Tolkien's modern sources

• 1. Childhood Adventure Influences

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  J. R. R. Tolkien stated that he preferred the lighter contemporary novels of his youth, specifically citing John Buchan as a favorite author during his formative years. In 1966, when interviewed about his literary tastes, the only book Tolkien named as a personal favorite was H. Rider Haggard's 1887 adventure novel She: A History of Adventure. He described how this story interested him as a boy just as much as any other influence, comparing it to the Greek shard of Amyntas which acted as a machine to set everything in motion. Scholars have noted direct resonances between Tolkien's later works and the mythopoeic adventure romance found in Haggard's novels. One specific parallel exists between the monstrous Gollum and the evil ancient hag Gagool from Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines. Tolkien also wrote of being impressed by Samuel Rutherford Crockett's 1899 historical fantasy The Black Douglas while growing up. He explicitly used the fight with werewolves from that book for the battle against wargs in The Fellowship of the Ring. Jared Lobdell proposes that The Lord of the Rings functions as an adventure story written in the Edwardian mode, supported by multiple parallels to these early influences.

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• 2. Science Fiction Parallels

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  H. G. Wells's description of the subterranean Morlocks in his 1895 science fiction novel The Time Machine appears suggestive of the character Gollum. Tolkien read and made use of modern fantasy such as George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin during his development of Middle-earth. Edward Wyke-Smith's Marvellous Land of Snergs featured table-high title characters that influenced the incidents, themes, and depiction of hobbits in Tolkien's work. Books by Tolkien's fellow-Inkling Owen Barfield contributed significantly to his world-view of decline and fall, particularly through the text Poetic Diction published in 1928. Parallels between The Hobbit and Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth include a hidden runic message and a celestial alignment that direct adventurers to their goals. A specific instance involves the runic cryptogram found in Verne's 1864 novel which may have influenced Tolkien's Book of Mazarbul. Tolkien acknowledged MacDonald's 1858 fantasy Phantastes as a source in a letter dated the 26th of October 1958. He wrote that MacDonald's sentient trees had perhaps some remote influence on his tree-giant Ents.

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• 3. William Morris Legacy

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  A major influence was the Arts and Crafts polymath William Morris whose prose romances shaped Tolkien's stylistic choices. Tolkien wished to imitate the style and content of Morris's medievalising works such as the 1889 The House of the Wolfings. He made use of placenames like the Dead Marshes and Mirkwood directly from Morris's writings. Tolkien read Morris's 1870 translation of the Völsunga saga when he was a student, introducing him to Norse mythology. Marjorie Burns writes that Bilbo Baggins's character and adventures in The Hobbit match Morris's account of his travels in Iceland in the early 1870s in numerous details. Like Bilbo's party, Morris's group set off enjoyably into the wild on ponies. Morris met a boisterous Beorn-like man called Biorn the boaster who lived in a hall beside Eyja-fell. This figure told Morris tapping him on the belly that besides knowing you are so fat, just as Beorn pokes Bilbo most disrespectfully and compares him to a plump rabbit. Burns notes that Morris was relatively short, a little rotund, and affectionately called Topsy for his curly mop of hair. These characteristics make excellent models for the Bilbo who runs puffing to the Green Dragon inn or jogs along behind Gandalf and the dwarves.

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• 4. Modern Fantasy Debates

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  In the 20th century, Lord Dunsany wrote fantasy novels and short stories that Tolkien read without agreeing with Dunsany's irony or skepticism. Tolkien found Dunsany's creation of names inconsistent and unconvincing compared to his own linguistic formulae. He stated that Middle-earth names were coherent and consistent made upon two related linguistic formulae known as Quenya and Sindarin. The fantasy author E. R. Eddison was influenced by Dunsany and produced the famous work The Worm Ouroboros published in 1922. Tolkien had met Eddison and read The Worm Ouroboros while praising it in print. However he commented in a letter that he disliked Eddison's philosophy, cruelty, and choice of names. Tolkien also derived the phrase crack of doom from an unnamed story by Algernon Blackwood. Holly Ordway identifies this source as Blackwood's 1909 novel The Education of Uncle Paul where children describe a crack between Yesterday and To-morrow. This concept attracted Tolkien because of his interest in travelling back in time through such cracks. David Lindsay's 1920 science fiction novel A Voyage to Arcturus served as a central influence on C. S. Lewis's Space Trilogy and indirectly on Tolkien.

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• 5. English Literary Traditions

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  Charles Dickens' 1837 novel The Pickwick Papers has been shown to have reflections in Tolkien's writing style and character dynamics. Michael Martinez writes for The Tolkien Society finding similar dialogue styles and character qualities in both authors. He notes moments that elicit the same emotional resonance within their respective narratives. Examples include the likeness of the Fellowship of the Ring's group of nine to Pickwick's group of friends. Another parallel exists between Bilbo's speech at his birthday party and Pickwick's first speech to his group. Anna Vaninskaya argues that the form and themes of Tolkien's early writings fit into the romantic tradition of writers like W. B. Yeats. In terms of politics she compares Tolkien's mature writings with the romantic Little Englandism and anti-statism of 20th century writers like George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton. Postwar literary figures such as Anthony Burgess, Edwin Muir and Philip Toynbee heavily criticized The Lord of the Rings. Others like the novelists Naomi Mitchison and Iris Murdoch respected the work while the poet W. H. Auden championed it. Claire Buck suggests that if Tolkien intended to create a new mythology for England it would fit the tradition of English post-colonial literature.

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• 6. Postwar Critical Reception

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  The divided response from post-war literary figures shaped how The Lord of the Rings was initially received by critics. Edwin Muir dismissed the work as non-modernist while others like Iris Murdoch accepted its value. Thomas Kullmann and Dirk Siepmann state that the tradition Tolkien owes most to is nineteenth- and early twentieth-century novel-writing. Dale Nelson discusses 25 authors whose works are paralleled by elements in Tolkien's writings within the J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia. Holly Ordway lists over 200 books by 149 authors that Tolkien certainly interacted with through letters or interviews. He taught from them, heard the work discussed, owned copies, gave gifts, or was reliably reported to be familiar with their content. Later critics have placed Tolkien closer to the modernist tradition with his emphasis on language and temporality. His pastoral emphasis is shared with First World War poets and the Georgian movement. The scholar Anna Vaninskaya notes that Tolkien remained interested in Joseph Henry Shorthouse's strange long-forgotten 1881 novel John Inglesant. She suggests its moral conflict and competing loyalties reflect perhaps the key theme of The Lord of the Rings.

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