The works of J. R. R. Tolkien have served as the inspiration to painters, musicians, film-makers and writers, to such an extent that he is sometimes seen as the "father" of the entire genre of high fantasy..

Art and illustration

The earliest illustrations of Tolkien's works were drawn by the author himself. The 1937 American edition of The Hobbit was illustrated by professional draughtsmen. Tolkien was very critical of this work, and in 1946 he rejected illustrations by Horus Engels for the German edition of the Hobbit as "too 'Disnified' for my taste: Bilbo with a dribbling nose, and Gandalf as a figure of vulgar fun rather than the Odinic wanderer that I think of".

In 1948, Milein Cosman was invited by Tolkien's publishers to submit illustrations for Farmer Giles of Ham. Tolkien felt her impressionistic style did not suit the story, and she was replaced by Pauline Baynes, who later also supplied the illustrations for The Adventures of Tom Bombadil (1962) and Smith of Wootton Major (1967). In 1968, Tolkien was sent part of a suite of illustrations of The Lord of the Rings, mostly in coloured ink, by the English artist Mary Fairburn; Tolkien said of her pictures: "They ... show far more attention to the text than any that have yet been submitted to me.... I am beginning to ... think that an illustrated edition might be a good thing." For various reasons the project went no further, and Fairburn's illustrations were unknown until 2012.Tankard, Paul, "An Unknown Vision of Middle-earth: Mary Fairburn: Tolkien Illustrator", Times Literary Supplement, 14 September 2012. http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1124297.ece Princess Margrethe (now Queen Margrethe II) of Denmark, an accomplished and critically acclaimed painter, was inspired to create illustrations to The Lord of the Rings in the early 1970s. In 1977, Queen Margrethe's drawings were published in the Danish translation of the book, redrawn by the British artist Eric Fraser.

Tim and Greg Hildebrandt, usually called the Brothers Hildebrandt, were Tolkien illustrators in the 1970s, known especially for their Middle-earth calendars. The British artist Jimmy Cauty created a best-selling poster of The Lord of the Rings (1976) and The Hobbit (1980) for the retailer Athena.Spencer, Neil, "A guerrilla raid on the arts establishment", The Guardian (Manchester) , 31 October 1993, The Observer Review Page.

Well-known Tolkien illustrators of the 1990s and 2000s are John Howe, Alan Lee, and Ted Nasmith — Lee for illustrated editions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, Nasmith for illustrated editions of The Silmarillion, and Howe for the cover artwork to several Tolkien publications. Howe and Lee worked as concept artists in the creation of Peter Jackson's film trilogy. In 2004, Lee won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction on the film The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

Other artists who have found inspiration in Tolkien's works include Inger Edelfeldt who illustrated the covers of Swedish translations of several of his books, Anke Eißmann, Michael Hague, Tove Jansson (of Moomin fame, illustrator of Swedish and Finnish translations of The Hobbit), Paul Raymond Gregory, Tim Kirk, Angus McBride who illustrated Iron Crown's Tolkien-based role-playing games, Jef Murray, Colleen Doran, Jenny Dolfen who has made watercolour paintings of scenes from The Silmarillion, Alexander Korotich, who made a series of scraperboard engravings of The Lord of the Rings, and Peter Xavier Price. Works of several of these artists were exhibited in an "Images of Middle-earth" exhibition of some 170 artworks organised by Davide Martini of the Greisinger Museum of Switzerland; it toured Italy between 2003 and 2005.

Film

The 2005–2010 Narnia film trilogy adapted from the novel series by Tolkien's friend C. S. Lewis were produced due to the popularity of The Lord of the Rings. George R. R. Martin acknowledged that Tolkien influenced his 2011–2019 Game of Thrones TV series and novels about medieval fantasy, while speaking about a movie about Tolkien's life.

An early draft for George Lucas's 1977 Star Wars film is said to have included an exchange of dialogue between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker taken directly from the conversation between Gandalf and Bilbo in Chapter 1 of The Hobbit, where Bilbo/Kenobi says "Good morning!" and Gandalf/Luke replies asking whether he means he's having a good morning, or is wishing him one, or that all mornings are good. Bilbo/Kenobi answers "All of them at once". The plagiarised dialogue was dropped, but Lucas modelled the monk-like Kenobi on Gandalf; the film author Chris Taylor identifies several further elements of Star Wars that in his view could have been modelled on Middle-earth.

+ Chris Taylor's comparison of Star Wars with The Lord of the Rings Element Star Wars 1977 The Lord of the Rings 1954–55Wise old man Obi-Wan Kenobisacrifices himself fighting Darth Vader,then guides Luke through the Force Gandalfdies saving Fellowship from the Balrog,then guides Frodo telepathicallyInnocentprotagonists R2-D2 and C-3PO,carrying stolen data tapes,supported by the team Frodo and Sam,carrying the One Ring,supported by the Fellowship"Hellish war machine" Death Star MordorEnemy troops Stormtroopers OrcsEvil wizard Grand Moff Tarkin SarumanDark Lord Darth Vader Sauron

While working on a Star Wars animated series, Dave Filoni noted that Peter Jackson visited him and his mentor George Lucas to discuss Tolkien's works and to ask for advice. According to the Star Wars website, Darth Vader is compared by Filoni to the Balrog rather than Sauron, and the Prancing Pony bar may have inspired the Mos Eisley cantina, the introduction of Han Solo suggestively matching that of Strider (Aragorn). As for the prequel trilogy, it notes that Saruman influenced Count Dooku, and volcanic Mordor, whether Tolkien's or Jackson's, influenced the volcanic planet Mustafar.

Literature

Fantasy

As early as 1984, Diana Paxson argued in Mythlore that Tolkien had founded a new literary tradition. Since then, many authors have found inspiration in Tolkien's work. Following the success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in the 1960s, publishers were quick to try to meet a new demand for literate fantasy in the American marketplace.Shippey, Tom, "Literature, Twentieth Century: Influence of Tolkien", in Michael D. C. Drout, J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia.Taylor & Francis, 2007 (pp. 378-382).

Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea series, beginning with A Wizard of Earthsea in 1968, was one of the first fantasy series influenced by Tolkien."Le Guin's Earthsea series, beginning with The Wizard of Earthsea (1968) is not only amongst the finest examples of post-Tolkien fantasy, it is explicitly and directly influenced by Tolkien himself." Adam Roberts, The Riddles of the Hobbit. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. p. 19"For Le Guin, Tolkien is a major precursor...Le Guin also acknowledges the importance of Tolkien, whose ability to create a world she finds impressive."Susan M. Bernardo, Graham J. Murphy, Ursula K. Le Guin: A Critical Companion. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. (pp. 92-93). Among the Tolkienian archetypes in the Earthsea books are wizards (including the protagonist, Ged), a disinherited prince (Arren in The Farthest Shore), a magical ring (the ring of Erreth-Akbe in The Tombs of Atuan), a Middle-earth style quest (in The Farthest Shore), and powerful dragons (like the dragon of Pendor, in A Wizard of Earthsea).

Patricia A. McKillip's The Forgotten Beasts of Eld and Jane Yolen's The Magic Three of Solatia were Tolkien-inspired fantasies for young adults written in the mid-1970s."Patricia McKillip and Jane Yolen, both American, should also be mentioned here: the former's The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (1974) echoes Tolkien in its nuanced prose...the latter's The Magic Three of Solatia (1974) bears a similar relationship to Tolkien." Jamie Williamson, The Evolution of Modern Fantasy: From Antiquarianism to the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series. Springer, 2015. Ballantine, under the direction of editor Lin Carter, published public domain and relatively obscure works under the banner of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, aimed at adult readers who enjoyed Tolkien's works. Lester del Rey, however, sought for new books that would mirror Tolkien's work, and published Terry Brooks' The Sword of Shannara, David Eddings's Belgariad, and Stephen R. Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever. Guy Gavriel Kay, who had assisted Christopher Tolkien with the editing of The Silmarillion, later wrote his own Tolkien-influenced fantasy trilogy, The Fionavar Tapestry, complete with dwarfs and mages. Dennis L. McKiernan's Silver Call duology was intended to be a direct sequel to The Lord of the Rings but had to be altered. The Iron Tower trilogy, highly influenced by Tolkien's books, was then written as backstory.Interview with Dennis L. McKiernan Fantasy series such as Terry Pratchett's Discworld and Orson Scott Card's The Tales of Alvin Maker were "undoubtedly" influenced by Tolkien. reviewed in

Due to a loophole in Russian copyright law, Russian writers were able to publish fantasy novels set in Tolkien's Arda. Nick Perumov's The Ring of Darkness (Russian Кольцо Тьмы) takes place after the events of The Lord of the Rings.

From 1980, the term "fantasy" became synonymous with the general aspects of Tolkien's work: multiple races including dwarves and elves, a quest to destroy a magical artifact, often a medievalist aesthetic, and an evil that seeks to control the world. The plot of Pat Murphy's 1999 There and Back Again intentionally mirrors that of The Hobbit, but is transposed into a science-fiction setting involving space travel. J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series has been seen as having been influenced by Tolkien's work; in particular, the wizard Dumbledore has been described as partially inspired by Tolkien's Gandalf.Louise Wetherill, Ampthill Literary Festival Yearbook 2015. Ampthill. (2015) . pp. 85–92. S.M. Stirling's "Emberverse" series, published starting in 2004, includes a character obsessed with The Lord of the Rings who creates a post-apocalyptic community based upon the Elves and Dúnedain of Middle-earth. The same plot point was used by the Russian writer Vladimir Berezin in his novel Road Signs (from the Universe of Metro 2033). Stephen King, best known as a horror writer, has acknowledged Tolkien's influence on his novel The Stand as well as his fantasy series The Dark Tower. Other prominent fantasy writers including George R. R. Martin, Michael Swanwick, Raymond E. Feist, Poul Anderson, Karen Haber, Harry Turtledove, Charles De Lint, and Orson Scott Card have acknowledged Tolkien's work as an inspiration.

Graphic novels

The cartoonist Jeff Smith was influenced by Tolkien, and the mythologies that inspired his works. He has characterized his epic 1,300-page graphic novel Bone as "Bugs Bunny meets The Lord of the Rings. It's a really long fairy tale with some fantasy elements but a lot of comedy."

Parody

The first commercially published parody of Tolkien's work was the 1969 Bored of the Rings, by The Harvard Lampoon. The BBC produced a parody radio serial, Hordes of the Things, in 1980. The Last Ringbearer is a 1999 fantasy novel by the palaeontologist Kirill Eskov in the form of a parallel novel showing the war from the perspective of the people of Sauron's land of Mordor, under the notion that the original is a "history written by the victors".

The American comedian and TV show host Stephen Colbert incorporated Tolkien material in his commentary and sketches on both The Colbert Report and The Late Show. A film spin-off parody, Darrylgorn, featured Jackson and film trilogy actors including Elijah Wood, inspired by Colbert's cameo in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.

Radio plays