This is a great idea because I've thought about the same thing. It's likely that I'd enjoy several stories that inspired my favorite author. It's always interesting to go further back and see even older books. Thanks!
I always love getting to know more about the favourite works of my favourite authors. It's an amazing way to discover new books. 🥰 Glad you found it interesting!
Hello Emmelie! I hope all is well with you. I caught your video just as it was about to start and it is very interesting and informative. I knew that he and CS Lewis were friends and members of a reading/writing group that had other members. I have been to the place where the street gas lights inspired him in his Narnia books (Great Malvern UK) as well as doors for the wardrobe (The Priory located in Great Malvern). I also knew that Lewis wrote many books, but I had never heard of those books. I have never really been interested in any of Lewis' books although a high school teacher had us read The Screwtape Letters in our religious class. I have read Beowulf, the Aenied and King Solomon's Mines and enjoyed all three. It has been a while since I read them and I do confuse Beowulf with The Epic of Gilgamesh. I know that H. Rider Haggard wrote his book on a dare from his brother who dared him to see if he could write a book just as good as Robert L Stevenson's Treasure Island. I then bought Haggard's book She about a year ago, but have not gotten to it yet. Keep up the excellent work and have a great week!
Tolkien also liked the Poetic Edda. It is an epic poem of Norse mythology. I started reading it recently and in one of the first poems it lists the first dwarves that were created. Tolkien picked names from that list and used them to name the dwarves in the Hobbit. I knew he had found those names in a poem, but I had forgotten which poem it was, so it was a fun surprise to encounter Durin, Thorin, Bivor, Bomber, Nori and more familiar names.
Nice video! I think it's important to note that while Andrew Lang was the editor of the Fairy Books, most of the work of collecting and translating the various stories in them was done by his wife, Leonora Blanche Lang (née Alleyne). He himself has acknowledged this in the introduction to the Lilac Fairy Book, but most still think of him as the sole mind behind the series.
One prominent author that you’ve missed whom Tolkien admired greatly is G. K. Chesterton. I quote from an article: "Tolkien read widely in Chesterton’s work, both literary and non-fiction. He knew the apologetic works Heretics and its follow-up, Orthodoxy, and George Sayers recalls that Tolkien had “a great liking and appreciation for The Everlasting Man” and that Tolkien found its arguments to be “absolutely valid.” He enjoyed Chesterton’s literary works, but not in the ways one might predict, disliking the detective stories featuring Father Brown, the Catholic priest. (A great fan of Agatha Christie’s mysteries, Tolkien seems to have preferred his detective fiction to focus on the puzzle plots, not on character and theme.) He delighted in Chesterton’s more antic works: he knew The Man Who Was Thursday and The Napoleon of Notting Hill, and used to chant aloud his comic poems, most notably “The Song of Quoodle,” “The Song against Grocers,” and “The Rolling English Road.” These are all featured in The Flying Inn, a satiric tale of a near-future England in which the personal freedom of ordinary people, in particular the poor, is under attack from a paternalistic government intent on improving public health by abolishing alcohol. We may perhaps see a Chestertonian influence upon one telling detail in The Return of the King, where we learn that Lotho Sackville-Baggins, after taking over the Shire as ‘Chief,’ “didn’t hold with beer, save for his Men, and closed all the inns.” In its way, this amounts to a capsule summary of The Flying Inn, with its exposé of the way that Prohibition is used in order to gain social control of the working classes for the benefit of a bureaucratic elite. Of Chesterton’s other poetry, Tolkien had once upon a time enjoyed The Ballad of the White Horse. When he revisited the ballad to help Priscilla (Tolkien's daughter) understand it, he found the poem unsatisfactory on the ground of its historical inaccuracy, but even on a second, less enthusiastic reading, he still approved the “brilliant smash and glitter of the words and phrases.” Tolkien also admired the poem Lepanto without, as far as we know, any second thoughts; Priscilla recalled that her father enjoyed reciting it." Holly Ordway From the March/April 2021 Issue of Gilbert Magazine.
@ProseAndPetticoats I accidentally became a fan of G. K. Chesterton when I became a fan of the mystery writer, John Dickson Carr. I was fascinated by Carr's main detective, Dr. Gideon Fell. He was such a vividly described fellow! I assumed he must be Carr's "self-insert"; but by chance I learned he was basically Carr's portrait of G. K. Chesterton on the page. "'Chesterton', eh?" I mused, and found a collection of Chesterton quotes at my library. And that's all it took. Wow! That guy could really turn a phrase, is all I'm saying. I wish I could say I became a fan of Chesterton's detective fiction, too. But while the Father Brown mysteries are both competent and engaging, they weren't a patch on Carr. They reminded me of the ghostly tales of Russell Kirk; which while beautifully written and undeniably fascinating, are nothing like as good as, say, M. R. James. I had no idea that Tolkien had come to much the same opinion of Chesterton and his detective, but I'm not surprised, either. And by way of contrast to those two cases: I rather disagree with J.R.R. about the Narnia books! But imo, the difference is that C. S. Lewis was a better fiction writer than Chesterton. (Or Kirk.) Narnia does contain a hefty dash of the allegorical stuff, which Tolkien despised; but Lewis was a more picaresque plotter, and so Narnia contains a ton of good characters, and fascinating human details, giving the reader a rich meal even with all that "fiber", so to speak.
Oh my gosh the Princess and the Goblin is one of my absolute favorite childhood movies!! I bought the movie for my kids before I had any because I knew i wanted them to watch it too!! I've never heard anyone talk about it before and i didn't realize that there's a book- I'm definitely going to go buy it thank you SO much for this list ❤❤❤
Thanks for the fun video. A few additions: Tolkien also reportedly enjoyed Mary Renault's historical fiction set in ancient Greece and the Hellenistic era. Renault is of the few mid-century novelists to have openly LGBTQ characters in her books, something she was able to do partly because of the "historical settings" of many of her books, and her having taken herself off to South Africa where her private life would come under less public scrutiny. Tolkien was also a big fan of the Finnish epic the Kalevala. Celtic mythology, and French medieval literature were also interests of his, and of some of his graduate students. And, I don't recall where I read this (one of Shippey's books maybe?) but Tolkien did not dislike Shakespeare and knew some amount of Shakespeare by heart. Tolkien sometimes liked to joke about hating anything modern, or anything after Beowulf, but my random and not terribly well-informed impression is that he read widely and enjoyed a good bit of what he read. What he "liked" and what he considered a "direct influence" and what he maybe didn't personally like but could use to inform his narrative technique are all as complex with Tolkien as with any writer. The Wikipedia entry gives numerous references en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influences_on_J._R._R._Tolkien Tolkien read widely, although nobody probably read as widely as CS Lewis.
Thank you so much for this comment! Very interesting. I wonder why I found the Shakespeare quote on Wikipedia while you say he did like his work. Ah well, it's so hard to find such information anyway. :)
I had tried to read King Solomon’s Mine. It wasn’t for me as well. Thank you for posting videos. It has inspired me to get back into reading. Just finishing Fahrenheit 451. Next is Lud-in-the-Mist, a book recommended by Neil Gaiman.
Yes, I've read all the Narnia books, some of his Christian writings, and some of the debates he had with the likes of Tolkien and Barfield. I'm a fan :-)@@ProseAndPetticoats
You forgot to mention the book *Mere Christianity* by C.S. Lewis. You also forgot to mention the *New Testament* , which was the most important book in the life of Tolkien and shaped everything that he did.
📚 Watch my video on Beowulf here: th-cam.com/video/tv8v9Nux8vM/w-d-xo.html
i absolutely love this, very helpful and just what i wanted to see!
That's great to hear! Thank you 🤎
This is a great idea because I've thought about the same thing. It's likely that I'd enjoy several stories that inspired my favorite author. It's always interesting to go further back and see even older books. Thanks!
I always love getting to know more about the favourite works of my favourite authors. It's an amazing way to discover new books. 🥰 Glad you found it interesting!
Hello Emmelie! I hope all is well with you. I caught your video just as it was about to start and it is very interesting and informative. I knew that he and CS Lewis were friends and members of a reading/writing group that had other members. I have been to the place where the street gas lights inspired him in his Narnia books (Great Malvern UK) as well as doors for the wardrobe (The Priory located in Great Malvern). I also knew that Lewis wrote many books, but I had never heard of those books. I have never really been interested in any of Lewis' books although a high school teacher had us read The Screwtape Letters in our religious class. I have read Beowulf, the Aenied and King Solomon's Mines and enjoyed all three. It has been a while since I read them and I do confuse Beowulf with The Epic of Gilgamesh. I know that H. Rider Haggard wrote his book on a dare from his brother who dared him to see if he could write a book just as good as Robert L Stevenson's Treasure Island. I then bought Haggard's book She about a year ago, but have not gotten to it yet. Keep up the excellent work and have a great week!
It's impressive that you've heard of so many of these authors already! I have never read Lewis either, but I'd love to give it a try someday.
Tolkien also liked the Poetic Edda. It is an epic poem of Norse mythology. I started reading it recently and in one of the first poems it lists the first dwarves that were created. Tolkien picked names from that list and used them to name the dwarves in the Hobbit. I knew he had found those names in a poem, but I had forgotten which poem it was, so it was a fun surprise to encounter Durin, Thorin, Bivor, Bomber, Nori and more familiar names.
That's so interesting! Thank you for sharing.
Wow, many of these I had never even heard of before! Thanks for all the research. It's always interesting to see what authors like to read.
I love looking into the books that shaped my favourite authors. You're welcome! Glad you found it interesting.
Nice video!
I think it's important to note that while Andrew Lang was the editor of the Fairy Books, most of the work of collecting and translating the various stories in them was done by his wife, Leonora Blanche Lang (née Alleyne). He himself has acknowledged this in the introduction to the Lilac Fairy Book, but most still think of him as the sole mind behind the series.
I had no idea! Thank you for sharing this interesting fact.
What an amazing idea for a video! Thank you for giving me new input for my to be read pile! (Not that it needed to get even bigger😂).
Haha, I know how it feels. So many books to read! Enjoy 🤎
One prominent author that you’ve missed whom Tolkien admired greatly is G. K. Chesterton. I quote from an article:
"Tolkien read widely in Chesterton’s work, both literary and non-fiction. He knew the apologetic works Heretics and its follow-up, Orthodoxy, and George Sayers recalls that Tolkien had “a great liking and appreciation for The Everlasting Man” and that Tolkien found its arguments to be “absolutely valid.” He enjoyed Chesterton’s literary works, but not in the ways one might predict, disliking the detective stories featuring Father Brown, the Catholic priest. (A great fan of Agatha Christie’s mysteries, Tolkien seems to have preferred his detective fiction to focus on the puzzle plots, not on character and theme.)
He delighted in Chesterton’s more antic works: he knew The Man Who Was Thursday and The Napoleon of Notting Hill, and used to chant aloud his comic poems, most notably “The Song of Quoodle,” “The Song against Grocers,” and “The Rolling English Road.” These are all featured in The Flying Inn, a satiric tale of a near-future England in which the personal freedom of ordinary people, in particular the poor, is under attack from a paternalistic government intent on improving public health by abolishing alcohol. We may perhaps see a Chestertonian influence upon one telling detail in The Return of the King, where we learn that Lotho Sackville-Baggins, after taking over the Shire as ‘Chief,’ “didn’t hold with beer, save for his Men, and closed all the inns.” In its way, this amounts to a capsule summary of The Flying Inn, with its exposé of the way that Prohibition is used in order to gain social control of the working classes for the benefit of a bureaucratic elite.
Of Chesterton’s other poetry, Tolkien had once upon a time enjoyed The Ballad of the White Horse. When he revisited the ballad to help Priscilla (Tolkien's daughter) understand it, he found the poem unsatisfactory on the ground of its historical inaccuracy, but even on a second, less enthusiastic reading, he still approved the “brilliant smash and glitter of the words and phrases.” Tolkien also admired the poem Lepanto without, as far as we know, any second thoughts; Priscilla recalled that her father enjoyed reciting it."
Holly Ordway From the March/April 2021 Issue of Gilbert Magazine.
That's amazing. Too bad I missed it, but I'm glad you shared this with us. Thank you for taking the time to comment & join this conversation 🥰
@@ProseAndPetticoats No problem. I hope you pick up a Chesterton book (if you haven't yet), and read it. He's one of my favorite authors.
@ProseAndPetticoats I accidentally became a fan of G. K. Chesterton when I became a fan of the mystery writer, John Dickson Carr.
I was fascinated by Carr's main detective, Dr. Gideon Fell. He was such a vividly described fellow! I assumed he must be Carr's "self-insert"; but by chance I learned he was basically Carr's portrait of G. K. Chesterton on the page.
"'Chesterton', eh?" I mused, and found a collection of Chesterton quotes at my library. And that's all it took. Wow! That guy could really turn a phrase, is all I'm saying.
I wish I could say I became a fan of Chesterton's detective fiction, too. But while the Father Brown mysteries are both competent and engaging, they weren't a patch on Carr. They reminded me of the ghostly tales of Russell Kirk; which while beautifully written and undeniably fascinating, are nothing like as good as, say, M. R. James. I had no idea that Tolkien had come to much the same opinion of Chesterton and his detective, but I'm not surprised, either.
And by way of contrast to those two cases: I rather disagree with J.R.R. about the Narnia books! But imo, the difference is that C. S. Lewis was a better fiction writer than Chesterton. (Or Kirk.) Narnia does contain a hefty dash of the allegorical stuff, which Tolkien despised; but Lewis was a more picaresque plotter, and so Narnia contains a ton of good characters, and fascinating human details, giving the reader a rich meal even with all that "fiber", so to speak.
@@donweatherwax9318 'cs lewis was a better fiction writer than Chesterton' 👍🏼 though 'the man who was thursday' was an enjoyable read
Oh my gosh the Princess and the Goblin is one of my absolute favorite childhood movies!! I bought the movie for my kids before I had any because I knew i wanted them to watch it too!! I've never heard anyone talk about it before and i didn't realize that there's a book- I'm definitely going to go buy it thank you SO much for this list ❤❤❤
No way! Haha, that's wonderful. The book is so good, you'll love it! 😍
Thanks for the fun video. A few additions: Tolkien also reportedly enjoyed Mary Renault's historical fiction set in ancient Greece and the Hellenistic era. Renault is of the few mid-century novelists to have openly LGBTQ characters in her books, something she was able to do partly because of the "historical settings" of many of her books, and her having taken herself off to South Africa where her private life would come under less public scrutiny. Tolkien was also a big fan of the Finnish epic the Kalevala. Celtic mythology, and French medieval literature were also interests of his, and of some of his graduate students. And, I don't recall where I read this (one of Shippey's books maybe?) but Tolkien did not dislike Shakespeare and knew some amount of Shakespeare by heart. Tolkien sometimes liked to joke about hating anything modern, or anything after Beowulf, but my random and not terribly well-informed impression is that he read widely and enjoyed a good bit of what he read. What he "liked" and what he considered a "direct influence" and what he maybe didn't personally like but could use to inform his narrative technique are all as complex with Tolkien as with any writer. The Wikipedia entry gives numerous references en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influences_on_J._R._R._Tolkien Tolkien read widely, although nobody probably read as widely as CS Lewis.
Thank you so much for this comment! Very interesting. I wonder why I found the Shakespeare quote on Wikipedia while you say he did like his work. Ah well, it's so hard to find such information anyway. :)
Tolkien's own commentary and revised verison of Beowulf is fantastic! Its simply titled Beowulf A Translation And Commentary.
I've read the one by Seamus Heaney, but I would love to read Tolkien's translation one day!
Tolkien also did a translation of the Book of Jonah for the Jerusalem Bible, which is a translation of the Bible by Catholics.
Thank you for such a nice video! The idea is very unusual and now I want to read those books ❤❤
Also you're very pretty
That's so kind of you, thank you! I hope you will enjoy the books that you decide to pick up.
I had tried to read King Solomon’s Mine. It wasn’t for me as well. Thank you for posting videos. It has inspired me to get back into reading. Just finishing Fahrenheit 451. Next is Lud-in-the-Mist, a book recommended by Neil Gaiman.
That means so much to me. I'm glad I could inspire you to get back into reading. 🥹 Enjoy your next one!
I should really get around to reading the Maria Dhavana Headley translation of Beowulf. Thanks for rhe reminder!
Haha great. Happy reading!
Another of Tolkien's influences was GK Chesterton... worth checking out!
Great! Thank you for sharing 🥰
He also very much loved (and got influenced by) the Eddas and the icelandic Sagas.
Thank you so much for letting us know! 🥰
Hyperion to satyr! I love Hamlet, enjoy!
Edit: The Kalevala would be one that was influential for Dr. Tolkien.
Thank you for sharing!
No Kalevala, no Tolkien.
C.S. Lewis is better known for the Narnia series of fantasy novels. He wrote them while Tolkein was writing his own fantasy novels.
Yes, indeed! Have you read any of C.S. Lewis his books?
Yes, I've read all the Narnia books, some of his Christian writings, and some of the debates he had with the likes of Tolkien and Barfield. I'm a fan :-)@@ProseAndPetticoats
Beowulf and the Icelandic sagas are obligatory.
You forgot to mention the book *Mere Christianity* by C.S. Lewis.
You also forgot to mention the *New Testament* , which was the most important book in the life of Tolkien and shaped everything that he did.
Well, I did mention C.S. Lewis ;) Didn't know about that book, though. And of course, how could I forget The Bible! :) Thank you.
«Aeneid»: [ɪ'niːɪd]