Interview with Daniel Reeve

Law and the Multiverse interviews Daniel Reeve, the head calligrapher for LoTR and The Hobbit.

Daniel Reeve is an artist and calligrapher who created the maps and calligraphy for the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films, including the contract from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.

I had read Tolkien’s books as a teenager, and had tinkered with calligraphy – including elvish calligraphy and runes – ever since then, so when I heard that The Lord of the Rings was being made into a film, practically on my doorstep, the opportunity was too good to miss. I submitted some samples of elvish calligraphy to the film company; they phoned me immediately, and the next thing I knew, I had the job of doing all the calligraphy for the films.

I thought that the contract was particularly well done, and a that the implications behind it - that the Dwarves as a race were very much legalistic, fastidious about details, and concerned with recording even the most minute detail of an agreement - helped more than anything else to set the character of the Dwarves' background.  Compared to that contract, you can see just how flighty most of the Dwarves really are; which in turn makes it obvious how seriously Balin and Thorin are taking the enterprise.