The Fall of Ancalagon - Available

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"The Valar, having listened to Eärendil's plea, went with a mighty host to Middle-earth and overthrew Morgoth, binding him with a chain forged by the smith Aulë. Eärendil took part in the battle. His ship Vingilótë was blessed by the Valar, filled with a shining white flame, and sent to the skies. He sailed at its helm with the Silmaril bound upon his brow. Alongside Thorondor and the Eagles, he slew the great dragon Ancalagon the Black and cast his body down onto Thangorodrim."

Ancalagon is one of most fearsome creatures in the whole of Tolkien's Legendaium, yet he's mentioned only very briefly as the greatest of Morgoth's dragons, and his most dreadful and final weapon in the War of Wrath.  The battle between Eärendil and Ancalagon is the merest sketch in the Silmarillion, but, vsually, it has the same power as Gandalf, holding his blazing staff, alone on the bridge of Khazad Dum, facing the winged, fiery shadow of the Balrog. 

When designing this piece I had to make some difficult choices. Firstly I had to leave out the eagles or it would have been even more difficult to carve than it already was. Second, I had to simplify the ship's design. I now understand why ships in medieval carvings look so odd and stylised! 

And most importantly I had to deal with the fact that Ancalagon was supposedly big enough to take down a whole mountain range in his fall, so I had to create a layered perspective where the ship could appear larger than it presumably was. 

I also had to figure out how Eärendil had killed him, when even the Valar could not. Personally I think it was not a feat of physical strength. I believe the light of the silmaril did it. Ages after, the same light, caught in Galadriel's phial, wounded Shelob with "an infection of light". I think the purity of the crystallised light of the Two Trees before the fall broke Ancalagon's black heart from the inside out. Rather gruesome, it's true, but poetically so.

The stars are both behind and in front of the dragon and ship because Eärendil and Vingilot had become a literal heavenly object by now, so I imagined the battle with Ancalagon not UNDER the sky but literally IN the sky, high up among Varda's stars.

For this very large piece  (65 on 96 cm), I chose fllawless, smooth-grained Paulownia wood backed with plywood and framed with pine, for maximum dimensional stability and to limit the weight somewhat. 

This is entirely handcarved and painted with acrylics and highlights of genuine silver foil and pale gold metallic wax. It's set with rhinestones for the stars and one large zirconia for the silmaril.

7,120€ worldwide shipping included 

👉 Prints coming soon!! 

Given the considerable size and weight of this piece, it will be delivered in a custom made plywood crate. Shipping will be tracked and insured. Allow us 5 working days to arrange shipping.

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