3 ms·

Now, obviously, Tolkien loved his characters and his stories and his world. But everyone always gets this wrong: > It’s the most awe-inspiring work of worldbu

Now, obviously, Tolkien loved his characters and his stories and his world. But everyone always gets this wrong: > It’s the most awe-inspiring work of worldbuilding ever done! He invented entire languages! People have spent the last 70 years making snippets of conlang to add flavor to their fantasy worlds in emulation of Tolkien, but for Tolkien the conlangs were the whole damn point! Tolkien was a language nerd first. Middle Earth exists primarily to add context to the evolution of his conlangs and to create subjects to write his conlang poetry about. He may have loved the story for itself, but his goal wasn't to create a coherent, fleshed out world as complex as our own. It was to make sweet conlangs and write epic conlang poems. It's fair to judge the master craftsman on the quality of the jig he makes to craft his cabinets, but you shouldn't confuse the jig with the cabinets.

agentultra 3y ago
I think this is one of the central ways to really enjoy the work. He was trying to create a linguistic tradition in English that was as strong and rooted as those found in Finnish, Saxon, etc cultures. Hence the use of language to “fill in the details,” of the world building. A lot of people, through no fault of theirs, miss the significance of Aragorn and the return of the king. They don’t understand the significance of the stories that are only mentioned by characters in passing. But I think some of that passes on unconsciously which gives the story and it’s world the lasting impact it has had. If you study the Wanderer, the Arthurian epics, Finnish-Ugric mythology, Beowulf, etc you can see where he pulled a lot of his inspiration for the world he built from.
nacs 3y ago
For those like me who didn't know what "conlang" meant: conlang = constructed language
- a1o 3y ago
  That is definitely not where my mind went when reading "conlang". Thanks for the clarification.
  - angiosperm 3y ago
    But you were right: it was all a con. He wanted a solid, mythological grounding for Divine Right of Kings that would endure in the modern world. He largely succeeded at that.
mock-possum 3y ago
> It's fair to judge the master craftsman on the quality of the jig he makes to craft his cabinets, but you shouldn't confuse the jig with the cabinets That’s a nice little turn of phrase, I’ll have to remember that.

agentultra 3y ago

I think this is one of the central ways to really enjoy the work. He was trying to create a linguistic tradition in English that was as strong and rooted as those found in Finnish, Saxon, etc cultures. Hence the use of language to “fill in the details,” of the world building. A lot of people, through no fault of theirs, miss the significance of Aragorn and the return of the king. They don’t understand the significance of the stories that are only mentioned by characters in passing. But I think some of that passes on unconsciously which gives the story and it’s world the lasting impact it has had. If you study the Wanderer, the Arthurian epics, Finnish-Ugric mythology, Beowulf, etc you can see where he pulled a lot of his inspiration for the world he built from.

nacs 3y ago

For those like me who didn't know what "conlang" meant: conlang = constructed language

a1o 3y ago
That is definitely not where my mind went when reading "conlang". Thanks for the clarification.
- angiosperm 3y ago
  But you were right: it was all a con. He wanted a solid, mythological grounding for Divine Right of Kings that would endure in the modern world. He largely succeeded at that.

mock-possum 3y ago

> It's fair to judge the master craftsman on the quality of the jig he makes to craft his cabinets, but you shouldn't confuse the jig with the cabinets That’s a nice little turn of phrase, I’ll have to remember that.