This is Tolkien’s drawing ‘Rivendell’ which features in the Hobbit. Can you see the man with the crown on his head hidden in the image? The man is the “King Under the Mountain” who has his sights set on Erebor in the distance.
Tolkien hid many things inside his works, in riddles[1], acrostics[2], anagrams[3]. Clive Kilby, who met Tolkien, relates to us that he came away with the impression that Tolkien was very secretive and played riddles with his audience and friends.[4] I have said for a long time that he also hid things in his images, in “plain sight”. Hammond and Scull point out a butterfly hidden in his image ‘Undertenishness'[5]. A similar butterfly appears hidden in his drawing ‘Before'[6], a winged figure which appears to be more menacing. This observation (and others) have been on my website for some years.
The Rivendell image first appeared in 1937 in ‘The Hobbit’. Nobody has spotted this hidden image for 87 years. There are other images hidden within in it too.
[1] ‘Bombadil’ riddle (“enigma”), Letters, #144 To Naomi Mitchison.
[2] ‘The Riddles of the Hobbit’, Adam Roberts.
[3] ‘Breaking the Tolkien Code’, Priya Seth.
[4] ‘Tolkien and the Silmarillion’, Clive Kilby.
[5] J.R.R Tolkien, Artist & Illustrator, Hammond & Scull, plate 34, ‘Undertenishness’.
[6] J.R.R Tolkien, Artist & Illustrator, Hammond & Scull, plate 30, ‘Before’.