D&D 5E (2014) Which parts of D&D came from Tolkien?

[Hriston]

Rival tribes of Orcs and Hobgoblins attacking each other against orders.

 

[Parmandur]

Rival tribes of Orcs and Hobgoblins attacking each other against orders.

D&D Hobgoblins ended up being the Uruk-Hai to the Goblin Snaga.

 

[Hriston]

No one's mentioned Wights yet.

 

[Hriston]

Grey elves

 

[JacktheRabbit]

I am not sure anyone can really ever say with certainty.

Gary Gygax himself, on this forum no less stated he never read Hobbit or Lord of the Rings, that he hated the writing style and could not make it through the books.

He also said/implied that he pulled things out of various mythologies and adapted them and that is where many of his monsters came from in oD&D.

Is that believable? That Gary went read old Germanic folklore and just happened to create Treants that looked just like Ents and had a name that is 99% similar? Not sure anyone can say. Gygax said he didnt steal ideas. Im not sure anyone here has the proof to say otherwise.

My pure opinion is he borrowed lots of stuff because that is a heck of a lot less effort than thinking he created so much completely on his own, but I cannnot prove it one way or another.

 

[Remathilis]

So as a compiled list.

Halflings/Hobbits
Dwarves
Elves (esp the split between high/gray/sylvan elves)
Half-elves (sorta)
Half-orcs (sorta)
Goblins/Goblinoids
Orcs
Giant Spiders
Ents/Treants
Wights/Barrow Wights
Wraiths/Ringwraiths
Balrog/Balor
Ogres as Trolls (or perhaps the idea of Trolls as giant-kin)
Giant Eagles (as sentient/good)
Werebears (esp in alignment)
Mithril/Mithral
Magic Rings (esp the Ring of Invisibility)
Talking, cunning dragons
Rangers (esp the 1e version of it)
Cloaks/Boots of Elvenkind
Worgs (and Goblins riding them)
Ropes of Climbing

That is a goodly sum...

 

[Remathilis]

I am not sure anyone can really ever say with certainty.

Gary Gygax himself, on this forum no less stated he never read Hobbit or Lord of the Rings, that he hated the writing style and could not make it through the books.

He also said/implied that he pulled things out of various mythologies and adapted them and that is where many of his monsters came from in oD&D.

Is that believable? That Gary went read old Germanic folklore and just happened to create Treants that looked just like Ents and had a name that is 99% similar? Not sure anyone can say. Gygax said he didnt steal ideas. Im not sure anyone here has the proof to say otherwise.

My pure opinion is he borrowed lots of stuff because that is a heck of a lot less effort than thinking he created so much completely on his own, but I cannnot prove it one way or another.

Considering the Lawsuits early TSR got in with both the Tolkien Estate (which led the the changing of hobbits, ents, and balrogs names) and later Chaosium (for the Chuthulu/Elric Mythos in D&DG) I think its safe to say even if the wasn't a giant fan of those works, he knew his audience was.

 

[Lanefan]

Middle-Earth, in Bilbo-Frodo's time, is very much a points-of-light setting.

The very idea of the mixed-race mixed-class adventuring party (as opposed to a single character, or an army) on a series-of-adventures campaign, if not drawn directly from Tolkein, certainly could have been crystallized from him. The Hobbit is a tale of a single adventuring party who form and go on a series of adventures. LotR takes this further - the party slowly forms, does a few adventures, then effectively splits in three with each group doing their own adventure(s), then some of those split parts interweave and reform - I can imagine the early game designers looking at that and thinking "that's a fine end result to aim for in the game".

Lanefan

 

[JacktheRabbit]

Considering the Lawsuits early TSR got in with both the Tolkien Estate (which led the the changing of hobbits, ents, and balrogs names) and later Chaosium (for the Chuthulu/Elric Mythos in D&DG) I think its safe to say even if the wasn't a giant fan of those works, he knew his audience was.

True, I am just doing my best to quote what I remember him posting.

If we want to create a list of everything that has more than a passing resemblence to something from Tolkiens works then your talking dozens of monsters, world creation concept, etc that covers a huge swath of oD&D.

 

[Tony Vargas]

Fireball
Darkness
Light

Hold Portal
Knock
Fire Seeds
Pyrotechnics