[Morthoron]

Originally Posted by Child of the 7th Age

“Successor?” Ugh! Tolkien has no “successor” because he is unique. If crowning a “successor” is our only choice, I defer to Davem and throw the whole thing in the trash.. Again, I don’t think it’s that simple. Sagas and myths are normally told and retold from different perspectives over a very long time. Thomas Mallory, Alfred Lord Tennyson, T.H. White, Charles Williams, Vera Chapman, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Marian Zimmer Bradley and a host of others drew on the same body of Arthurian stories, each expressing them in a different way. I believe the same will eventually happen with the Legendarium.

And I would suggest that the aformentioned authors' points of view regarding the Arthurian Cycle are as disparate as any in literature. Compare T.H. White's 'The Once and Future King' to Zimmer-Bradley's 'Mists of Avalon': save for the same general characters and fundamental plot, they might as well be talking about two separate epochs, so dissimilar are the treatments (personally, I've always favored White to any of those you mentioned, save perhaps for Malory).

So the point I am making is, when one is speaking of a successor to Tolkien, would the inference be that such a personage be chosen to ape Tolkien's style? I would suggest that such a treatment, even if it could be done plausibly and with much attention to detail, would render the work to be utter mimicry. Like the much repeated elements of the Arthurian Cycle, an author should be allowed the latitude to impress his/her own style on the tale rendered, lest it become a mere charade.

Originally Posted by Child of the 7th Age

Since Tolkien stands at the end of the tradition of Saga, Davem suggests it would be impossible for latecomers to latch onto the tradition, and continue it on. I’m not so sure. Many readers fell in love with the ancient sources after reading LotR and ended up going back and devoting their lives to studying medieval languages or history or literature. I would guess about a third of medievalists teaching in colleges and unis today in this country owe some debt to Tolkien. As readers of LotR, these individuals were able to see beyond the veneer of "fantasy" and reconnect with that older heritage. If that recognition exists,it may be possible to continue with the tradition in written form. Not an exact replica, which would be impossible, but something that captures the spirit of the thing.

I am of the same mind as Child (or would you prefer 7th Age?). There is certainly an unlimited market for all-things-Middle-earth (why else would 'The Children of Hurin' -- a rather tedious rehashing of an excerpt from the Silmarillion -- manage to reach the top of the New York Times Bestseller List?). The Middle-earth chronicles are fast passing onward from a classic novelization of the fantasy genre into the rarified realm of such oft-retold tales as can be found in the Arthurian or Charlemagnic cycles. Face it, there are more Middle-earth roleplaying stories, novellas, games, fan-fics, etc. on more forum sites than all other such attempts combined, then trebled, then multiplied by a google complex.

It is not much different than the genesis of the Arthurian cycle, is it not? There is the initial germ of truth, and it passed through many hands in Anglo-Saxon England, made its way over the Channel to be enhanced among the troubadours, found its way to the trouvere Chretien de Troyes, then was diffused throughout Christendom (Germany, particularly), and finally passed back over the Channel to be reinvigorated by Malory.

Originally Posted by Child of the 7th Age

All this assumes that people still care about Middle-earth 500 years from today. If they still care, they will retell and expand. The alternative is to think of the Legendarium as a series of very specific novels and poems, with no possibility of expansion.

Precisely. We are perhaps too close to the original author to conceive of an expanding Arda that will not smack of gimmickery or pulp-fiction rip-offs. But a century from now, or two? I would like to relate a story if I may...

Having finished reading E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web with my six-year old daughter (complete with the accompanying tears when the loquacious grey spider sadly dies), we then decided to embark on a journey of a lighter vein by reading The Hobbit. I must say that a book I have long used just for reference material and for scholarly debate (whether or not you consider the book strictly canonical), has, through the eyes of a precocious and imaginative first grader, renewed my sense of wonder. It has brought back fond memories of the first time I sat enthralled in this sublimely simple tale, and likewise has so enchanted my daughter that she believes the events in the book actually happened once on a time. I asked her if Hobbits were real, and she merely looked at me in that Oh-dad-is-so-daft manner and replied, “Of course Hobbits are real, silly, because I can fly!”

Since the story had such an effect on her, it is likely she will continue to immerse herself in Middle-earth as she grows older, and might possibly read Tolkien's tales to her children and they to there's and so on. Eventually all original copyrights fail, and a story that spans generations, like The Hobbit or LOTR, will pass into the public domain. Who can say what will happen then?