ot-my mini review of Children of Hurin

Nathan Spears · 16 Apr 2007, 21:30 · from 2007-April.txt.gz

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From: spearofsolomon at yahoo.com (Nathan Spears)
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 14:30:41 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) ot-my mini review of Children of Hurin
Message-ID: <603890.47880.qm at web54404.mail.yahoo.com>

> It strikes me as very weird to define the book after what it tries to be 
rather than what it is. The fact is that when you look at what kind of 
story it is, it is indistinguishable from much modern fantasy. It's a 
secondary world story with magical or fantastical elements that draws 
its estetical inspiration from myth and epics, like most modern epic 
fantasy of quality. The fact that there are some hideously unoriginal 
role playing stories doesn't change this fact.

I think the distinction is a matter of foundation - the bedrock for Tolkien's creation was the ancient Finnish myth, Arthur, etc.  The bedrock for much of what is being referred to as "the modern fantasy genre," especially "high fantasy," is Tolkien.  Even those writers who don't claim him as a primary influence would not have had the same atmosphere in which to peddle their trade without Tolkien having changed the publishing landscape.  The use of the phrase "modern epic fantasy of quality" is also dubious.

> Tolkien did not invent this tradition. Before him there were writers 
like William Morris, Lord Dunsany and E. R. Eddison who did similar 
things and just because the tradition hadn't spawned widely marketable 
genre until after Tolkien doesn't make his stuff much different from 
what came later.

Legions of Tolkien fans cry foul!  Tolkien spent decades working on the source material which LotR sprang from, and he was much more intimately acquainted with the aforementioned myths and epics than many of his followers.  On the whole I think that this resulting in a work which approaches the quality and power of his sources better than most (all) subsequent work in the "modern fantasy genre."  So the difference is not necessarily in the individual elements of quests, elves, wizards, strange creatures, but in the overall quality of the work which requires acknowledgment as a thing apart.

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