I saw that this morning, flicking at random, and it struck me how deeply Tolkien must have been influenced by the Old Testament, specifically in tone. We all know the influence of the stories, but the tone sometimes seems consigned to the past. Probably Tolkien didn't have the above quote in mind at any point, but doesn't it and passages like it seem to have filtered through into the general tone around Gandalf, Saruman, Sauron, Moria, the Rohirim? I'm not trying to make an original point. I appreciate it is entirely unoriginal. I just enjoyed making a small connexion. Pre-Tolkien fantasy often wore its Biblical influences rather obviously; see Dunsany. Post-Tolkien the influence seems more... hidden, like almost none of it could exist without the inheritance, but it is much filtered and even some of the authors don't seem to know where their tone has come from. Its filtered through Tolkien himself, for starters, as the re-founder of the genre. If you've ever wondered why so much fantasy seems so conservative, well, it draws heavily from Tolkien's devout Catholic and shires Tory well. Any other indirect Biblical influences on the tone of modern fantasy anyone has spotted?
