Artist's commentary
Charge at the Pelennor Fields Fin
Day 66:
"DEATH! DEATH! DEATH!"
The Charge of the Rohirrim at the Pelennor Fields was always my favorite part of the Lord of the Rings, both books and movies. Besides it being such an awe inspiring scene, signaling the turn of the battle of Minas Tirith, it is also the culmination of a series of events that define the culture of Rohirrim as Tolkien described them. They are always written of in ways reminiscent of the old norse sagas, with characters and events far larger than life. When we meet them in the books however, we see them brought low by the scheming of Sauroman, the betrayal of Wormtongue, and they seem far lesser than their forebearers, never being able to live up to the heights of their fathers. There seems to be an unbridgable divide between their reality and the ideal they so desperately want to achieve. However, when they are thrown into the turmoil of the War of the Ring, they find themselves equal to great deeds and valor, and in the end prove themselves worthy of their heritage.
After Theoden falls, and the Witch King is slain, Eomer finds his King dead, and Eowyn also seeming to have been felled on the field of battle and he is so distraught that he gives himself to grief and madness and takes the entire army against the hordes of Mordor in what can either be described as a suicidal attack, or as in the words of the late King "In making an end worthy of remembering". This is my attempt at capturing that moment.