Visited the Tolkien expo yesterday. The tapestries of the paintings, breathtaking. One detail that got me thinking: Isengard kinda recalls Gondolin and I wonder if Saruman starts by idolising the Gondolindrim and descends from there. Sadly there aren't *that many* of Tolkien's sketches, but I'd love to test the aspirational-building-theory further. Middle earth stories echo a lot and irl architecture does too.