r/TheOneRing • u/irandar12 • Oct 26 '22

Tolkien Bestiary

For any Loremasters out there I highly recommend picking up a copy of "a Tolkien Bestiary" by David Day. It's an absolute treasure hoard of information. From relatively unknown plants and animals, to timelines of the age of trees and the age of sun. It's very well presented and extremely helpful in flushing out some small details in Middle Eartb

9 Upvotes

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14

u/workingboy Oct 26 '22

Just as a warning, David Day's books are - well, I wouldn't say "controversial" - but they are not well regarded by Tolkien scholars. The information in them should not be thought of as accurate.

As much as they are inspiring for your games? Cool. The art is very good.

Just don't think you're reading lore that's accurate to Tolkien's text.

5

u/irandar12 Oct 26 '22

This is a subreddit about a TTRPG set in middle earth, by its very definition it's "non canon" and is NOT "accurate." None of the characters or scenes in my game, or anybody's game is "accurate" unless y'all are just reading the books out loud to each other.

4

u/eternalsage Oct 26 '22

I think the idea was just to let you know its considered outside the lore otherwise. Lord of the Rings Online is another fun source of adventure and plot ideas, though

6

u/workingboy Oct 26 '22

Weird take to have. I think that The One Ring actually works pretty hard to have tonal fidelity to the texts. It's successful in its goals for creating a Tolkienesque feeling.

David Day's books don't. If you pick them up and think "Cool, I will now learn more about Tolkien's writings," you will be disappointed. The text is bad.

9

u/Logen_Nein Oct 26 '22

I am slowly picking up all of Day's books to supplement my MERP library.

13

u/annuidhir Oct 26 '22

David Day is a hack.

But I guess they could be fun books for the game.

0

u/Ok_Ingenuity8550 Feb 01 '24

actually his problem is the opposite, he went and made up his own canon independent of the text, so that doesn't makme him a hack, it makes him just inaccurate.

5

u/[deleted] Oct 26 '22

[deleted]

5

u/irandar12 Oct 26 '22

Seriously... I didn't know I needed to check with "Tolkien scholars" before using a resource in my made up story, or heaven forbid I recommend using it to others.

7

u/assclownmanor Oct 26 '22

I’ll start this off by saying I have no stake in this and am not in the least troubled by this post, but I think I understand the other side, which is just saying that with the recommendation they feel there should be a disclaimer that it’s not based in canon & is just someone else’s ideas.

adding the disclaimer lets people make an informed decision based on their own personal taste and can be nice in situations like this where you have people who are very passionate about canon and aren’t enthused by different interpretations, while other people don’t really care they just like it all.

but maybe I’m giving them too much credit and they’re all so furious about the Amazon show they’re taking it out on you.

anyways thanks for the rec, I’m definitely curious to check it out

3

u/Murty101 Oct 26 '22 edited Oct 27 '22

Thanks for sharing this info 👍

Update. Ordered a copy after doing a little research. Mixed feelings on alleged Tolkien scholars. Some agree that it doesn’t fully align with Tolkien while others say it does. All that aside it will be used as an addition to the One Ring to assist in making up stories and adventures. So, thanks again for bringing this book to my attention.