10 Ways The Lord Of The Rings Changed The Fantasy Genre

10 Ways The Lord Of The Rings Changed The Fantasy Genre

The world of fantasy as we know it today owes a lot to The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien’s magnum opus that continues to influence people today.

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As the first major work of fantasy in modern English literature, The Lord of the Rings broke every possible ground imaginable, but also helped lay the foundations for the genre in the space it had carved out for itself. The novel hexology is one of the most cited works of art in any category, be it novels, film, TV, plays, you name it!

Tolkien based his world on his own (extremely) British surroundings, in the greenness of pasture, the ancient gnarled forests, and a plethora linguistic twists and puns. An era-defining work such as this has obviously set several norms and expectations for future attempts fantasy, the most important of which are described in the following list.

10 It Diverged From Fairy Tales

Instead of going along with the classic European fairy tale pattern which were basically simplistic stories with little to no internal conflict in their worlds and characters, Lord of the Rings hammers out its own path.

Its characters are not necessarily good nor evil, but a sophisticated blend between the two: take Gollum, for instance, who looks, sounds and acts like a total villain, but is responsible for the destruction of Sauron at the very end (while the actual protagonist temporarily assumes the mantle of evil.) The Hobbit, on the other hand, is fiction for children so in this context, its successor feels like a maturity upgrade.

9 It Incorporated A Complex History

The narrative was not merely limited to the era in which it occurs (i.e. the culmination of the Third Age), because the entirety of its history has been described in great detail.

The Silmarillion explains the creation of Arda and its initial strife against Morgoth, Unfinished Tales discusses a few stray, but crucial, backstories of major characters, and The History of Middle-earth twelve-book series that covers pretty much everything else. There are Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Hobbits, Dragons, Angels, and even nasty little Orcs that give the world a realistic feel.

8 It Inspired Rock Lyrics

The fantasy atmosphere generated by the music of several seminal rock bands of the ’60s and ’70s was sourced largely from Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.

The most influential of these was Led Zeppelin, which incorporated Middle-earth elements into their song lyrics, either directly (“Ramble On” mentions Gollum by name) or ambiguously (“The Battle of Evermore” references queens of light, dark lords, and magic runes). Several other bands followed suit, including Rush, Black Sabbath, Dimmu Borgir, and Blind Guardian.

7 It Contained Maps

Before Lord of the Rings, fantasy worlds rarely contained locations so comprehensive that maps were essential important parts of the story. Tolkien, however, created the cartography for Middle-earth himself, claiming that it assisted him during the writing process.

He further stated that maps were essential not only for the writer but also to help direct the audience as well as create a “picturesque” vision that would allow for the suspension of disbelief. These days, it is nearly impossible to come across a work of high fantasy that doesn’t come with detailed in-universe maps included.

6 It Furthered The Worldbuilding Trend

Continuing from earlier, maps also help in the act of worldbuilding, as they are useful in terms of visualizing how the fictional universe might look like from a grander scale, allowing the creator a larger perspective.

This concept is now almost ubiquitous in the genre; the plots of series like Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and The Foundation are established through the depth and intricacy of their worlds. Few of them are able to come close to the original work in this regard, though.

5 It Included Fictional Languages

Tolkien loves inventing his own tongues for the people of Middle-earth to speak in: for example, in The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, all characters speak in Westron, also known as the “Common Speech,” with a few exceptions here and there.

There was also Elvish (and the variety of linguistic dialects thereof), the runic vocabulary of the Dwarves, the Black Speech of Mordor, among many others. More importantly, Tolkien also devised scripts for his languages, the most prevalent of which is known as the Tengwar writing system.

4 It Revamped The Mythological Quest

The first known quest is Mesopotamian in origin, which means the idea has existed since the dawn of civilization. Most of them usually revolve around gods, demons and the like, such as Labors of Hercules or the epic Hindu poem Mahabharata.

This ancient plot device found little use in popular culture until the arrival of Tolkien and his heavily Christian-themed storylines. Both Bilbo and Frodo’s adventures follow the classic quest design: a task is given, a journey is undertaken, a goal is accomplished and also there are bizarre entities who put up roadblocks along the way.

3 It Was (Inadvertently) Responsible For Creating Dungeons & Dragons

The world of tabletop RPGs owes its existence to Lord of the Rings — Dungeons & Dragons directly refers to Middle-earth races such as orcs, halflings, dwarves, dragons, elves, and so on. However, it seems that the lead game designer, Gary Gygax, insisted that these allusions played a marketing role. Basically, his games banked on the fame of Tolkien’s work rather than having the promotional material bank any actual bearing on the game’s origins.

Nevertheless, there is no modern fantasy RPG without D&D; its legacy is vast and far-reaching, which further cements Lord of the Rings as the real game changer.

2 It Influenced The Greatest Genre Writers

Some of the finest fantasy authors of the 20th century have obtained inspiration from the stories of Middle-earth, including J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (which is better known today as Game of Thrones), and Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea, to name a few. Earthsea, of course, became the basis for the Studio Ghibli movie Tales from Earthsea (above).

Infamously and on the flip side of the aforementioned beloved examples, Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle is practically a historical copy of Lord of the Rings. His works contain many familiar character elements and identical naming conventions, to the point that it almost seems like blatant plagiarizing.

1 It’s An Epic

The Lord of the Rings’ fantasy narrative was constructed on a massive scale, and located wholly within what Tolkien considered a “secondary world” in contrast to real-life (or the “primary world”). This aspect classifies the narrative as an epic, which denotes those works that observe their inner worlds from an overarching viewpoint rather than a specific plot subset.

Much like the Iliad or the Ramayana, Tolkien’s Legendarium is pure high fantasy, with a mixture of different characters, complex cultures, and the eternal battle between good and evil.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/lord-of-the-rings-ways-changed-fantasy-genre/

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