4 Reasons that the Lord of the Rings has never been surpassed

JRR Tolkien created the modern genre of high fantasy. This is undisputed. Though there were fantasy stories aplenty before The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings were published, none had gone quite so far into the realm of imagination as Tolkien’s novels. It has been over 70 years since the Lord of the Rings was published, and though more books of fantasy have been created as a result of that monument there have never been one to surpass it.
Here are 4 reasons why.
1) The Names
It goes without saying that Tolkien inspired not only the world building aspects of the fantasy genre, but also it’s naming conventions. It is understandable how those who wished to reproduce his works either as a carbon copy (Terry Brooks, or Dennis L. McKiernan come to mind though Brooks’ Sword of Shannara ended up transcending its original inspiration, I am told) or to genuinely create an original work of high fantasy typically do not quest very far away from what have come to be standard fantasy names. What are these names? Well, I would recommend visiting a book store and scanning the first chapters of the Dragonlance and/or Forgotten Realms novels. Also, The Elder Scrolls character names have very obvious Tolkien influences. That being said, it is not simple to create these names even if they are derivative of an earlier, greater work. Superficially, I do not believe the originality of the character names of a fantasy book will detract too much from its overall quality, but I think it is telling of a fantasy novels ability to transcend the conventions of high fantasy which Tolkien set down.
Imagine if Tolkien had created Middle-Earth but had failed in creating the names which we know so well. What if Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Frodo had been named Carl, Matthew, Tom, and Derrick? First of all, according to the biography Architect of Middle Earth by Daniel Grotta, it can be assumed that Middle-Earth would have been utterly unrecognizable. Tolkien had a very different way of creating a character than most authors. He would first need the name of the character before he could know anything about them, and so the world and the plot would grow. I once heard Brandon Sanderson say in a Youtube video (perhaps on the Writing about Dragons channel) that the names can really come second to the character itself. While in my brain I know that this is true and that the actual character in a work of fiction is more than just their name, my gut tells me that Tolkien’s almost counter intuitive way of desiring the name of a character or a location before devising the details feels very correct.
I have two examples of authors who I believe have transcended the influence of Tolkien with their naming (and in other ways) and created very original words in their stories. Though these two examples might be both obvious and eye roll inducing because of their popularity to some, and though I believe that the popularity contest which is sales can often sweep mediocre artists into fame, in the cases of these two authors the recognition is well deserved not only in their book sales but also in their genuine originality and lasting impact and influence on the fantasy genre.
J.K. Rowling and George R. R. Martin, of course.
My favorite names and words from the Harry Potter series: Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore, Voldemort, Avada Kedavra, Flitwick, Hogwarts, Hedwig, and Hagrid.
A Song of Ice and Fire: Targaryean, Tyrion, Deanarys, Lanister, Baratheon, Sansa, and Eddard
The authenticity of these names can be disputed to a degree. ‘Eddard’ is clearly a respelling of ‘Edward’ and ‘Hogwarts’ is derived from two real English words. But! even Tolkien himself knew when to create a new name, and when to borrow. In The Hobbit (and perhaps some names in the trilogy as well though I have not researched this) the names of not only the dwarves but also of Gandalf himself were taken from the Elder Edda, an ancient and epic Norse poem. Now I am not saying “great artists steal” but I do believe they know when a common word would be better deployed than a made up one. Rowling had the insight to have her main character be given a regular name, and also the whimsy to give literal names to some of her professors (Sprout, the herbology teacher and the never seen Professor Vector who taught magic….math are always the first ones I reference).
Creating an original name must be a very difficult thing. Tolkien seemed to have a genius with naming which perhaps stemmed from his linguistic talents. It goes without saying that most fantasy authors are not brilliant scholars of over a dozen languages, and the fact that one of the greatest novels was produced by an artist who was also a renowned scholar is an important distinction when discussing The Lord of the Rings.
2) The languages/Scripts
It should not come as a surprise that Tolkien did not begin his epic with plot, characters, or even their names. He began it years before even the famous Newton-like apple of a sentence “there was a hole in the ground and a Hobbit lived there” was absentmindedly scratched on the back of an incomplete essay he was grading. It began when he was young and his greatest hobby was creating languages all his own. It began, with Elvish.
I am not a historian of Tolkien’s academic achievements. I recommend everyone who is a fan of him to read his lecture entitled “On Farie Tales,” and I know that he did some translations of ancient epics. When it comes to his linguistic achievements the one I and most people who do not study philology are most familiar with would be the Elvish languages. Yes, he created more than one. In fact, the number I have read placed the total amount of conlangs at over a dozen, though perhaps only two could be considered complete.
Besides the impressive scale of this mans interest in made up languages, my greatest takeaway of all is that this massive imaginary world did not begin from a desire to write a best selling novel, but from a separate hobby entirely. I would be interested to know what other works of art began as a consequence of the artists’ focus in an unrelated field. Likely very many, as I am sure the novels of John Grisham would be non existent as we know them now had he not been a practicing lawyer. But using your profession to inform a story as opposed to creating multiple languages and then framing a world around those languages does seem several orders of magnitude higher than the typical “write what you know” canard. Just as Tolkien worked backward from a name before knowing a character, he did the same with Middle-Earth and the languages. It can be said of Middle-Earth and the entire Legendarium that their purpose was a backstory as to where these languages came from and who would use them. Again, much like his method of naming discussed above, I believe this separates him from conventional fantasy authors in not only the method but the presentation, and the second reason why his works have yet to be surpassed.
3) The page count
My third point may only seem significant to those who have read modern epic fantasy series: The Lord of the Rings, not counting The Hobbit or The Silmarillion, was around 1000 pages in length. If you do not believe me, then find a copy of the trilogy and add up the pages. My addition is the fancy three-in-one which allowed me to quickly tally the total number. This means on average each of the novels was around 330 pages.
Why this matters: the average fantasy book for the past thirty years has averaged closer to five hundred pages apiece. It may be unfair to compare The Lord of the Rings to The Wheel of Time, but look at how much more gets covered and detailed. 1000 pages verses close to 13000 pages! Tolkien was able to do more with less. Every sentence in the classic matters, and that shows through in the total page count. Not to disrespect Robert Jordan, but him and most fantasy authors have smilier shortcomings. Part of this I believe has to do with my fourth point, but I do not want to gloss over the importance of this. I believe that the reader’s investment of time matters. In an age where the fantasy books being published are bigger than ever, think about what gets covered between the covers of the novel you are reading. Is the time of investment worth the 10,000 plus pages, or can you find a much more efficient use of your time elsewhere?
Again, not to knock Jordan. I could have chosen (almost) any author in the genre. This is to be expected, however. Tolkien began an entire genre, he wasn’t merely an outlier in sales. I believe in the decades to come his importance will only grow as novel after novel fails to live up to his achievement.
4) The Process
How The Lord of the Rings was written flies in the face of every piece of writing advice I have ever heard. That advice being: “if you want to write a novel, then you need to sit down and write consistently until it is finished.” This is rather obvious, and I have never heard an author say otherwise. When I read Architect of Middle-earth a few years ago, I got a much more complete picture of the man than I had before. Apparently, and I am saying this with all respect, JRR Tolkien was an incredible procrastinator. Even when it came to writing the most famous novel in the 20th century, it was nearly impossible to make the man sit down and work. If you had any ideas of the father of fantasy fiction diligently burning the midnight oil when it came to the novels themselves, then you are sadly mistaken.
Everyone has that one friend who has a very high IQ but never tried in school. Maybe you are that person! Well, Tolkien was that way to a degree. The man was so incredibly brilliant, what with absorbing dead languages like a sponge, that perhaps the idea of sitting down and really working at something for hours on end gave him anxiety. Do not forget that The Silmarilion had to be completed by his son Christopher Tolkien and the author Guy Gavriel Kay (amazing writer, google Tigana if you are curious).
Much of the work that Tolkien did besides writing the novels was this: work on the Elvish languages (I am not down playing this but, again, it will not finish a novel), and taking notes on the world. Middle-earth was the perfect project for a professional procrastinator. It was something of great scope and interest which could be worked on with out ever working on it. I am not calling Tolkien lazy exactly, but all of the accounts I have read of him point to someone who at least liked to take his time with things.
But! this was a good thing. Because Tolkien took such much time imagining the world, he was able to reimagine and refine it not over a period of years but of decades. Have you ever heard anyone tell you that the best way to write a novel is to set aside 60 years? The layers that are present in his novels are as obvious to me as on a painting. This world grew within someone who did not know if it would ever be fully written. I would love to know how long other authors have spent imagining their worlds. Modern world building videos on Youtube are full of suggestions on geography, naming cities, the movement of peoples etc. None of them ever suggest to a length of time so vast that one might pass away before seeing it completed.
This is my final reason why The Lord of the Rings has yet to be surpassed not only in fantasy but in any genre. When we compare other novels to it there are certain factors that are often not considered, and this may be the biggest one. Not only was it written by a genius, not only did it come complete with working languages, not only did it start an entire genre of literature, but it was also completed over a mans entire life. When I read the trilogy I can feel the immensity of the world and the time which imbues it. This, more than any other reason, sets it apart.