5 Tips to Write Like Tolkien (Lord of the Rings)

hello we got something special for you today we got some good content we're going to teach you how to write like tolkien we're going to look at some of tolkien's writing techniques the methods that he used to achieve his particular style the style that we're going to look at is the silmarillion tolkien had a few different writing styles he employed a certain casual style in the hobbit the lord of the rings was a bit higher style and then the highest style is in the silmarillion now i understand that christopher tolkien his son edited the silmarillion and so it's not pure tolkien but the style is consistent throughout the book and so for me it's good enough to study and we have five different tips for you today on how to write like tolkien the example that we're going to look at is the silmarillion chapter 8 specifically okay so tolkien taught philology at oxford university philology is like the study of languages specifically like the history of languages he was the grandfather of modern fantasy tolkien single-handedly created modern high fantasy before tolkien fantasy was just you know elves that hid in your cupboard and stole things trolls that live under bridges tolkien lifted fantasy into something that is intended to be taken seriously all of the fantasy tropes that exist today can be traced back to tolkien most of them most of them but he is definitely responsible for the atmosphere of fantasy that exists today the first tip we're going to discuss is use long sentences it might sound too simple and too obvious but it's true he used a lot of long sentences to achieve a very long-winded epic style let's read this passage there came a time of winter when night was dark and without moon and the wide plain of art gallons stretched dim beneath the cold stars from the hill forts of the noldor to the feet of thing orodrim the watchfires burned low and the guards were few on the plane few were waking in the camps of the horsemen of hithlem then suddenly morgoth sent forth great rivers of flame that ran down swifter than balrogs from thing orodrim and poured over all the plain and the mountains of iron belched forth fires of many poisonous hues and the fume of them stank upon the air and was deadly thus our gallon perished and fire devoured its grasses and it became a burned and desolate waste full of a choking dust so this particular passage that i'm looking at when i calculated it the average was 33.44 words those are really long sentences and you can see the example here he tends toward a very long style so that's the first tip is use long sentences but the sentences don't meander they're very specific and they have specific verbs they have specific points and they flow really well so here we're going to get a little more specific writing tip number two is use placement phrases tolkien was great at using phrases to place the reader exactly where he wanted whether in time or space let's look at this there came a time of winter when night was dark and without moon he could have said when winter came or winter came let's look at this there came a time of winter when night was dark and without moon and then look beneath the cold stars from the hill forts of the noldor to the feet of thangorodrim on the plane in the camps of the horsemen of hithlum he uses a lot of phrases that place the action exactly where he wants and this also serves to extend the length of the sentences and achieve a more epic style because his sentences are long but then they place the reader exactly where he wants the third tip is to extend possessive case this might not seem obvious at first but is really obvious once you point it out instead of using apostrophe s tolkien would use the word of to indicate possessive case plane of art gallon hill forts of the noldor feet of feng aurodrim instead of saying noldor's hill forts feng aurodrim's feet or the hiplums camps he would say camps of the horsemen of hithlem rivers of flame instead of like flaming rivers mountains of iron instead of like iron mountains fires of many poisonous hues fume of them instead of their fume or something like that but use use the word of to indicate possessive case tip number four use rest stops this is just what i call them rest stops so there would be a bunch of action that would happen and then tolkien would finish with thus such and such happened to summarize everything that happened before and you see this in our passage thus our gallon perished that summarizes everything that happened before thus began the fourth of the great battles thus ended the siege of angban thus fingolfin died he does this a lot in his very high style writing tip number five use natural metaphor and the reason you use natural metaphor is that it's constant across time and culture you say like a lightning bolt no matter how that's translated people understand what you're talking about in any culture let's read we're going to read a rather lengthy example and you just watch out for natural metaphor he also uses metaphor that is specific to the sumerian but it's but this passage is occurring in the middle of the summer alien so it makes sense to the reader okay let's read this now news came to hithlem that dorthonian was lost and the sons of phenarfon overthrown and that the sons of feanor were driven from their lands then fingolfin beheld as it seemed to him the utter ruin of the noldor and the defeat beyond redress of all their houses and filled with wrath and despair he mounted upon rockalore actually don't know how to pronounce that rockalor his great horse and rode forth alone and none might restrain him he passed over door new falgleth like a wind amid the dust and all that beheld his onset fled in a maze thinking that oro may himself was come for a great madness of rage was upon him so that his eyes shone like the eyes of the valar thus he came alone to angband's gates and he sounded his horn and smote once more upon the brazen doors and challenged morgoth to come forth in single combat and morgoth came this was the last time in those wars that he passed the doors of his stronghold and it is said that he took not the challenge willingly for though his might was greatest of all things in this world alone of the valar he knew fear but he could not now deny the challenge before the face of his captains for the rocks rang with the shrill music of fingolfin's horn and his voice came keen and clear down into the depths of angband and fingolfin named morgoth craven the lord of slaves therefore morgoth came climbing slowly from his subterranean throne and the rumor of his feet was like thunder underground and he issued forthclad and black armor and he stood before the king like a tower iron crowned in his vast shield sable unblazoned cast a shadow over him like a storm clown that fingolfin gleamed beneath it as a star for his male was overlaid with silver and his blue shield was set with crystals and he drew his sword wringle that glittered like ice then morgoth hurled aloft grand the hammer of the underworld and swung it down like a bolt of thunder but fingolfin sprang aside and grand rent a mighty pit in the earth when smoke and fire darted many times morgoth is safe to smite him and each time fingolfin leaped away as the lightning shoots from under a dark cloud and he wounded morgoth with seven wounds and seven times morgoth gave a cry of anguish whereat the hosts of angband fell upon their faces in dismay and the cries echoed in the northlands but at last the king grew weary and morgoth bore down his shield upon him thrice he was crushed to his knees and thrice rose again and bore up his broken shield and stricken helm but the earth was all rent and pitted about him and he stumbled and fell backward before the feet of morgoth and morgoth set his left foot upon his neck and the weight of it was like a fallen hill yet with his last and desperate stroke fingolfin hewed the foot with ringo and the blood gushed forth black and smoking and filled the pits of grond thus died finn golfing high king of the noldor most proud and valiant of the alvin kings of old that's a great passage and you see a lot of the stuff that we talked about use long sentences use placement phrases extend the possessive case use rest stops use natural metaphor you see all of these things in this passage and it really all works together to create a really epic and high style so i'm recording this the next day i wanted to give you guys an example of how to convert someone else's writing into tolkien's writing we're gonna use dr seuss okay this is from cat in the hat the sun did not shine it was too wet to play so we sat in the house all that cold cold wet day so our writing tips are use long sentences use placement phrases extend possessive case use rest stops and use natural metaphor we're not going to use all of the tips but we'll use some of them so i wrote this beforehand tolkinified it was a time of summer yet the sun was unseen hidden behind rolling clouds of gray that cast rain upon a small house upon a hill beside which grew a single tree within that house sat two children unable to play among the grass and hills and so they sat with dreary faces looking through panes of glass that were misted by the rising fog of rain so that kind of kind of sounds like tolkien we'll go with it we'll say it's good enough anyway hit the button hit the bell thanks for watching catch you later