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

Aside from the obvious stuff like dragons, giant spiders, etc. many people have commented on how the world reminds them either of Tolkien's work or the LOTR films.

A few examples:
http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/1589/skyrim01.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.

As a huge Tolkien fan, i'm loving the similarities. Anyone else agree?

I just hope Skyrim is as unique as possible. I found Lord of the Rings to be a bit limp to be honest no offence. I am basing that view on the films as I have never read the books.

I'm under the impression that OB and now Skyrim have some influence from the LotR movies and books(can't say much about DF or Arena). That is a good thing IMO, but too much would hurt the series.
Simpson: Then you should defenetly read the books, they are the best books I have evr read.

Artistically? Yes, it's like the movies. Is this a good direction? No. I'm sick of him and his imitators.

Hope not
Lotr is used too often
Given Nords, dragons and trolls and what we've seen of the general style I'd hope Beowulf and the Edda are more of an influence

Agreed.

The influences seem even stronger to me than in Oblivion, but they're still just vague similarities. Anything more than that wouldn't be good the series. The lore behind the Elder Scrolls series is more than strong enough to stand on it's own and feel unique.

so tolkien is the guy that created the lord of the rings movie?

No....he made the books, Lord of the Rings, and the movie was an adaptation of the books, directed by Peter Jackson. Tolkein also wrote The Hobbit and The Silmarillion. In essence, his works kicked off the fantasy genre with his books.

I have always been a big Tolkien fan, but I would like to see the Elder Scrolls have its own fantasy world--and that is what I expect to see in Skyrim. Tolkien's influence on the genre of fantasy is indeed tremendous, but there are a lot of things that distinguish the Elders Scrolls world from his work. Wizards and magic, for example, are presented a lot differently. Orcs are not a purely evil race. In fact, I would say that if Tolkien has had an influence on the Elder Scrolls, it has been mostly aesthetic, which is fine as long as the influence is limited.

(And I think it's important to remember that Tolkien was heavily influenced by sagas and other epic literature--he wasn't necessarily the original source of today's fantasy, he just happened to be a great popularizer. Like Amazon Queen, I wouldn't mind seeing some direct influence from the original sources.)

Is that really a question or sarcasm

Elves were tolkiens invention so were orcs so yes it does and so does every other fantasy game with orcs.

no. todd said that the them was inspired by conan and they were moving away from high fantasy to give the game a fresher and more combat fun game. I prefer the high fantasy.

@hellmouth he didn't actually start the genre but made magic seem less akin to witch craft as it was seen as back then. writting about wizards n such they were always evil because of religuous sentiment towards magicians and magic in general. but the fantasy genre has existed since greek era, we call it mythology now but back then they would no more call their fictions myth than any one today would call todays stuff historical fiction.

Tolkien wrote the books,he couldn't help with the films..as he's dead.

But yes,some areas he discribed could easy have been about the parts we see in O.B,what with Goblins etc.

Which fantasy genre?

Who said he helped with the films? :confused:

Skyrim seems influenced by both Tolkien's books (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and the Silmarillion) AND the film trilogy by Peter Jackson in my opinion.

Well Tolkien took most of his influence from old Norse and Germanic (Mostly Germanic) so i doesn't surprise me that skyrim resembles that seeing as the nords seem to be inspired from old Germanic and Norse peoples, but don't look at it as skyrim borrowing from Tolkien, think of it as skyrim borrowing from old Norse and Germanic. and there are some things that don't mesh with Tolkien at all such as dark elves being mostly like normal people, dwarves being mostly extinct, magic being more of a science, and of course high elves and orcs being civil neighbors and sometimes even friends,.

TES in general do a good job of having there own unique story and feel and i think Skyrim is no exception.

It seems like their basing the games look on LoTR, but what their really basing it on is Norse mythology. Tolkien also based his stuff on Norse mythology, thus the similarities.

Well that fact there are no living Dwarves I suppose is a good thing to seperate Elder Scrolls from LotR for example, although I would quite like them. I found LotR way to Cheesy and childish during parts of the story. I especially want to stamp over them damn hobbits with my Mammoth (hopefully ridable) would be less cheesy than riding a talking tree.

Just curious, but where did you get the screenshot for that first link? The one for Rohan/Edoras?

Ah. I thought he was just trolling / trying to be clever...

TES may have been influenced by Tolkien's fantasy universe, but I think Skyrim has a lot of potential for Bethesda to do more their own thing. Did J.R. Tolkien write much about vikings, etc?

It appeared in the free digital edition of Gameinformer this month.

Ahh, would it be in the magazine? I haven't looked at the newest issue yet.

I see more Beowulf than Tolkien so far. But that's kind of the flavor they're going for.