Chapter artwork for The Lord of the Rings, book 6 chapter 5, The Steward and the King.
This design incorporates the sapling of the White Tree into the Crown of Gondor. Aragorn “finds” (a.k.a. Gandalf tells him where to look for) the sapling of in a hallow place on Mount Mindolluin.
“Then Aragorn turned, and there was a stony slope behind him running down from the skirts of the snow; and as he looked he was aware that alone there in the waste a growing thing stood. And he climbed to it, and saw that out of the very edge of the snow there sprang a sapling tree no more than three foot high. Already it had put forth young leaves long and shapely, dark above and silver beneath, and upon its slender crown it bore one small cluster of flowers whose white petals shone like the sunlit snow.
Then Aragorn cried: ‘Yé! Utúvienyes! I have found it! Lo! here is a scion of the Eldest of Trees! But how does it come here? For it is not itself yet seven years old.’
And Gandalf coming looked at it and said,: ‘Verily this is a sapling” of the line of Nimloth the fair; and that was a seedling of Galathilion, and that a fruit of Telperion of many names, Eldest of Trees.’”
This design represents the first part of the chapter The Steward and the King, which focuses on the developing romance between Éowyn and Faramir. Éowyn is represented by the white horse, as she is a shieldmaiden of Rohan, and Faramir is represented by a white tree; both come together to form a heart.
