User blog comment:Gott wisst/Hypothesis about why B. J. is wrong about J. R. R. Tolkien/@comment-1421927-20090710162759

This sure is a long debate!

J.R.R. Tolkien thought that the Hobbit was too fairy-tale (Goblins, hob-goblins, etc.) and made LOTR less fairy-tale like. I am reading the Hobbit and cannot see how it is in anyway like a fairy tale, or atleast any that I have read. I am not an expert on any Germanic folk-tales, but it still seems different enough.

BJ has borrowed bits and pieces of names, tribes, characters, etc. from real life. This is a quote from the essay "Onomatology" "''In the very first book, Redwall, we meet a cellar keeper named Ambrose Spike. Seems innocent enough, until it is revealed that that the brewmaster also happens to be a skilled magician. In the fifth century AD, Ambrosius Aurelianus was a Roman-British warrior who led many battles, and oddly was alleged to be talented at magic. While Redwall was under siege by Cluny the Scourge, Ambrose Spike too was positioned as a commander for the Abbey.

Ambrosius Aurelianus may seem like a comma in the centuries of British history for Mr. Jacques to allude to, however some historians like to believe Aurelianus went by either one of two more well-known names, King Arthur or Uther Pendragon.

But Mr. Jacques doesn't stop the word games with British lore, he has to involve the Greeks as well. According to ancient Greek mythology, Ambrosia is said to be the nectar of the gods, a beverage if you will.''"

And, Holt Lutra, Lutra being most likely derived from the scientific nam of otters "Lutra". A play on words if you will. Gulo the Savage, the name of wolverines being Gulo Gulo. Gulo from Latin "gulo" meaning 'glutton'.(That is from the page on Gulo the Savage) He is also a canibal and seems to eat a lot. So, many of the names are based off of legend, story, and science. Most books, if not all, have little tid-bits of things based on real life science, myth, religion, pop culture, etc. We have all created characters based off of something we know; I made up a character based on A.A. Milne's Piglet a few years ago (I had just finished reading the real Winnie the Pooh books, the first two). Haven't you ever made a character like yourself or another character in the Redwall series? He bases characters off of himself and others, which he says.

Just because BJ and JRR Tolkien may have borrowed things from mythology, it does not mean that they have less imagination or that their stories are less good. If it was a copy of something (like Star Wars or something) where they just changed the names of people, yes, that would be lacking imagination. But, their stories are still very good, very different, and very imaginative.