J. R. R. Tolkien inventedheraldic devices for many of the characters and nations ofMiddle-earth. His descriptions were in simple English rather than in specificblazon. The emblems correspond in nature to their bearers, and their diversity contributes to the richly detailed realism of his writings.
Scholars note that Tolkien went through different phases in his use of heraldry; his early account of the Elvish heraldry ofGondolin inThe Book of Lost Tales corresponds broadly to heraldic tradition in the choice of emblems and colours, but that later when he wroteThe Lord of the Rings he was freer in his approach, and in the complex use of symbols forAragorn's sword and banner, he clearly departs from tradition to suit his storytelling.
In hisThe Lord of the Rings film trilogy,Peter Jackson and his concept designers took inspiration from traditional representations of men-at-arms on horseback with banners and armour, especiallyAlbrecht Altdorfer's 1529 oil painting,The Battle of Alexander at Issus, to create realistic battle scenes.
The Tolkien scholarsWayne G. Hammond andChristina Scull describe Tolkien'sgraphic creativity, from doodles toNúmenórean artefacts and Elvish emblems. Tolkien noted the rules of Elvish heraldry:[1]
| Shape | Structure | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
 | Circle | for a female |
 | Lozenge | for a male |
 | Square | impersonal or for a family |
 | 4 points reaching rim | for a Prince |
 | 6–8 points reaching rim | for a King |
| up to 16 points reaching rim | for a great ancestor, e.g. House ofFinwë |
One of Tolkien's drawings of emblems, forLúthien Tinúviel, was used on the front cover ofThe Silmarillion, and another five (forFingolfin,Eärendil,Idril Celebrindal,Elwë, andFëanor) were used on the back cover.[T 2]
According toThe Book of Lost Tales, the active male Elves ofGondolin, a city inBeleriand in theFirst Age, belonged to one of the 11 "Houses" orThlim, plus the bodyguard ofTuor, a Man, which was accounted the twelfth. Each house had a distinct symbol: a mole, a swallow, the heavens, a pillar, a tower of snow, a tree, a golden flower, a fountain, a harp, a hammer and anvil, and finally the triple symbol of the King, namely the moon, sun, and scarlet heart worn by the Royal Guard.[T 3]
Hriban writes that the Gondolin emblems are simply figurative, depicting familiar objects, and that similar devices can be found in standard British texts on heraldry.[2][a] He notes that Maeglin the traitor, of the House of Moles, fittingly has the colour black; like the animal, his people are miners, used to living underground in the dark.[2]
| OldNoldorin names of the Houses[T 3] | Leader | Uniforms and emblems | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The folk of the White Wing | Tuor |  | "These wore wings as it were of swans or gulls upon their helms, and the emblem of the White Wing was upon their shields."[T 4] | The bodyguard of Tuor.[T 4] |
| The House of theMole or theThlim Doldrin | Maeglin |  | "Sable was their harness, and they bore no sign or emblem, but their round caps of steel were covered with moleskin."[T 4] | Composed of skilled miners. |
| The House of theSwallow or theThlim Duilin | Duilin |  | "[They] bore a fan of feathers on their helms, and they were arrayed in white and dark blue and in purple and black and showed an arrowhead on their shield."[T 4] | Gondolin's best archers. |
| The House of the Heavenly Arch or theThlim Quing Ilon | Egalmoth |  | "They were arrayed in a glory of colours, and their arms were set with jewels. Every shield of that battalion was of the blue of the heavens."[T 4] | A very wealthy house; comprised the other part of Gondolin's archers. |
| The House of the Pillar or theThlim Climbol | Penlod |  | unknown | Their leader was slain during the Fall of Gondolin. |
| The House of the Tower of Snow or theThlim Ith Mindon | Penlod |  | unknown | Their leader was slain during the Fall of Gondolin. |
| The House of the Tree or theThlim Galdon | Galdor |  | "Their raiment was green."[T 4] | Wielded clubs andslings. |
| The House of the Golden Flower or theThlim Losglóriol | Glorfindel |  | "[They] bore a golden flower upon their shield."[T 4] | |
| The House of the Fountain or theThlim Ecthel | Ecthelion |  | "Silver and diamonds was their delight ; and swords very long and bright and pale did they wield."[T 4] | The guard of the fountains, primarily those of the king. Warriors of this house defended the seventh gate of Gondolin. They marched into battle to the playing of flutes. |
| The House of the Harp or theThlim Salum | Salgant |  | "A harp of silver shone in their blazonry upon a field of black."[T 4] | House of musicians. However, their leader was a craven. |
| The House of the Hammer of Wrath or theThlim Gothodrum | Rog |  | "The sign of this people was the Stricken Anvil, and a hammer that smiteth sparks about it was set on their shields."[T 4] | The largest and most valiant house. They comprised those blacksmiths who were not under Maeglin, as well as escaped thralls of Morgoth. They perished to the last elf during the Fall of Gondolin. |
| The House of the King | King Turgon |  | "The array of the house of the king and their colours were white and gold and red, and their emblems the moon and the sun and the scarlet heart [ofFinwë Nólemë]."[T 4] | The three Royal Guard battalions of King Turgon. |
| Arms | Person | Emblem | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Gandalf the Grey | TheCirthrune for the letter "G" on a grey field. | Gandalf indicates his presence onWeathertop by scratching his rune on a stone. The mark is simple, hard to distinguish from mere scratches.[T 5] |
  | Saruman the White | TheCirthrune for the letter "S" on a white field.[T 6] A white hand on a black field.[T 6] | The "S" rune is Saruman's old symbol, standing simply for his name as a wizard.[T 6] McGregor comments that white usually symbolises purity and goodness; Saruman was indeed the "White Wizard" and head of the Council of the Wise, and white was his colour; but when he changes allegiance he becomes "Saruman of Many Colours" complete with shimmering robes that "changed hue so that the eye was bewildered".[T 7] He adds that Saruman's colours, like his moral state, is thus seen to be broken, in contrast to Gandalf who is resurrected in "gleaming white" as "Saruman as he should have been".[T 8] The White Hand symbol thus, in McGregor's view, hides Saruman's "betrayal and desertion of his true colours", though the dismembered limb has both the horrible pallor of a ghost and the isolated quality of the Evil Eye of Sauron. Unlike Sauron's eye, the open hand stands for honesty and friendship, echoing Saruman's continued attempt to appear to be on the side of good.[3] |
 | Sauron, and his forces inMordor | "A single banner, black but bearing on it in red the Evil Eye"[T 9] | The readily recognisable symbol of the Dark Lord, "asynecdoche for Sauron himself"[3] |
Hriban writes that in Tolkien's third heraldic phase, writingThe Lord of the Rings, his choice of imagery is personal rather than canonical heraldry, suiting the demands of the narrative. Thus, Aragorn's motifs go beyond the heraldic canon; they are assembled in a "multilayered iconography" that symbolises the reunification of the Kingdoms of Arnor and Gondor: his sword,Andúril, is "forged anew" (itself a symbolic action, he observes) with "a device of seven stars set between the crescent Moon and the rayed Sun"; he glosses the stars as Elendil's, the Sun as perhaps Anarion's, and the Moon as presumably Isildur's.[2]
| Arms | Realm | Emblem | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Dol Amroth (princedom) | "the Ship and the Silver Swan";[T 10] "the swan-knights of Dol Amroth with their Prince and his blue banner at their head"[T 11] | McGregor comments that Imrahil, Prince of Dol Amroth has a "less exalted" emblem than the White Tree of Gondor, but that the "gilded banner" achieves "a similar effect"; like the White Tree, too, it is "distinctively Elvish" in character.[3] |
 | Gondor (Stewards) (in absence of King) | White, without charge | The Stewards "bore a white rod only as the token of their office", while "their banner was white without charge" in contrast to the Royal banner.[T 12] McGregor comments that this "strangely virginal plainness" is complementary to the royal insignia, reflecting the plain white shield of an "untriedknight".[3] |
 | Gondor | "a great standard was spread in the breeze, and there a white tree flowered upon a sable field beneath a shining crown and seven glittering stars"[T 13] | McGregor remarks that the emblems of Gondor are "marked by a beauty and nobility .. associated with an all but vanished past".[3] He notes that the symbol is connected all the way back to theTwo Trees of Valinor "orParadise".[3] At a crucial moment in theBattle of the Pelennor Fields, the "evident majesty of Aragorn's royal standard"[3] is unfurled: "upon the foremost ship a great standard broke, and the wind displayed it as she turned towards the Harlond. There flowered a White Tree, and that was for Gondor; but Seven Stars were about it, and a high crown above it, the signs ofElendil that no lord had borne for years beyond count. And the stars flamed in the sunlight, for they were wrought of gems byArwen daughter ofElrond; and the crown was bright in the morning, for it was wrought ofmithril and gold."[T 14] |
 | Harad | A coiled black snake on a red field[T 15] | McGregor comments that Tolkien presents the Haradrim as "a race of fierce barbarians, threatening and dangerous but, being human, neither completely other nor intrinsically evil".[3] In his view, their emblem reflects this, as the colours red and black are the same as Mordor's, swapped so that red is the field, suggesting "'southern' heat and passion",[3] unpleasant but certainly human qualities, while the serpent, though symbolising evilin Christianity, is also a living creature, unlike Sauron's "disembodied eye".[3] Hriban states that the Haradrim's red upon black is the sole instance ofarmes fausses, breaking the rule of never putting "colour upon colour or metal upon metal" inThe Lord of the Rings, indicating the southern chieftain's "ignorance and disdain" for the heraldic customs of his neighbours.[2] |
 | Minas Morgul (Undead) | On a black field a skull within a crescent moon | McGregor comments that theNazgûl, Kings of Men consumed byRings of Power and now Ringwraiths, Sauron's most terrible servants, have taken over the Moon symbol of the city of Minas Ithil, disfiguring it with "a ghastly face of death",[T 16] its corruption accurately reflecting the fate of the once beautiful city. In his view the emblem must have been a white figure on a black field.[3] |
 | Rohan | "white on green, a great horse running free"[T 13] | McGregor calls the emblem, like those of Gondor and Dol Amroth, an "organic and natural symbol", opposed to the Eye of Mordor and White Hand of Isengard. The horse is moreover an energetic animal, and an essential part of Rohan's history and character, its green field reflecting the grassy landscape of the country, and its places of battle.[3] |
In hisThe Lord of the Rings film trilogy,Peter Jackson and his concept designers took inspiration from traditional representations of men-at-arms on horseback with banners and armour. Jackson mentioned in particularAlbrecht Altdorfer's 1529 oil painting,The Battle of Alexander at Issus, depicting the events of 333 BC.[4] Jackson personally drove this realistic approach, saying: "Imagine this: 7,000 years has gone by... Rohan heraldry is studied and faithfully reproduced.Théoden's original saddle is in a museum – far too valuable to use in the movie, but an exact copy is made".[4]Richard Taylor, creative director ofWeta Workshop, responsible for manufacturing weapons and equipment, stated that he insisted on "invest[ing] the props with a high level of richness and heraldry and realism".[4]
The scholar of English Jamie McGregor writes that the heraldic emblems described byJ. R. R. Tolkien are associated with symbols used inThe Lord of the Rings; some are readily apparent to the reader, such as the "Evil Eye" used by theDark LordSauron, while others need closer analysis to reveal their significance. He comments that first-time readers may notice the descriptions of emblems simply as part of the rich detailing of Middle-earth, but that closer attention reveals an accurate match between the symbols and the "histories and cultures,the allegiances, characters and natures, of those who bear them".[3]
Margaret R. Purdy, writing inMythlore, states that theElvish emblems (as opposed to those used byMen inThe Silmarillion), use rules similar to European heraldry, but with more freedom, for example in the use of colour. She notes that there are some puzzles, as with the emblem ofFinwë, a winged sun: since the sun had not been created when he lived, the emblem must have been devised posthumously, just as medieval heralds created arms for the first man,Adam.[5] However, Hammond and Scull note that Tolkien created this heraldic device after deciding in favour of theRound World version of the cosmology, according to which the Sun existed during Finwë's lifetime.[1]
Catalin Hriban comments that although Tolkien makes only light use of heraldry, he transformed it "into a mythographer's tool and artifice, like all the rest of [the] primary-world cultural items that are woven into the Tolkienian cosmos".[2] He adds that "the heraldic rules and visual canon are treated with the same philologist's care as the vocabulary and grammar rules of his created languages".[2]
Hriban states that inThe Hobbit, written for children, the banners are simplified to plain colours. Tolkien uses green for the Wood-Elves, blue for the Men of Lake-town (Esgaroth) on the good side; red and black for the goblins or Orcs of the bad side. Hriban notes that Tolkien continues the association of these colours with good and evil intoThe Lord of the Rings.[2]
Agnieszka Żurek, writing inThe Heraldry Society's journal, notes that Tolkien mentions heraldry in the form of emblems, banners, and shields in many places in his Middle-earth writings, spanningThe Hobbit,The Lord of the Rings, and the posthumously publishedThe Silmarillion,Unfinished Tales, and the 12 volumes ofThe History of Middle-earth.[6]
