The works of
J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philology, philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was ...
have served as the inspiration to painters, musicians, film-makers and writers, to such an extent that he is sometimes seen as the "father" of the entire genre of
high fantasy
High fantasy, or epic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy defined by the epic nature of its setting or by the epic stature of its characters, themes, or plot.Brian Stableford, ''The A to Z of Fantasy Literature'', (p. 198), Scarecrow Press, Pl ...
.
Art and illustration
The earliest illustrations of Tolkien's works were
drawn by the author himself. The 1937 American edition of ''The Hobbit'' was illustrated by professional draughtsmen. Tolkien was very critical of this work, and in 1946 he rejected illustrations by
Horus Engels
Richard 'Horus' Engels (1914–1991) was a Germans, German painter, sculptor and illustrator.
Engels was born in London, England to Germans, German parents. In his youth Engels lived in Berlin and studied in Paris. He trained to be an econo ...
for the German edition of the ''Hobbit'' as "too '
Disnified' for my taste:
Bilbo with a dribbling nose, and
Gandalf
Gandalf is a protagonist in J. R. R. Tolkien's novels ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. He is a Wizards (Middle-earth), wizard, one of the ''Istari'' order, and the leader of the Fellowship of the Ring (characters), Fellowship of t ...
as a figure of vulgar fun rather than the
Odinic wanderer that I think of".
[''The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien'', ed. ]Humphrey Carpenter
Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter (29 April 1946 – 4 January 2005) was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster. He is known especially for his biographies of J. R. R. Tolkien and other members of the literary society the Inkli ...
(London: Allen and Unwin, 1981), #107 to Sir Stanley Unwin, 7 December 1946.
In 1948,
Milein Cosman
Emilie Cosman, known as Milein Cosman, (31 March 1921 – 21 November 2017) was a German-born artist based in England. She is best known for her drawings and prints of leading cultural figures, dancers and musicians in action, such as Francis Baco ...
was invited by Tolkien's publishers to submit illustrations for ''
Farmer Giles of Ham
''Farmer Giles of Ham'' is a comic medieval fable written by J. R. R. Tolkien in 1937 and published in 1949. The story describes the encounters between Farmer Giles and a wily dragon named Chrysophylax, and how Giles manages to use these to ...
''. Tolkien felt her impressionistic style did not suit the story, and she was replaced by
Pauline Baynes
Pauline Diana Baynes (9 September 1922 – 1 August 2008) was an English illustrator, author and commercial artist. She contributed drawings and paintings to more than 200 books, mostly in the children's genre. She was the first illustrat ...
, who later also supplied the illustrations for ''
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil
''The Adventures of Tom Bombadil'' is a 1962 collection of poetry by J. R. R. Tolkien. The book contains 16 poems, two of which feature Tom Bombadil, a character encountered by Frodo Baggins in ''The Lord of the Rings''. The rest of the poems ar ...
'' (1962) and ''
Smith of Wootton Major
''Smith of Wootton Major'', first published in 1967, is a novella by J. R. R. Tolkien.
Background
The book began as an attempt to explain the meaning of Faery by means of a story about a cook and his cake, and Tolkien originally thought to ca ...
'' (1967). In 1968, Tolkien was sent a number of a suite of illustrations of ''The Lord of the Rings'', mostly in coloured ink, by the English artist
Mary Fairburn
Mary Fairburn (born 13 June 1933) is an English artist and musician, best known for her illustrations for ''The Lord of the Rings'', by J. R. R. Tolkien, which in 1968 were seen and admired by the author. Her illustrations, unknown until 2012, wer ...
; Tolkien said of her pictures: "They ... show far more attention to the text than any that have yet been submitted to me.... I am beginning to ... think that an illustrated edition might be a good thing." For various reasons the project went no further, and Fairburn's illustrations were unknown until 2012. Crown Princess Margrethe (now
Queen Margrethe II
Margrethe II (; Margrethe Alexandrine Þórhildur Ingrid, born 16 April 1940) is Queen of Denmark. Having reigned as Denmark's monarch for over 50 years, she is Europe's longest-serving current head of state and the world's only incumbent femal ...
) of Denmark, an accomplished and critically acclaimed painter, was inspired to create illustrations to ''The Lord of the Rings'' in the early 1970s.
In 1977, Queen Margrethe's drawings were published in the Danish translation of the book, redrawn by the British artist
Eric Fraser.
Tim and Greg Hildebrandt were well-known Tolkien illustrators in the 1950s and 1960s.
The British artist
Jimmy Cauty
James Francis Cauty (born 19 December 1956), also known as Rockman Rock, is an English artist and musician, best known as one-half of the duo The KLF, co-founder of The Orb and as the man who burnt £1 million.
He is married to artist and mu ...
created a best-selling poster of
The Lord of the Rings
''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...
(1976) and The
Hobbit
Hobbits are a fictional race of people in the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien. About half average human height, Tolkien presented hobbits as a variety of humanity, or close relatives thereof. Occasionally known as halflings in Tolkien's writings, ...
(1980) for the retailer
Athena
Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...
.
Well-known Tolkien illustrators of the 1990s and 2000s are
John Howe,
Alan Lee, and
Ted Nasmith
Ted Nasmith (born 1956) is a Canadians, Canadian artist, illustrator and architectural rendering, architectural renderer. He is best known as an illustrator of J. R. R. Tolkien's works ''The Hobbit'', ''The Lord of the Rings'' and ''The Silmaril ...
— Lee for illustrated editions of ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'', Nasmith for illustrated editions of ''The Silmarillion'', and Howe for the cover artwork to several Tolkien publications. Howe and Lee worked as concept artists in the creation of
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson (born 31 October 1961) is a New Zealand film director, screenwriter and producer. He is best known as the director, writer and producer of the ''Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003) and the ''Hobbit'' trilogy ( ...
's
film trilogy
A trilogy is a set of three works of art that are connected and can be seen either as a single work or as three individual works. They are commonly found in literature, film, and video games, and are less common in other art forms. Three-part ...
. In 2004, Lee won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction on the film ''
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King''.
Other artists who have found inspiration in Tolkien's works include
Inger Edelfeldt who illustrated the covers of Swedish translations of several of his books,
Anke Eißmann
Anke Katrin Eißmann (born 1977 in Dillenburg) is a German illustrator and graphic designer known for her illustrations of J. R. R. Tolkien's legendarium. She studied visual communication at Bauhaus University in Weimar and at the Colchester Instit ...
,
Michael Hague,
Tove Jansson
Tove Marika Jansson (; 9 August 1914 – 27 June 2001) was a Swedish-speaking population of Finland, Swedish-speaking Finnish author, novelist, painter, illustrator and comic strip author. Brought up by artistic parents, Jansson studied art from ...
(of
Moomin
The Moomins ( sv, Mumintroll) are the central characters in a series of novels, short stories, and a comic strip by Finns, Finnish writer and illustrator Tove Jansson, originally published in Swedish language, Swedish by Schildts in Finland. The ...
fame, illustrator of Swedish and Finnish translations of ''
The Hobbit
''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the '' ...
''),
Paul Raymond Gregory,
Tim Kirk
Tim Kirk is both a professional artist and an American fan artist. He worked as a senior designer at Tokyo DisneySea, as an Imagineer for the Walt Disney company. He began his professional art career during the mid-1970s as an illustrator at ...
,
Angus McBride
Angus McBride (11 May 1931 – 15 May 2007) was an English historical and fantasy illustrator.
Early life
Born in London to Highland Scots parents, Angus McBride was orphaned as a child, his mother dying when he was five years old, and his f ...
who illustrated Iron Crown's Tolkien-based role-playing games,
Jef Murray
Jeffrey Patrick Murray (March 17, 1960 – August 3, 2015) was an American fantasy artist and author best known for his illustrations of works by J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. His paintings, illustrations, stories, poems, and essays appear regular ...
,
Colleen Doran
Colleen Doran is an American writer-artist and cartoonist. She illustrated hundreds of comics, graphic novels, books and magazines, including the autobiographical graphic novel of Marvel Comics editor and writer Stan Lee entitled ''Amazing Fant ...
,
Jenny Dolfen
Jenny Dolfen (born 1975) is a German illustrator and teacher.
She was born in Bremerhaven, and in 2001, she received a degree in English and Latin at the University of Cologne. Dolfen lives near Aachen with her husband and her two children.
Dolf ...
who has made watercolour paintings of scenes from ''The Silmarillion'', and
Peter Xavier Price. Works of several of these artists were exhibited in an "Images of Middle-earth" exhibition of some 170 artworks organised by Davide Martini of the Greisinger Museum of Switzerland; it toured Italy between 2003 and 2005.
Film
The
''Narnia'' film trilogy adapted from the
novel series
A book series is a sequence of books having certain characteristics in common that are formally identified together as a group. Book series can be organized in different ways, such as written by the same author, or marketed as a group by their pub ...
by Tolkien's friend
C. S. Lewis
Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...
were produced due to the popularity of ''The Lord of the Rings''.
George R. R. Martin
George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948), also known as GRRM, is an American novelist, screenwriter, television producer and short story writer. He is the author of the series of epic fantasy novels ''A Song ...
acknowledged Tolkien influenced his
''Game of Thrones'' TV series and
novels
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself ...
about medieval fantasy, while speaking about a movie about Tolkien's life.
An early draft for
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas Jr. (born May 14, 1944) is an American filmmaker. Lucas is best known for creating the ''Star Wars'' and ''Indiana Jones'' franchises and founding Lucasfilm, LucasArts, Industrial Light & Magic and THX. He served as chairm ...
's 1977
''Star Wars'' film is said to have included an exchange of dialogue between
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Obi-Wan Kenobi () is a fictional Character (arts), character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. Within the Star Wars original trilogy, original trilogy, Obi-Wan is a Jedi Master as a supporting character and is portrayed by English actor Alec Guinn ...
and
Luke Skywalker
Luke Skywalker is a fictional character and the protagonist of the original film trilogy of the ''Star Wars'' franchise created by George Lucas. Portrayed by Mark Hamill, Luke first appeared in ''Star Wars'' (1977), and he returned in ''The ...
taken directly from the conversation between Gandalf and Bilbo in Chapter 1 of ''The Hobbit'', where Gandalf/Kenobi says "Good morning!" and Bilbo/Luke replies asking whether he means he's having a good morning, or is wishing him one, or that all mornings are good. Gandalf/Kenobi answers "All of them at once".
The plagiarised dialogue was dropped, but Lucas modelled the monk-like Kenobi on Gandalf; the film author Chris Taylor identifies several further elements of ''Star Wars'' that in his view could have been modelled on Middle-earth.
While working on a ''Star Wars'' animated series,
Dave Filoni
David Filoni (born June 7, 1974) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and voice actor. He has worked on ''Avatar: The Last Airbender'', ''The Mandalorian'', and on the theatrical film and television series of '' Star Wars: The Clone ...
noted that Peter Jackson visited him and his mentor George Lucas to discuss Tolkien's works and to ask for advice. According to the ''Star Wars'' website, Darth Vader is compared by Filoni to the Balrog rather than Sauron, and the
Prancing Pony
Bree is a fictional village in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth, east of the Shire. Bree-land, which contains Bree and a few other villages, is the only place where Hobbits and Men lived side by side. It was inspired by the name of the Buckingh ...
bar may have inspired the
Mos Eisley
Mos Eisley is a spaceport town in the fictional ''Star Wars'' universe. Located on the planet Tatooine, it first appeared in the 1977 film ''Star Wars'', described by the character Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by Alec Guinness) as a "wretched hive of s ...
cantina, the introduction of Han Solo suggestively matching that of Strider (Aragorn). As for the prequel trilogy, it notes that Saruman influenced Count Dooku, and volcanic Mordor, whether Tolkien's or Jackson's, influenced the volcanic planet Mustafar.
Literature
Fantasy
Many authors have found inspiration in Tolkien's work. Following the success of ''
The Hobbit
''The Hobbit, or There and Back Again'' is a children's fantasy novel by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published in 1937 to wide critical acclaim, being nominated for the Carnegie Medal and awarded a prize from the '' ...
'' and ''The Lord of the Rings'' in the 1960s, publishers were quick to try to meet a new demand for literate fantasy in the American marketplace.
[ Shippey, Tom, "Literature, Twentieth Century: Influence of Tolkien", in ]Michael D. C. Drout
Michael D. C. Drout (; born 1968) is an American Professor of English and Director of the Center for the Study of the Medieval at Wheaton College. He is an author and editor specializing in Anglo-Saxon and medieval literature, science fiction a ...
, ''J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia
The ''J. R. R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment'', edited by Michael D. C. Drout, was published by Routledge in 2006. A team of 127 Tolkien scholars on 720 pages cover topics of Tolkien's fiction, his academic works, hi ...
''.Taylor & Francis, 2007 (pp. 378-382). Ursula Le Guin
Ursula Kroeber Le Guin (; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantasy series. She was f ...
's ''
Earthsea
''The Earthsea Cycle'', also known as ''Earthsea'', is a series of high fantasy books written by the American writer Ursula K. Le Guin. Beginning with ''A Wizard of Earthsea'' (1968), ''The Tombs of Atuan'', (1970) and ''The Farthest Shore'' ( ...
'' series, beginning with ''
A Wizard of Earthsea
''A Wizard of Earthsea'' is a fantasy novel written by American author Ursula K. Le Guin and first published by the small press Parnassus in 1968. It is regarded as a classic of children's literature and of fantasy, within which it is widely in ...
'' in 1968, was one of the first fantasy series influenced by Tolkien.
Patricia A. McKillip
Patricia Anne McKillip (February 29, 1948 – May 6, 2022) was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. She has been called "one of the most accomplished prose stylists in the fantasy genre", and wrote predominantly standalone fantasy n ...
's ''
The Forgotten Beasts of Eld
''The Forgotten Beasts of Eld'' is a fantasy novel by American writer Patricia A. McKillip, and illustrators Peter Schaumann in 1974, and Alicia Austin in 1981, first published by Atheneum Publishers in 1974, and by Magic Carpet Books in 1996. I ...
'' and
Jane Yolen
Jane Hyatt Yolen (born February 11, 1939) is an American writer of fantasy, science fiction, and children's books. She is the author or editor of more than 350 books, of which the best known is '' The Devil's Arithmetic'', a Holocaust novella. H ...
's ''The Magic Three of Solatia'' were two examples of Tolkien-inspired fantasies for young adults written in the mid-1970s. Ballantine, under the direction of editor
Lin Carter
Linwood Vrooman Carter (June 9, 1930 – February 7, 1988) was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor, poet and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft (for an H. P. L ...
, published public domain and relatively obscure works under the banner of the
Ballantine Adult Fantasy series
The Ballantine Adult Fantasy series was an imprint of American publisher Ballantine Books. Launched in 1969 (presumably in response to the growing popularity of Tolkien's works), the series reissued a number of works of fantasy literature which ...
, aimed at adult readers who enjoyed Tolkien's works.
Lester Del Rey
Lester del Rey (June 2, 1915 – May 10, 1993) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the author of many books in the juvenile Winston Science Fiction series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science ...
, however, sought for new books that would mirror Tolkien's work, and published
Terry Brooks
Terence Dean Brooks (born January 8, 1944) is an American writer of fantasy fiction. He writes mainly epic fantasy, and has also written two film novelizations. He has written 23 ''New York Times'' bestsellers during his writing career, and has ...
' ''
The Sword of Shannara
''The Sword of Shannara'' is a 1977 epic fantasy novel by American writer Terry Brooks. It is the first book in a titular trilogy.
The novel interweaves two major plots into a fictional world called The Four Lands. One follows the protagonist ...
'',
David Eddings
David Carroll Eddings (July 7, 1931 – June 2, 2009) was an American fantasy writer. With his wife Leigh, he authored several best-selling epic fantasy novel series, including ''The Belgariad'' (1982–84), ''The Malloreon'' (1987–91), '' The ...
's ''
Belgariad
''The Belgariad'' is a five-book fantasy epic written by David Eddings, following the journey of protagonist Garion and his companions, first to recover a sacred stone, and later to use it against antagonist Torak. It was a bestseller from the fir ...
'', and
Stephen R. Donaldson's ''
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever
''The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant'' is a series of ten high fantasy novels written by American author Stephen R. Donaldson. The series began as a trilogy, entitled ''The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever''. This was followed by ano ...
''.
Guy Gavriel Kay
Guy Gavriel Kay (born November 7, 1954) is a Canadian writer of fantasy fiction. The majority of his novels take place in fictional settings that resemble real places during real historical periods, such as Constantinople during the reign of Jus ...
, who had assisted
Christopher Tolkien
Christopher John Reuel Tolkien (21 November 1924 – 16 January 2020) was an English academic editor, becoming a French citizen in later life. The son of author and academic J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien edited much of his father' ...
with the editing of ''The Silmarillion'', later wrote his own Tolkien-influenced fantasy trilogy, ''
The Fionavar Tapestry
''The Fionavar Tapestry'' is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Canadian author Guy Gavriel Kay, published between 1984 and 1986. The novels are partly set in our own contemporary world, but mostly in the fictional world of Fionavar. It is the stor ...
'', complete with dwarfs and mages.
Dennis L. McKiernan
Dennis Lester McKiernan (born April 4, 1932) is an American writer best known for his high fantasy '' The Iron Tower''. His genres include high fantasy (set in various fictitious worlds), science fiction, horror fiction, and crime fiction. His p ...
's Silver Call duology was intended to be a direct sequel to ''The Lord of the Rings'' but had to be altered. The ''
Iron Tower
The Iron Tower (german: Eisenturm) is a mediaeval tower dating to the early 13th century, and modified in the 15th century, which with the Wood Tower and the Alexander Tower is one of three remaining towers from the city walls of Mainz, Germany. ...
'' trilogy, highly influenced by Tolkien's books, was then written as backstory. Fantasy series such as
Terry Pratchett
Sir Terence David John Pratchett (28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015) was an English humourist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, especially comical works. He is best known for his ''Discworld'' series of 41 novels.
Pratchett's first nov ...
's ''
Discworld
''Discworld'' is a comic fantasy"Humorous Fantasy" in David Pringle, ed., ''The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' (pp.31-33). London, Carlton,2006. book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat pla ...
'' and
Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the first and (as of 2022) only person to win both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for both ...
's ''
The Tales of Alvin Maker
''The Tales of Alvin Maker'' is a series of six alternate history fantasy novels written by American novelist Orson Scott Card, published from 1987 to 2003 (with one more planned), that explore the experiences of a young man, Alvin Miller, who ...
'' were "undoubtedly" influenced by Tolkien.
[ reviewed in ]
Due to a loophole in Russian copyright law, Russian writers were able to publish fantasy novels set in Tolkien's Arda.
Nick Perumov
Nick Perumov (russian: link=no, Ник Перумов) is the pen name of Nikolay Daniilovich Perumov (russian: link=no, Николай Даниилович Перумов; born 21 November 1963), a Russian fantasy and science fiction writer.
Bi ...
's ''
The Ring of Dark'' (Russian ''
Кольцо Тьмы'') takes place after the events of ''The Lord of the Rings''.
From 1980, the term "
fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
" became synonymous with the general aspects of Tolkien's work: multiple races including dwarves and elves, a quest to destroy a magical artifact, and an evil that seeks to control the world. The plot of Novelist
Pat Murphy's 1999 ''
There and Back Again'' intentionally mirrors that of ''The Hobbit'', but is transposed into a science-fiction setting involving space travel.
J. K. Rowling
Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and Philanthropy, philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to ...
's ''
Harry Potter
''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
'' series has been seen as having been influenced by Tolkien's work; in particular, the wizard
Dumbledore
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore is a fictional character in J. K. Rowling's ''Harry Potter'' series. For most of the series, he is the headmaster of the wizarding school Hogwarts. As part of his backstory, it is revealed that he is ...
has been described as partially inspired by Tolkien's Gandalf. S.M. Stirling's
"Emberverse" series, published starting in 2004, includes a character obsessed with ''The Lord of the Rings'' who creates a post-apocalyptic community based upon the Elves and Dúnedain of Middle-earth. The same plot point was used by the Russian writer Vladimir Berezin in his novel ''Road Signs'' (from the
Universe of Metro 2033
''Metro'' (russian: Метро) is a franchise consisting of novels and video games, which began with the release of Dmitry Glukhovsky's ''Metro 2033'' novel in 2005. Although it began in Russia, the project enjoys plenty of popularity in Poland, ...
).
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
, best known for horror novels, has acknowledged Tolkien's influence on his novel ''
The Stand
''The Stand'' is a post-apocalyptic dark fantasy novel written by American author Stephen King and first published in 1978 by Doubleday. The plot centers on a deadly pandemic of weaponized influenza and its aftermath, in which the few surv ...
'' as well as his fantasy series ''
The Dark Tower''. Several other prominent fantasy writers, including
George R. R. Martin
George Raymond Richard Martin (born George Raymond Martin; September 20, 1948), also known as GRRM, is an American novelist, screenwriter, television producer and short story writer. He is the author of the series of epic fantasy novels ''A Song ...
,
Michael Swanwick
Michael Swanwick (born 18 November 1950) is an American fantasy and science fiction author who began publishing in the early 1980s.
Writing career
Swanwick's fiction writing began with short stories, starting in 1980 when he published "Ginungagap ...
,
Raymond E. Feist
Raymond Elias Feist (; born Raymond Elias Gonzales III; December 21, 1945) is an American fantasy fiction author who wrote ''The Riftwar Cycle'', a series of novels and short stories. His books have been translated into multiple languages and ha ...
,
Poul Anderson
Poul William Anderson (November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American fantasy and science fiction author who was active from the 1940s until the 21st century. Anderson wrote also historical novels. His awards include seven Hugo Awards and ...
,
Karen Haber
Karen Haber (born January 9,"She came upon the story somehow, was startled and amused to find that she shared a birthday with its protagonist (...) Her name was Karen Haber (...) Today was her birthday, the seventh of January": introduction to "Ca ...
,
Harry Turtledove
Harry Norman Turtledove (born June 14, 1949) is an American author who is best known for his work in the genres of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and mystery fiction. He is a student of history and completed ...
,
Charles De Lint
Charles de Lint (born December 22, 1951) is a Canadian writer of Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese ancestry. He is married to, and plays music with, MaryAnn Harris.
Primarily a writer of fantasy fiction, he has composed works of urban fantasy, cont ...
, and
Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the first and (as of 2022) only person to win both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for both ...
, have all acknowledged Tolkien's work as an inspiration for their own fantasy work.
Graphic novels
Cartoonist
Jeff Smith was influenced by Tolkien, and the mythologies that inspired his works. His epic 1,300-page graphic novel, ''
Bone
A bone is a Stiffness, rigid Organ (biology), organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red blood cell, red and white blood cells, store minerals, provid ...
'' has been characterized by him as "
Bugs Bunny
Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' ...
meets ''The Lord of the Rings''. It's a really long fairy tale with some fantasy elements but a lot of comedy."
Parody
The first commercially published parody of Tolkien's work was the 1969 ''
Bored of the Rings
''Bored of the Rings'' is a 1969 parody of J. R. R. Tolkien's ''The Lord of the Rings''. This short novel was written by Henry Beard and Douglas Kenney, who later founded '' National Lampoon''. It was published in 1969 by Signet for the ''Har ...
'', by ''
The Harvard Lampoon
''The Harvard Lampoon'' is an undergraduate humor publication founded in 1876 by seven undergraduates at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Overview
The ''Harvard Lampoon'' publication was founded in 1876 by seven undergraduates ...
''.
The
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, under the notion that the original is a "history written by the victors".
based on ''The Lord of the Rings'' have been made, broadcast in 1955–1956, 1979 and 1981 respectively.
...