Customer Reviews

Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy

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Tales Before Tolkien is an anthology of fairy tales and other fantasy stories published prior to Tolkien's works. Some of these authors are known to have influenced Tolkien, but all wrote on themes which Tolkien would probably have admired. All the authors were chosen to be at least five years older than Tolkien.

"The Elves" by Ludwig Tieck is a "literary fairy tale" in the German tradition and illustrates the dangers of visiting with fairies. "The Golden Key" by George MacDonald is a mystical tale of a boy and a girl who embark on a lifelong quest. "Puss-Cat Mew" by E. H. Knatchbull-Hugessen is a story of a young man and a cat against evil ogres and dwarves. "The Griffin and the Minor Canon" by Frank R. Stockton is a yarn about the friendship between a clergy man and a monster. "The Demon Pope" by Richard Garnett is a tongue in cheek story of Satan and the Sacred College.

"The Story of Sigurd" retold by Andrew Lang is an abbreviated version of the Nibelungenlied. "The Folk of the Mountain Door" by William Morris is a mystical tale of a god and goddess attending a naming rite in a Norse-like kingdom. "Black Heart and White Heart" by H. Rider Haggard is a story of an English gentleman who tries to steal the lover of a Zulu warrior. "The Dragon Tamers" by E. Nesbit describes the trials of a poor dragon who is always outwitted by one family. "The Far Islands" by John Buchan tells of a boy whose family is obsessed by the Western Isle. "The Drawn Arrow" by Clemence Housman is a story of the gratitude of kings. "The Enchanted Buffalo" by L. Frank Baum is a yarn about treachery and revenge in the Royal Tribe of buffalo. "Chu-bu and Sheemish" by Lord Dunsany is a fable about jealous gods. "The Baumhoff Explosive" by William Hope Hodgson is a cautionary tale about becoming too much like Christ.

"The Regent of the North" by Kenneth Morris is a tale about a Viking who will not forswear his religion for Christianity. "The Coming of the Terror" by Arthur Machen is a suspense story about frightening events in England during World War I. "The Elf Trap" by Francis Stevens relates the strange experiences of a Professor of Biology who meets a beautiful young lady in the back woods. "The Thin Queen of Elfhame" by James Branch Cabell is the story of a man who unintentionally finds true love. "The Woman of the Wood" by A. Merritt discloses the murderous actions of a man who loved a coppice. "Golithos the Ogre" by E. A. Wyke-Smith tells of the vegetarian ogre who has two plump children as house guests. "The Story of Alwina" by Austin Tappan Wright is an excerpt about the history of Queen Alwina of Islandia. "A Christmas Play" by David Lindsay recounts the efforts of the fairy Emerald to find husbands for three sisters when there are only two princes available.

These stories are representative of the fantastic short stories written prior to Tolkien. While several are fairy tales, others come from a wide variety of cultural myths. Many of the authors are well known today, but others are known only to the students of literature. In any case, these stories are worth reading just for the pleasure of it and, if such reading gives us any insight into Tolkien's works, so much the better.

Since these stories span a broad spectrum of treatments, I liked several more the others; some I didn't much like on first reading. Since each presents its own emphasis and mood, however, I suspect that my list would differ upon subsequent readings in other circumstances. Moreover, other readers will probably find themselves liking stories that I didn't much enjoy.

Highly recommended to Tolkien fans and anyone else who enjoys short works of fantasy.

This collection of tales has a couple of real gems ("The Elves" and "The Dragon Tamers") for people looking for sources of Tolkien's ideas, and a number of ones we've all read before ("The Story of Sigurd"). As a whole, I think the collection is a bit misleading because Anderson admits in his introduction that some of the tales don't really have any connection to Tolkien at all, they are just included to show you what was being written in the field of fantasy around the turn of the century. I would rather he excluded those and just concentrated on the ones that Tolkien either said he had read or that he very likely did read. That gripe aside, the book is very well designed and presented. I liked the brief "sidebar" that opens each tale, but would have preferred a bit more depth there.

Tales Before Tolkien is a nice collection of fantasy tales dating from the period just before Tolkien's birth to just before he began publishing his own works. Some of the stories, like Puss-cat Mew, Tolkien actually acknowledged having read and enjoyed as a youth. Others are not actually mentioned by Tolkien but possibly had an influence on him, while still others were probably not read by him but are indicative of the state of fantasy at the time he was active. None of these stories really measure up to Tolkien's standards (but then, what does?) but many are quite interesting and enjoyable to read. Each story has a brief sidebar giving some details about the author, and there is more information in a suggested reading section at the back. This is a very nice look at the state of fantasy writing just before Tolkien broke new ground.

Tales Before Tolkien collects popular fantasy fiction shorts that preceded Tolkien. The book's title implies that Tolkien may have incorporated borrowed elements in his work. That's hardly news. What drew me was the variety of stories and their undemanding lengths. A perfect bedside addition and great inducer of sleep. This book is also my introduction to the lyrical writings of George MacDonald and Frank Stockton; the author of 'The Golden Key' and 'The Griffin and Minor Canon'. 'The Golden Key' is one of the most atmospheric fantasy piece I've come across. I was also happy to discover an little known piece by Lord Dunsany, one of my favorite authors, titled 'Chubu'.

This book shows what was current and modern fantasy tales prior to Tolkien's writing. It shows how prior authors had described elves and dwarves before they became codified in Tolkien's work. The stories show the type of storytelling that was popular in the late 19th and early 20th century. The stories range from Europe to America and place people from various lands into very unusual circumstances.

The reason I only give this book four stars is that while some of the stories are entertaining, they lack the same kind of environment as Middle Earth provides and some even try to overlay modern (at the time) times into the stories. I think this takes away from their effect. Another reason that I give it only four stars is that a lot of the stories were admitted to have never been seen by Tolkien prior to his work, so it is doubtful that they had much effect.

I would still recommend this book to someone who is interested in literary history and how tales have changed in the last 100+ years. Also it does give a good comparison of the type of stories that Tolkien was up against in order to succeed. This is still a book that I will come back to on occasion just for a different type of story.

This book is more focused on what Tolkien might have been reading at the time and "might" have sparked the imagination for his stories on than anything else. He once said that he wanted to create a kind of modern mythology for his time. So this collection is a nice primer if you want to know about earlier stories we don't hear too much about today. Researching and finding all these in the library would be tedious. And it's nice if you are a writer or a fan who wants to know where many of our modern stories came from.

If you are strictly a Lord of the Rings fan, though and want to know specifically where Tolkien pulled much of his inspiration from, including the ring myth, I would highly recommend "Tolkien's Ring" by David Day and Allan Lee. It is packed full of the ancient mythology, names, etc. he most likely used.

JRR Tolkien is considered by many to be the father of modern fantasy though he often referred to the classic Beowulf. This collection looks at twenty-two stories that may have influenced him in his creation of hose adorable Hobbits. The selections were based on the premises that the tales were published before any Middle Earth story and that the author was born at least five years before Mr. Tolkien. Several were written in the nineteenth century, but were chosen because Mr. Tolkien makes reference to them in his letters or commentaries.

Although not for everyone as the contributions in many cases feel a bit dated, this anthology is a fun collection. Notables are included such as Frank Stockton, Lewis Carroll, H. Rider Haggard, and L. Frank Baum, etc. Besides those curious of the genre's heritage, generalists will appreciate the tales as for the most part they are well written and worth the look back though where is the most influential, Beowulf?

Harriet Klausner

JRR Tolkien is considered by many to be the father of modern fantasy though he often referred to the classic Beowulf. This collection looks at twenty-two stories that may have influenced him in his creation of hose adorable Hobbits. The selections were based on the premises that the tales were published before any Middle Earth story and that the author was born at least five years before Mr. Tolkien. Several were written in the nineteenth century, but were chosen because Mr. Tolkien makes reference to them in his letters or commentaries.

Although not for everyone as the contributions in many cases feel a bit dated, this anthology is a fun collection. Notables are included such as Frank Stockton, Lewis Carroll, H. Rider Haggard, and L. Frank Baum, etc. Besides those curious of the genre's heritage, generalists will appreciate the tales as for the most part they are well written and worth the look back though where is the most influential, Beowulf?

Harriet Klausner