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First of all, I'm only stating my opinion that Skyrim is the closest a TES game has come not only to Tolkien's work but also the visual style of The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. I am in no way trying to say that any TES game is a rip-off of either. The TES series has it's own rich lore and unique take on ideas put forward by Tolkien. I'm merely trying to highlight some similarities.

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The Elder Scrolls series, like many fantasy franchises, is well known for being influenced by Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings, but is Skyrim the most Tolkien-esque Elder Scrolls game yet?

There's obvious stuff that feature prominently in both Tolkien's work and Skyrim such as dragons, giant spiders, elves, orcs, goblins, dwarves, barrows, vast mountainous regions, fortresses carved into mountains, influence from Norse culture, etc. Yes, i'm completely aware that these things are hardly limited to Tolkien's work, but it's still worth noting for arguments sake.

Aside from the obvious stuff like that, many people have commented on how Skyrim reminds them visually of either Tolkien's work or the LOTR films.

A few examples mostly relevant to the films:
http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/1589/skyrim01.jpg
http://cdnstatic.gamesas.com/akqacms/files/tes/concept_art/WhiterunCityTundra.jpg
http://static.zenimax.com/bethblog/upload/2011/02/vlcsnap-2011-02-24-11h23m58s200.jpg
http://www.godisageek.com/wp-content/gallery/elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/skyrim-screenshots-dragon-mountains.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9KPQdIXDthk/TVf6PZQ5U4I/AAAAAAAAAN4/bgneer-6Sdo/s1600/8.jpg

A lot of the concept artwork we've seen glimpses of in videos shows even stronger similarities, and there's areas we haven't seen yet like the glacial regions of the map, which immediately make me think of the http://img-fan.theonering.net/~rolozo/images/nasmith/new/TN-Fingolfin_Leads_the_Host_Across_the_Helcaraxe.jpg in Tolkien's work, or the rocky / volcanic tundra regions which make me think of the lands surrounding Mordor.

Many will argue that Oblivion is closer to Tolkien's work than Skyrim, and while there were some pretty obvious things in Oblivion that were influenced by the Lord of the Rings, overall Cyrodiil just wasn't varied or epic enough to be middle-earth. Tolkien's middle-earth can be described as epic reality, and so can Skyrim. Epic, varied scenery everywhere you go. Cyrodiil on the other hand was much more quaint and traditional medieval in style.

Feel free to discuss. But please, if you're just going to stubbornly deny any similarities whatsoever without a good argument purely because you don't like Tolkien or the Lord of the Rings, don't bother posting.

Look nothing alike to me. Similarities, sure, but what fantasy games don't have them?

I guess it all depends how you imagine middle-earth looks when reading the books (if you read them before seeing the films).

A lot of fantasy games have vague similarities, but you can hardly say that games like World of Warcraft, Fable, or Two Worlds II look even remotely like middle-earth, can you? Skyrim is definitely a lot, lot closer than those kind of fantasy games.

And Doom is very similar to COD in that they both are FPS.

Point is moot.

Villages in the middle of great planes isn't something new. Mountains with clouds that seem to hang around forever aren't anything new.

http://thewe.cc/thewei/_/global_warming/mount_everest.jpe
I would put forth that it is Tolkien's world is similar to the real world.

What about the LOTR games?

It does look like there's some inspiration for Whiterun though. They both appear to be wooden, straw roof buildings in a large town built in a grassy tundra plane upon a large rock/hill thing. It's just reminiscent. Those twisted trees definitely remind me of the white tree of Gondor. I'd say it's probably the closet to LOTR of TES games, but that's mostly due to setting.

Not really, but dont think of LOTR as an original, work. Some aspects such as Norse Rings of power where taken into tolkiens world.
PS. non originality does not mean im hating on LOTR.

As far as the foundation modern fantasy sits on, yes, TES in general share similarities with Tolkien's world. But with each game, Bethesda improves upon their lore making them quite unique at this point.

As far as the actual setting of Skyrim specifically, I dont think Tolkien was a real inspiration at all. I just think both Tolkien AND Bethesda happened to be basing their setting on Norway, Finland, and the surrounding regions a lot.

Coincidence I say.

Orcs and elves and, um, not much more really :celebration:

Again, it all comes down to how one imagines middle-earth to look.

Sure, you can pick out individual things from either Skyrim or middle-earth and say that it looks like something in the real world, but again it comes down to the whole epic realism thing. They both take a variety of scenery and fit it all into a relatively small area to make the world seem more epic than any country on earth.

Also, I wouldn't say Tolkien's world is all similar to the real world. Show me real world scenery that looks like http://www.theonering.com/images/medialibrary/silm_02.jpg please.



I would agree to some extent that the overall similarities with Tolkien's world are most likely coincidental. Some of the more specific similarities with the film trilogy though are far too similar to be coincidence. Whiterun/Edoras in particular - there's just no way anyone can convince me that's a coincidence.

Just thought I'd list some similarities between Feistand TES

Khajitt, those tigers from Novindus
Argonians, Saaur
TribalBlue skinned goblins , Tribal Blue skinned goblins
Dark elves, Moredhel
Tsurani, Akavir

I could go on

Don't forget Martin the illegitimate heir!
Star Elves, Altmer
Woodelves from Elvandar, Bosmer
Mockers, Thief's guild
Night Hawks, Dark Brotherhood
God's and demons in a different dimension/ world/ plane that invade
Summoning demons

And you are right, the list could go on.

Once again, this is how it looked in those awful movies.
Wich is New Zealand. So technically you think Skyrim looks like New Zealand.

I think that Skyrim should stay far away from fads. And making things look like New Zealand is a fad.
I very much dislike what those movies did for LoTR. Aside from totally disrespecting the lore and delivering almost a parody of the story, they painted an imagery that it seems we are stuck with now.
I would much prefer Skyrim to be its own unique self.

Funny, I don't remember seeing the Helcaraxe in the Lord of the Rings movies... or barrows... or dragons... or places like Nargothrond. As I keep saying, the example images in my original post relate mostly to the fims, however my overall opinion of Skyrim looking like middle-earth stems more from the Silmarillion than the LoTR books or films.


What about them?

A lot of people miss the fact the Tolkien set the standard for medieval fantasy. From what I heard there was nothing like it before. So pretty much every fantasy game takes something from his work.
He also, basically, invented the fantasy interpretation of elves, dwarves, orcs, etc. The name and appearance orcs is taken directly from his work.

Elves and dwarves in Tolkein are a;lmost exactly the same as in Norse mythology, and orcs are large balck skinned orcs in Tolkeins work, even the Uruk Hai are described as being black skinned in the books

Oblivion was indeed inspired by The Lord of the Rings, but in the end had it's own touch to it.
Skyrim doesn't remind me of TLOTR in any way.

Tolkien elves and dwarves stem primarily from Germanic Mythology not Norse.
I was refering to the brutish pig-like look.

That was more the films rather than Tolkein himself

This again. Obviously TES and fantasy in general draw inspiration from the likes of Tolkien. It is paradigm. It is only unfortunate no one does it as masterfully.

Oh, and yes, Tolkien was indeed inspired by Norse folklore, and the Finnish Kalevala, Beowulf, and a dozen other things from the myths. But he invented the orcs, hobbits, and the modern depiction of elves - and even though you could find traces of the elves and dwarves of the modern cRPG directly in the myths, you wouldn't see them like so if it weren't for Tolkien. He is, I fear, the grandpa, Master, and God of the genre we hold so dear. We should treat him as such.

And stop ignoring us Swedes when you speak of Norse myth and Scandinavia! We are twice as awesome and three times as many as the Norwegians and Danes. The Finns aren't even part of Scandinavia or Norse lore, and their culture, language, and ethnicity are more related to the Russians than to 'us'. Thank you!

The Finns are actually part of the Norse lore.
It wasn't called Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and such back then you know.^^

We Scandinavians got to stick together, not fight among ourselves!

IF WE FIGHT LIKE ANIMALS, WE'LL DIE LIKE ANIMALS!!!


I don't know why a felt compelled to say that.

Say that to Swedish politicians:) They think everyone in Denmark, Norway and Finland are racists.

I can't see that TES is more influenced by LOTR then some basic stuff, like orcs and elves as I said before. Races, pantheon, setting, history everything is different in TES.

Sorry bro but the Finnish mythology is not part of Norse myth. It stems from Finno-Ugric traditions while Norse is from Germanic and Indo-European. Finland is not part of Scandinavia and the only reason they have been involved with the rest of the Nordic region in the past few hundred years is because they had been conquered by the Swedes back in the 13th century and remained under Swedish rule for 600 years.

Oh, and the Swedish vikings were referred to as Swedes by the Romans in AD 98 so... you fail. Peace!

Well, not really.
The similarities in the fact that Orcs and Elves are present seem redundant to me, as they're represented so differently.
Other than that, aside from things which define fantasy, i.e magic and swords, they seem completely different to me.