… But more important than where it sits in the chronology is Daedalic’s aim to rediscover Middle-earth aesthetics from before the movies.… Casting him as lead is an opportunity to peer deeper into a universe that has become synonymous with cinematic battle scenes (and memes), much to the displeasure of Tolkien’s family. Daedalic’s struggle to fashion a game from those drawings and paintings, meanwhile, reminds us of the complex role illustration plays in Tolkien’s storytelling.… Tolkien could be pretty disparaging of illustrations, and not just because he felt his own talents as an illustrator were lacking. The problem with visual art, he wrote in his celebrated essay ​“On Fairy-Stories”, is that it ​“imposes one visible form.” Rather than turning your mind loose in the enchanted wood, it calcifies the magical world into a single thing.…