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Message: <blockquote data-quote="William Ronald" data-source="post: 1299342" data-attributes="member: 426">Aaron, while I forget the name of the book, Lin Carter did a book on Tolkien and his writings a long time ago.  (I think it came  out in the late 1960s or early 1970s.)  In it, Carter mention that Tolkien enjoyed Robert E. Howard's Conan stories but that they were not the sort of stories for the world he was creating.  (Forgive me if this rambles a bit, it is very late where I am.)I think both authors have their respective strengths and weaknesses.  REH did have more than a few nubile slave girls, and I laughed when thinking what most of the women in my life would make of them.  On the other hand, REH was a master at pacing and creating a sense of peril in combat.  There is a nobility of spirit to Conan, but at times, it seems that knowledge is scorned in favor of strength.  I remember reading that Howard meant Conan to win just by brute force, not by ingenuity.  Perhaps one of Conan's least acknowledged traits is his loyalty to his friends.  (Although Robert E. Howard sadly never had a chance to read the Lord of the Rings, I think he would have liked it. I think the common threads of loyalty and courage run deep through the works of Tolkien and Howard. )Tolkien was better in creating a history for his world, and villains such as Saruman and Grishnakh have real world analogues.  Saruman was an appeaser who desired power for himself, perhaps showing how people can sometimes become corrupted in fighting an enemy.  (At the risk of invoking allegories and skirting the issue of politics, ask what historical figures are a bit like Saruman.) Grishnakh struck me as a rather greedy mercenary character, while Sauron himself seemed much like an impersonal force, much like industrialization or a philosophy of hate.  Indeed, Sauron can be seen as the embodiment of the desire to control and use everything for his ends.Gollum came across to me as a truly tormented character, at war with himself and never truly able to find peace.  I cannot recall a character by REH that brought me to revulsion and pity as much as Gollum.One theme that runs through the LOTR is that of the willingness to sacrifice all -- even when everything seems lost.  I would argue that the quiet heroism of Frodo and Sam going to Mordor, expecting to die to save a world that they love is at least as heroic as charging into battle.  Although he lives after the Ring is destroyed, Frodo finds he can never truly go home again -- adding a touch of realistic poignancy to the trilogy. The LOTR shows both the bold heroism of great warriors such as Aragorn and the quiet heroism of more ordinary men, or hobbits in this case.So, I think REH and Tolkien both contributed much to latter fantasy authors as well as role playing games.  I like both authors, and others besides -- there is room on my bookshelf both for Cimmerians, giants, hobbits, and Numenoreans.</blockquote>

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