room was a little too warm: he has just a very small split starting in the base.  I've waxed it, and I'm fairly sure that left to season in a bag in a cold room for a few weeks, the split won't run any further.  But I won't risk posting him until he's seasoned a bit more.

Of course, the camera has picked out every tiny imperfection...



You can just see his sword is a little curved in this last photo, but that's what you get carving from smaller pieces of wood.  I cut a side-branch, because I didn't want to go cutting down flowering trees in the springtime.

Comments

[huinare.livejournal.com]

That is awesome!

Rowan sounds like the perfect tree to use for this. I'm also recalling Bregalad's "o rowan fair" song--it's been a while since I've revisited LotR, but I get the feeling there was something in the denouement about Aragorn being on good terms with the ents or having some decent policy in relation to Fangorn Forest, or something...

[hhimring]

It made me think of Bregalad, too.

Here's what Aragorn says to Treebeard in the denouement (among other things): I will give to Ents all this valley to do with as they will, as long as they keep a watch upon Orthanc and see that none enter it without my leave.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Well, I hope Bregalad would not be too offended by his relative sparing me a finger or perhaps a toe. There was some friction with the neighbours about her, since they felt she obstructed their view. To which my response was 'who would NOT want a view with a rowan tree in it???' The neighbours moved out yesterday, so I feel the tree has won.

[hhimring]

You did treat your rowan with a great deal more respect than Saruman and his orcs showed.
I definitely agree with you that any view can be only improved by having a rowan in it!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I was so smug when I realised what a perfect fit the wood was in general aesthetics. Good thing it turned out to be a reasonable carving wood too!