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<blockquote data-quote="Jay Verkuilen" data-source="post: 7776583" data-attributes="member: 6873517"><p>I actually take Gygax at his word on this, insofar as he was talking about his own personal influences and inspiration. Instead, my feeling is that many of the clearly Tolkien-Influenced parts were "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_service" target="_blank">fan service</a>" and not things that inspired Gygax himself. He cites Poul Anderson's <em>Three Hearts and Three Lions</em>, Pratt and de Camp's <em>The Incomplete Enchanter</em>, Conan, Leiber's <em>Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser</em>, Michael Moorcock's <em>Elric</em>, and Jack Vance's <em>Dying Earth</em>, among other sources. Having read all of these, their influence is very clear. </p><p></p><p>I do not deny there are parallels. Hobbits/halflings I'll 100% grant and there are a number of other parallels, of course: Ents/treants, dwarves to a large but not total degree, and some other monsters. The 1E ranger is also a pretty clear port. </p><p></p><p>However, there's a A LOT of points of departure and signs of other influences, many of which are exactly the things he cited in what became Appendix N (originally a <em>Dragon</em> article?). Elves in D&D aren't really like Tolkien elves, though, and clearly draw on other sources. There's no "Thieves' Guild" in Tolkien, but there sure is one in Lankhmar. Dwarves have a strong resemblance to Hugi in <em>Three Hearts and Three Lions</em> and the D&D troll is a direct lift, bearing no resemblance to Tolkien trolls at all. The kind of crazy dungeoneering that existed in early D&D isn't really the sort of thing that fits in <em>Lord of the Rings</em>, but it appears in some of the sources, most notably in some of Leiber's stories and in a few Conan stories, though <em>The Hobbit</em> is a better fit. The kinds of episodic tales that made up various adventures were also not what is featured in the kind of epic fantasy that Tolkien epitomizes. However, they are a key aspect of the other sources. There's a lot of other things: Magic functions differently, there are clerics, the tone is way different for the most part especially for classic D&D, and so on. </p><p></p><p>All that said, it is undoubtedly the case that <em>D&D</em> took off in no small part because of Tolkien's popularity, but as I said, that's why I consider the Tolkeinisms to be more of the order of "fan service" than a direct inspiration.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jay Verkuilen, post: 7776583, member: 6873517"] I actually take Gygax at his word on this, insofar as he was talking about his own personal influences and inspiration. Instead, my feeling is that many of the clearly Tolkien-Influenced parts were "[URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_service"]fan service[/URL]" and not things that inspired Gygax himself. He cites Poul Anderson's [I]Three Hearts and Three Lions[/I], Pratt and de Camp's [I]The Incomplete Enchanter[/I], Conan, Leiber's [I]Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser[/I], Michael Moorcock's [I]Elric[/I], and Jack Vance's [I]Dying Earth[/I], among other sources. Having read all of these, their influence is very clear. I do not deny there are parallels. Hobbits/halflings I'll 100% grant and there are a number of other parallels, of course: Ents/treants, dwarves to a large but not total degree, and some other monsters. The 1E ranger is also a pretty clear port. However, there's a A LOT of points of departure and signs of other influences, many of which are exactly the things he cited in what became Appendix N (originally a [I]Dragon[/I] article?). Elves in D&D aren't really like Tolkien elves, though, and clearly draw on other sources. There's no "Thieves' Guild" in Tolkien, but there sure is one in Lankhmar. Dwarves have a strong resemblance to Hugi in [I]Three Hearts and Three Lions[/I] and the D&D troll is a direct lift, bearing no resemblance to Tolkien trolls at all. The kind of crazy dungeoneering that existed in early D&D isn't really the sort of thing that fits in [I]Lord of the Rings[/I], but it appears in some of the sources, most notably in some of Leiber's stories and in a few Conan stories, though [I]The Hobbit[/I] is a better fit. The kinds of episodic tales that made up various adventures were also not what is featured in the kind of epic fantasy that Tolkien epitomizes. However, they are a key aspect of the other sources. There's a lot of other things: Magic functions differently, there are clerics, the tone is way different for the most part especially for classic D&D, and so on. All that said, it is undoubtedly the case that [I]D&D[/I] took off in no small part because of Tolkien's popularity, but as I said, that's why I consider the Tolkeinisms to be more of the order of "fan service" than a direct inspiration. [/QUOTE]
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