Week 6: A Rich Fantasy Life

Warcraft 3- Peon

             Sadly I slept through this class, which is a damn shame because I really wanted to learn about some stuff about high fantasy that’s life I guess. So I’ve never read a Tolkien book, but of course like so many people I’ve experienced the Lord of Rings and the recent Hobbit film. I’m very fond of those movies, like so many other people. I was excited to read the Hobbit since I’m counting down the days the 2^nd movie and it’s always been on my list of things I’ve wanted to read.

            The Hobbit is interesting; Tolkien’s style is something I wasn’t expecting. All the 4^th wall breaking of the reading so Tolkien can relate things to the present day to make descriptions. It makes sense, as this is a children’s book. It just wasn’t what I expected from the great father of high fantasy. I found it quite charming though, the songs especially stood out.  I fell as though I missed a golden book in my childhood after getting through it.

Album- Nightfall in Middle Earth

            All in all I thought that the Hobbit was a really cool novel and it’s no surprise to me that it really grabbed a lot of people as kid or even adults reading it. You have all your great fantasy tropes going on. Dragons, treasure hunting, wizards, orcs, trolls, goblins, warrior princes, and so much more and from what I know it all started with Tolkien. Did we even have fantasy, as we know it before Tolkien, honestly? I know he didn’t make up elves and dwarfs but my god did he spawn the all the stereotypes and tropes for these races and monster of middle earth.
I’ve been an avid World of Warcraft player on and off since 2007. I spent most of my high school on a world filled with all these things found in Tolkien’s works and even not having read them, I feel like I have a huge emotional connection to them jut because of what they helped create. So thanks Tolkien for helping create Dungeons and Dragons, Warcraft, Power Metal, and Live Action Roleplaying with your writings.