Who is depicted on this OD tapestry?

[Saxzon]

I believe that to be - Chuck Norris, armored.

[Ironcrown]

I believe that to be - Chuck Norris, armored.

Can't be...everybody knows Chuck Norris plays a warden...hvy armor and no shield=no warden=no Chuck Norris

[Vilnas]

The knight doesnt have the right hairstyle for the birds to be a flock of seagulls

I see what you did there.

[Berephon]

Sorry, folks, I've been on vacation for the last two weeks (well, still am, but not voluntarily...a woman named Irene has me stranded in the St. Louis area.) Anyway, I believe that is supposed to be Elendil, but I'll have to check with the Art team to verify this. The computer I'm on doesn't have a good resolution, and I'm having difficulty distinguishing the details of the image. I'll check on this when I get back in the office.

[silverblade5445]

Sorry, folks, I've been on vacation for the last two weeks (well, still am, but not voluntarily...a woman named Irene has me stranded in the St. Louis area.) Anyway, I believe that is supposed to be Elendil, but I'll have to check with the Art team to verify this. The computer I'm on doesn't have a good resolution, and I'm having difficulty distinguishing the details of the image. I'll check on this when I get back in the office.

Oh yay...we got Berephon! Now we may finally know

btw, hope Irene is not giving a lot of trouble....

[BelamanthDE]

Sorry, folks, I've been on vacation for the last two weeks (well, still am, but not voluntarily...a woman named Irene has me stranded in the St. Louis area.) Anyway, I believe that is supposed to be Elendil, but I'll have to check with the Art team to verify this. The computer I'm on doesn't have a good resolution, and I'm having difficulty distinguishing the details of the image. I'll check on this when I get back in the office.

Thank you for the heads up!
While Irene is keeping you locked down, do you have any theory what could link Elendil with {swans|gulls|geese|other white birds} ?

[Kiratom]

Elendil was an elf-friend and sailed with big ships (like birds?). Seven stars are from his standard, depictating the seven ships that escaped Numenor's destruction. I can't find any reference to cranes, swans or whatever dodo's those are, and the lack of the crown above the stars... artistic freedom? Nice piece none the less.

[silverblade5445]

Thank you for the heads up!
While Irene is keeping you locked down, do you have any theory what could link Elendil with {swans|gulls|geese|other white birds} ?

IIRC those are actually gulls which were sometimes used to symbolize with the Numenorian Kings because when they came to Middle Earth by the ships, the people there saw them and called them as Kings who came from the Sea....

[BelamanthDE]

Trying one last time to catch Berephon in this thread with a definitive answer. If it doesn't work, I'll just accept this as an enigma.

[oldbadgerbrock]

I discovered a clue to solving this puzzle this morning when my wife and I viewed The Cult of Beauty: The Victorian Avant-Garde 1860–1900 exhibit currently on display at Legion of Honor Fine Arts Museums in San Francisco. This exhibit was previously shown at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

As I went through the exhibit I came upon a piece created by Walter Crane in 1875. You may see it displayed on the Victoria & Albert Museum website: Swan, Rush and Iris. The poses of the swans immediately brought the Ost Dunhoth tapestry to my mind. If you compare the birds in the tapestry to those in Crane’s work very carefully you’ll find that the birds are posed virtually identically. The tapestry even includes the reeds found in the original work.

So now we know that the birds were swans in the original work. However, the birds in Crane’s work have black legs and feet while those in the Ost Dunhot tapestry are orange. More importantly, the necks of the birds in Crane’s work are long and slender, while those in the tapestry are short and thick. The heads are quite a bit different, too. The wings and tails are slightly different, but otherwise the images are quite similar. Similar enough to determine that Crane’s work most likely inspired the LOTRO artist who created the tapestry.

I find this is very interesting, particularly given my previous discovery that a tapestry displayed in the Mead Hall and Skirmish Hall in Stangard is very nearly the duplicate of a work created by George Bain. If you are interested in knowing more about that discovery please visit my post entitled Three Horses in the J.R.R. Tolkien forum.