John D. Rateliff is a terrific writer, editor, and independent scholar. For many years, he worked with the Tolkien manuscripts at Marquette University in Milwaukee, and writes extensively on Tolkien and the Inklings. I have been following Mr. Rateliff’s musings on Mr. Tolkien for some time. In addition, I currently reside in Milwaukee. Thanks to the quarantine, I haven’t had a chance to see the Tolkien manuscripts with my own eyes, but I’m looking forward to it someday. For additional context, Mr. Rateliff is referring in the article below to one of Mr. Tolkien’s early stories, which some people think was a precursor to the ideas in the The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (a reluctant hero on a dangerous mission who finds a magical ring that helps him defeat a nasty dragon).
Here’s a snippet from Mr. Rateliff’s blog on the artwork of Tolkien influencing D&D artwork:
JOHN’S LATEST MUSINGS
TOLKIEN INFLUENCE ON D&D ART
Sun, 30 Aug 2020
So, here’s something I noticed years ago but haven’t ever seen commented on, so I thought I’d share.
Setting aside the many borrowings from THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS in D&D, there’s also evidence that Tolkien’s short work FARMER GILES OF HAM (1949) influenced D&D.
