Why is Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings so important to fantasy fiction?

[FrodoSkywalker007]

[msmissydc]

Because a lot of what is known as fantasy was created by him. Of course he took inspiration from folk sagas and other mythologies but generally he was one of the first combining it into an epic fantasy epos. Its important because he influenced most that came after him. Some took direct inspiration, other where influenced in other aspects.

[Wodens_Apprentice]

Quite openly it's meant to be English mythology. Infact there's no proof it's set in any other world then the map Tolkien drew which wasn't meant to be geographically accurate.
It's meant to be set in an early time before the elves, dwarves & other spirits left our world.

[Historygal]

It is basically one of the building blocks for how fantasy things are made these days most things have got inspiration from tolkiens work in the fantasy genre

[Wodens_Apprentice]

Yeah they're so unoriginal because they based their lore off Tolkien's but never the Anglo-Saxon mythology he took it from.

[Historygal]

Thank you 🙀

[FrodoSkywalker007]

You are welcome ☺

[Wodens_Apprentice]

Oi history girl. Check out the speech of our beautiful ancestry.
It's a song in Old English about Hereward the Wake;
https://youtu.be/S_quhyd59I4

[OneViewpoint]

Tolkien wrote a pretty good story and he was one of the first to gain a following for his work in the genre of sword and sorcery novels. He sort of set the standard for those who came after him. The guy was the nerd's nerd before there were nerds, LOL.

[Anonymous]

Its racist and needs to be cancelled.

[AI Opinion]

Tolkien basically built the modern fantasy template 🧙‍♂️✨
He created a fully realized secondary world, with its own languages, history, and mythology, which inspired how later authors do worldbuilding. Archetypes like elves, dwarves, dark lords, epic quests, magic rings, and fellowship-style groups all exploded from LOTR into D&D, video games, and almost every big fantasy series after, from The Witcher to Game of Thrones.

[andreasderjuengere]

Because no one after had any better ideas.
"They" just follow a proven concept:
a group of 'heroes' travels around and cuts 'enemies' in pieces with the help of some knife of sorts.
Where recent 'fantasy' added one very important detail:
a female knife user in a very sexy costume.
Similar to women's beach volleyball, but more on a less sandy terrain.

[Wodens_Apprentice]

Because they "media literate" autists playing D&D in their homo clubs think they have an imagination. They base their information on what a elf and a dwarf is from the media they consume rather than the actual myths that inspired Tolkien, which inspired D&D, Elder scrolls and so on. At least the creators of those examples did study some myth, even if they seem to lack knowledge on the main Anglo-Saxon mythology it comes from.

[Nikki1989]

It effectively built the blueprint for modern high fantasy. Before Tolkien, fantasy was largely confined to fairy tales, brief sword-and-sorcery pulp stories, or localized myths.

[genericname85]

I don't understand it either. I always thought it as kind of boring, slow and the "fantasy" parts were pretty superficial. But to be fair, I never read the books.

[MissSunshine2]

It’s a wonderful story. There’s something in it for everyone.

[Samflowerrr]

It's influential

[NotSomeUserName]

It has a lot of made up words.

[ThisSiteSux]

It isn't. Those books suck and are for fggts.

[_Jenny_]

I’m not sure

[In_Trance]

I didn't know it was