Last modified: 2005-03-12 by
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The official site of the Lord of the Ring movie (based on the trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien) has a wallpaper showing banners from the movie. The site is here and the wallpaper/screensavers appear when the cursor touches the "Legends" button. Clicking one of the two sizes will product and enlarged view of part of the picture, downloading and viewing the downloaded version will allow seeing the whole picture.
Michael P. Smuda , 11 may 2001
As far as I can see, they do not correspond to any flags mentioned in the book with the possible exception of the one in the lower right corner (Rohan: white horse in a green field). The animal on the wallpaper looks more like a dog, though.
Stefan Schwoon , 12 may 2001
For all Fans of J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy and related works, I have just launched a "Flags of Middle Earth" page! It consists of sketches I made in 1978, which I scanned and colorized. More information on these sketches appears on the page.
David Martucci 12 may 2001
The flags in the movies are slightly different from the plain sense of the text (for example, the Stewards' flag is not plain white, but has a white charge on white).
Nathan Lamm , 2 january 2004
It is my opinion that one may say that Tolkien was not much interested in heraldry and vexillology compareing the debth of his interest into other unusual fields of expertise he was providing in his works (e.g. scripts and calendars). His descriptions of flags are found scattered across the books but they are rarely useful to reconstruct what he really meant and how he imagined them to be. The flags are described mostly with most simple descriptions, like the one currently under the entry for Rohan
Thus we cannot know the shape of the flag was and how much intricate details it included. Most of the artists providing flags in their artistical visions of the Tolkien's world interpret these flags as full of details and ornamentations, giving a "celtic" ornaments etc. of which Tolkien mentioned nothing. The flag as he described, if we would follow the description of rohan - would be just a banner of arms of "vert a horse courant argent".
Željko HEIMER, 2 january 2004
![[Aragorn's flag]](../images/f/ficoarag.gif)
by Carrie Mooney
black with silver winged crown is no doubt the flag of Aragorn (Strider), the claimant to the throne of the two western kingdoms and one of the main characters of the story. This would be the flag that his bride-to-be Arwen made for him.
Željko Heimer, 14 may 2001
In "The Battle of the Pelennor Fields" (Book V, Chapter 6) this flag is described as being black with a White Tree surrounded by stars and surmounted by a crown (later on it's called "the Tree and Stars"). Therefore I would say that the flag on the website is at best based on the flag Arwen made. (Hence my earlier claim that the flag does not correspond to a flag described in the book.)
Stefan Schwoon, 15 may 2001
white swan (or swan-shaped boat) on blue.
Željko Heimer, 15 November 1995
From The Field of Cormallen:
"Upon the left was a banner, silver upon blue, a ship swan-prowed faring on the sea."
From The Hobbit (1st published in 1937 by Allen & Unwin, this quote taken from page 236 of the 1996 edition, publ. by Harper and Collins; ISBN: 0-261-10334-2):
"«They bore with them [...] the blue banner of the Lake»"This refers to the Man village of Esgaroth, by the Long Lake, and perhaps also to survivors and offspring of the Man village of Dale. More references afterwards imply that the use of this banner, both in battle as in parley, was much alike to real world mediaeval usage.
From The Hobbit (1st published in 1937 by Allen & Unwin, this quote taken from page 253 of the 1996 edition, publ. by Harper and Collins; ISBN: 0-261-10334-2):
"«their banners were countless, black and red.»"This is a reference to the banners of the Goblin side in the Battle of Five Armies.
It is not clear if they were having two types of banners, some black and some red, or if all of them were made of the two colours - though in the latter case, there is no hint that these flags would be bicolours as we think of them.
Željko Heimer, 4 january 2004
Not that it is going to add much to the discusion but if they were 2 types of banners, it would have been «their banners were countless, blacks and reds» unless my linguistic skills fail me.
Marc Pasquin, 5 january 2004
Tolkien had a very poetic way of writing English, so that "their banners were countless, black and red" can very well mean that there were all-black and all-red banners. Certainly, Orcs in the Lord of the Rings movie (identical to Goblins?) carry all-red and all-black banners (with devices of their overlords).
Nathan Lamm, 5 january 2004
From The Battle of the Pelennor Fields:
"Southward beyond the road lay the main force of the Haradrim, and there horsemen were gathered about the standard of their chieftain [...] Then he was filled with a red wrath and shouted aloud, and displaying his standard, black serpent upon scarlet [...]"
From the return of the king:
"For I am Elessar, Isildur's heir of Gondor.'And with that he bade Halbarad unfurl the great standard which he had brought; and behold! it was black, and if there was any device upon it, it was hidden in the darkness."
![[Minas Tirith's flag]](../images/f/ficomint.gif)
by Blanche Plainfield
As much as I can remember the Stewards of Minas Tirith do not use any device, but the pure white flag.
Željko Heimer, 15 November 1995
From The Steward and the King:
"... and upon the White Tower of the citadel the standard of the Stewards, bright argent like snow in the sun, bearing no charge nor device."
From The Hobbit (1st published in 1937 by Allen & Unwin, this quote taken from page 236 of the 1996 edition, publ. by Harper and Collins; ISBN: 0-261-10334-2):
"«They bore with them the green banner of the Elvenking ...»"This refers to the Mirkwood Elves. More references afterwards imply that the use of this banner, both in battle as in parley, was much alike to real world mediaeval usage.
![[mordor's flag]](../images/f/ficomord.gif)
by Carrie Mooney
red eye on sable.
Željko Heimer, 15 November 1995
on black, a white tree, seven white stars above. (LOTR describes it once like this, but with *yellow* stars in another. Both descriptions include the crown "in gold and iron.").
Željko Heimer, 15 November 1995
white horse on green field.
Željko Heimer, 15 November 1995
From Book III Chapter 6 (The King of the Golden Hall):
"It bore the running horse, white upon green, that was the emblem of the House of Eorl"and other references, none of which talk about a horse's head, but a whole horse.