JRR Tolkien dies in WW1. What does the fantasy genre look like today?

Driftless

Driftless

Donor
Some folks have suggested that Tolkien's experiences during the Somme campaign were the core nugget of the Dead Marshes and Mordor.
 

Herman Gigglethorpe

Richter von Manthofen said:
Another impulse for fantasy would be Henry Rider Haggard - while much of his work is settled in the "colonial" universe, there are fantasy elements - including priests, rituals,,

Two that come to my mind are Eric Brighteyes and Cleopatra

Don't forget the "gothic" novels from Frankenstein to Dracula, or Walpoles Castle of Otranto

There were roots for fatasy well before tolkien (not to Mention the Artus legend, the Fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, even Robin Hood, ;))
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Walpole admitted to taking inspiration from Shakespeare when writing The Castle of Otranto, so the Gothic is arguably much older than the 18th century if you count Hamlet and similar works.

The idea of a "secondary world" (i.e. fantasy not set on Earth) came from The Wood Beyond the World (1894) by William Morris, which is based on much older chivalrous books.

I think some form of high fantasy or Gothic genres would exist even if Tolkien dies young. Probably a lot of imitations of the Wizard of Oz. Alice in Wonderland had copycats since at least Eva's Adventures in Shadow-Land by Mary Nauman.
 

hwyl

Obviously there would be a genre without him too but Tolkien really was such a unique writer - for decades his obsessive world and language building was just a very odd private hobby (by an exceptionally gifted professional philologist) and added to that is then his whole theoretical apparatus for fantasy writing: it was all thought out to almost bizarre lengths. So much so that I actually wonder to which degree his zillion imitators and followers really got him at all. Such an odd, obsessive character - and probably the greatest non-modernist (plus anti-modernist) writer of his century, regardless of the genre.
 

Zheng He

I think you might get a lot of fantasy based on Arthurian legends (TH White for example and perhaps he gets a greater following).

Also, did Tolkien influence Frank Herbert and his world building?
 

Brady Kj

I don't know if anyone did much world-building before Tolkien. I suspect science fiction would be a lot different without him. Probably no Dune. Possibly no Star Wars. Probably a somewhat different Star Trek with nobody inventing a Klingon language.
 
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