el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
It is spelled "Tolkien" but true fans know it is pronounced Throatwarbler Mangrove.
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TSR Appendix N Discussion
- Thread starter Ralif Redhammer
- Start date
el-remmen
Moderator Emeritus
It only took me getting as far as the loup garou encounter to decide that Three Hearts and Three Lions is the D&Diest book that is not a D&D book and is more "D&D" than some books set in D&D worlds!
(also Bronson Pinchot is an amazing voice actor, who knew?)
Parmandur
Book-Friend
You can really tell that the Lake Geneva crowd loved that little book.It only took me getting as far as the loup garou encounter to decide that Three Hearts and Three Lions is the D&Diest book that is not a D&D book and is more "D&D" than some books set in D&D worlds!
(also Bronson Pinchot is an amazing voice actor, who knew?)
teitan
Legend
3 Hearts & 3 Lions is basically a how to manual for D&D! If someone brings up alignment? 3H&3L. Monsters? 3H&3L. Tolkien Elves? Nope, 3H&3L. Dwarves? Nope, 3H&3L. It's about 70% of D&D with the 20% coming from Moorcock, Lieber, Lovecraft & Vance and Tolkien being a 5% maybe? Some monsters and Halflings. The other 5% is the rest of appendix N.
Hriston
Dungeon Master of Middle-earth (He/him)
You forgot to mention regenerating trolls (3H&3L) and the ranger class (LotR).
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Tolkien was a bit more than that, particularly from the Hobbit. I was particularly struck listening to the Andy Serkis reading of the Hobbi last year just how much of early D&D is clearly derived from little details in the Hobbit. The one that sticks out the most was the use of the word "Dungeon."
I take Gygax's latter day denials of Tolkien's influence on him with a Boulder of salt, since his his relationship to the truth was creative and subject to pettiness at times and that lawsuit hurt his feelings, it seems.
Sacrosanct
Legend
In all fairness, 3H&3L came out decades after Tolkien (Toll-Keen 
) so it is entirely plausible elves and dwarves in that book were inspired by Tolkien.
) so it is entirely plausible elves and dwarves in that book were inspired by Tolkien.
Wasn't 3H&3L 1953* and Fellowship 1954.In all fairness, 3H&3L came out decades after Tolkien (Toll-Keen
So Hobbit (1937) certainly could have**, but the rest wouldn't have, right?
Edits:
* Ok, the novel was 1961, but the novella it was expanded from was 1953 ***
** I found something saying Anderson said he was inspired by Tolkien but it doesn't turn up which book right away, and another of someone else saying Tolkien inspired 3H&3L.
*** This edit was Ninja'd by Snarf.
Snarf Zagyg
Notorious Liquefactionist
In all fairness, 3H&3L came out decades after Tolkien (Toll-Keen
Probably not.
Three Hearts and Three Lions was first published in novella form in 1953, prior to the publication of Lord of the Rings.
Now, you might think that maybe Anderson got it from The Hobbit ... but while it was published in 1937, and it was a decent success, it was marketed as a children's book and wasn't the smash success we think of today. It wasn't until after LOTR and, especially, the 60s that the cult of Tolkien really started.
So... maybe, but probably not. Unless someone knows more about Anderson's reading habits in the early 50s.
ETA- ninja'd by Cadence.
Parmandur
Book-Friend
Poul Anderson was a giant Tolkien fan. IIRC, he wrote gushing fan mail to Tolkien in the 40's because he loved the Hobbit so much. The Hobvit was marketed to children (like young E. GAary Gygax), but Poul Anderson wasn't the kind to let himself be boxed in by publisher convention.
Later on, Anderson actually broke off relation with his publisher, Ace, because he was apoplectic about how they treated Tolkien.
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