“Eastward the Barrow-downs rose, ridge behind ridge, and vanished out of eyesight. The sun, a pale and watery yellow, was gleaming through the mist. Even as they looked out towards the setting sun, it sank before their eyes into a white sea, and a cold grey shadow sprang up in the East.”
- The Lord of the Rings, Book I, Chapter 8

I created this with Terragen 3D landscape generation software.

“I saw plainly on the path before me … the shadow of a large hand, with knotty joints and protuberances here and there. Especially I remarked, even in the midst of my fear, the bulbous points of the fingers. I looked hurriedly all around, but could see nothing from which such a shadow should fall. I looked, and peered, and intensified my vision, all to no purpose. I could see nothing of that kind, not even an ash-tree in the neighbourhood. Still the shadow remained; not steady, but moving to and fro, and once I saw the fingers close, and grind themselves close, like the claws of a wild animal, as if in uncontrollable longing for some anticipated prey …

“There seemed but one mode left of discovering the substance of this shadow. I went forward boldly, though with an inward shudder which I would not heed, to the spot where the shadow lay, threw myself on the ground, laid my head within the form of the hand, and turned my eyes towards the moon.

“Good heavens! what did I see? I wonder that ever I arose, and that the very shadow of the hand did not hold me where I lay until fear had frozen my brain. I saw the strangest figure; vague, shadowy, almost transparent, in the central parts, and gradually deepening in substance towards the outside, until it ended in extremities capable of casting such a shadow as fell from the hand, through the awful fingers of which I now saw the moon. The hand was uplifted in the attitude of a paw about to strike its prey.”

—Phantastes, by George MacDonald

I used Terragen to make this landscape. Since the software didn't allow for any objects, in order to get this castle and bridge I had to shape them out of the landscape as well.

This image was made in Terragen. The castle and moat had to be shaped out of the landscape since adding other objects wasn't an option. I thought it turned out pretty believable considering the limitations of the software.

“It glittered like polished gold overlaid with silver light, and a white stone in it twinkled as if the Even-star had come down to rest upon her hand.”
- The Lord of the Rings, Book II, Chapter 7

This is my stylized version of Nenya, the ring of water, one of the three Elvin-rings. The background is an Apophysis fractal, the rest was drawn in Paint Shop Pro.

“Far over the misty mountains cold
To dungeons deep and caverns old
We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold.”
- The Hobbit

This was made in the Terragen 3D landscape generation software. I was using the original version of the software, now known as Terragen Classic, which didn't allow for any objects such as plants, just a basic landscape and atmosphere. It was also the freeware version not for commercial use, so I couldn't render very big images or sell prints of them. But it was a good basic introduction to 3D landscape software.