Rivendell - Real Houses that might remind us of it?

Flammifer

Flammifer

Well-Known Member
Do any of you have candidates for real houses that remind you of Rivendell?

Knole House, in Kent, in England somehow reminds me of Rivendell, when I visit it.

It is a very large house:

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Almost a village in a single house. Set all on its own. No other buildings around.

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It combines grand and homely.

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Does anyone else want to contribute pictures of houses that remind them of Rivendell?
 
Tolkien had better be painting a TARDIS then, because that ain't big enough haha. I can't imagine temporarily housing 13 Dwarves in that little shack, let alone however many Elves normally live there. Unless those arches in front are each 100m across, rather than the <10m they look like compared to the trees nearby.
 
Talk about size...i talk about style.

Besides a villa rustica usually was home to up to 50 people, and Jrrts painting shows a small 1 lvl square belltower and up to three roofs of seemingly 1 lvl long buildings.

Difference to roman style: round windows, round arches and what looks like a pitched roof type ( like some chinese roof types )

This is an old chinese wooden house:

12_53_12_945_Chinese_Old_Wooden_House01_1.jpg
 
The last homely house had "many rooms"... how many is many? I judge that, if many is related to host and company, it could quite well have been 80- 100 rooms... and we kniw there were some other, lesser buildings in Rivendell as well.

I've seen guessings that Imladris could have beennhome to 120-130 Elves, but it's real-time inspiration, Lauterbrunnen has almost 2300 inhabitants.So i guess the entire valley could well have been home to up to 2.300 Elves and elf-friends of which 50-120 might have lived in Elrond's house proper.
 
Knole House is supposed to be a ‘calendar house’. 7 courtyards for days of the week. 12 somethings (I forget what) for months, and 365 rooms for days in the year.
 
Haerangil said:
what looks like a pitched roof type ( like some chinese roof types )
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Funny you mention that; given the description of its gardens and the constant sound of running water in the background, I sometimes picture Rivendell as an onsen, a traditional Japanese hot spring inn. Well, not exactly like that, but with a slightly more European landscape perhaps.
 
There's always St. Beatus Caves! Not exactly a house, but the externals show a valley with waterfalls, so.....
http://www.beatushoehlen.swiss/en/visit-st-beatus-caves/

1024px-beatushoehlen01-650x432.jpg


Interlaken04.jpg

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entrance-to-saint-beatus-caves-FHANCK.jpg




But that's more a case of Lauterbrunnen = Imladris valley rather than what the house would necessarily look like....

http://scv.bu.edu/~aarondf/Rivimages/realriv.html
 
The Grand Canyon Lodge has some similarities to Rivendell, albeit in a desert rather than alpine environment. The stone-built viewing deck is like the porch where the Council of Elrond meets, and the dining room has high ceilings with exposed wooden beams.2090209120922093
 
Hmm... most of those houses are built in a cliffsite, rather than being houses down in a flat valley...
 
Haerangil said:
Hmm... most of those houses are built in a cliffsite, rather than being houses down in a flat valley...
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I could be mis-remembering, but I think the house was built not at very bottom of the valley but on a low ridge or hilltop overlooking the river. Not exactly a cliffsite but visually comparable from some angles.

Edited to add: Just saw the Tolkien painting above and it looks like the house is on a ledge between the river bank and the steep mountainside behind it. Not sure if that’s canon though.
 
I havent been able to post the pic, but as ive been drawing rivendell based on Tolkiens art there seem to be some main characteristics.

- A big central Tower, with a spire on the top.

- A central courtyard, enclosed by the wings of the house.

- Red roofs, likely brick, with a smaller yellow roof on the entrence.

- the roof seem to swing up, similar to the ones of the raft elves.

These are the ones you can find on most of his drawings.
 
Funny you should mention Knole house. In the first half of the 20th century, there was a rather public inheritance dispute, where the daughter of the owners raised a fuss for being deemed ineligible (she wasn't a son you see). That daughter's name? Vita Sackville-West. That's right, there was a real woman with a hyphenated name including Sackville who was known for being upset not to inherit a house!
 
Ardent Crayon said:
I could be mis-remembering, but I think the house was built not at very bottom of the valley but on a low ridge or hilltop overlooking the river. Not exactly a cliffsite but visually comparable from some angles.

Edited to add: Just saw the Tolkien painting above and it looks like the house is on a ledge between the river bank and the steep mountainside behind it. Not sure if that’s canon though.
Click to expand...

Well luckily the picture is small and leaves us much room for interpretation...
yes, a house built half into the cliffside COULD be one possibility


I've collected many plans and maps of Rivendell on this page...
https://merp.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Imladris

Damn! There are so many different Versions of Rivendell! But i think i'd like a combination of the MERP and the CODA maps best...
 
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The other drawings he have done make the valley look much flatter, especially where the last homely house is. one includes a small farm and a fenced area between the house. The other one has an exterior building, and the third drawing includes a small tower on one of the corners. I do not think it would be impossible for parts of Rivendell to be underground, or part in the wall. We know elves have done so before, and i can certainly see some of the more practical areas being hidden from sight.
 
The last one's very interesting as it seems to show the house from the north, while the other two show it from west and south if i am not mistaken...
 
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