Did Tolkien inspire you for reading?

"Role Playing" is a term that drove me away from Personal Computer games about from the late 1990s, even before the online stuff became prominent. I started playing some games seriously after I got my Intel 486 DX 50 about 1993, but that was Lucas Arts "X-Wing" and "Tie Fighter", derived from Star Wars; a helicopter simulation named "Comanche", named after a "stealth" attack chopper that never made it beyond a full-scale mockup for the US Army (and perhaps Marines); I was a big fan of the "Lemmings" series, and Sierra's "Quest" series, there most of all the "Leisure Suit Larry" one (though I was able to play the very first "King's Quest" on my very first PC, an IBM 286 clone). My third PC was from 1997, the first one with an AMD processor, an early Pentium lookalike, which I had stocked with (for the time) game-compatible components - and upgraded with a secondary graphics card the odd year later. But what was becoming favored in the games market (then starting to go to online) started getting "meh" reactions from me rapidly. Things have definitely not improved in the last 20 years ...

I have been reading fantasy for ages. Terry Brooks, Elizabeth Moon, Katherine Kurtz , Anne McCaffrey, Rick Riordan and Christopher Paolini, and many others

Tolkien definitely inspired my choice of books throughout my younger days, and even the books I read now owe a large part of my interest in them to the imagination he dredged up from the deeps of my mind. Sigurd has his little corner of a bookshelf, almost rubbing elbows with Beowulf and the Green Knight. The latter led me to Mallory, and then from there I dug deeper into the fantasy worlds Tolkien had first opened the door to. The early Shannara books, Thieves World, the Deryni, and a host of others down through the decades. Even recently, I doubt I’d have read the Name of the Wind, or trudged along with the troops of the Black Company, or the Iron Elves if I had never been handed that first battered trilogy to read.

I belonged to Fantasy/Scifi book club in Clearlake Texas who introduced me to Terry Brooks and nd Katherine Kurtz. I used to have another complete series of books, but there were too graphic. They gave me nightmares

Olorgando said:

I have (and have read) Christopher's 2014 edited edition. By all means read it. JRRT is not seen as one of the preeminent Beowulf authorities of all time without a reason!

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To answer the question of the thread.. no. After I read the LoTR and then a few books of HoME way back when I was a kid and endlessly going from page to page in the "the complete guide to middle earth" in 5-6th grade or so. I shortly after received my 1st copy of Plato's complete works which I read the entirety of it and then moved on to other philosophical writings and companion pieces and then into non technical books on quantum mechanics/physics, astronomy and then I'd say non-fiction dominated both all my reading and the vast majority of the books I still own till this day. Other than some books and poetry for honor's courses at uni I didn't read any fiction at all. (I only read these as cliff notes wouldn't get me by like they would in high school.. though they quite nearly did.) If we aren't strictly speaking about books.. I did read ALOT of manga and some comics as I had an early introduction to japanese cartoons and comics (as i called them) in the late 90s which was a pretty good time to get into the stuff. the Berserk manga has a larger place in my heart than likely any work of fiction will ever have a chance to having been reading it over and over for over 15 years now (RIP Miura.)

Though I have read Beowulf but I had considered it an academic endeavor and felt a learned person should read many epics that I did wind up reading if only for academic reasons.. I think I told myself back then to be "more well rounded" or something silly.

But my question to you @Olorgando I almost certainly read a 5$ version I picked up by chance or more likely found it in the Penguin Classics (Penguin published many many of the philosophy books I read that weren't complete works and so I trusted them to an extent.)

though I remember having a very troubling time "sticking with it" as archaic as it felt and often stumbling into words that not even online dictionaries had defined as "English" anymore... Is the Tolkien iteration... enjoyable to read? Or perhaps easier to follow? I haven't a clue as to who translated the version I read or when.. but I do know there are MANY MANY translations and was entirely unaware Tolkien had involved himself with the tale.

Always appreciate your thoughtful insights and will take your word for it on this one.

cart said:

... but I do know there are MANY MANY translations and was entirely unaware Tolkien had involved himself with the tale. ...

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This part had me quoting John McEnroe's (in-)famous "You cannot be serious!" But I keep having to remind myself that not everybody has done as much background reading, he're we'd be in the territory of Tom Shippey's books - Shippey was a philologist himself.
Professionally, JRRT probably dealt with Beowulf ceaselessly in his entire academic career, first as reader, and then professor (chair-holder) in Leeds, and his 34 years as a chair holder (two of them in succession) at Oxford.
While Christopher finally published it as editor in 2014, JRRT's prose translation stems from 1920-26.
I'll give you the table of contents of the 2014 book:



You'll note that the prose translation is less than 100 pages long, while commentary closer to 250, and the additional material about 70. So if you're only looking for a readable translation, I guess Christopher's book would be overkill.
As to the language, we're definitely dealing with Silmarillion plus, so definitely archaic. But just perhaps JRRT had a better command of the variants of the English for the last 1,200 or so years than most translators. I do not remember stumbling across any words whose meaning totally eluded me but then I'd plowed through all of Christopher's HoMe by then ...

Tolkien has inspired me to read, but his works remain my favorite always, and nothing could compare in my mind. If it is between reading most any work, or Tolkien's works, I always choose Tolkien.

Olorgando said:

This part had me quoting John McEnroe's (in-)famous "You cannot be serious!" But I keep having to remind myself that not everybody has done as much background reading, he're we'd be in the territory of Tom Shippey's books - Shippey was a philologist himself.
Professionally, JRRT probably dealt with Beowulf ceaselessly in his entire academic career, first as reader, and then professor (chair-holder) in Leeds, and his 34 years as a chair holder (two of them in succession) at Oxford.
While Christopher finally published it as editor in 2014, JRRT's prose translation stems from 1920-26.
I'll give you the table of contents of the 2014 book:

View attachment 14582

You'll note that the prose translation is less than 100 pages long, while commentary closer to 250, and the additional material about 70. So if you're only looking for a readable translation, I guess Christopher's book would be overkill.
As to the language, we're definitely dealing with Silmarillion plus, so definitely archaic. But just perhaps JRRT had a better command of the variants of the English for the last 1,200 or so years than most translators. I do not remember stumbling across any words whose meaning totally eluded me but then I'd plowed through all of Christopher's HoMe by then ...

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Well im plowing through HoME as we speak (and read 3-4 of the books in 6th/7th grade) so I'll take this to mean you think the Tolkien translation is well not only accurate (i imagine it is the most representative) but I suppose just having read so many thousands of words and pages already he had inked will likely make the read easier by itself in maybe some ways that are harder to express clearly. though I will say the Silmarillion or really nothing i've ever read came close to my experience as it was with Beowulf. And now that I have thought about this some more, I actually think I read a rather old translation (like maybe it was translated in the times before or around the discovery of North America. I seem to have some memory of thinking "Well this is probably for the best to read one of the earliest translations.. as it is likely closest to the truth of the matter." or something like that.. so it's perhaps no wonder I was lost reading a book intended for the learned people of the 1200s or whatever age it was translated. But I do keenly seem to remember having that want..

So with that out of the way (and quite frankly with 4 new books just delivered today) perhaps in the fall I'll get to Beowulf in a form where I was actually the intended audience. I'm dumb and stupid in the same ways i find often.

Hum. Here's one I haven't written on yet. (GASP...!!) Almost unconscionable.

Did Tolkien inspire me for reading: yes.
Did Tolkien inspire me for more than reading: yes.
Did it take decades for me to get back to Tolkien: yes.
Did his inspiration however, bleed over into many other pursuits and applications throughout those decades though: yes.

The thread being presented in the past tense, I'll address the present and future as well.
Does Tolkien still inspire me in multiple ways, and will he continue to do so? Yes.

So. There you have it.

The thread question has me thinking. My shelves are full of science fiction books. I also have some literature classics and some political fiction (Orwell, Bradbury, Vonnegut, etc.). I'm not sure I've ever read anything other than Tolkien in the fantasy genre. Let me know if anyone has a recommendation...their favorite fantasy novel that's not Tolkien.

Other fantasy series I recommend:
The Earthsea series from Ursula K. Leguin
The Winter of the World series from Michael Scott Rohan.

You might consider some "classic" fantasy, such as Tolkien's contemporary Lord Dunsany; I'm pretty sure Tolkien read him. I talked a bit about him here:

Post in thread 'What book are you reading right now?' https://thetolkien.forum/threads/what-book-are-you-reading-right-now.10249/post-549739

Another he read, and knew, was E.R.Eddison. I have to say I've never been able to get very far into his stuff, despite several attempts., but Tolkien apparently appreciated him.

And of course there's William Morris, the 19th century pioneer of fantasy.

And George MacDonald, whom he also read.


There has definitely been worthy fantasy writing post-Tolkien, but his popularity in the 60s led to an explosion of copycats and imitators, many of mediocre quality., making it difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Tolkien inspired me to read about Greek mythology. 😂

Eljorahir said:

Let me know if anyone has a recommendation

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I rarely hear anyone mentioning it, but I enjoyed Terry Brooks' Shannara series quite a bit. It builds another rather lengthy 'history' spanning many generations (though not 'ages') throughout the series. Brooks also writes well, but it's not the same 'class' of writing as Tolkien... but few are.

Many like Stephen Donaldson's "Thomas Covenant" series... I read some of it, and while a lot of it is fun, I personally could not tolerate Thomas Covenant himself so I finally just quit.

Eljorahir said:

The thread question has me thinking. My shelves are full of science fiction books. I also have some literature classics and some political fiction (Orwell, Bradbury, Vonnegut, etc.). I'm not sure I've ever read anything other than Tolkien in the fantasy genre. Let me know if anyone has a recommendation...their favorite fantasy novel that's not Tolkien.

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Tolkien's friend Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia is beautiful, and suitable for all ages.

For something outside the "normal" quasi-medieval fantasy genre I can recommend.

Jasper Fforde's Thursday next books, starting with the Eyre Affair, about a parallel world where people can enter the books. Eight books - the first four are the best. Lots of wonderful literary allusions, great puns. https://www.amazon.com/Eyre-Affair-Thursday-Next-Novel/dp/0142001805/ref=sr_1_1?crid=14GHTHAYP3QLL

Marie Brennan's Natural History of Dragons, about a woman in a world of roughly 18th-early 19th century culture interested in Dragons. Non magical. Five books https://www.amazon.com/Natural-History-Dragons-Memoir-Memoirs/dp/0765375079

The Harry Potter series is great.

All these books should be read in writing order.

Eljorahir said:

The thread question has me thinking. My shelves are full of science fiction books. I also have some literature classics and some political fiction (Orwell, Bradbury, Vonnegut, etc.). I'm not sure I've ever read anything other than Tolkien in the fantasy genre. Let me know if anyone has a recommendation...their favorite fantasy novel that's not Tolkien.

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Sorry, but I have nothing for you! I am a Tolkien-fan wholeheartedly except for a reading of the Chronicles of Narnia and Space Trilogy!

I don't know that I have a "favorite" non-Tolkien fantasy -- something to think about.

I can say that I enjoyed most of Raymond Feist's Midkemia series enough to reread a few of them. I can recommend it, with the following caveats:
1) the sheer number of them -- about 30 -- and the time-span involved, required a generous helping of dynastic fantasy * as the series continued.
2) A few of the one-off "filler" books show the cycle's RPG origins more than is good for them.
3) Feist was clearly getting tired of the whole thing by the end of the series, many years later, to the point where, in the final Chaos War cycle, he even forgot what some of his characters were doing, and blew up one entire civilization, so he wouldn't have to talk about it anymore.

Nevertheless, the earlier books are quite entertaining. This was the first one:

Worth a try, IMO.

*

My favorite non-tolkien fantasy is Brandon Sanderson. He's written and is currently writing several series in the same overall universe. Eventually the plan seems to be all the characters from different parts coming together possibly but that's a long ways away. If you wanted to read him, I'd suggest the Mistborn series and then The Stormlight Archive, both are amazing sets of stories that he continues to work on and put out books for. Also, he generally is good to his fans, constantly proving updates and news on his progress.

The Sword of Shannara was a favorite of mine when much younger. People have said Terry Brooks borrowed heavily from Lord of the Rings, and looking back I can see some of that. But still a good read overall.

EA mentioned Brandon Sanderson. I wholeheartedly agree. The Mistborn trilogy and it’s follow up trilogy are fantastic. The author writes action and combat scenes with so much style, and so well visualized. The folks at Marvel couldn’t film action sequences in their movies as well as he describes his. Just my opinion.

Scott Lynch has a series I enjoy about a thief named Locke Lamorra. The first one has an “Oceans Eleven in a fantasy quasi-Venice” feel. Each book stands alone, there are mentions of events from previous books, but each one stands on its own merits. The Lies of Locke Lamorra is the first one. Be aware, there is some foul language occasionally (Locke likes to talk smack, but it’s usually humorous rather than annoying)

You listed some polical titles in your own collection. To cross that with Fantasy, there’s always GRRM’s series. But it shall not be named here…..

Why, is it banned here, and I didn't hear about it? 😄