Back when The Lord of the Rings started coming out in theaters, every fantasy nerd in my school started reading the books. I unfortunately couldnât get into them. I was too much of a Star Wars nerd and couldnât get into the thick, archaic writing of Tolkien. I felt especially bad since mom had bought me a set of the trilogy and I didnât touch it for years because â goddammit â I wanted to fall asleep while reading it.
But like a fine wine, Tolkien grew on me, and tasted far better when I was older and able to appreciate more things. I read The Hobbit and itâs probably the one book Iâve reread multiple times. Itâs just so readable.
I still havenât had the time to really focus on reading the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy, because there are other things on my backlog of books, but I did read through The Fellowship of the Ring and then found myself really loving The Children of HĂşrin, the latter being edited by Tolkienâs son Christopher.
I then realized that I really started to like this sort of thing - not just high fantasy but old high fantasy. Sure there are plenty of epic fantasy sagas now â they come out a dime a dozen. But Iâm talking about that special archaic glint that Tolkien had - where you feel as though you are reading actual mythology with its fanciful prose.Â
Tales Before Tolkien is actually the title of a compilation of old fantasy stories. When I bought the book, I was actually quite disappointed. With a few exceptions, these werenât tales that directly influenced Tolkien, nor did it feel Tolkienesque, so it was a bit misleading. It was just a hodgepodge of old fantasy stories.
So I went off searching and even bought some of these books from the following authors, and maybe if you too are a Tolkien fan who wants something Tolkienesque, some of these could suit your fancy. With one exception, these entries were written before Tolkien ever published anything, and most did indeed influence him.
William Morris
The British poet and writer probably created the very first high fantasy novel way back in 1896, which Tolkien and C.S. Lewis read when they were in college â The Well at the Worldâs End. The story involves Peter, King of Upmeads, and his four sons, Blaise, Hugh, Gregory, and Ralph. These four sons decide that they would like to explore the world, so their father gives them permission, except for Ralph, who is to remain at home to ensure at least one living heir. However, Ralph secretly departs, contrary to his fatherâs orders.There arenât exactly any fairies or even monsters; the story is pure medieval romance. Ralph goes from adventure to adventure saving a princess and fighting knights, even confronting an evil lord named, uh, Gandolf. Gee, that uh, sounds vaguely familiar.
Otherwise known by the fancy title â Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany. He is known to have had a great influence on Tolkien. He is seen as the progenitor to all things Tolkien. His notable works include:
The Sword of Welleran and Other Stories
Tales of Three Hemispheres
The King of Elflandâs Daughter
Most of these are a collection of short stories, some taking place in his fictional realm of PegÄna. Those stories read like The Silmarillion; chock-full of myth and epic tales.
His most notable work is The Worm Ouroboros â taken mostly from Norse mythology. The book takes place in a fantasy world similar to Earth. Some characters even call it âMiddle Earthâ, which is actually a term from Norse mythology. The book blends Norse storytelling with medieval warriors and Elizabethan drama.
                              (Artwork by the legendary Frank Frazetta)
Ah, this was the shit I grew up with instead of Tolkien â Conan the Barbarian. Kull, and Solomon Kane.
Robert E. Howard single-handedly crafted a genre that became known as âsword and sorceryâ. Itâs different from the high fantasy of Tolkien in that it focuses on the action, personal storylines, and sometimes the world building isnât always clearly defined. But Robert E. Howard has dark, brooding prose that keeps you hooked.
I figured Iâd include it anyway because imagine if Quentin Tarantino wrote The Lord of the Rings. You would get shit like Conan the Barbarian. Blood and guts and tits and asses. Hell yeah. Illustrations of thicc chicks. Hell yeah. BOOTY. Weâre talking DUMMY THICC
Okay Iâll stop now. Â Most of his work isnât really in novels â theyâre mostly short stories. His stories were recently collected in volumes published by Ballantine Books. The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian is the starting point for Conan stories. Kull: Exile of Atlantis was a lesser known prototype of Conan. Solomon Kane is more modern as itâs about a wandering badass Puritan battling fiends and demons, like a sort of Van Helsing.
You canât really mention Robert E. Howard without getting into H.P. Lovecraft. The two go hand-in-hand. While Robert E. Howard created pulpy fantasy stories, H.P. Lovecraft did something far more weirder thatâs difficult to put into a single genre. Itâs not exactly horror, although many of the characters fall into madness. The madness comes from the giant cosmic horror that is Cthulhu â a forgotten malevolent deity from space. Most of his stories deal with aliens from other dimensions â but these arenât typical little green men â these are abominations of nature with no discernible shape or description. Virtually every tale has that classic, archaic touch. The characters are often distinguished, intelligent men of discovery who otherwise lose their sanity when facing the unknown and bizarre. Thereâs a lot to read about ancient civilizations and lost expeditions.
Ah, this is another fond memory of childhood. While everyone read Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings during the height of their popularity, I read The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander â a series of five books. This is the one exception on the list of fantasy tales created before Tolkien.
These stories began with The Horned King, published in 1964. They have largely been forgotten except for The Black Cauldron, which became a Disney movie back in 1985 (unfortunately, itâs mediocre at best â though the animation is admirable). The series is actually geared towards children. I like to think of it though as a teenagerâs option to something like C.S. Lewisâs Chronicles of Narnia. Thereâs more explicit action and the adventures are darker and more dangerous. The series follows the young farmer Taran, who one day tries to find his lost pig which happens to have clairvoyant powers. The setting is the mythical land of Prydain, which is really meant to be mythical Britain. Prydain was actually one of the old names for the island of Britain, but the Romans Latinized it. Most of the older characters, such as Arawn Death Lord and Gwydion come from Welsh mythology. Fun fact: Lloyd Alexander coined the term âhigh fantasyâ.
Well, not just anything â Iâll be listing specifics. A couple years back I went psycho reading anything King Arthur. It mostly had to do with doing research for a fantasy novel that I want to write that involves King Arthur.
The history of the legend of King Arthur is shrouded in mystery and very fractured, more fractured than people realize. Thereâs a book that changed my entire perspective on the legend called Finding Arthur: The True Origins of the Once and Future King by Adam Ardrey, which I highly recommend if youâre really interested in the subject. Itâs a fascinating alternate theory based on linguists, saying that King Arthur was Scottish, not English.
In that book I learned about The Death of King Arthur, but NOT the Thomas Mallory version we all know and love. This was an epic poem written around 1400 A. D., also known as the âAlliterative Morte Arthureâ. If you like reading epic medieval poems like Beowulf, then the âAlliterative More Arthureâ is another epic poem just like that. Also, sidenote, John Steinbeck actually wrote his own version of King Arthur, titled The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights.
On a final note, letâs go back even further. I have an old tattered copy of T.W. Rollestonâs Celtic Myths and Legends. I pored through that book back in high school, wanting to learn more about the subject. This was my go-to handbook about everything Celtic. There was a time when I carried it with me everywhere I went. Itâs a FANTASTIC book. The first quarter goes through a short history of the Celts, their beliefs, and the archaeology. Then the rest of the book is a retelling of virtually all the myths and legends â from the Tuatha DĂŠ Danann to the giant-king Balor. Many of these myths are fictionalized in Lloyd Alexanderâs Chronicles of Prydain. Itâs a bit dated by now but still a great introduction.
