Product Description
“A superb collection, a splendid and much-needed book. Anderson has cleared away the dross and shown us the golden roots of fantasy before it became a genre.”
–Michael Moorcock, author of The Eternal Champion
Many of today’s top names in fantasy acknowledge J.R.R. Tolkien as the author whose work inspired them to create their own epics. But which writers influenced Tolkien himself? In a collection destined to become a classic in its own right, internationally recognized Tolkien expert Douglas A. Anderson, editor of The Annotated Hobbit, has gathered the fiction of the many gifted authors who sparked Tolkien’s imagination. Included are Andrew Lang’s romantic swashbuckler “The Story of Sig… More >>
Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy
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JRR Tolkien is considered by many to be the father of modern fantasy though he often referred to the classic Beowulf. This collection looks at twenty-two stories that may have influenced him in his creation of hose adorable Hobbits. The selections were based on the premises that the tales were published before any Middle Earth story and that the author was born at least five years before Mr. Tolkien. Several were written in the nineteenth century, but were chosen because Mr. Tolkien makes reference to them in his letters or commentaries.
Although not for everyone as the contributions in many cases feel a bit dated, this anthology is a fun collection. Notables are included such as Frank Stockton, Lewis Carroll, H. Rider Haggard, and L. Frank Baum, etc. Besides those curious of the genre’s heritage, generalists will appreciate the tales as for the most part they are well written and worth the look back though where is the most influential, Beowulf?
Harriet Klausner
Rating: 4 / 5
JRR Tolkien is considered by many to be the father of modern fantasy though he often referred to the classic Beowulf. This collection looks at twenty-two stories that may have influenced him in his creation of hose adorable Hobbits. The selections were based on the premises that the tales were published before any Middle Earth story and that the author was born at least five years before Mr. Tolkien. Several were written in the nineteenth century, but were chosen because Mr. Tolkien makes reference to them in his letters or commentaries.
Although not for everyone as the contributions in many cases feel a bit dated, this anthology is a fun collection. Notables are included such as Frank Stockton, Lewis Carroll, H. Rider Haggard, and L. Frank Baum, etc. Besides those curious of the genre’s heritage, generalists will appreciate the tales as for the most part they are well written and worth the look back though where is the most influential, Beowulf?
Harriet Klausner
Rating: 4 / 5
Tales Before Tolkien collects popular fantasy fiction shorts that preceded Tolkien. The book’s title implies that Tolkien may have incorporated borrowed elements in his work. That’s hardly news. What drew me was the variety of stories and their undemanding lengths. A perfect bedside addition and great inducer of sleep. This book is also my introduction to the lyrical writings of George MacDonald and Frank Stockton; the author of ‘The Golden Key’ and ‘The Griffin and Minor Canon’. ‘The Golden Key’ is one of the most atmospheric fantasy piece I’ve come across. I was also happy to discover an little known piece by Lord Dunsany, one of my favorite authors, titled ‘Chubu’.
Rating: 5 / 5
This book shows what was current and modern fantasy tales prior to Tolkien’s writing. It shows how prior authors had described elves and dwarves before they became codified in Tolkien’s work. The stories show the type of storytelling that was popular in the late 19th and early 20th century. The stories range from Europe to America and place people from various lands into very unusual circumstances.
The reason I only give this book four stars is that while some of the stories are entertaining, they lack the same kind of environment as Middle Earth provides and some even try to overlay modern (at the time) times into the stories. I think this takes away from their effect. Another reason that I give it only four stars is that a lot of the stories were admitted to have never been seen by Tolkien prior to his work, so it is doubtful that they had much effect.
I would still recommend this book to someone who is interested in literary history and how tales have changed in the last 100+ years. Also it does give a good comparison of the type of stories that Tolkien was up against in order to succeed. This is still a book that I will come back to on occasion just for a different type of story.
Rating: 4 / 5
This book is more focused on what Tolkien might have been reading at the time and “might” have sparked the imagination for his stories on than anything else. He once said that he wanted to create a kind of modern mythology for his time. So this collection is a nice primer if you want to know about earlier stories we don’t hear too much about today. Researching and finding all these in the library would be tedious. And it’s nice if you are a writer or a fan who wants to know where many of our modern stories came from.
If you are strictly a Lord of the Rings fan, though and want to know specifically where Tolkien pulled much of his inspiration from, including the ring myth, I would highly recommend “Tolkien’s Ring” by David Day and Allan Lee. It is packed full of the ancient mythology, names, etc. he most likely used.
Rating: 3 / 5