Top 10 Works Inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien is without a doubt, one of the most influential authors in history. His works have inspired almost everything, including books, movies, games, music, art, scientific naming, even food (I'm not joking when I say a Middle-earth cookbook exists). But this list is for works of art only, and is not in any particular order. Anything from books, to movies, games, and music is included. Hopefully his legacy will never die.
The Top Ten
1 Harry Potter Series-J.K. Rowling

Rowling was definitely inspired by Tolkien's works, even stating that Dumbledore was inspired by Gandalf.

Gollum and dobby seemed pretty same.

2 Nightfall in Middle Earth - Blind Guardian

Hansi was raised in a poor working class family. In his childhood /early teen years he started playing guitar and wanted to become a guitarist. But his parents were poor and couldn't buy him a guitar so for Xmas he got a book his mother bought in a second hand book store for 2-3 dollars or something like that. It was a fantasy book (maybe Tolkien but not sure because I can't find that interview right now). He was hooked. Fantasy books became his biggest passion outside metal music. He actually found a perfect way to combine metal and fantasy stories - the two biggest passions in his life.

J.R.R. Tolkien story is awesome and music to this album is dark and beautiful at the same time. Great vocals. I was impressed by everything, including some small details.

A concept album about The Silmarillion, and definitely one for the best metal albums of all time. Just shows how much of a fan Hansi really is of Tolkien.

3 Dungeons and Dragons

The creators of the classic tabletop RPG were strongly influenced by Tolkien. The game's races include dwarves and elves and originally had hobbits (they couldn't use them due to a lawsuit threatened by Tolkien Enterprises so they had to use halflings).

4 The Sword of Shannara - Terry Brooks

Lord of the Rings was a huge influence on this book. So much so that it's often criticized for being too similar to Lord of the Rings (that's not really a good sign considering how plagiarism is bad juju for authors. I'd suggest you stick with your own ideas and see how they'll turn for you and others).

5 Majesty - Blind Guardian

Blind Guardian vocalist Hansi Kürsch is a huge Tolkien fan and has wrote many songs about Middle-earth. This is the band's first song they wrote about Lord of the Rings and released. And it was released 30 years before the Peter Jackson trilogy.

This is my favorite speed metal song. It's based on Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

6 The Dark Tower-Stephen King

Known as Stephen King's magnum opus, one of the influences on it was Lord of the Rings (King describes the series as a cross between Lord of the Rings and te American frontier).

7 The Inheritance Cycle-ChristopherPaolini

While Tolkien inspired, this series is also accused of plagiarism due to the setting, races and names of the characters and places. Like I said before, I don't encourage any aspiring authors to plagiarize.

8 Discworld - Terry Pratchett

A comedy book series that takes inspiration (and parody) from Tolkien. It's also known to satirize fantasy cliches.

9 Bone-Jeff Smith

The popular graphic novel series that Smith describes as "Bugs Bunny meets Lord of the Rings".

10 Lord of the Rings - Blind Guardian

It's a live version from Tokyo Tales, live album of 1993 (studio version is of 1990)

The Contenders
11 Star Wars

I put this low because it was more inspired by Flash Gordon, but Lord of the Rings was still a major influence on Star Wars. If Star Wars hadn't exist, we wouldn't have Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy.

12 Seize the Day - Demons & Wizards

Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.

13 World of Warcraft
14 Lunar Lament - Demons & Wizards
15 A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
16 Runescape
17 DragonQuest
18 This Day We Fight - Megadeth
19 The Forgotten Beasts of Eld - Patricia A. McKillip
20 Earthsea - Ursula Le Guin
21 The Belgariad - David Eddings
22 Regional Cooking from Middle-Earth: Recipies of the Third Age

Thought I was kidding about the cookbook in the description? Well here it is just to show that I wasn't.

23 The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant - Stephen R. Donaldson
24 The Astonishing - Dream Theater
25 The Fionavar Tapestry - Guy Gavriel Kay

What's surprising about this trilogy is that the author actually helped Christopher Tolkien (Tolkien's third son) edit The Silmarillion.

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