Wednesday, September 21, 2016

The Teeth of Scatha


The Teeth of Scatha
oil on panel, 24" x 32"
©Matthew Stewart
“Jewels such as these you will never match in your treasuries, for they are hard to come by.”

Appendix A, The Lord of the Rings,

By J.R.R. Tolkien

Here’s a new painting I’ll be showing for the first time in a few days at the IX Preview Weekend, held at the Delaware Museum of Art. 
It’s a scene from the appendices of “The Lord of the Rings.” A legend of Rohan, the hero Fram has slain Scatha the Worm. A necklace made of the dragon’s teeth and the words above are Fram’s defiant answer to the dwarves’ claims on the treasure.
Images of Fram and Scatha would decorate the tapestries seen by Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli as they entered Edoras hundreds of years later. The small silver horn that Eowyn gives to Merry came from the hoard of Scatha.

Sketchbook drawing of The Teeth of Scatha
Graphite, approximately 16" x 22"