Ionstormsucks
Major Villain
- Joined
- December 21, 2006
- Messages
- 758
That's why I spoke of LOTR as Tolkien's masterpiece. I think it's great that hardcore Tolkien fans enjoy books like the Silmarillion, but personally I consider it as negligible in terms of literary criticism. It might be important for those deeply interested in Middle Earth, but for the average reader it is fairly unimportant.Actually, the Simarillion was written well before The Lord of the Rings and all the mythology in that series: Orcs, Balrogs, etc, was born from that book. I don't doubt that more people know of LOTR because The Simarillion is not an easy book to read. While LOTR tells a fantastic story that is easy to get involved in, The Simarillion reads more like a collection of history lessons that only hardcore fantasy fiction fans can fully appreciate.
Personally, I'm not interested in the Silmarillion (and the lost tales, etc.) because I'm not overly interested in Tolkien lore. I'm interested in well-written novels.
I said modeled after LOTR, I wasn't talking about an exact copy. A significant number of fantasy books feature an abstract evil that has to be destroyed by a party of people, often consisting of members of different races. Isn't the the destruction of a mighty and magic artefact not also a well established trademark in fantasy? A companionship that has to travel long distances to reach a certain destination? Look at the "forces of evil" that LOTR features - isn't it obvious that orcs and the like have become the archetypical bad guys in fantasy novels? There are many more aspects that one could mention (the way, evil is protrayed, etc.)As far as how many other fantasy novels were modeled directly after LOTR, I can't think of any. What other novel tells the story of 4 Hobbits, 1 Dwarf, 1 Elf, 2 Men, and 1 Maia setting off on a quest to destroy a ring by throwing it into a volcano?
I think it's safe to say that Tolkien laid down a pattern for fantasy (novels ans well as other media - just think about rpgs) that is prevalent nowadays.
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2006
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- 758