/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.21927764]

What’s the difference between Tolkien’s legendarium and other built worlds from the fantasy genre?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of Tolkien, and his prose is fine (better than 99% of contemporary writers anyway), but what exactly made him and the world he built gather such a cult following that lasts to this day? His universe is as complete and diverse today as much as the above-average fantasy writer next door and even, God forbids, a good Japanese light novelist.
What sets him apart from every other fantasy writer?

[Anonymous No.21927769]

he was the first

[Anonymous No.21927774]

Tolkien was primarily a scholar
He had a lot of knowledge of both medieval history and medieval literature
Everyone who came afterwards didn’t have these skills not knowledge, the imitators weren’t obsessive enough either
Tolkien doesn’t feel like you’re reading fantasy as much as the main writers do

[Anonymous No.21927777]

>>21927764
>What sets him apart from every other fantasy writer?
Implicit platonic theology

[Anonymous No.21927780]

>>21927777
It's also Thomist at points

[Anonymous No.21928151]

the depth of his work is unattainable for any living writer. not to sound boomerish but they honestly don't make them like that anymore. nobody, not even the best scholars today are as immersed and passionate about their studies as tolkien was, and because of that it the quality of universe he created is really one of a kind, and as time continues and no new work comes close to matching his, he will absolutely be further legendized into a homer figure for the 20th century

[Anonymous No.21928171]

>>21927764
Tolkien was first and foremost a scholar, a philologist. This allowed him to create a truly deep work, to create languages, histories, and cultures unlike anything before or since. Now, people following him may have also created similarly fantastical worlds, but none reached the true depth that he did, often times they are simply poor imitations of real world cultures or really not that thought out at all, but Tolkien used his full knowledge of Nordic and Old English culture to create something almost entirely unique. It's not just that he what the first, it's that he set the standards and remains the best.

[Anonymous No.21928213]

https://youtu.be/_2vcF4opBA8
thread theme
the man single-handedly turned the rest of europe into albionboos for at least one generation

[Anonymous No.21928236]

[Anonymous No.21928444]

>>21927764

Consider the ancient poems of Finland and Germany and Norway and Greece. Read them and then read Tolkien.

They share a lot in common and Tolkiens work is an English version of them but it also adds in his opinion the State of his world.

The Tolkien world is an evolution of those poems and an etymology that grows them in an English way. Essentially Tolkien backtracked them the branch from scandi and Germany and then wrote a new branch for the English

[Anonymous No.21928446]

>>21928236
for me, it's Felagund

[Anonymous No.21928447]

>>21928236
>reads the skeleton of the universe
>wow its so dry lmao

[Anonymous No.21928498]

>>21928236
>A language
He created several, even permuting them through different eras of Middle Earth to mirror the development of real languages

[Anonymous No.21928518]

I read The Real Middle Earth and it was pretty much garbage. Is the Road to Middle Earth book supposed to be the canonical explication or whatever of his source materials? I want to see what was grabbing out of each myth/religion

[Anonymous No.21928652]

>>21928518
just make up whatever headcanon you wish. its what tolkien would have wanted for you. read the source material and appreciate it. don't inject your soft brain with other retard's word cum

[Anonymous No.21928700]

>>21928236
>gets filtered by a family tree of more than 1.8 children per generation

[Anonymous No.21929140]

>page 7

[Anonymous No.21930271]

>page 10

[Anonymous No.21930292]

>comparing tolkien with weeb shit

[Anonymous No.21930452]

Oh man this world is amazing, I can't wait to learn more about the lore and about the elves and Gandalf as Frodo and the hobbits adventu-
>HEY DOL MERRY DOL RING A DONG DILLO
>RING A DONG HOP ALONG FAL LAL THE WILLOW
>TOM BOM JOLLY TOM TOM BOMBADILLO
Well, ok that was a bit odd but necessary for the plot to advance, let's see what the next chapter has in store
>HO TOM BOMBADIL TOM BOMBADILLO BY WATER WOOD AND HILL BY THE REED AND WILLOW
Ok that's over with finally the story can resume as norm-
>OLD TOM BOMBADIL IS A MERRY FELLOW BRIGHT BLUE HIS JACKET IS
>AND HIS BOOTS ARE YELLOW

[Anonymous No.21930503]

> spends three pages describing a river
> battle of helms deep doesn’t even last two pages

>>21928700
He introduced 27 characters on one page with similar names. They would later appear at random throughout the book with some being pivotal to a tale and others being irrelevant.

I literally had to draw a family tree and start crossing them out as they died to keep track.

[Anonymous No.21930533]

>>21927764
The key to understanding this is to know that Tolkien was incredibly pretentious.

[Anonymous No.21930563]

>>21930533
How

[Anonymous No.21930788]

>>21930452
jollity filter. it's a shame most tolkien scholars never made it this far into the book

[Anonymous No.21930789]

>>21930503
>die
nigga elves glow-up they don't die lmao

[Anonymous No.21930795]

>"...Finwe's sons were Feanor and Fingolfin and Finarfin... and their sons were Maedhros and Maglor and Celegorm and Curufin and Caranthir and Amrod and Amras and Fingon and Turgon and Argon and Finrod and Angrod and Aegnor... and their sons were Celembrimbor and Orodreth and..."
>"...unnamed daughters, unnamed sisters, unnamed spouses"

[aaa No.21930801]

>>2192
>>21927769
Debatable. The Well at the worlds end somewhat inspired him.

[aaa No.21930806]

>>21928151
That's true. The thing about the LOTR universe is....its deep. It's so well made, so detailed. And then there are ira ties to Brittish history and folklore. Imagine how much research it took... Not like fast fantasy books of today.

[Anonymous No.21930956]

>>21928446
It's a shame not more of his works can be read like this.