Back in the middle of March we began our annual tournament of Middle-earth March Madness: with this year’s theme being The Art of Middle-earth. Three weeks and thousands of votes later, the Grand Champion 2025 has been decided.
Here’s how the bracket looked this year:
The Final
Alan Lee’s Edoras faced Turner Mohan‘s Lúthien and Morgoth; a very familiar scene from a well-known artist, and a First Age scene from a lesser-known artist. Both are stunning works, filled with shadows and light; but starkly contrasting. One is a landscape with no figures; the other shows two figures with no discernible landscape.
Their journeys to the final battle were also very different. The closest fight Edoras had to face was against Donato Giancola’s Walls of Moria, which claimed 45% of the vote. In the rest of the matchups, Alan Lee’s piece won by margins in the 70s and 80s percentage-wise. Mohan’s piece, on the other hand, only ever won by numbers in the 50s; in the second round, only ONE vote separated Lúthien and Morgoth from its competitor, Angelo Montanini‘s Radagast the Magician. A beautiful piece and a very worthy competitor, nonetheless Lúthien and Morgoth had to fight harder to make it to the final.
So it is perhaps not a surprise that this year’s Grand Champion of Middle-earth March Madness is:
Staffer Madeye Gamgee shares his thoughts on the winner:
It has been a steady, even overwhelming Ride of the Rohirrim finally bringing the gritty endurance of the Lúthien/Morgoth faceoff to the end of its exciting underdog run! The most serious competition that Edoras faced during the tournament came against Donato Giancola’s The Walls of Moria, a 55/45 matchup; even while Mohan’s Lúthien and Morgoth escaped from two of its matchups with a combined total of six votes. This has been by far the most competitive contest across the entire field that I can remember over many years of Middle-earth March Madness — a testament to the wide appeal and high quality of every artist featured. Here’s hoping that prints of some of their works have found new homes! I know they have in mine! Did you find a new piece to hang on your wall?
Special thanks to artists Jerry VanderStelt, Ted Nasmith and Donato Giancola, who took the time to chat with us on livestreams, and to tell us about their work and their love of Tolkien. (You can see those conversations on our YouTube channel.) And of course thanks to all of YOU, who joined the fun and voted! See you for more Middle-earth March Madness next year!
