Queen Margrethe II, ruler of Denmark, will abdicate her throne this week. She is, by all accounts, well-loved in the country, so if you’re into monarchy that’s great, I guess. However, she’s an interesting character away from the throne, and is well learned in archeology, decoupage (posh collaging), and screenwriting. She has attended archeological digs, written two films, designed the sets for three more, and even made a cameo in one.
However, few people know about her connection toLord of the Ringsauthor J. R. R. Tolkien. In the early ‘70s, shortly before she ascended to the throne, she drew some illustrations for Tolkien’s iconic fantasy book. I guess preparing to rule a country isn’t that taxing.
According to Tolkien’s publisher Rayner Unwin in his book George Allen & Unwin: A Remembrancer, then-Princess Margrethe sent her illustrations directly to Tolkien, who greatly enjoyed them. “Tolkien, an instinctive royalist, was delighted by the letter, and a little correspondence ensued,” Unwin explained. Many people have spotted similarities between the Queen’s illustrations and Tolkien’s own, but I would wager Margrethe’s are more abstract, which led to one of them being printed upside down inThe Folio Society edition of The Lord of the Rings. But more on that later.
Using the pseudonym Ingahild Grathmer, a partial anagram of her name, Margrethe first published her unique take on Lord of the Rings illustrations with the Danish translation of the books.
In 1977, The Folio Society got in touch to use her illustrations for its forthcoming publication, in which experienced engraver Eric Fraser edited the illustrations to make them easier to reproduce successfully. This edition of The Lord of the Rings was reissued in 2002, presumably to cash in on the success of Peter Jackson’s film adaptations, and is still available today.
Queen Margrethe also appeared in a documentary about Tolkien, called J. R. R. T.: A Film Portrait of J. R. R. Tolkien and narrated by the inimitable Judi Dench, in which she read her letter to the author and showed some of her drawings that she sent him, including an unpublished sketch of the Council of Elrond, and a drawing of the Scouring of the Shire which Tolkien described as “dismally and meanly hideous”. If you know the chapter, you’ll understand that’s a compliment. He also said the image was “dreadfully like what happened to the village in which I lived as a child, almost as soon as I left it.”
Queen Margrethe’s passion for fantasy and Tolkien is unmistakable, and the fact she quotes from the text so easily and readily shows how many times she’s read Tolkien’s work. It’s also interesting to hear her compare Tolkien’s descriptions of Saruman’s despicable buildings to those that the Nazis built in her native Denmark during World War 2, during which she was a child. Much like the Hobbits coming back to the Shire after destroying the Ring, a child Margrethe would have been shocked by the stark architecture of Denmark’s occupiers.
The documentary also shows that Margrethe’s Tolkien illustrations didn’t stop after ascending to the throne. She shares a watercolour based on the events of The Silmarillion (particularly the tragedy of Turin Turambar), which she dates to the late ‘70s.
Queen Margrethe’s illustrations are some of my personal favourites, and I’d put her just below the greats of Alan Lee and John Howe, on the same level as the Brothers Hildebrandt andJohn Blanchewhen it comes to iconic imagery from Middle-earth. With more time on her hands in the near future, perhaps her retirement will result in a deluge of more Tolkien illustrations to be published in translations or special editions in the forthcoming years. We can only hope.
