A friend and I were watching Lord of the Rings: The Twin Towers and we were amazed by the similarities between Whiterun and the capital of Rohan, Edoras. It was simply amazing, And these two pictures clearly demonstrate that. Please take a look and prepare to be wowed.

[img]http://lagbt.wiwiland.net/wikibiblio/images/thumb/0/03/SR-Whiterun.jpg/500px-SR-Whiterun.jpg[/img]

http://www.google.com/imgres?num=10&hl=en&safe=off&biw=1440&bih=785&tbm=isch&tbnid=ZSXbbLDApBOrmM:&imgrefurl=http://de.lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Edoras&docid=P73CmXpkJT2jfM&imgurl=http://images.wikia.com/lotr/de/images/2/2e/Edoras.jpg&w=950&h=401&ei=xqUkULbJDoXY2AXhg4CICA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=129&vpy=106&dur=1238&hovh=146&hovw=346&tx=225&ty=71&sig=115469736131040147281&sqi=2&page=1&tbnh=69&tbnw=164&start=0&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:113

The similarities are truly striking from the scenery of the great mountains surrounding a field to the very architectural details. Even the coat of arms are both horses. Also, I found the king of Rohan, Theodin to be very much like Jarl Bulgruuf. A big blond man with big clothes and furs. I feel I can easily say that this is where Bethesda drew it's inspriation, and for very good reason.

If you're a Lord of the Rings fan, you will definitely notice the resemblance of Whiterun and Rohan at first sight. It was the first thing I thought of when I saw Whiterun from a distance. All it needs now is a creepy steward and some evil wizard that is in control of Bulgruuf.

A lot of people at Bethesda are big fans of LOTR, and I don't think they've ever made any secret of the fact that they draw a lot of artistic inspiration from both the books and films.

I don't see anything wrong with that personally. Tamriel with all of it's lore still feels very unique.

Call me crazy but I believe myself to be more of an Elder Scrolls fan rather than a Lord of the Rings fan, so once I saw this in LOTR, my jaw dropped.

If you're a fan of the Elder Scrolls, you'll notice that the series is generally based upon Tolkien's works... and in this particular case, upon Peter Jackson's works in a visual sense.

No, it is a very very very good source of inspiration and I do feel Tamriel is definately very original. I just saw the similarities striking because I had no idea.

[img]http://images.uesp.net/d/da/SR-npc-Proventus_Avenicci.jpg[/img]

[img]http://skyrimming.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/600px-SR-NPC-Emperor_Titus_Mede_II.jpg[/img]

The http://i.neoseeker.com/ca/the_elder_scrolls_v_skyrim_conceptart_1PpbM.jpg for Whiterun has an even stronger resemblance to Edoras. The mound seems a lot less prominent in-game.

And of course, LoTR drew a lot of its inspiration from old Nordic designs. While I'm sure some of the film design was an influence on the Game design, this is more a case of both pieces having a common ancestor.

Yeah, I looked online and saw that Gildergleam is really just like The White Tree. A dead tree with massive symbolism. Found that cool.

Well, I don't think the Gildergreen tree is dead, but yeah I can see it being compared to The White Tree.

That's the first I ever saw of Whiterun and the first thing I thought to myself was, yeah that's so much like Rohan. To me, that isn't a bad thing at all.

Well, thats how you build a city when you want it on such a large, flat area. Take the high ground and all that.

It's dead at the beginning of the game, which is a big deal because it's a religious symbol, there's a quest to get the sap of the tree it was grown from to revive it.

prom-whatshisface and Farenger?

It's not completely dead, when you get the quest the priestess in the chapel tells you that trees like that never actually die.

I wish it were bigger, Whiterun's my favorite Hold, but you can tell it had some stuff cut or changed. Just look at the keys: Ulfberth originally had his own place currently he just stays at Warmaidens, and three people have keys to a Wintersand Manor.