/lit/ - Literature

>>21809367
Nobody does that.

>>21809378
>Nobody does that.
Christopher Lee did

And if you listen to any podcasts about it, alot seem to claim they do

>>21809383
literally who
>podcasts
Yikes

>>21809397
>christopher lee
>literally who
oh my mistake, i forgot, zoomers dont know anything pre 2012
carry on

>>21809416
>listens to podcasts
>not a zoomer

>>21809367
>Why do alot of tolkien fans re-read Lord of the Rings every year?
Because it's just that rich and beautiful.

>>21809367
LotR and supplementary material is literally the only book Tolkienfags read.

>>21809417
The fact that you don't know who Christopher Lee is and yet are posting in a Lord of the Rings thread is, certainly odd

>>21809421
The same can be said for other works though. So why re read this one book

>>21809367
>why do people do things differently than i do?
the quality of /lit/ threads continues to amaze me. Top tier quality. Asking the questions no one else thinks to ask.

>>21809367
tlotr fags only read tolkien, anyone who has read any piece of literature outside of him instantly realizes how shit lord of the rings are. It's the exact same situation as harry potter.

>>21809465
>The same can be said for other works though.
Not many of them.

>>21809367
Some people are into reading traditions for themselves. There are also Don Quixote annual readings.

>>21809591
This is something I may start doing. Not sure what to pick though.

>>21809367
People are pulled into the secondary world, and by themselves are great books.
As >>21809383 pointed out, Lee used to read them every year.

>>21809367
I'm rereading it after 20 years. I think I'll read it again sooner than that, if only for my boy as a bedtime story.

>>21809644
Doesn't have to be the same for everyone, but I found seasonal things work best.

I always reread The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury every Halloween, and A Christmas Carol every Christmas.

Shorter books help, but I may make Dandelion Wine (also Bradbury) an annual reread.

>>21809681
>think I'll read it again sooner than that, if only for my boy as a bedtime story.
Yeah my mom and dad did that with me.
Will probably do it for my kids if I have any (though my wife has never read it)

>>21809367
Because of how rich with detail the world is, re-reading it feels like revisiting the world. Every year sounds a bit excessive though.

>>21809692
>My heart speaks clearly at last: the fate of the Bearer is in my hands no longer. The Company has played it's part. Yet we that remain cannot forsake our companions while we have strength left. Come! We will go now. Leave all that can be spared behind! We will press on by day and dark!
When I do read this to him at bedtime. I don't think my boy will sleep for all the tears in my eyes, and the thumping courage in my heart.

>>21809426
>knowing actors by name

>>21809416
I want to believe he did but actors are fake as people allot of the time maybe he does who knows.

>>21809423
>>21809525
All lies (except about Harry Potter).

>>21810184
>maybe he does
>Christopher Lee
>does
Anon, he's dead now

>>21809525
This is lies. Lotr has great depth and allusions to other ancient European epics.

Harry Potter is a children’s story and nothing more.

>>21809367
I am one of those people and I do it because the book is extremely cozy and comfy, simple as.

>>21809416
Shit was a really shit depiction of Saruman though.

>>21809367
There are so many books I haven't read I don't see the point in rereading one

>>21809367
>why do people read a book they like
it's a mystery

>>21809367
I used to do that for Silmarillion, reading it in october when it gets chilly, and leaves turn to gold.

It's just comfy, and I could see someone doing it for LOTR, skipping some parts maybe.

>>21810517
Sounds like you haven't found a book you love desu.

Have you only ever seen movies once?

>>21810212
Impossible, someone like him doesn't just die.

>>21809367
>>21810219

Harry Potter has tons of illusions to classic literature. People on 4chan (jews) just dont like it because it portrays their people accurately, as shitty little banking Goblins.

The hippogriff = Orlando Furioso by Ariosto

The three headed dog = Cerberous in Heracles by Euripides

"Tales of Beedle the Bard" are a direct reference to stories found in “The Canterbury Tales”

Hermione is a character in Andromache, the daughter of Menelaus and Helen

The Sphynx in the Maze game of book 4 is a reference to Oedipus Rex

>>21810589
allusions*

>>21810579
I love a bunch of books but if I spent my time rereading maybe I would have never read some of these books. The movies I watched more than once were either because I missed some things on the first watch, was too young or watched it with people who never saw them before.
Also watching a movie doesn't take as much time as reading a book

>>21809367
I read LOTR every year. I don't know if I can articulate a "cause" beyond the fact that I find it a beautiful and moving story. I enjoy it more every time.

>>21809367
>>21809378
>>21809383
>>21809663
#MeToo, and I re-read A Song of Ice and Fire every year as well. Back to back with The Lord of the Rings.

>>21810589
sounds kino honestly, should i bite the bullet and read Harry Potter? I'm learning french and i think the translations would be around my level

It's a great story but I agree that's way too much

>>21810579
>Sounds like you haven't found a book you love desu.
I hadn't thought about that.
Kinda wanna try it but I'd just stuck to reading a different book all the time cause like >>21810517 there are so many books I want to read

Will have to pick one I remember liking I guess

>>21810589
JK shoving mythological creatures into her knock off of The Worst Witch doesn't make it any less middle-grade fiction you fucking cig.

>>21810746
Just go with it. First one will either capture you in, or you'll not touch the others. Up to and including Goblet of Fire, they're all fantastic fun, the last two are crap though.

>>21810946
>>21810746
I actually agree. The first 4 are the only Harry Potters worth reading.

He kills Voldemort in the end. That's all you need to know. The last books STRUGGLE and meander through lame WWII metaphors. Harry and Dumbledore searching for the horcruzxes is alright though.

>>21809525

>>21809367
I had to drop the third book for how full it had been since the two towers.

I do it. It’s fun and cozy and nice to have a tradition. There’s always something different to focus on and pay attention to.

>>21809367
I reread every five years or so, same with Gawain and the Green Knight
>>21809423
I find this true for Potterfags, Tolkien led me to read a lot of other things

>>21810207
It's actually a little odd. Tolkien led me to Dunsany, Yeats, and assorted medieval works such as Beowulf and Gawain and the Green Knight but Potterfags I know mostly just read Potter fanfiction. I don't think they care much about the Potter books themselves, just about Hermione pornography. It's quite a phenomenon

>>21809525
>>21810207
>>21810219
>>21811175
>>21811186
I went from Tolkien to Robert Jordan and Terry Pratchett while in middle school and in high school. My female cousins got into Harry Potter while in elementary school and once they had grown out of it they got into the Twilight series and The Hunger Games, they don't seem to give a shit about books other than the YA and Teen Fiction sort.

>>21811329
I guess Tolkien tends to encourage people to read either more high fantasy or classic lit depending on taste. Harry Potter kind of traps people in the YA genre

>>21810746
Read Le Petit Prince if you like the language

>>21811362
It all leads to some of the same ends pretty quickly, Tolkien does. Usually you end up in sagas and eventually literary retellings of folklore. Potter shoots you out into the airport novel pipeline.

>>21811398
I've always liked Tolkien and disliked Potter and I think this is part of the reason. Potter has simpler prose and is also wish-fulfillmenty in essence so it tends to not prepare young people for reading other books

>>21811398
>Usually you end up in sagas and eventually literary retellings of folklore
That's basically what Tolkien is. Just he somehow gets looped in with the genre he helped start
He has more in common with Dunsany and with the medieval ballad he translated than with Sanderson I would say

>>21811416
Not many do that kind of research for fun. I mean lotr as a fictional book is a story made up of stories from different books and appendices. The book is a fictional academic work. Cyclopedia is closer to Tolkien than the fantasy genre. He writes sections as a linguist. He's in the ballad tradition but also working at another level entirely.

>>21811443
Dude was oddly post-modern now that I think about it. He presents his story not as a literal story but as a collection of compiled autobiographies and texts. At the same time he is the most popular anti-postmodern today
I find him more fascinating as an adult than I did as a child I think

>>21811450
Oh yeah, it's way more interesting when you know what went into what he did. I read them as a kid but didn't really "get" it as entertainment, I hadn't found interest in some of the deeper themes and how it was put together. You can call the Hobbit a children's book but lotr is a mature tome.

The postmodern thing caught me off guard when I realized it, probably while reading Wolfe or something incredibly pretentious with footnotes, possibly nonfiction.

>>21811503
>Oh yeah, it's way more interesting when you know what went into what he did. I read them as a kid but didn't really "get" it as entertainment, I hadn't found interest in some of the deeper themes and how it was put together. You can call the Hobbit a children's book but lotr is a mature tome.
I loved the story as a teen but I skipped the prologue and only as an adult I get the stuff that went into it. I took a history course in University and it suddenly dawned on me what LotR was meant to be.
Silmarillion was also an interesting treat. It was supposed to come with a prologue about it being written by an elvish scribe from various eye witness accounts and it makes me wish it was left in; its oddly thought provoking and makes you think a lot about narrative framing

>>21811523
I think if he were more of a philosopher and less of a Catholic, he could have put together something even greater. He's pretty lacking in occult metaphysics, which make up a lot of the source material. But maybe that's me coming from a position of deconstructive analysis and esoteric interpretations of classical literature. I think that's what separates him from the pomo. He can't reiterate a point through the analogous myths and medieval narratives he's using.

[bad, wrong and stupid things about tolkien]
give me at least a dozen (you)s please, clearly that's all it takes to deserve them here.

>>21811683
>He can't reiterate a point through the analogous myths and medieval narratives he's using.
I guess his point was more of an emotional one than a philosophical one. He has a lot of the Wordsworth romantic sublime and the post-modern post-war melancholy in his books that make for a unique combo because we don't expect see them together
But I am curious about using myth to convey a philosophy.
I guess Tolkien's would be something about the Age of Rust versus the Age of Gold and Blake something vague Nietzschean

>>21811523
This scene is an interesting one. How does it look from the mortal dude's perspective for instance? Is he terrified at this uncanny glowing spirit that floated out of the forest or does he think its cute (both are hyperbole of course but what's he thinking versus what's the Silm narrator's spin)? Cool stuf

>>21810589
>Harry Potter has tons of rippffs from classic literature.
Ftfy

Even the magical school thing had need done about 4 or 5 times before.

>>21810589
>Cedric asking for his body to be taken back to his father parallels the struggle for patroclus' body in the Iliad
Kino

>>21810946
>>21810982
Shit taste. 5th is the best if not the only one which rises above the level of a merely cozy read. 6th is a mixed bag but has the best passages of the series
>>21810746
Don't bother with the first two they are not worth reading. Watch the movies instead. then again they are really short so you may as well check them out, but know that she only finds her stride by the third

I couldn't imagine myself reading a 1,200 page book every year. It just isn't possible.

>>21809525
What other fantasy books are as well researched and not just the author wanting to write about fucking elves and/or raping them.

>>21812352
Gene Wolfe is the greatest fantasy writer alongside Tolkien. Peake, Dunsany, Eddison, C.S.Lewis are also well worth reading. Jack Vance, Howard, Clark Ashton Smith and Lovecraft are a lot more pulpy, but still solid.

>>21812364
I've read a lot of Lewis and some Lovecraft, I'll look into Wolfe. I've just got back into reading a lot and I've mostly been to drawn to horror for some reason.

Harry Potter sucks

>oh no how could this be! My best most trusted friend Sauronman has betrayed me and joined Sauron!
really now
these books are fucking shit

>>21812380
Gandalf knew Saruman had betrayed him, or at least feared he did for about 500 years before the events of LOTR. What you're actually describing is Gandalf's immense love and hope being expressed that Saruman may be redeemed. Maybe you should log off and stop being an insufferable pseud?

>>21812374
Clarke Ashton Smith and Howard wrote horror as well that's IMO better than Lovecraft. Because they just wrote better in general. Gene Wolfe is getting a collection of his horror shorts published soon as well.

>>21812382
Why does everything take so long in Lotr? Like 20 years for Gandalf to "research" the ring? wtf? And then that whole war of the ring shit was like 3000 years ago for some reason which is an insane amount of time.
All of Lotr chronology should be divided by ten to make sense.

>>21812409
Because Gandalf is immortal and the world is big so he can take his time. And also the Elves live forever and many Men still live longer lives, at least the upper class ones who still have remnants of Numenorean blood.
The Third Age is the first age that Men start to become the major players, and only after the end of LOTR do they actually 'inherit the earth'. Before that everything is more Elf-centric, who live forever. There's no rush.

>>21809367
I did that back in primary school, finishing return of the king meant starting the fellowship, but then i found out that other books exist.

>>21809383
>podcasts
oh no, anon has brain damage

>>21812392
>Howard wrote horror as well that's IMO better than Lovecraft.
Agreed on Howard. Haven't read Smith, but Howard's characters actually react when confronted with something instead of just going insane like lovecraft

>>21811699
On the level of folklore, it's moral philosophy. Cautionary tales. It's been proposed that the really bizarre and seemingly out of place or nonsense elements of folklore and parts of the Arthurian romance cycle are either due to magic mushrooms or imply a heterodox interpretation outside the orthodox christian tradition. It's often the case that the description of an event is a poetic analogy for the phenomenology of the inner world.

I never got the sense that Tolkien was working from this pre-modern/postmodern position and instead went for straight literary analysis.

>>21809367
because hardcore tolkien fans tend to be autists who can only enjoy lotr

>>21809525
and while it is not shit, far from it, this anon is mostly right, lotr autists make it seem like the best book ever while having only read fantasy, maybe because the books are as good as it gets before getting into "real" literature, which they don't

t. read silmarilion and lotr 2 times, the hobbit probably 3

>elite of Sauron's army
>crippled, blind, rely into their horses to see
>not even magical horses, just normal horses raised in Mordor
>have to wait until their cursed stab has macerated Frodo's guts for weeks to even see him themselves.
>be easily outrunned by the average elven horse.
>They find themselves by sheer luck in the best case scenario to return the ring they could hope for: 4 hobbits and a dude in a hole alone in the night, when tey are most powerful.
>get defeated by a guy with a hot stick and a hobbit shouting names.

>>21812374
I felt the second (and best) story of Fifth Head of Cerberus by Wolfe had a great savage horror undertone. You'd like it even if you have to push through the first, which is still good but a kind of family drama in a sci fi setting.

>>21812409
Ask yourself how long things took before Trains demanded a schedule? When you got no place to be, you can take your time.

>>21813716
You could put the whole collection under horror of a sort. I felt tense and spooked enough through the whole thing and the questions posed are in the realm of horror. I think a certain type of horrorfag would appreciate it, the kind looking for a mood and atmosphere with some primal fear over balls out terror.

>>21813867
Yeah I guess. The first is a kind of dark family secret horror, the third a Kafkaesque nightmare

>>21813886
I like that kind of horror. Wolfe dug into the foundations of modern literature with it and modern literature loves, let's call it soft horror. There's the post-colonial themes but the first story is a southern gothic and the other two are more straight horror in the greater literary tradition. I mentioned Cyclopedia earlier, that's a really deep cut into some classical Persian horror and occult philosophy. Soft horror is a weird niche to try and read.

>>21812662
>I never got the sense that Tolkien was working from this pre-modern/postmodern position and instead went for straight literary analysis.
Interesting. Well, he was a /lt/ professor

>>21812112
She robbed Diana Wynne Jones, Iva Ibbotson and a lot of other fantasy writers that I think deserve recognition more than her

>>21809367
There's a lot of books that I like to revisit, LotR is on the list because it is comfy

I couldn't blame someone for doing that these recent days in order to escape into that world

>>21814634
Tolkien and the Wind in the Willows are the best books for when you really sad

>>21809367
To justify buying multiple new copies every year of course

>>21810184
Umm, have you SEEN Christopher Lee? That guy is (was) one of the few in show business I would trust.

https://youtu.be/Ef4njNsDVos

https://youtu.be/XFbPiUEA62A

https://youtu.be/FcowbZOrql0

>>21812409
>[fantasy] should make sense
maybe you should disregard your preconceived notions about how a story should be told. if you didn't notice, middle earth is not earth

>>21812112
>>21814507
She ripped off mostly from Jill Murphy, some from Diana Jones and maybe a couple nods to Terry Pratchett.

>>21814471
It stands out because the canon he wrote in is deeply allegorical and often esoteric and metaphysical. There's been this window from the beginning of the Enlightenment to Derrida where that kind of heterodox interpretation has been shunned in academia. Deconstruction and postmodern criticism has issues but it's been a boon for philosophy and old literature. I think Soviet lit and how the West fails to catch the references Slavs intuitively understand exemplifies how this occluded layer presents itself.

Like, he does nothing interesting with what is ostensibly a pre-christian work, where pre-christian and transitional texts go hard on this shifting worldview. The Silmaril is good literature but terrible as a creation myth. Myths are both literal and metaphorical, ancient man made little distinction, but what he wrote is missing the metaphors. There's an allegorical layer missing and instead you get a bone dry retread of Paradise Lost.

I reread it every February for about 5 years, then I realised I was wasting my time as there's so many great books I'll never read if I kept doing that

>>21809367
It's one of the greatest literary works of all time. /lit/ sneers at it because most of the posters here are jaded midwits that legitimately don't understand the story

>>21816761
Yeah that's the thing that holds me back from re reading books. I'm thinking I might try to start mixing in a re read or 2 every year but not necessarily the same books every time.

But then it's hard to justify doing that and not just read something else by the same author

>>21809367
Probably some childhood trauma

>>21812409
the ring being lost for over two thousand years is a good part of the reason it took him so long
he had a feeling since bilbo found the ring in 2941, but it took him until 3017 (76 years) for him to confirm it absolutely, because he had more pressing things to do in that time

>>21809367
>>21809378
I did this for a period of about five, six years. Had a list of books I'd reread every year. Bible, Imitation of Christ, The Republic, Lord of the Rings, and the Iliad.

It was fun and comfy as fuck. Think I'll pick it up again this year, 9/10 would recommend.

>>21809367
it's unironically a cult/hipster trend.
https://www.twitch.tv/melina this is the kind of subhuman that praises Tolkien's work, simple work for simple minds.
(And yes, she constantly rereads the books and rewatches the movies every year)

>>21816880
>>21817931
this woman was raped multiple times in her teens btw, and she's in a poly relationship.

>>21811362
100% it's the style of prose. Lord of the Rings is extremely well-crafted, and it was done in the era before film became as ubiquitous as it was in 1999ish when Harry Potter dropped. They're not terrible stories, but they read like movie scripts a lot of the time. Tolkien's work isn't like that, so if he's shaped your taste, you're a lot more likely to be drawn to classics and other staples of high fantasy.

>>21817943
I'd argue that lotr is of such a superlative quality that it ruins other high fantasy. You go looking for similar content after reading lotr but the quality isn't there in fantasy as a whole. One probably doesn't notice in his teens but it's rather lacking as an adult. I agree that Potter isn't very literary, there hasn't been much in YA that sends towards literature, not in recent decades.

>>21817943
Yeah, its the prose and also I think the themes. Harry Potter is a very womanly sort of fiction (no offense meant to women as a whole I love Ursula Le Guin and Emily Bronte). But its got those negative qualities associated with chick /lit/ that I've come to despise. It's very melodramatic when it tries to be emotional and its got characters based on stereotypes rather than archetypes.
I think some anon mentioned on an HP thread that Harry himself is a very flat character, and that there's a lot of weird discrepancies like him coming off as interested in stuff an older gal would be interested in because the author has trouble putting herself in his head (he loves shopping, drinks sherry, and looks at attractive men a lot for a straight little boy).
Despite this the reader wants to be him; he is put upon (victim points) and constantly getting to save the day and receive free shit (wish-fulfillment)
On the other hand Tolkienfags notice that no one actually wants to be Frodo. He is a manlet who suffers for others like a Christian martyr and is never meant to be a self-insert
On that hand the same can probably be said about the central characters in most of his other works. In CoH Turin gets a lot of good shit like Harry but in the end he subverts the readers desire to self-insert by being an arse and dying due to his ill behavior. I doubt anyone yearns to be Maedhros or any of the doomed elves in the Silmarillion

>>21816753
>he Silmaril is good literature but terrible as a creation myth. Myths are both literal and metaphorical, ancient man made little distinction, but what he wrote is missing the metaphors. There's an allegorical layer missing and instead you get a bone dry retread of Paradise Lost.
I was actually planning on writing a comparison of those two because I am making a blog about Christian creation myths in /lit/
I am not making a value judgement of either but there's something interesting to me about Milton, who always feels like he has something to teach us, and Tolkien, and his deep distaste for using literature to tell us readers what to think.
I admire JRRT for it personally because in recent days I have grown to hate political allegories in film and children's books but I am curious about whether he accidentally added an allegorical layer in the Silm.
Some people feel that there is an intentional layer of allegory that Tolkien didn't want but failed to expunge

>>21818135
I am reading Dunsany right now. So far he is the only Englishman as good as JRRT in the jungle. I tried reading McDonald but gave up due to distractions, might give him a second try

>>21818342
NTA, but I've been reading Macdonald. I've read the Princess and Goblin and am currently halfway through the Princess and Curdie. They remind me more of the Hobbit than LotR, and while pleasant, they don't measure up to Tolkien and Dunsany. Honestly, you should read The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison. It is also inspired by the old sagas and Eddison would read excerpts of his work to Tolkien's Inklings. I believe Tolkien called him the "greatest writer of fictional worlds" at some point. Also, the Gormengast Trilogy is also fantastic, contemporary of Tolkien without aping his style. Prose is even better in my opinion.

>>21818972
>The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison
Thanks for the rec; I will try to find a copy at the library, or bootleg one in case its missing
Anyone that Tolkien called the greatest writer is worth to look at

>>21816753
It’s metaphorical at least the first part but it’s a metaphor for math, physics and chemistry, biology building their way up from first principles. At least it gave me that distinct impression.

>>21818254
It's possible, it's been a long time since I read it. It's hard to escape allegory and allusion. I'd read a good monograph on subtext found in the Silm.

>>21818983
It's on Gutenberg, if I'm not mistaken.

>>21818991


>It's possible, it's been a long time since I read it. It's hard to escape allegory and allusion. I'd read a good monograph on subtext found in the Silm.
Maybe there's an audience for that sort of thing then; I always felt like I'm an autist for intensely studying and comparing Tolkien and Milton but they are some of my favorite writers
>It's on Gutenberg, if I'm not mistaken.
Thanks

>>21819016
I'm the Eddison anon, and I would be interested in reading your comparisons. I've also been on the hunt for good fantasy and have been left wanting. I tried reading Malazan but quickly lost interest. If anyone in the thread has read it, is it as amazing as people say? I found the prose to be awkward and it read very generic for the first 200 pages of the first book (a relatively small sample compared to the whole series).

>>21819173
>I'm the Eddison anon, and I would be interested in reading your comparisons. I've also been on the hunt for good fantasy and have been left wanting.
I would be interested in learning about this too. It seems that outside of Tolkien and his contemporaries there's few people who reached the heights of what fantasy could be.
I guess Alex Grin was good but translations that are actually good are hard to find in English

>>21819173
>I would be interested in reading your comparisons
Based, maybe I'll drop a link on /lit/ when I am done

>>21819182
Fantasy took a different stylistic direction and follows the trends of writers contemporary to it. I'll throw out Little, Big and Piranesi as contenders with a very different voice and purpose.

>>21819218
>I'll throw out Little, Big and Piranesi as contenders with a very different voice and purpose.
I haven't heard of those guys. The only Tolkienesque author I've read that satisfies me is probably LeGuin, so its a good thing that the others are going their own directions
It's no good tribute to Tolkien to copy him to death without understanding his purpose

>>21819234
While not Tolkienesqe, have you read Gene Wolfe? Book of the new Sun and book of the short sun were both amazing in my opinion.

>>21819252
Gene Wolfe is a guy that's been on my reading list a long time but I never got to him
He is Catholic right? I am sorry to have to ask but I keep seeing Jewish writers insert cuck shit into books and I've learned to stay clear

>>21819270
Just rape and maybe incest, you're good.

>>21819277
Kek, its maybe a dumb pet peeve of mine but I just can't stand this shit in /lit/

>>21812380

Saruman has a different etymology to Sauron. This is like people who use english translations of the bible to make pagan comparison.

>>21818135
Maybe this is why for the occasion I try a fantasy book, many times I purposely look for the ones that are seem to be on a different branch from Tolkein and come from a different enough context or background in influences

>>21821360
There's a 'literary' fantasy crowd out there who does the same. I mentioned >>21819218 and anons brought up Wolfe and LeGuinn; add The Master and Margherita and you have a taste of the subgenre. I'll throw in a Burnable Book even though it's historical fiction and firmly a mystery novel because it has a few occult themes and hidden history is fantasy adjacent. And Calvino. Castle of Crossed Destines has a neat premise. There are a lot of writers doing fantasy but not under the genre. I wouldn't dare compare any of it to Tolkien but there is a broad spectrum of quality books and few are epic fantasy.

It's such a tall order to work within the framework of sagas, legends and epic poems that no one is doing what Tolkien did. Epic fantasy just wears the skin of it.

>>21809367
I feel like this book has transcended the 'modern classic' moniker, it is basically a modern mythology. I have no doubt people in a few hundred years will view LOTR the same way we view The Odyssey

>>21809367
>Why do alot of tolkien fans re-read Lord of the Rings every year?
Because they want to?

>>21809367
The lored of the rings

>>21821682
Yeah, I don't think writers should be aping Tolkien, he had a special expertise in the stuff that he focused on (linguistics, myth). I think if I had to do a list of literary fantasy LotR and Master and Margarita would be there; they are different in subgenre but that's what books with magical elements should be like, different and not strangled with straitjacket tropes
I would also put some magical realism stories there, some Victorian fantasies like the work of Lord Dunsany, and maybe the work of Alex Grin

because

>At that sound the bent shape of the king sprang suddenly erect. Tall and proud he seemed again; and rising in his stirrups he cried in a loud voice, more clear than any there had ever heard a mortal man achieve before:

Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden! Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter! spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered, a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises! Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!

With that he seized a great horn from Guthláf his banner-bearer, and he blew such a blast upon it that it burst asunder. And straightway all the horns in the host were lifted up in music, and the blowing of the horns of Rohan in that hour was like a storm upon the plain and a thunder in the mountains. Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor! Suddenly the king cried to Snowmane and the horse sprang away. Behind him his banner blew in the wind, white horse upon a field of green, but he outpaced it. After him thundered the knights of his house, but he was ever before them. Éomer rode there, the white horsetail on his helm floating in his speed, and the front of the first éored roared like a breaker foaming to the shore, but Théoden could not be overtaken. Fey he seemed, or the battle-fury of his fathers ran like new fire in his veins, and he was borne up on Snowmane like a god of old, even as Oromë the Great in the battle of the Valar when the world was young. His golden shield was uncovered, and lo! it shone like an image of the Sun, and the grass flamed into green about the white feet of his steed. For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City.

>>21822738

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWxnHuVEwUg

>>21822356
>the people could fly, by virginia hamilton

>>21822738
The prose in Two Towers is some of the most beautiful in fantasy and crosses into the poetic

>>21822738
>Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden! Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!
I love the Anglo-Saxon alliterative verse of the Rohirrim poems.

Out of doubt, out of dark, to the day's rising
he rode singing in the sun, sword unsheathing.
Hope he rekindled, and in hope he ended;
over death, over dread, over doom lifted
out of loss, out of life, unto long glory.

>>21812409
>Like 20 years for Gandalf to "research" the ring?
He was getting high on hobbit weed for most of that time.

>>21812409
i feel like you're baiting. use rl as an example. how long do you think it took herodotus to research for histories? even ancient egypians, indians, and hebrews were referencing events a thousand+ years older than themselves