Reblog: iamcharlesbakerharris, Tolkien

Of Crowns and Kings and Elves and Things: Buckle up, lads . . . it’s time to talk about Tolkien!!! What brought on this PARTICULAR bout of Tolkien musing, you might ask?  Well, it’s pretty simple.  People be out here tellin’ me you need to read Tolkien if you want to write good fantasy.

And I, er, am not on board with that?

Imma just say that, as a Tolkien lover, I agree with everything this lovely lady has to say. Tolkien, while amazing (I LOVE extensive worldbuilding), has cast a huge shadow over Fantasy, to the extent that most of it seems to be a messy regurgitation of his imagination. Elves used to be creepy midgets before he came along, y’all. Just...something to keep in mind.

Regal elves are well and good, but they’re not the only kind of elf around. Take the LotR predecessors in the Silmarillion. *snicker* (I will link to a two-panel comic illustrating this as soon as I am able.)

I would also like to say that this post gave me a few random components that may or may not become a story:

-A medieval village/hamlette/fief/whatev.

-A mountain, and a shadow you can never leave (well, you can but it’s frowned upon to the extent that guards will attempt to slay you if you try)

-A heck of a lot of rule-breaking outside of said shadow

Crud. Looking at it written out makes me realize that I could totally fit this into a partially-formulated story featuring a spoiled rich-kid who wants to be an adventurer (and actually has the skills to do that), a jaded bard, and a swordsman who would just as gladly feed an orphan as behead a king. Or maybe it was a bard who would behead a king, and a jaded swordsman...

I’ll have to check my notes, but I think one of them is a Scot/Scot equivalent (I’m pretty sure it’s the sword guy).

Anyways. Read the article.