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Drow as in Cow or Drow as in Snow: Where did the Dark Elves Come From?
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<blockquote data-quote="Mannahnin" data-source="post: 9539929" data-attributes="member: 7026594"><p>Classically the Tolkien-minimalization started with Gary, and because his most famous public statements (an editorial in Dragon issue 95, and I believe at least one earlier) minimizing the influence of Tolkien came out after the Saul Zaentz's Tolkien Enterprises (the licensee for Tolkien products) threatened TSR with a lawsuit over their completely unauthorized <em>Battle of the Five Armies</em> wargame and the <a href="https://odd74.proboards.com/thread/5852/tolkien-references" target="_blank">references </a>to Hobbits, Ents, Balrogs and Nazgul in the original/first few printings of OD&D, his degree of sincerity has always been a bit in doubt.</p><p></p><p>Although Victor Raymond (at a time when <a href="https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/11/dungeons-hobbits.html" target="_blank">James Maliszewski was writing about it</a>) <a href="https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/01/gygax-on-tolkien-again.html" target="_blank">dug up a writing from Gary from 1974</a>, prior to the lawsuit, where he similarly minimizes the Tolkien influence on D&D and Chainmail, of course we've more recently learned that Gary <a href="https://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-precursor-to-chainmail-fantasy.html" target="_blank">lifted quite a bit of Chainmail's fantasy elements from a Middle Earth wargame</a>! </p><p></p><p>But either way, a lot of folks took Gary at his word, and he was consistent both in the 70s and into the 2000s on the forums that he quite liked <em>The Hobbit</em> but wasn't a big fan of LotR, and that his own personal faves were topped by Howard, Vance, and Leiber.</p><p></p><p>I agree with you that the set of races and classes (all but the Cleric and Paladin) and quite a few of the monsters in D&D obviously draw heavily on Tolkien, as is the general concept of the adventuring party made up of various races and classes of adventurer.</p><p></p><p>[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.blackgate.com/2013/10/22/inspiration-and-emulation-tolkien-and-gygax/[/URL]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mannahnin, post: 9539929, member: 7026594"] Classically the Tolkien-minimalization started with Gary, and because his most famous public statements (an editorial in Dragon issue 95, and I believe at least one earlier) minimizing the influence of Tolkien came out after the Saul Zaentz's Tolkien Enterprises (the licensee for Tolkien products) threatened TSR with a lawsuit over their completely unauthorized [I]Battle of the Five Armies[/I] wargame and the [URL='https://odd74.proboards.com/thread/5852/tolkien-references']references [/URL]to Hobbits, Ents, Balrogs and Nazgul in the original/first few printings of OD&D, his degree of sincerity has always been a bit in doubt. Although Victor Raymond (at a time when [URL='https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/11/dungeons-hobbits.html']James Maliszewski was writing about it[/URL]) [URL='https://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/01/gygax-on-tolkien-again.html']dug up a writing from Gary from 1974[/URL], prior to the lawsuit, where he similarly minimizes the Tolkien influence on D&D and Chainmail, of course we've more recently learned that Gary [URL='https://playingattheworld.blogspot.com/2016/01/a-precursor-to-chainmail-fantasy.html']lifted quite a bit of Chainmail's fantasy elements from a Middle Earth wargame[/URL]! But either way, a lot of folks took Gary at his word, and he was consistent both in the 70s and into the 2000s on the forums that he quite liked [I]The Hobbit[/I] but wasn't a big fan of LotR, and that his own personal faves were topped by Howard, Vance, and Leiber. I agree with you that the set of races and classes (all but the Cleric and Paladin) and quite a few of the monsters in D&D obviously draw heavily on Tolkien, as is the general concept of the adventuring party made up of various races and classes of adventurer. [URL unfurl="true"]https://www.blackgate.com/2013/10/22/inspiration-and-emulation-tolkien-and-gygax/[/URL] [/QUOTE]
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