My Aussie buddy (and designator of doomed kangaroos) Mr. Bean wrote:
>[Death to all pointy eared, infravision pisspot fairies i.e Tolkienisms,
in Glorantha]
To which the esteemed Allen Wallace replied:
>I think it is rude and innapropriate to trash on Tolkein's work because of
>the pathetic way a game designer who did a bad and unauthorized job of
>portraying them. Tolkein did an amazing job at creating an internally
>consistant and rich world. Most of modern high fantasy, including
>Glorantha, have at least had some inspiration from Middle Earth.
Agreed, Tolkein was an impressive writer, a remarkable linguist and a very bizarre fellow. Glorantha and, indeed, much of modern literature owes a debt to Tolkein, who was one of the many remarkably creative writers of the first half of this century. Without Tolkein, it is unlikely that there would be a "fantasy" genre - at least one with a wider popular appeal than works like Blake's "Urizen" cycle (Book of Urizen, Book of Ahania, and the Book of Los).
Still - I agree with Andrew's sentiment when it comes to the Aldryami. IMO, the closest thing to Tolkein's "elves" in Glorantha are the Luathelans. Of course, I never did warm up to the elves when I read the Hobbit or the LoRs. . .
Jeff
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