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A review by hellhoundharry
Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy by Douglas A. Anderson
2.0
FINALLY I am done with this one!
The major problem I have with this is that what the editor has done is essentially taken a short story that Tolkien has talked about in a letter or someone else remembers Tolkien talking about it, and then pointed at some similarities between this book and The Lord of the Rings or The hobbit.
"This short story which is about a miner, is reminiscent of Moria! Tolkien talks about this story in his letters! So this story probably inspired Moria!"
And I feel that sort of misses the mark. Because old man Tolkien wasn't just inspired by earlier fantasy stories he had read, he was also inspired by his work as an english professor, by his friendships with C.S Lewis and other people, by events happening in the world around him, by his catholic faith... The list can be made long!
Lets say we were to do the same thing by a living author like Brandon Sanderson. Let us say we decide to create a book of short stories that we believed inspired Brandon Sanderson.
In his podcasts he mentions he has been influenced by Robert Jordan and Barbara Hambly. He also mentions he loves movies as well as video games. Well then we must include a short story by Tolkien because he has probably seen the Lord of the Rings-movies. And he has mentioned in a video he liked Halo, so naturally must we put in a short piece of Halo-fanfic and say "This is what inspired Brandon!"
You see my problem here?
The major problem I have with this is that what the editor has done is essentially taken a short story that Tolkien has talked about in a letter or someone else remembers Tolkien talking about it, and then pointed at some similarities between this book and The Lord of the Rings or The hobbit.
"This short story which is about a miner, is reminiscent of Moria! Tolkien talks about this story in his letters! So this story probably inspired Moria!"
And I feel that sort of misses the mark. Because old man Tolkien wasn't just inspired by earlier fantasy stories he had read, he was also inspired by his work as an english professor, by his friendships with C.S Lewis and other people, by events happening in the world around him, by his catholic faith... The list can be made long!
Lets say we were to do the same thing by a living author like Brandon Sanderson. Let us say we decide to create a book of short stories that we believed inspired Brandon Sanderson.
In his podcasts he mentions he has been influenced by Robert Jordan and Barbara Hambly. He also mentions he loves movies as well as video games. Well then we must include a short story by Tolkien because he has probably seen the Lord of the Rings-movies. And he has mentioned in a video he liked Halo, so naturally must we put in a short piece of Halo-fanfic and say "This is what inspired Brandon!"
You see my problem here?