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Lord Rad
Great Reader
United Kingdom
2080 Posts |
 Posted - 23 Dec 2002 : 23:48:53
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Ive never read The Lord of the Rings but am a great fan of the movies! However, knowing more about the Forgotten Realms, I can see a lot of LotR has been used in building the Realms. this has slightly disheartened me, as while FR\D&D wouldnt be around if it werent for LotR, I didnt think that so much had been borrowed... The Elven Retreat and Turlang(FR)\Treebeard(LotR) to name but two obvious points.
Any views?
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Lord Rad
"What? No, I wasn't reading your module. I was just looking at the pictures"
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Rellen Amostirren
Acolyte
United Kingdom
26 Posts |
Posted - 24 Dec 2002 : 00:06:41
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Ahh Rad,
Tolkien himself borrowed heavily from folk tales all over the world, but I get what you are saying. The striking resemblance between halflings & hobbits, short elves versus the tall elves of the LotR, nasty demons etc, etc.
Just goes to show ya really have to thank JRR Tolkien for coming up with his Middle Earth stories, otherwise I dont think D&D would be the same, if it even existed!! 
Another thing, would old JRR have made a good DM???
Hmmm to play in one of Ed Greenwoods games or one of Tolkiens!
Sigh
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"Stealing teeth and still leaving folks with a smile!!" |
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Feanor_Karnil
Learned Scribe
USA
132 Posts |
Posted - 24 Dec 2002 : 00:20:14
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| In the LoTR series the races they list are dwarves elves and men. Yes there are other races but not as many as the FR has, the FR has the basic races then breaks them down into subclasses of those races making it seem very complicated. |
We live in a bleak world my friend, where heroes are few and shadows stalk us around every corner.
-Mikai Daerni |
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Drummer Boy
Senior Scribe
USA
395 Posts |
Posted - 24 Dec 2002 : 03:20:43
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Well, this is something interesting I read about in a novel by R. A. Salvatore called The Woods Out Back (it wasn't in the FR). I read that in the LoTR JRR Tolkien wrote about trolls turning to stone in sunlight, but in the FR, this doesn't happen to trolls (I could be wrong, but I've never heard of that happening). Apparently trolls started this as a rumor by making statues of themselves and placing them in the wild. Just something to think about...
Also, I thought that the whole deal about the Crystal Shard seemed somewhat similar to the Ring in the LoTR. Both are powerful sentient artifacts of evil that a group of heroes attempts to destroy. Perhaps R. A. Salvatore used the LoTR as an idea for this. Who knows? |
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Feanor_Karnil
Learned Scribe
USA
132 Posts |
Posted - 24 Dec 2002 : 03:42:29
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| I've noticed that as well except Salvatore changes the weilder of the shard alot more than the ring and the shard's life span is alot longer as well and the fact that both were destroyed by fire and when destroyed they ended conflict. |
We live in a bleak world my friend, where heroes are few and shadows stalk us around every corner.
-Mikai Daerni |
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Salius Kai
Learned Scribe
USA
217 Posts |
Posted - 24 Dec 2002 : 17:07:47
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Ah, a subject i've long awaited. As far as the comparison of Halflings and Hobbits, when Pippin and Marry are being carried by Treebeard, one of them says, "Were not Orcs, were Hobbits! Halflings!". I don't know if that is in the book, but Tolkein must have borrowed the Halfling Idea and made a sub race, Hobbits.
As far as would D&D have existed, I say yes. As my good friend Feanor pointed out, Tolkein had the basic races that everyone else already had stories and fairy tales about. So D&D probably still would have existed, but it might have been a little different. |
"Welcome to these walls of infinite knowledge."
Salius Kai |
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Mumadar Ibn Huzal
Master of Realmslore
1338 Posts |
Posted - 24 Dec 2002 : 18:10:36
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quote:
Originally posted by Rad
Ive never read The Lord of the Rings but am a great fan of the movies! However, knowing more about the Forgotten Realms, I can see a lot of LotR has been used in building the Realms. this has slightly disheartened me, as while FR\D&D wouldnt be around if it werent for LotR, I didnt think that so much had been borrowed... The Elven Retreat and Turlang(FR)\Treebeard(LotR) to name but two obvious points.
Any views?
Rad, you have some catching up to do on your books. Though I didn't start reading LotR and the Hobbit until I was more or less experienced in AD&D, it is still one of top (if ot the top) of the "must read" books on fantasy.
Greenwood, other FR designers and TSR have borrowed from Tolkien, as well as our own Real World history. In itself there's nothing wrong with that. Actually in Tolkien's case I would see this as a compliment and tribute to the man. As for RW history... some of it was copied a little to literally: the exploration of Maztica (sp?) and the Horde are but examples.
Since the Realms have been out there for quite a while now, they have started to become somewhat of their own category, inviting copying and inspiring others to create something similar. It's hard to say if there might not have been a FR without Tolkien, there probably would have been a FR world, but most likely different from the one we know so well today. |
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Captain Louis
Acolyte
USA
26 Posts |
Posted - 25 Dec 2002 : 07:34:52
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| Naw, there would probally never have been the Forgotten Realms or DnD in general without LotR. Lord of the Rings is what inspired Gary Gyrax to create DnD in the first place, after quitting his job (I think he was a insurance salesman). Without him, there would be no DnD, and therefore no Forgotten Realms. As for the Halfling/Hobbit thing, Hobbits are not a type of Halfling, a Halfling is what humans, elves, and other races call Hobbits. |
Ow, I cut my lip!
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Drummer Boy
Senior Scribe
USA
395 Posts |
Posted - 26 Dec 2002 : 01:53:15
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| Well, I went to see the Two Towers today in a movie theater and noticed that when Gandalf is fighting the wierd fiery demon thing (sorry, I don't know what it's called) it seems quite similar to when Bruenor Battlehammer rides the dragon Shimmergloom down Garumn's Gorge in FR. They both sacrifice their lives to fight something and save their friends, they both fall down a chasm, and in both cases you think they're dead but somehow they survive or come back to life. Perhaps R. A. Salvatore got an idea for this event from the LotR. |
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Forgotten Realms - Lord of the Rings comparison
