"So am I totally mad?" Topic

I loved the LOTR movie series just not the costumes.

Now I look at the Norman army before me and wonder hmmm, gondorian knights?

Sure, why not. I always thought chain more than plate.

Yep. Gondor is clearly either Norman or Byzantine in style; Alan Lee and John Howe's designs missed on that one. Full plate shouldn't have been in use. The Knights of Dol Amroth do seem to have things like polished vambraces (from the book, as Dol Amroth knights don't actually appear in the film), but that's about all.

But their designs of the Rohan armor were spot on, and just as I imagined the look would be when reading the books years and years ago.

To me I think the old jeep books were the ones that drew my attention, I loved the curved blades of the elves. I feel like its good that they modernised but it came at an awful cost.

Yeah, I use old Citadel (now Foundry) Normans as Gondorians.

I always saw Gondor as being more Byzantine than Norman; the White City is obviously Constantinople.
The Rohirrm, although culturally more Saxon, are closer to Normans in appearance than Gondor IMHO.
Good luck with whatever you decide

Confess that for me Constantinople was always 'the White City'

I converted some OG Normans into some nice looking Swan Knights.

See here at my blog: link

or

Can't say I ever really liked the Gondorian armor in the films either; the DVD special features do discuss the fact that they were trying to make each culture visually distinctive. Otherwise, the typical viewer would keep asking "who is that? where's he from?".

So from that perspective, Rohan=chain and Gondor=plate is understandable. But Normans or other early Medieval types would work.

Yep, I agree that Normans or other 'early medieval' forces would be closer to Gondor (Byzantine also works) than the plate-armored guys from the movies. I've always thought they could have gone round shields = Rohan and Kite Shields = Gondor and it would have been clear enough, but I don't hold it against WETA.

Those Swan Knights are GREAT.

-Will

I wouldn't think they hadn't thought about Tolkein's vision. But "knight in shining armor" implies plate, and I think they were going for the "good guys" look. Plus, it makes it (more)distinct from the Rohan panoply.

Oh yeah, what Spudeus said! What I get for not refreshing.

And I always thought Byzantine, too. Gondor's "geo-political situation" with Mordor drives that home, IMO.

I never thought of Constantinople because of the geography. To be honest I couldn't think of any cities so hard against a mountainside that you could ignore fortifications on the rear. If real buildings were as vertical as those in the movies they would have invented elevators 2,000 years ago.

I like Byzantine also. The history seems to indicate that in earlier years – during Numenor's time, they seemed to be rather imperialistic, and infantry focused which sits well with Rome, and therefore, Gondor could be similar to Byzantium as it's descendant.

Plus, I like the look of Byzantine armor!

Not a huge fan of Gondor = Byzantium. For me it's both Rohan and Gondor chain mail Norman's, Rohan has horse archers and a bit more of a wild Mongol in the mix. Though Aragon feels like a Plantaganent, hope I spelt that right.

Totally not in the realm of current interpretation, but this might be the most novel take on Gondor I've seen:
link

What would people peg them as, Alexander's army?

-Will

I lean towards Normans as an alternate version of Gondor, as well, and they can be made to look the part very easily and effectively!

Check out this guy's work:

link