TheokinsJ
Troubadour
Hi guys, at the moment I am writing a fantasy novel based around the style/era of the norse people (Vikings) and I've been going through a lot of old poems such as Beowulf and The story of the Volsungs and I came across a lot of things that were very similar to the Lord of the Rings. For starters in Norse mythology the Nords called the realm of men "Middle Earth", and their culture was basically the culture that invented the myths and legends about orcs, elves and dwarves. There is also a norse tale about a sword that was broken, and the pieces were forged to create a new sword (sounds like Isuldur's sword?) and a dragon that guarded a hoard of treasure that a company of companions were trying to retrieve as it was their's by right (Again, sound familiar?). I could go on forever about the similarities between Tolkien's work and Norse history.
I guess history is where the most inspiration comes from for a fantasy writer, and I guess I'm just wondering are all great plots taken from history like Tolkien's? I mean, if authors used nothing but history for their plots and ideas, there'd be nothing left for the future generations of writers to draw on for inspiration without someone saying "That's been done before, it's cliché". All too often I hear people saying about books such as Eragon, "It's a copy of the Lord of the Rings because it has Elves and Dwarves". No it's not. Tolkien didn't invent elves or dwarves, the idea was around thousands of years before he used it, and yet it is now a feature that is associated totally with him, and anyone else who uses them is frowned upon by other people. I guess the same could be said about other things, but I find it annoying that the ideas that I come up with have already done before. I mean I read these poems and do research and find some really interesting stuff- only to find someone has beaten me to it and written a book with a plot line that mirrored that of history.
Where do you look when doing historical research? Do you look at old manuscripts and poems? Do you search history related to the time in your story? (If you are writing medieval fantasy, will you look back further into ancient times to find inspiration as well?). I want to try to find a bit of history untouched by authors and writers, a bit that I can read and gain ideas from that haven't been done before- but I guess that's a big ask. Bit of a long read, not really sure where this should have been posted because it was a half discussion/opinion and half question/suggestions, but who cares, thanks for reading!
I guess history is where the most inspiration comes from for a fantasy writer, and I guess I'm just wondering are all great plots taken from history like Tolkien's? I mean, if authors used nothing but history for their plots and ideas, there'd be nothing left for the future generations of writers to draw on for inspiration without someone saying "That's been done before, it's cliché". All too often I hear people saying about books such as Eragon, "It's a copy of the Lord of the Rings because it has Elves and Dwarves". No it's not. Tolkien didn't invent elves or dwarves, the idea was around thousands of years before he used it, and yet it is now a feature that is associated totally with him, and anyone else who uses them is frowned upon by other people. I guess the same could be said about other things, but I find it annoying that the ideas that I come up with have already done before. I mean I read these poems and do research and find some really interesting stuff- only to find someone has beaten me to it and written a book with a plot line that mirrored that of history.
Where do you look when doing historical research? Do you look at old manuscripts and poems? Do you search history related to the time in your story? (If you are writing medieval fantasy, will you look back further into ancient times to find inspiration as well?). I want to try to find a bit of history untouched by authors and writers, a bit that I can read and gain ideas from that haven't been done before- but I guess that's a big ask. Bit of a long read, not really sure where this should have been posted because it was a half discussion/opinion and half question/suggestions, but who cares, thanks for reading!
Last edited: