The Halls of Mandos

The idea came to me during an autumn walk in the woods. Autumn is associated with the process of things slowly fading away, with winter symbolizing the definite end of things, death, to be precise. Elves in Tolkiens legendarium are being described to go either of two places after their physical bodies are mortally damaged: those who can‘t let go of their past life become beings known as the Houseless. The spirits of all the others go to a certain place located in Aman, the Halls of Mandos, which are said to be a cavern like place. There they will be judged by the Vala Mandos, the doomsman and keeper of the dead and go into a state of meditation and reflection on their actions of their past lives. After a certain time, elves are allowed to return to a full existence with a newly manifested body. Those whose deeds have brought great misery among the world will stay within the halls of Mandos until the ending of the current world. So since elves are literally immortal to a certain degree I imagined the place of the halls of Mandos to be in a state of eternal autumn. It will never be fully summer, neither is winter ever going to take place. It will never be fully daytime, neither fully nighttime. A place of eternal twilight. A place to have very long autumn walks. The spirits of the elves are covered in leafs of the Mallorn tree. This particular (fictional) tree holds a special place in Tolkien lore and elvish culture. I played with the idea that when a person dies they return into the cycle of nature and in doing so they nourish it. Here the spirits of the elves give life to the leafs they are covered in and the leafs particular color symbolize the state of mind of the individual they are worn by. Those who are in peace with their past lives are allowed to free their minds and hearts from grief and sadness, the color of their leafs become warm, gold shimmering. They will also see the place of Mandos in its true miraculous form. Those who have accepted their passing yet still need to come to peace what they left behing remain in darker cooler shaded colors. They see themselves surrounded by an endless cave (upper right corner of the picture) until they too hopefully find the light of peace. The halls of Mandos themselves are described to be ever growing in size. So I chose tree roots, which can grow to ernornous size, as their base concept and enhanced them with an architectural twist and placed the caverns as their base structure. Since this is all supersized I also placed in normal size trees to create a forest for the elves to wander through. The „place for the dead“ thus become ironically a land full of life.