Tales Before Tolkien: The Roots of Modern Fantasy

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'.

Once upon a time, the fantasy field wasn't covered with identikit tract housing trilogies as it is today. Its tales were unique, idiosyncratic, homely dwellings. In the wake of Tolkien's rise to popularity in the 1960s, various enterprising editors, like local historians, have put together reprint collections of fantasy as-it-was."Tales Before Tolkien" has the special value for the Tolkien reader of putting the stories in a Tolkienian context. Some of them are stories he read himself; some handle themes he was later to make his own; some just illustrate the breadth of the field he worked in. All this is explained in succinct headnotes.Anderson derives the high-fantasy tradition from Germanic kunstmaerchen (literary fairy-tales): Tieck, MacDonald, Buchan, Stevens, and Merritt are in that tradition: each portrays the longing for Faerie, often in ways strikingly reminiscent of Tolkien. Stockton and Nesbit have humorous tales of Faerie coming to us (as Tolkien did in his poem "The Dragon's Visit"); Knatchbull-Hugessen, Lindsay, and Wyke-Smith give original but traditional-style children's fairy tales; Lang and the two Morrises explore the cold northern realms in stark somber tales; Haggard, Housman and Baum take the epic fantasy principles to further-off lands; Hodgson and Machen apply the mysteires of fantasy to modern times (as does Buchan), as in Tolkien's "Sauron Defeated"; Wright tells a purely historical story of his imaginary realm of Islandia, as Tolkien wrote of Numenor; Cabell, Garnett, and Dunsany are snide and satirical about quests and religion - very unlike Tolkien, but he's known to have read and appreciated Dunsany's story.As Tolkien is to today's fantasists - the giant in whose footsteps they tread - the writers in this book are to Tolkien: the ones who inspired and showed him the way. The formal prose, the elaborate frame stories, the treatment as wondrous of what modern fantasy readers may take for granted, the condensed quality of short fiction telling epic tales, may take a modern reader by surprise. But I urge you to read these stories with care and sympathy. These authors, more than many of Tolkien's followers, are saying the same things he is. To appreciate them is to understand what Tolkien wanted you to get out of his books.

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 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

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