Since john ronald reuel tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings was published in 1950s, hundreds of millions of readers all over the world have become Tolkien's fans. 1997, Tolkien's fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings was selected as one of the greatest books in the 20th century in a poll jointly organized by British TV 4 and Shishui Bookstore. In the 1999 Amazon readers' poll, The Lord of the Rings has not only become one of the greatest books in this century, but also one of the greatest books in the past two thousand years. From this aspect, we can see that Tolkien and his works have become a literary phenomenon that cannot be ignored in the twentieth century.
Tolkien's important influence in the history of literature lies in the rapid development of fantasy novels after The Lord of the Rings. To some extent, because of the success of his literary creation, fantasy novel gradually became a literary category valued by critics from a sub-genre. The Lord of the Rings's enduring popularity among readers and increasingly high evaluation by critics have inspired many people to devote themselves to the creation of fantasy novels, so his works have become the classics of contemporary fantasy novels. Tolkien laid the foundation and set a reference template for later fantasy literature. His fantasy novels are very complicated and diverse, which need special attention in the development of fantasy novels in the 20th century.
Tolkien's other great contribution to the history of European literature and even the history of world literature is that he created and defined the aesthetic characteristics of modern fantasy novels. It uses the thinking characteristics of magic and witchcraft to construct an "overhead world" that is not limited by reality or physical science, fully satisfies readers' imagination and adventurous desire, guides readers into a magical time and space that is different from the mechanized, standardized and unremarkable real world, leads readers to find an alternative reality different from the fragmented scientific cognitive model outside this scientific and rigid world, and points out the hope for eternal beauty for the tired modern people who lack firm beliefs.
The popularity of Tolkien's works has a slight but far-reaching influence on the use of language, especially in fantasy literature, even the "dwarf (plural)" of dwarves and the "elvish language" of elvish language; With the revival of Tolkien, two spellings of "elvish", which have been out of use since the middle of19th century or even earlier, have been widely accepted in today's dictionaries, replacing the spellings of dwarfs and elves after19th century respectively. Other new words, such as eucatastrophe (the moment of redemption, or literal translation: "Good conquers evil"), are often used in articles related to Tolkien's works.
His works are popular all over the world, and more than1.600 million copies have been published so far. But his legendary life is little known. Tolkien is a scholar, but apart from academic research, he has been engaged in the creation of fantasy novels for almost 60 years. One of the most outstanding is the epic masterpiece-The Lord of the Rings series.