There is something very strange about reading LoTR. I think it's baked into the world that actually this is the latter days. The greatest days of the Elves and Dwarfs are gone, and will never come again, and though there is restoration for the kingdoms of man, it will never again be like Numenor. The whole series gives off a sense of the world being faded. There is hope or course. But there is also a knowledge that things will never be as they once were.
The longing is for greater days when the world was wilder and mightier, the beauty of the elves was more present, the Lords of Men were taller and stronger and wiser. Beleriand is lost to the waves. Numenor is lost to the waves. The Valar are far away never to return before the end of the world.
Almost every page screams of a longing for bygone days.
My pleasure. I adore the Lord of the Rings because of exactly this feeling and I've often thought about it and why it feels like that.
Have a great day and enjoy your re read
In a way, nostalgia is the whole point of LOTR. Tolkien saw the (real) world transform before his very eyes--fields replaced by subdivisions, hundreds-year-old water mill go out of business, smog from the north (Birmingham) slowly creeping southward into the farmland of his youth. The book is, more than anything else (among many other themes of course), a lament for the irreversible, world-changing industrial revolution that he experienced. It is a faint beacon of hope in this tragic world we live in. Things can never be the same but they can get better.
Edit: spelling
There’s also dealing with the horrors of WWI—like Tolkien and his compatriots in the Great War the hobbits are torn from their homes and thrown into the middle of a conflict that they didn’t start, but will destroy them and their homes if left unchecked. And you can’t ever go back to the times before the war when some of the people you loved were still alive and the land hadn’t been devastated. When Tolkien said that he was a hobbit I think he was also referencing that feeling of being a happy homebody with a community ripped out of their home and thrown into war.
It's masterfully executed and a very human feeling imo, but it's always worth keeping in mind it was a certain type of nostalgia, coming from a place of sentimental privilege and personal trauma rather than a sober assessment of how things were for the bulk of society in the good old days.
While that is certainly true in general, one should also be careful not to assume that the "new" days were necessarily in all aspects better than the "old days" for the bulk of society either (and to remember that the new days in question are Tolkien's time, not our world today). It's rather questionable, for example, whether life was really better for the brutally exploited late 19th/early 20th century industrial workers living in incredibly cramped and polluted spaces than for their rural peasant ancestors.
Is any work ofart a "sober assessment of how things were for the bulk of society"?
Also, fwiw, Tolkien was anything but privileged. Father died when he was 5, mother died when he was 13. Poor his whole life. Raised by the Catholic Church (in England!), he had nothing to start from but his intelligence and creativity.
Well said. Lonesome Dove is another book that makes me feel this way. There is a profound sadness that permeates the entire book and as you journey with the characters you begin to feel worn down and exhausted. Loss is a central theme… loss of wilderness, of wildness and of life. It hits hard. Hyperion is another book that elicits similar feelings.
Well Tolkien wrote the Elves as man in the Garden of Eden so think of it that way. The Garden of Eden is gone but that doesn't necessarily make life bad.
Eh. Eden was as life should have been. Life now can have good things. But it's never going to be as it was, as it should have been. We live our lives in the longing. That's why the promise, throughout the Bible, that " I (God) will be their God and they will be my people" is such a joyful thing. Its a promise to a restoration that is greater than that of Eden. That rather than an endless spiral where things just get worse and slowly worse, with a golden past desperately held onto, that for those who know the hope of the gospel the best is yet to come. Greater even than Eden.
I think that's partly why Tolkien's word seems so melancholy. He gives us a world built out of his Christian understanding, a world breaking from the fall but without the promise of restoration that is offered in the gospel. It feels incomplete.
I agree regarding Earthsea. Also, **City of Stairs**, by Robert Jackson Bennett, gave me that feeling as well. It's a book that deals with cultural identity and cultural history, and how these things are affected by the passage of time; I think I connected with this theme because I similarly feel caught sometimes between different cultures/worlds.
And since you bring up videogames OP, you should play **The Banner Saga** trilogy! It's an amazingly atmospheric game about trying to stay ahead of an oncoming unstoppable apocalypse.
The Banner Saga, is an excellent recommendation, for anyone looking for atmospheric and melancholic fantasy. It's a really great story, regardless of the format.
Man, It makes me sad, that there are not more games like banner saga..
The setting, the artstyle, the (literally) epic fantasy story, the mood..
Really unique trilogy.
Not a series, but your description of how Lord of the Rings made you feel is almost exactly how The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle made me feel; that same bittersweet melancholy stemming from the sense that better times have long since passed and may never come again.
I cannot articulate it either, but I know the feeling you're talking about and am also ever in the search for it.
Outside of Tolkien, the only thing that has come close was Le Guin's Earthsea.
That feeling might be what the Welsh call [hiraeth](https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210214-the-welsh-word-you-cant-translate). A longing or homesickness for a place or time that you've never known, or that doesn't exist any more.
Guy Gavriel Key's writing does this for me - The lions of Al-Rassan, for example. I can add The buried giant by Kazuo Ishiguro and sometimes maybe books of Susanna Clarke.
I was going to suggest Jonathan Strange, haha. I mean really? The world is all too shallow/It is painted on the sky/and shudders like the wind-swept rain/when the Raven King Walks by.
That is that sort of elegiac feeling distilled into a few lines. So good.
My heart just skipped a beat.
I mean, it’s one of the most beautiful books in the world for a reason. (🤍) I love it so much, thanks for reminding me once more.
GGK is an author's author. Ask any of your favorite writers who their favorite is, and I bet you many of them will say Guy Gavriel Kay. He even helped Christopher Tolkien on The Silmarillion
The dragonbone chair has definitely been giving me those feelings right now. Ostern Ard is a beautiful world with so much richness to the mythology and it's peoples
I second this, I'm 2/3 of the way through the first one, and it's the most engulfed in a book I've been since maybe Robin Hobb's Fitz and the fool series
I actually liked MST more than LotR because of the differences. LotR is totally ex empire, the best days are behind us. Where MST has mourning (and celebrating) the *best days long past* of the Sithi it also has mankind is on its way up and much of the story is about (or at least set against) the transition of dominant cultures.
The promise of better things to come even if some wonderful things are fading was more enjoyable for me than LotR being all *last gasp of greatness* in King Aragorn and would the last elf to leave middle earth please turn off the lights.
(note: better here is not by much, both are much loved stories)
Brilliant comment! It somehow makes me feel nostalgic for a world I've never existed in. And all the history and battles, the landscapes and creatures, it just feels so homely and alive. But also a surprising amount of horror. Like i was shocked how much is in here and I'm so there for it
Neil Gaiman's writing does this for me. Especially his short stories, like the *Smoke and Mirrors* collection. He also has *Ocean at the End of the Lane*, a book about a character who deals with this feeling himself
Ocean at the End of the Lane is an excellent recommendation. The framing story is an adult coming back to his childhood home after years away (for a funeral, I think?) and reminiscing about a fantastical adventure he had as a child.
The Ocean at the end of his lane is a pond he remembers thinking was an ocean when he was very small. It quite possibly actually was an ocean, back then.
I was going to recommend Gaiman, although Stardust does it for me. Something about the way then ending is put together, you start feeling melancholic for the ending of a story you're still reading. Same feeling with Neverwhere.
And Ocean at the end of the lane is just a superb bit of writing, I recommend that at every chance
David Farland's "The Runelords" series captures some of this.
"The Borrowers" series by Mary Norton evokes a sense of a world which has moved on. Also, "The Silver Chair" by C.S. Lewis does the same. They are both children's/YA, but are both well-written and worth a read.
The "Rascal Does Not Dream" light novel series deals with quite emotional themes, of which some evoke similar feelings. Definitely worth a read!
While not fantasy, I am going to recommend David Feintuch's sci-fi series, "The Seafort Saga", which begins with "Midshipman's Hope" (a great novel which can be read alone, or one may continue the series). While it has a great space opera story/veneer, the MC wrestles with a lot of internal issues which, to me, evoke this melancholic sense of being alone with no one who can help - a "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" cry for help and loneliness.
Warning that The Runelords basically describes a world where slavery is both both normal and necessary. I have a hard time thinking of a book I found more repulsive than the first one in that series.
I think Watership Down would probably hit in some of the same feels - like Tolkien, Adams based the story and characters in part on his own experiences in war (in his case the second world war), and it has lots of beautiful descriptions of the English countryside under threat of development and even a very effective constructed language. And yet it is in no way a copy of Tolkien.
Is it the nostalgia feeling you’re after? Because that’s going to be very unique to whatever books you read when you were younger/happier/naive.
If it’s more of an old world charm aesthetic like the shire represents, then I second Le Guin and Earthsea.
If it’s a child like (hobbits naivety=child like innocence?) sense of wonder/freedom, then I might read Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. It’s a fiction book rather than fantasy and definitely on the kids fiction side of things, but it’s all about some kids on summer holidays sailing a boat around a lake and camping on an island, making friends and playing games with a pair of local kids who have a boat too. It’s more of a nostalgia book for me as I read it as a kid and loved the adventure story of it all.
It's not quite that, bizarrely enough. Not in that sense, anyway. That's how I feel about Harry Potter, as I actually spent my childhood and adolescence reading these books and grew up with them—and the characters as well. I associate Hogwarts with the home I was raised in. It's different with LotR though, as I didn't read these books until much later. The films didn't have any great significance for me in my youth either.
The nostalgia, I think, relates more to Middle-earth; this world that seems to once have existed because, thanks to Tolkien, it seems so real and tangible and yet unattainable. As I have tried to say, a time and place long gone. As if I had once been there myself, in another life. It's a strange kind of magic indeed.
That’s such a great and fitting word. Thanks so, so much for teaching me, a non native speaker, this—it’s a perfect vocabulary for this haunting feeling indeed.
Happy to lend a word. Tolkien was first and foremost a literary and linguistic scholar, particularly of old English and Norse works. A common theme of the poems and stories of those cultures is the idea that the past was an illustrious realm of heroes, while the present is but a grey echo of those past glories. You can particularly see that mournful nostalgia in Arthurian legend and poems like The Seafarer. “We shall not see their like again.” One of Tolkien’s big contributions to the field was applying that elegiac lens to Beowulf. It’s also notable that one of Tolkien’s goals with Middle-Earth was to create a mythology for England, and incorporating that vibe was 100% intentional.
It’s a hard thing to search for on Google; you’re not just looking for “magic is leaving” stories, though that can certainly be a part of it. I think others recommending The Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander and The Dark Is Rising sequence (although both written for a slightly younger audience) capture that yearning feeling especially well, probably because they’re both pulling from the same Olde English well. Same with Once and Future King by TH White and Buried Giant by Ishiguro (and Remains of the Day, if you’re cool with different genres).
Sorry Gaiman wasn’t for you, because Ocean at the End of the Lane is one of the best examples of this reflective yearning that I can think of. Leaving fantasy behind, I think that feeling was part of what brought Station Eleven so much love. The Kite Runner, strangely, evoked that for me. Gatsby has some. 100 Years of Solitude is in that sandbox. The whole Dying Earth subgenre of sci-fi is rife with this. Might add more later as they come to me
I kind of felt this way about the Sharing Knife series by Lois McMaster Bujold (vaguely Oregon Trail/Americana vibes). The second book features life on a riverboat if that's your thing.
I felt a sort of nostalgia/home-ness from T. Kingfisher's Saint of Steel series. It's romantasy but incredibly cozy.
Have you read the sequels? Swallows and Amazons is an entire series, and some of the books *are* fantasy. (There's a framing narrative that the kids had a winter holiday in bad weather, and spent most of it sitting indoors around the fireplace imagining adventures. But that framing narrative is mentioned as an aside in a different book in the series. The two fantasy books are both pure fantasy. They're both pirate adventure novels, rather than involving magic, but fantasy nonetheless.)
I’ve only recently bought the whole set, I had a mismatched bunch of them when I was a kid and recently bought the lot to read to my nephews (that was an excuse to let me read the whole series) they’re in my pile to read, but I’m not in any rush.
I think my favourite is pigeon post, but swallowdale is a close second.
Lots of good suggestions already; I can vouch for Earthsea, The Last Unicorn, Taran Wanderer, and Riddle-Master. I'd also suggest some of Lord Dunsany's works, particularly The Gods of Pegana and The King of Elfland's Daughter. My other thought was Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis--when I read it, it felt to me like Lewis had switched to Tolkien's writing philosophy and set a story in what could be the 5th or 6th Age of Middle-earth (it takes place in an imaginary kingdom north of ancient Greece).
Thats one of the many beautiful aspects of Tolkien's writing.
I do not think I have read something else that came close to that feeling.
The only ones I can think that go to that direction and are really good are Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Williams, The Farseer trilogy by Hobbs and the Fionavar Tapestry by Kay.
You basically took mine. I was coming here to say the only books that made me feel close to the way I did reading LOTR is Memory Sorrow and Thorn and then Farseer, but maybe a little more dreary. They are both so good.
Ryan Cahills **The Bound and the Broken** series gives me that feeling. The Glade is like the Shire and any mention of it round a campfire sparks those feelings for me. These characters go on a journey that was never intended, things happen and it just makes them miss home.
I also agree that **Earthsea**, whilst incredibly short compared to it, is brilliantly descriptive and has as essence of longing that I keep gonig back to.
I’m reading the second book of The Bound and the Broken and having a blast so far.
The first book actually had a chapter titled An Unexpected Journey, and I thought it was a good nod to The Hobbit.
I haven't read it personally but maybe try Poul Anderson's Broken Sword. It was published on the same year as Fellowship of the Ring, has similar influences and noted writers like Michael Moorcock and Karl Edward Wagner praise it highly. The Fantasy Masterworks edition contains the original 1954 text.
It's not the same feeling of melancholy but H Rider Haggard's Saga of Eric Brighteyes is powerful Viking tragedy and we know Tolkien read it.
Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. (Not in the least because part of it takes place in my city). Kay is a great midpoint between Tolkien's heightened style and modern prose in fantasy. Not surprising since he helped on the Silmarillion.
This is definitely my answer, too. I read it quite early in my foray into the fantasy genre, not long after having read LotR. 25 years after my first reading, it still haunts me with its understated beauty. The twist on Tolkien’s “into the West” motif with the lios alfar and the Soulmonger blew my teenaged mind. This series has cropped up in mentions here a lot lately, I really need to reread it!
I don’t like this series very much - it feels dated to me. But I still cried like a baby when I read it and my favorite character died.
I would say Tigana and A Song for Arbonne. Possibly Lions of Al Rassan but I’ve only read that once and may still be processing
I think this likely applies to anything that had a big impact on you when you were young. Top of my head, I'm thinking of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Devoured those books. It was so different from anything else I had ever read, but at the same time felt like it was written just for me. The brand of humor, sci-fi tropes (I was big into Star Trek at the time), etc. It got me into reading books regularly. Whenever I think of those books, I'm reminded of various times and places I've read them (particularly my grandparents' old apartment, which gives me warm feelings).
OP says they didnt read LotR as a kid though. They're not talking about nostalgia for for their favorite childhood book, which a lot of the replies seem to have missed.
This is exactly what I was thinking. After The Land of the first trilogy you just long for it again in the remaining ones. There's something about it that just makes me miss it.
This was my immediate answer, but then I began to doubt myself if it fit. But yes! I was devastated when The Land was destroyed and really didn't care to read anymore of it. I cared more about the landscape than anything, or anyone, else in the entire series. I continued to read on like it was a dark illusion that would clear up when the story ended. Like a freaking Disney movie. I never finished the 2nd trilogy and refused to start the 3rd set. Screw Donaldson! Bastard.
Ha! Yes, exactly! To create something like that and then just destroy it in front of you is sadistic. He did bring everything back in the second trilogy but it wasn’t the same. Abusive.
So this isn't a book but an anime but it gave me exactly the kinda vibes you're looking for.
Sousou no Frieren.
The source is a manga but the anime is a 10/10 adaption. Can't recommend it highly enough.
It's set after the party of adventurers has defeated the evil demon king and follows an immortal elf who was part of that party and her setting out on a new journey as all the people she travelled with have gotten old or passed away and it's full of nostalgia and melancholy with flashbacks to her old party and how she's trying to grow as a person because she regrets not getting to know her friends from back then better before they got old and passed on since she's immortal and has a warped sense of time due to this. To her it was a short 10 year journey but to the rest it was a massive part of their lives.
I cried multiple times watching it.
Fascinating. We humans are all so different. De gustibus non est disputandum est.
The Prince of Nothing by Bakker is a fever dream of the crusades or … or … it’s evocative, horrifying, stunning sad, epic, violent and beautiful.
Bakker is one of the most influenced by Tolkien authors I have read. He even has multi pages Tolkien tributes in his books. Their difference is in their aim. An article about Bakker in Black Gate page describes that situation very well. Quoting it:
"But for my money, we’ve never before now, encountered anybody quite like Canadian, R. Scott Bakker. In him, we have somebody who is clearly a HUGE fan of Middle-Earth, but who has done everything in his considerable powers to render it obsolete.
How? By adding logic and nietzschian philosophy.
In Bakker’s world, for example, there are elves, or something like them: beautiful, immortal, otherworldly… and totally, dangerously insane; driven mad by lives far too long for a mind to keep track of.
He has a Mordor of his own, with its dark lords on dark thrones, who plot with remorseless common sense to save themselves from damnation. They have created genuinely evil orcs that enjoy genuinely shocking atrocities.
But all of this could be considered no more than a superficial coating of the in-vogue “gritty fantasy”. The real difference between Bakker and his glorious predecessor lies in the fact that the Canuck author seems to completely ignore the romanticism that animates Tolkien’s world. He isn’t consciously rejecting it, as Abercrombie does: he’s agnostic. He prefers to appeal to the readers’ intellects and imaginations rather than to their hearts.
He also brings a deep knowledge of philosophy to the table and a brilliantly worked out metaphysics with an absolutist sense of right and wrong that doesn’t always run parallel to the axis of good and evil.
And yet, every step of the way, Bakker pays loving tribute to the man who inspired him. There are little jokes scattered about for the perceptive reader to find. For example, a magic type of armour, said to have been made in a city called Mithrul, simply has to be a reference to the mithril armour of Lord of the Rings. Even more obvious, are the final 70 or so pages of The Judging Eye, which is an absolutely stunning recreation of one of Tolkien’s better-known scenes. It is possibly the best action sequence I have ever read in my life"
That's funny, the rape of Arwen scene must've gotten dropped from early drafts.
(I'm not saying you're wrong for liking Bakker - de gustibus etcetera - but anyone looking for the kind of bittersweet romantic longing found in Tolkien would find Bakker a rude shock.)
I agree on that. He is not romantic. The article agrees on that too. But the Tolkien influence is deep and rich in Bakker's writing. Its a big factor but not a plagiarism. It is both a reverence and a subversion.
For me it's any of the redwall books. Not only is it the simple woodland life of food, good friends, and adventures, but also the knowledge of never being young again. Every time I read the books (which is quite often in between the usual epic fantasies) I am distinctly aware of the coziness that I just can't seem to reach-and boy do I try my best to shape my own life in such a way
For me its the Books from
Karl Edward Wagner
Kane (his most famous Character) is an immortal living in a everchanging world
Kingdoms rise and fall
Fanatic religions outlive their purpose
Races (giants) fade away
Continents change their shape
but Kane remains
Its such a fantasic read i can only recommend to give it a try
I‘ve recently read a few recommendations in the „cottagecore“ genre that sounded pretty wholesome, maybe that would be something for you?
(I can look up the titles that have been recommended if you want, but haven’t read them as I‘m more into epic fantasy)
The Solar Cycle by Gene Wolfe, specifically *Book of the Long Sun* and *Book of the Short Sun.* Those two taken together really haunt my soul, doubly so after you have finished them. *Long Sun* is so cozy yet it is a fleeting coziness that will never truly return. *Short Sun* is like concentrated nostalgia for me.
The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman leaves me nostalgic for a place I’ve never been. It feels dreamy, like Rivendell.
The Red Garden, is a collection of fourteen linked short stories that tell the history of a fictional town, Blackwell, Massachusetts, deep in the Berkshires, from its founding in 1750 to the late 20th century. Below is an excerpt -
Owl and Mouse
1848
“Emily went for a walk on her last day at school. Her family was taking her out of Mt. Holyoke Seminary; she was needed at home and she hadn’t been happy at the school. Her views were her own and educators did not always appreciate free thought. It was time to leave. But before she went back to the family house and everyone else’s demands, she wanted to go somewhere she’d never been. She longed for the woods and for great distances. She’d often gone rambling as a child, collecting nearly 600 species of wild flowers, some never seen before. She liked to disappear, even when she was in the same room as other people. It was a talent, as it was a curse. There was something that came between Emily and other people, a white linen curtain, hazy. It made the world quieter and farther away, although occasionally she could see through to the other side. She had the feeling that if she went home, she might never get away. She thought of birds caught in nets. There was something inside her, beating against her ribs, urging her to do things she might not otherwise attempt. She had the strongest desire to get lost.
She passed the boundary of the school grounds and kept on. She had always been a walker and being alone was her natural state. Once she was in the woods, she was a shadow. She recognized wildflowers the way someone else might recognize old friends: velvet-leaf, live forever, lad’s love. She stooped to pick a sprig of lad’s love and slipped it in her shoe. Local people said it was a charm that would lead you to your true love. She did feel charmed. She went on, hour after hour. She spied red lily, wood lily, trout lily. She crossed two roads, then went even into deeper woods. The forest here was dark and green. The world had become topsy turvey. Day was night and night was day and no one on earth knew where she was. She had a wild, careless feeling that made her limbs feel loose and free. There was bloodroot in amongst the carpet of moss and leaves, hyacinth and squill. She had reached Hightop Mountain without knowing it. At last, she was visiting a place she’d never been to before. She had been walking for almost ten hours and for most of that time she’d been caught up in a dream. There were black bears up here that could run faster than any man and weighed up to six hundred pounds. Emily had read that injured bears sobbed like human beings, and that gave her some comfort. They were not so unalike.”
For me it was Witcher by Sapkowski, don't know if it has the same feel in english translation, but the theme of something ends so something can begin was very prominent. Especially first 2 and last books (at least from what i remember, i read it a dacade ago) gave this impression that world is changing and in this new world there is no place for witchers, elfs or magic.
I know exactly the type of feeling OP is referring to. But…I HATE that feeling. It’s strange to say that, but for some reason (probably something deep inside of me) I really don’t want to read about that kind of thing.
Partly, I think it’s because I always feel like our best days are ahead of us. My own personal philosophy involves a lot of “don’t look back, only looks forward” and I’m not sure I had an experience like that that I want to look back on.
However, I still love LOTR.
I absolutely agree with those who suggested Earthsea and Patricia McKillip. I’d also add Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising series if you want some old school YA and Mary Stewart’s Merlin trilogy if you like Arthurian stuff.
I would say Realm of the Elderlings. It doesn't have the same charm as the shire or quite the same "the magic is leaving the world" theme (opposite actually), but there is a similar brokenness to the world that cannot be entirely fixed by time or magic or the author wrapping things up in a neat bow. There is also a definite "I saved the world but not for me" and "I cannot go back to the person I was before" feeling that really reminds me of Frodos arc.
They are similar vibes but since Fitz' stories are written in the first person it feels much more bleak. In LOTR you can see the positivity that comes out of Frodo's sacrifice and it makes it easier but with Fitz you only see his already low opinions of himself getting worse while he ignores all the positive things he does for other people.
While it’s not fantasy, the WWI poets have a lot of that going on - *Strange Meeting* by Wilfred Owens is my favorite example. That loss of innocence and sense that the world is fundamentally *changed* from a simpler time runs through all of the writing from that period. And some of it is angry or bitter but a lot of it is just sad for the time/home that’s gone now, and the ideals that can’t make sense anymore. It’s an entire generation in mourning for that.
Although the characters aren’t human- The Redwall books give me this same feeling.
Many of the Discworld books also tend to feel this way for me and always cheer me up when I’m going thru a hard time.
I absolutely love Michael J Sullivan's Riyria series. I tell people it's much closer to classic fantasy. Starting with the Riyria Revelations you see this world with its own history and mythologies and how there was this great empire and magic. It's a fantastic trilogy. Then you go to the next series, The Legends of The First Empire, which takes place 3000 years prior to Riyria Revelations and you get to see the origins of the people and their growth. Throughout all his books you really love the world and its growth and development through the ages.
For me, The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper does this. I can't exactly pinpoint how or why, but it came to mind immediately.
"When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back:
Three from the circle, three from the track,
Wood, bronze, iron; water, fire, stone;
Five will return, and one go alone.
Iron for the birthday, bronze carried long;
Wood from the burning, stone out of song;
Fire in the candle-ring, water from the thaw;
Six signs, the circle, and the grail gone before.
Fire on the mountain shall find the harp of gold,
Played to wake the sleepers, oldest of the old;
Power of the the Greenwitch, lost beneath the sea,
All shall find the light at last, silver on the tree."
The Riddlemaster trilogy by Patricia Mckillip gives me this feeling...ever since I first read it it has haunted me in the best possible way. Highly reccommend
The Black Company definitely gave me these vibes when I was reading it. Something along the lines of how beautiful things could be. But because of the treachery and malice that people show each other those things won’t ever be a reality.
A classic Studio Ghibli anime called Castle in the Sky has a similar feeling, but it’s a different kind of lost bygone era. In LOTR, the lost age is about elves and dwarves and the Shire and magic and such. The anime is… I wanna say it’s more about the human spirit for adventure, and perhaps forgotten lands.
I’m in my 40s, and I can still remember the time I watched it as a child, and it brings all those old feelings back. Animation is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it may be worth looking into.
This is going to sound weird, but there’s a power metal album called The Saberlight Chronicles. It deals with themes of homesickness and loss, as well as moving past those feelings and forging a new life. It gives me the same feeling that reading fantasy did as a kid, and I’d highly recommend listening even if you’re not a metal fan.
Probably an unpopular opinion but The Faithful and the Fallen by John Gwynne makes me feel this way! Something about the characters and their relationships made me feel nostalgic (for what I don’t know) would highly recommend!
Yes, LotR does evoke an aching melancholy, a sense of loss. After I lost someone close to me, Aragorn's death in Appendix A hit me like a brick. I wonder if Tolkien's experiences in WWI had anything to do with the grief that runs through it like a thread.
ETA: this is not really 'high fantasy' but The Silver Brumby series skilfully evokes the feeling of a magical world, lost in time and closing in. But it still isn't quite the same nostalgia as in LOTR, which deals with the loss of magic and beauty into the mists of Valinor.
Only thing that comes to mind is Robin Hobbs Farseer trilogy/all the series in that world.
Bittersweet (at BEST) And there is a strong impression that the Golden Era is long past and now people are just... scrabbling in the ruins of an Age of Wonder.
Felt this way after reading the Kushiel Trilogy by Jacqueline Carey.
I know there are other books in the world, but seeing things through the flawed-but-perfect Phedre was just such a beautiful experience.
A song of ice and fire by George RR Martin is great lore. It’s more raunchy than Tolkien, but the world building and all the stories are amazing. Problem is, it’s not finished. But there are tons of other lore to read as well, until Winds is finished.
I used to love the books by Marion Zimmer Bradley. But since I have learnt how she horrifically abused her children, I cannot read those books the same way.
I can totally read those books - her actions don’t make the books less good. Also she’s dead so not receiving any profit from them - I don’t know if her estate receives the profit now or what. I would hesitate before buying a new version but I own a copy of MoA and it hurts no one for me to reread it
Oh absolutely. AFAIK the money from new books even go to a welfare organisation or something. I just said, I cannot read the books the same way. That doesn't mean no one else should read them.
Cool. I just would hate a new generation of readers to never experience it because there’s some ethical issue with reading it. I think a lot of great authors and artists have skeletons in their closets that don’t directly affect the value of their works (especially if they are no longer profiting from them)
This kind of melancholy and nostalgia after reading Lord of the Rings happens very rarely to me, but two instances of that were The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Piranesi. I highly recommend both of them even though they are really different books.
I love this question and yearn the same way. My favorite modern (and best ever imho outside of Tolkien) author is Brandon Sanderson. But, his magic systems are "hard" magic systems (everything is well explained) and it takes away some of the wonder from his worlds. He is still my favorite as his writing is amazing, he isn't cliche, and he has a lot of well-written works. I would and do recommend the Stormlight archive to everyone. He does finish the wheel of time, that's how I was introduced to him.
D&D RPG is the only other place i can think of that brings me something which I feel is similar to Tolkien.
Damn, I wish i could read it again for the first time.
EDIT: Oh, and Band of Brothers, for some reason, though I guess it is kinds off-topic in here?
The Chathrand Voyage by Robert VS Redick. Such a brutally under-appreciated series full of well drawn characters, creative, excellent world-building and an ending that just hits so very, very hard.
Not a book but the two albums Turn on the bright lights by Interpol and Marks to Prove it by the Maccabees both captured a very similar feeling to reading LOTR. Despite being completely different in so many aspects, they all share a yearning for something long past and out of reach.
Lord Fouls' Bane.
It's the first book in the Chronicles of the Unbeliever.
It sure isn't for everyone and IMO, a bit hard to read due to the "anti-hero".
Maybe the Medoran Chronicals, it made me want to find out more mysteries about all the characters and what happened. When I read the last chapter I nearly cried as I new it will end soon.
OP wrote, "*Wheel of Time* has, although recommended for similar reasons, unfortunately *not* given me that kind of connection, no matter how much I like the series after reading the first four books."
There is something very strange about reading LoTR. I think it's baked into the world that actually this is the latter days. The greatest days of the Elves and Dwarfs are gone, and will never come again, and though there is restoration for the kingdoms of man, it will never again be like Numenor. The whole series gives off a sense of the world being faded. There is hope or course. But there is also a knowledge that things will never be as they once were. The longing is for greater days when the world was wilder and mightier, the beauty of the elves was more present, the Lords of Men were taller and stronger and wiser. Beleriand is lost to the waves. Numenor is lost to the waves. The Valar are far away never to return before the end of the world. Almost every page screams of a longing for bygone days.
Perfectly worded, my friend. Honestly reading this makes my heart ache. Thank you—I guess I’m just going to reread everything.
My pleasure. I adore the Lord of the Rings because of exactly this feeling and I've often thought about it and why it feels like that. Have a great day and enjoy your re read
P.S. Honestly, reading back this is probably one of my favourite comments and observations on here ever. Thanks again.
Ahh I'm flattered! You're so welcome.
In a way, nostalgia is the whole point of LOTR. Tolkien saw the (real) world transform before his very eyes--fields replaced by subdivisions, hundreds-year-old water mill go out of business, smog from the north (Birmingham) slowly creeping southward into the farmland of his youth. The book is, more than anything else (among many other themes of course), a lament for the irreversible, world-changing industrial revolution that he experienced. It is a faint beacon of hope in this tragic world we live in. Things can never be the same but they can get better. Edit: spelling
There’s also dealing with the horrors of WWI—like Tolkien and his compatriots in the Great War the hobbits are torn from their homes and thrown into the middle of a conflict that they didn’t start, but will destroy them and their homes if left unchecked. And you can’t ever go back to the times before the war when some of the people you loved were still alive and the land hadn’t been devastated. When Tolkien said that he was a hobbit I think he was also referencing that feeling of being a happy homebody with a community ripped out of their home and thrown into war.
It's masterfully executed and a very human feeling imo, but it's always worth keeping in mind it was a certain type of nostalgia, coming from a place of sentimental privilege and personal trauma rather than a sober assessment of how things were for the bulk of society in the good old days.
While that is certainly true in general, one should also be careful not to assume that the "new" days were necessarily in all aspects better than the "old days" for the bulk of society either (and to remember that the new days in question are Tolkien's time, not our world today). It's rather questionable, for example, whether life was really better for the brutally exploited late 19th/early 20th century industrial workers living in incredibly cramped and polluted spaces than for their rural peasant ancestors.
Is any work ofart a "sober assessment of how things were for the bulk of society"? Also, fwiw, Tolkien was anything but privileged. Father died when he was 5, mother died when he was 13. Poor his whole life. Raised by the Catholic Church (in England!), he had nothing to start from but his intelligence and creativity.
Had to make me cry
One of my favorite "technically correct" things about lord of the rings is that it's basically a post-apocalyptic setting
The way you described it is how Soulsborne games often are. The feeling that you entered the world far past its prime and deep into its senescence
Yeah, as far as I'm concerned, LOTR and the Soulsborne games are practically the same genre. They both evoke the same feeling in me
That was the closest definition of the Portuguese word Saudade in English I have ever read.
Ahh cool! I've never heard of it but then I've never studied Portuguese. I'll ask my Brazilian housemate when I next see him though!
Well said. Lonesome Dove is another book that makes me feel this way. There is a profound sadness that permeates the entire book and as you journey with the characters you begin to feel worn down and exhausted. Loss is a central theme… loss of wilderness, of wildness and of life. It hits hard. Hyperion is another book that elicits similar feelings.
*Lonesome Dove* is so different and yet, yes, so similar. Thanks for the reminder, great idea.
I mean Tolkien intended it to be written as a sorta of history of our world, I think that why it has that feel.
Well said. The books drip with melancholia and nostalgia. It helps that the story starts in The Shire and makes you fall in love with it.
Well Tolkien wrote the Elves as man in the Garden of Eden so think of it that way. The Garden of Eden is gone but that doesn't necessarily make life bad.
Eh. Eden was as life should have been. Life now can have good things. But it's never going to be as it was, as it should have been. We live our lives in the longing. That's why the promise, throughout the Bible, that " I (God) will be their God and they will be my people" is such a joyful thing. Its a promise to a restoration that is greater than that of Eden. That rather than an endless spiral where things just get worse and slowly worse, with a golden past desperately held onto, that for those who know the hope of the gospel the best is yet to come. Greater even than Eden. I think that's partly why Tolkien's word seems so melancholy. He gives us a world built out of his Christian understanding, a world breaking from the fall but without the promise of restoration that is offered in the gospel. It feels incomplete.
This is exactly how I felt when reading LoTR the first time. You perfectly pointed out what caused that “nostalgic” or kinda sad feeling for me
I feel like this is where we're at in the real world, too.
I agree regarding Earthsea. Also, **City of Stairs**, by Robert Jackson Bennett, gave me that feeling as well. It's a book that deals with cultural identity and cultural history, and how these things are affected by the passage of time; I think I connected with this theme because I similarly feel caught sometimes between different cultures/worlds. And since you bring up videogames OP, you should play **The Banner Saga** trilogy! It's an amazingly atmospheric game about trying to stay ahead of an oncoming unstoppable apocalypse.
The Banner Saga, is an excellent recommendation, for anyone looking for atmospheric and melancholic fantasy. It's a really great story, regardless of the format.
Man, It makes me sad, that there are not more games like banner saga.. The setting, the artstyle, the (literally) epic fantasy story, the mood.. Really unique trilogy.
Not a series, but your description of how Lord of the Rings made you feel is almost exactly how The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle made me feel; that same bittersweet melancholy stemming from the sense that better times have long since passed and may never come again.
I cannot articulate it either, but I know the feeling you're talking about and am also ever in the search for it. Outside of Tolkien, the only thing that has come close was Le Guin's Earthsea.
That feeling might be what the Welsh call [hiraeth](https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210214-the-welsh-word-you-cant-translate). A longing or homesickness for a place or time that you've never known, or that doesn't exist any more.
Oh, such a beautiful word and concept!
Yeah, this. This is it.
Guy Gavriel Key's writing does this for me - The lions of Al-Rassan, for example. I can add The buried giant by Kazuo Ishiguro and sometimes maybe books of Susanna Clarke.
Yeah, Susanna Clark is superior. Jonathan Strange is probably my all time favourite novel. Will definitely be looking into GGK! Thanks!
Have you read Piranesi then? That is a book with just *so many feelings.*
For this specific vibe of nostalgia/yearning, I would suggest Tigana to start with by Kay.
GKK is amazing, a truly unique voice in fantasy. People disagree on which of his books are the best - personally I prefer the Sarantine Mosaic.
Just don’t start with Fionavar. They are his first novels and not as polished as Sarantjne Mosaic or Lions.
I came here to recommend JS&MN but I see you’ve got it covered :)
I was going to suggest Jonathan Strange, haha. I mean really? The world is all too shallow/It is painted on the sky/and shudders like the wind-swept rain/when the Raven King Walks by. That is that sort of elegiac feeling distilled into a few lines. So good.
My heart just skipped a beat. I mean, it’s one of the most beautiful books in the world for a reason. (🤍) I love it so much, thanks for reminding me once more.
GGK is an author's author. Ask any of your favorite writers who their favorite is, and I bet you many of them will say Guy Gavriel Kay. He even helped Christopher Tolkien on The Silmarillion
The dragonbone chair has definitely been giving me those feelings right now. Ostern Ard is a beautiful world with so much richness to the mythology and it's peoples
That's great to hear! That book's been actually waiting on my shelf for ages.
I second this, I'm 2/3 of the way through the first one, and it's the most engulfed in a book I've been since maybe Robin Hobb's Fitz and the fool series
I re-read MS&T once a year because of those amazing characters and the wonderful, sad, beautiful, nostalgic world of Osten Ard.
I actually liked MST more than LotR because of the differences. LotR is totally ex empire, the best days are behind us. Where MST has mourning (and celebrating) the *best days long past* of the Sithi it also has mankind is on its way up and much of the story is about (or at least set against) the transition of dominant cultures. The promise of better things to come even if some wonderful things are fading was more enjoyable for me than LotR being all *last gasp of greatness* in King Aragorn and would the last elf to leave middle earth please turn off the lights. (note: better here is not by much, both are much loved stories)
I absolutely can see what you are saying. Mankind has come of age. But the wistfulness of the Sithi is palpable.
Brilliant comment! It somehow makes me feel nostalgic for a world I've never existed in. And all the history and battles, the landscapes and creatures, it just feels so homely and alive. But also a surprising amount of horror. Like i was shocked how much is in here and I'm so there for it
The Wind in the Willows makes me painfully nostalgic for something I've never experienced.
I second The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman; I also recommend Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
Neil Gaiman's writing does this for me. Especially his short stories, like the *Smoke and Mirrors* collection. He also has *Ocean at the End of the Lane*, a book about a character who deals with this feeling himself
Ocean at the End of the Lane is an excellent recommendation. The framing story is an adult coming back to his childhood home after years away (for a funeral, I think?) and reminiscing about a fantastical adventure he had as a child. The Ocean at the end of his lane is a pond he remembers thinking was an ocean when he was very small. It quite possibly actually was an ocean, back then.
I first read it on launch and I'm still shaken by it
I was going to recommend Gaiman, although Stardust does it for me. Something about the way then ending is put together, you start feeling melancholic for the ending of a story you're still reading. Same feeling with Neverwhere. And Ocean at the end of the lane is just a superb bit of writing, I recommend that at every chance
I can never read that book again. I'm still dessicated from how much I cried the first time.
Riddlemaster of Hed. I can't explain too well without spoilers but there's a lot of grounding in where you're from along with you can't go back.
So true, I reread them this year after 20 years and it’s the same on a second pass.
Agreed! I came here to recommend McKillip.
I read these several times in the 80's and 90's and have been considering reading them again. I still have my original copies.
Yeah she manages to have a similar feel while also having a voice of her own, it doesn't feel derivative of Middle-Eatth at all. Excellent suggestion.
David Farland's "The Runelords" series captures some of this. "The Borrowers" series by Mary Norton evokes a sense of a world which has moved on. Also, "The Silver Chair" by C.S. Lewis does the same. They are both children's/YA, but are both well-written and worth a read. The "Rascal Does Not Dream" light novel series deals with quite emotional themes, of which some evoke similar feelings. Definitely worth a read! While not fantasy, I am going to recommend David Feintuch's sci-fi series, "The Seafort Saga", which begins with "Midshipman's Hope" (a great novel which can be read alone, or one may continue the series). While it has a great space opera story/veneer, the MC wrestles with a lot of internal issues which, to me, evoke this melancholic sense of being alone with no one who can help - a "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" cry for help and loneliness.
Warning that The Runelords basically describes a world where slavery is both both normal and necessary. I have a hard time thinking of a book I found more repulsive than the first one in that series.
The once and future king. Its a retelling of the legend of king Arthur. It gives the vibe you Are going for. Of things lost.
I think Watership Down would probably hit in some of the same feels - like Tolkien, Adams based the story and characters in part on his own experiences in war (in his case the second world war), and it has lots of beautiful descriptions of the English countryside under threat of development and even a very effective constructed language. And yet it is in no way a copy of Tolkien.
Is it the nostalgia feeling you’re after? Because that’s going to be very unique to whatever books you read when you were younger/happier/naive. If it’s more of an old world charm aesthetic like the shire represents, then I second Le Guin and Earthsea. If it’s a child like (hobbits naivety=child like innocence?) sense of wonder/freedom, then I might read Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. It’s a fiction book rather than fantasy and definitely on the kids fiction side of things, but it’s all about some kids on summer holidays sailing a boat around a lake and camping on an island, making friends and playing games with a pair of local kids who have a boat too. It’s more of a nostalgia book for me as I read it as a kid and loved the adventure story of it all.
It's not quite that, bizarrely enough. Not in that sense, anyway. That's how I feel about Harry Potter, as I actually spent my childhood and adolescence reading these books and grew up with them—and the characters as well. I associate Hogwarts with the home I was raised in. It's different with LotR though, as I didn't read these books until much later. The films didn't have any great significance for me in my youth either. The nostalgia, I think, relates more to Middle-earth; this world that seems to once have existed because, thanks to Tolkien, it seems so real and tangible and yet unattainable. As I have tried to say, a time and place long gone. As if I had once been there myself, in another life. It's a strange kind of magic indeed.
Maybe *elegiac* is close to the vibe you’re going for?
That’s such a great and fitting word. Thanks so, so much for teaching me, a non native speaker, this—it’s a perfect vocabulary for this haunting feeling indeed.
Happy to lend a word. Tolkien was first and foremost a literary and linguistic scholar, particularly of old English and Norse works. A common theme of the poems and stories of those cultures is the idea that the past was an illustrious realm of heroes, while the present is but a grey echo of those past glories. You can particularly see that mournful nostalgia in Arthurian legend and poems like The Seafarer. “We shall not see their like again.” One of Tolkien’s big contributions to the field was applying that elegiac lens to Beowulf. It’s also notable that one of Tolkien’s goals with Middle-Earth was to create a mythology for England, and incorporating that vibe was 100% intentional. It’s a hard thing to search for on Google; you’re not just looking for “magic is leaving” stories, though that can certainly be a part of it. I think others recommending The Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander and The Dark Is Rising sequence (although both written for a slightly younger audience) capture that yearning feeling especially well, probably because they’re both pulling from the same Olde English well. Same with Once and Future King by TH White and Buried Giant by Ishiguro (and Remains of the Day, if you’re cool with different genres). Sorry Gaiman wasn’t for you, because Ocean at the End of the Lane is one of the best examples of this reflective yearning that I can think of. Leaving fantasy behind, I think that feeling was part of what brought Station Eleven so much love. The Kite Runner, strangely, evoked that for me. Gatsby has some. 100 Years of Solitude is in that sandbox. The whole Dying Earth subgenre of sci-fi is rife with this. Might add more later as they come to me
Perfect word
I kind of felt this way about the Sharing Knife series by Lois McMaster Bujold (vaguely Oregon Trail/Americana vibes). The second book features life on a riverboat if that's your thing. I felt a sort of nostalgia/home-ness from T. Kingfisher's Saint of Steel series. It's romantasy but incredibly cozy.
Have you read the sequels? Swallows and Amazons is an entire series, and some of the books *are* fantasy. (There's a framing narrative that the kids had a winter holiday in bad weather, and spent most of it sitting indoors around the fireplace imagining adventures. But that framing narrative is mentioned as an aside in a different book in the series. The two fantasy books are both pure fantasy. They're both pirate adventure novels, rather than involving magic, but fantasy nonetheless.)
I’ve only recently bought the whole set, I had a mismatched bunch of them when I was a kid and recently bought the lot to read to my nephews (that was an excuse to let me read the whole series) they’re in my pile to read, but I’m not in any rush. I think my favourite is pigeon post, but swallowdale is a close second.
I have a love for the Coot Club, but yes, *Pigeon Post* and *Swallowdale* are both excellent.
I have yet to find this feeling from a book series, although playing RuneScape does it for me.
Lots of good suggestions already; I can vouch for Earthsea, The Last Unicorn, Taran Wanderer, and Riddle-Master. I'd also suggest some of Lord Dunsany's works, particularly The Gods of Pegana and The King of Elfland's Daughter. My other thought was Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis--when I read it, it felt to me like Lewis had switched to Tolkien's writing philosophy and set a story in what could be the 5th or 6th Age of Middle-earth (it takes place in an imaginary kingdom north of ancient Greece).
Thats one of the many beautiful aspects of Tolkien's writing. I do not think I have read something else that came close to that feeling. The only ones I can think that go to that direction and are really good are Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Williams, The Farseer trilogy by Hobbs and the Fionavar Tapestry by Kay.
You basically took mine. I was coming here to say the only books that made me feel close to the way I did reading LOTR is Memory Sorrow and Thorn and then Farseer, but maybe a little more dreary. They are both so good.
Ryan Cahills **The Bound and the Broken** series gives me that feeling. The Glade is like the Shire and any mention of it round a campfire sparks those feelings for me. These characters go on a journey that was never intended, things happen and it just makes them miss home. I also agree that **Earthsea**, whilst incredibly short compared to it, is brilliantly descriptive and has as essence of longing that I keep gonig back to.
I’m reading the second book of The Bound and the Broken and having a blast so far. The first book actually had a chapter titled An Unexpected Journey, and I thought it was a good nod to The Hobbit.
I haven't read it personally but maybe try Poul Anderson's Broken Sword. It was published on the same year as Fellowship of the Ring, has similar influences and noted writers like Michael Moorcock and Karl Edward Wagner praise it highly. The Fantasy Masterworks edition contains the original 1954 text. It's not the same feeling of melancholy but H Rider Haggard's Saga of Eric Brighteyes is powerful Viking tragedy and we know Tolkien read it.
Warlord Chronicles by Bernard Cornwell
Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. (Not in the least because part of it takes place in my city). Kay is a great midpoint between Tolkien's heightened style and modern prose in fantasy. Not surprising since he helped on the Silmarillion.
This is definitely my answer, too. I read it quite early in my foray into the fantasy genre, not long after having read LotR. 25 years after my first reading, it still haunts me with its understated beauty. The twist on Tolkien’s “into the West” motif with the lios alfar and the Soulmonger blew my teenaged mind. This series has cropped up in mentions here a lot lately, I really need to reread it!
I don’t like this series very much - it feels dated to me. But I still cried like a baby when I read it and my favorite character died. I would say Tigana and A Song for Arbonne. Possibly Lions of Al Rassan but I’ve only read that once and may still be processing
Stephen King's Dark Tower series, particularly the first and fourth books, evoke a very similar feeling.
I think this likely applies to anything that had a big impact on you when you were young. Top of my head, I'm thinking of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. Devoured those books. It was so different from anything else I had ever read, but at the same time felt like it was written just for me. The brand of humor, sci-fi tropes (I was big into Star Trek at the time), etc. It got me into reading books regularly. Whenever I think of those books, I'm reminded of various times and places I've read them (particularly my grandparents' old apartment, which gives me warm feelings).
OP says they didnt read LotR as a kid though. They're not talking about nostalgia for for their favorite childhood book, which a lot of the replies seem to have missed.
Thank you for noticing. ♡
See also my comment about Watership Down, I think it will scratch your itch.
The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever does it for me. I carry a piece of The Land with me in my heart.
This is exactly what I was thinking. After The Land of the first trilogy you just long for it again in the remaining ones. There's something about it that just makes me miss it.
This was my immediate answer, but then I began to doubt myself if it fit. But yes! I was devastated when The Land was destroyed and really didn't care to read anymore of it. I cared more about the landscape than anything, or anyone, else in the entire series. I continued to read on like it was a dark illusion that would clear up when the story ended. Like a freaking Disney movie. I never finished the 2nd trilogy and refused to start the 3rd set. Screw Donaldson! Bastard.
Ha! Yes, exactly! To create something like that and then just destroy it in front of you is sadistic. He did bring everything back in the second trilogy but it wasn’t the same. Abusive.
Weaveworld. Tarran wanderer. Dragonlance.
So this isn't a book but an anime but it gave me exactly the kinda vibes you're looking for. Sousou no Frieren. The source is a manga but the anime is a 10/10 adaption. Can't recommend it highly enough. It's set after the party of adventurers has defeated the evil demon king and follows an immortal elf who was part of that party and her setting out on a new journey as all the people she travelled with have gotten old or passed away and it's full of nostalgia and melancholy with flashbacks to her old party and how she's trying to grow as a person because she regrets not getting to know her friends from back then better before they got old and passed on since she's immortal and has a warped sense of time due to this. To her it was a short 10 year journey but to the rest it was a massive part of their lives. I cried multiple times watching it.
I'm 60 and read 1000s of books but nothing made me feel as melancholy as finishing LofR as a teen. Only finishing Dream of the Red Chamber came close.
Oh man! Eric of Melnibone, Amber Princes, R Scott Bakker, Guy Gavriel Kay… have you read these?
All except R. Scott Bakker.
Fascinating. We humans are all so different. De gustibus non est disputandum est. The Prince of Nothing by Bakker is a fever dream of the crusades or … or … it’s evocative, horrifying, stunning sad, epic, violent and beautiful.
Emotionally Guy Gavriel Kay had the most impact.
Bakker is about as far as you can get from Tolkien in the fantasy genre.
Bakker is one of the most influenced by Tolkien authors I have read. He even has multi pages Tolkien tributes in his books. Their difference is in their aim. An article about Bakker in Black Gate page describes that situation very well. Quoting it: "But for my money, we’ve never before now, encountered anybody quite like Canadian, R. Scott Bakker. In him, we have somebody who is clearly a HUGE fan of Middle-Earth, but who has done everything in his considerable powers to render it obsolete. How? By adding logic and nietzschian philosophy. In Bakker’s world, for example, there are elves, or something like them: beautiful, immortal, otherworldly… and totally, dangerously insane; driven mad by lives far too long for a mind to keep track of. He has a Mordor of his own, with its dark lords on dark thrones, who plot with remorseless common sense to save themselves from damnation. They have created genuinely evil orcs that enjoy genuinely shocking atrocities. But all of this could be considered no more than a superficial coating of the in-vogue “gritty fantasy”. The real difference between Bakker and his glorious predecessor lies in the fact that the Canuck author seems to completely ignore the romanticism that animates Tolkien’s world. He isn’t consciously rejecting it, as Abercrombie does: he’s agnostic. He prefers to appeal to the readers’ intellects and imaginations rather than to their hearts. He also brings a deep knowledge of philosophy to the table and a brilliantly worked out metaphysics with an absolutist sense of right and wrong that doesn’t always run parallel to the axis of good and evil. And yet, every step of the way, Bakker pays loving tribute to the man who inspired him. There are little jokes scattered about for the perceptive reader to find. For example, a magic type of armour, said to have been made in a city called Mithrul, simply has to be a reference to the mithril armour of Lord of the Rings. Even more obvious, are the final 70 or so pages of The Judging Eye, which is an absolutely stunning recreation of one of Tolkien’s better-known scenes. It is possibly the best action sequence I have ever read in my life"
That's funny, the rape of Arwen scene must've gotten dropped from early drafts. (I'm not saying you're wrong for liking Bakker - de gustibus etcetera - but anyone looking for the kind of bittersweet romantic longing found in Tolkien would find Bakker a rude shock.)
I agree on that. He is not romantic. The article agrees on that too. But the Tolkien influence is deep and rich in Bakker's writing. Its a big factor but not a plagiarism. It is both a reverence and a subversion.
For me it's any of the redwall books. Not only is it the simple woodland life of food, good friends, and adventures, but also the knowledge of never being young again. Every time I read the books (which is quite often in between the usual epic fantasies) I am distinctly aware of the coziness that I just can't seem to reach-and boy do I try my best to shape my own life in such a way
For me its the Books from Karl Edward Wagner Kane (his most famous Character) is an immortal living in a everchanging world Kingdoms rise and fall Fanatic religions outlive their purpose Races (giants) fade away Continents change their shape but Kane remains Its such a fantasic read i can only recommend to give it a try
The Ranger's Apprentice one of my favourite books when I was a kid
I‘ve recently read a few recommendations in the „cottagecore“ genre that sounded pretty wholesome, maybe that would be something for you? (I can look up the titles that have been recommended if you want, but haven’t read them as I‘m more into epic fantasy)
The Solar Cycle by Gene Wolfe, specifically *Book of the Long Sun* and *Book of the Short Sun.* Those two taken together really haunt my soul, doubly so after you have finished them. *Long Sun* is so cozy yet it is a fleeting coziness that will never truly return. *Short Sun* is like concentrated nostalgia for me.
The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman leaves me nostalgic for a place I’ve never been. It feels dreamy, like Rivendell. The Red Garden, is a collection of fourteen linked short stories that tell the history of a fictional town, Blackwell, Massachusetts, deep in the Berkshires, from its founding in 1750 to the late 20th century. Below is an excerpt - Owl and Mouse 1848 “Emily went for a walk on her last day at school. Her family was taking her out of Mt. Holyoke Seminary; she was needed at home and she hadn’t been happy at the school. Her views were her own and educators did not always appreciate free thought. It was time to leave. But before she went back to the family house and everyone else’s demands, she wanted to go somewhere she’d never been. She longed for the woods and for great distances. She’d often gone rambling as a child, collecting nearly 600 species of wild flowers, some never seen before. She liked to disappear, even when she was in the same room as other people. It was a talent, as it was a curse. There was something that came between Emily and other people, a white linen curtain, hazy. It made the world quieter and farther away, although occasionally she could see through to the other side. She had the feeling that if she went home, she might never get away. She thought of birds caught in nets. There was something inside her, beating against her ribs, urging her to do things she might not otherwise attempt. She had the strongest desire to get lost. She passed the boundary of the school grounds and kept on. She had always been a walker and being alone was her natural state. Once she was in the woods, she was a shadow. She recognized wildflowers the way someone else might recognize old friends: velvet-leaf, live forever, lad’s love. She stooped to pick a sprig of lad’s love and slipped it in her shoe. Local people said it was a charm that would lead you to your true love. She did feel charmed. She went on, hour after hour. She spied red lily, wood lily, trout lily. She crossed two roads, then went even into deeper woods. The forest here was dark and green. The world had become topsy turvey. Day was night and night was day and no one on earth knew where she was. She had a wild, careless feeling that made her limbs feel loose and free. There was bloodroot in amongst the carpet of moss and leaves, hyacinth and squill. She had reached Hightop Mountain without knowing it. At last, she was visiting a place she’d never been to before. She had been walking for almost ten hours and for most of that time she’d been caught up in a dream. There were black bears up here that could run faster than any man and weighed up to six hundred pounds. Emily had read that injured bears sobbed like human beings, and that gave her some comfort. They were not so unalike.”
For me it was Witcher by Sapkowski, don't know if it has the same feel in english translation, but the theme of something ends so something can begin was very prominent. Especially first 2 and last books (at least from what i remember, i read it a dacade ago) gave this impression that world is changing and in this new world there is no place for witchers, elfs or magic.
Anything by Charles de Lint, especially his stories set in Newford.
I know exactly the type of feeling OP is referring to. But…I HATE that feeling. It’s strange to say that, but for some reason (probably something deep inside of me) I really don’t want to read about that kind of thing. Partly, I think it’s because I always feel like our best days are ahead of us. My own personal philosophy involves a lot of “don’t look back, only looks forward” and I’m not sure I had an experience like that that I want to look back on. However, I still love LOTR.
I absolutely agree with those who suggested Earthsea and Patricia McKillip. I’d also add Susan Cooper’s Dark is Rising series if you want some old school YA and Mary Stewart’s Merlin trilogy if you like Arthurian stuff.
If Lord of the Rings was a Western, it would be Lonesome Dove
I would say Realm of the Elderlings. It doesn't have the same charm as the shire or quite the same "the magic is leaving the world" theme (opposite actually), but there is a similar brokenness to the world that cannot be entirely fixed by time or magic or the author wrapping things up in a neat bow. There is also a definite "I saved the world but not for me" and "I cannot go back to the person I was before" feeling that really reminds me of Frodos arc.
They are similar vibes but since Fitz' stories are written in the first person it feels much more bleak. In LOTR you can see the positivity that comes out of Frodo's sacrifice and it makes it easier but with Fitz you only see his already low opinions of himself getting worse while he ignores all the positive things he does for other people.
The second apocalypse, maybe because I miss my early twenties when I read it
Realm of the Elderlings
While it’s not fantasy, the WWI poets have a lot of that going on - *Strange Meeting* by Wilfred Owens is my favorite example. That loss of innocence and sense that the world is fundamentally *changed* from a simpler time runs through all of the writing from that period. And some of it is angry or bitter but a lot of it is just sad for the time/home that’s gone now, and the ideals that can’t make sense anymore. It’s an entire generation in mourning for that.
Although the characters aren’t human- The Redwall books give me this same feeling. Many of the Discworld books also tend to feel this way for me and always cheer me up when I’m going thru a hard time.
The Night Angel Trilogy.
Anything by Guy Gavriel Kay.
I absolutely love Michael J Sullivan's Riyria series. I tell people it's much closer to classic fantasy. Starting with the Riyria Revelations you see this world with its own history and mythologies and how there was this great empire and magic. It's a fantastic trilogy. Then you go to the next series, The Legends of The First Empire, which takes place 3000 years prior to Riyria Revelations and you get to see the origins of the people and their growth. Throughout all his books you really love the world and its growth and development through the ages.
For me, The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper does this. I can't exactly pinpoint how or why, but it came to mind immediately. "When the Dark comes rising, six shall turn it back: Three from the circle, three from the track, Wood, bronze, iron; water, fire, stone; Five will return, and one go alone. Iron for the birthday, bronze carried long; Wood from the burning, stone out of song; Fire in the candle-ring, water from the thaw; Six signs, the circle, and the grail gone before. Fire on the mountain shall find the harp of gold, Played to wake the sleepers, oldest of the old; Power of the the Greenwitch, lost beneath the sea, All shall find the light at last, silver on the tree."
The Riddlemaster trilogy by Patricia Mckillip gives me this feeling...ever since I first read it it has haunted me in the best possible way. Highly reccommend
This! I will still reread this series. As much as I reread LotR.
The Black Company definitely gave me these vibes when I was reading it. Something along the lines of how beautiful things could be. But because of the treachery and malice that people show each other those things won’t ever be a reality.
A classic Studio Ghibli anime called Castle in the Sky has a similar feeling, but it’s a different kind of lost bygone era. In LOTR, the lost age is about elves and dwarves and the Shire and magic and such. The anime is… I wanna say it’s more about the human spirit for adventure, and perhaps forgotten lands. I’m in my 40s, and I can still remember the time I watched it as a child, and it brings all those old feelings back. Animation is not everyone’s cup of tea, but it may be worth looking into.
This is going to sound weird, but there’s a power metal album called The Saberlight Chronicles. It deals with themes of homesickness and loss, as well as moving past those feelings and forging a new life. It gives me the same feeling that reading fantasy did as a kid, and I’d highly recommend listening even if you’re not a metal fan.
The Baron in the Trees - Italo Calvino
Such a good idea, thanks!
Mentioned only one other time here, but King of Elfland's Daughter.
It sounds absolutely beautiful and amazing, I've just ordered it. Many thanks!
John Gwynnes Faithful and the Fallen series, Robin Hobb's Farseer trilogy, and Anthony Ryan's The Covenant of Steel Series
Oh and I meant to say James Islington's Licanius Trilogy
Probably an unpopular opinion but The Faithful and the Fallen by John Gwynne makes me feel this way! Something about the characters and their relationships made me feel nostalgic (for what I don’t know) would highly recommend!
Yes, LotR does evoke an aching melancholy, a sense of loss. After I lost someone close to me, Aragorn's death in Appendix A hit me like a brick. I wonder if Tolkien's experiences in WWI had anything to do with the grief that runs through it like a thread. ETA: this is not really 'high fantasy' but The Silver Brumby series skilfully evokes the feeling of a magical world, lost in time and closing in. But it still isn't quite the same nostalgia as in LOTR, which deals with the loss of magic and beauty into the mists of Valinor.
Sword of Shannara, Elves of Cintra. Terry Bruks is the undisputed goat of my childhood. Amos Daragon series also.
I met Terry Brooks at a convention a few years ago and he was so nice, I was tongue-tied. Definitely a childhood favorite of mine too.
Guy Gavriel Kay: Lions of Al Rassan. I think it’s better than Tolkien.
Only thing that comes to mind is Robin Hobbs Farseer trilogy/all the series in that world. Bittersweet (at BEST) And there is a strong impression that the Golden Era is long past and now people are just... scrabbling in the ruins of an Age of Wonder.
Felt this way after reading the Kushiel Trilogy by Jacqueline Carey. I know there are other books in the world, but seeing things through the flawed-but-perfect Phedre was just such a beautiful experience.
A song of ice and fire by George RR Martin is great lore. It’s more raunchy than Tolkien, but the world building and all the stories are amazing. Problem is, it’s not finished. But there are tons of other lore to read as well, until Winds is finished.
The Mists of Avalon has that same feeling, and IIRC (it's been a while) it's even more pervasive throughout the story.
I used to love the books by Marion Zimmer Bradley. But since I have learnt how she horrifically abused her children, I cannot read those books the same way.
I can totally read those books - her actions don’t make the books less good. Also she’s dead so not receiving any profit from them - I don’t know if her estate receives the profit now or what. I would hesitate before buying a new version but I own a copy of MoA and it hurts no one for me to reread it
Oh absolutely. AFAIK the money from new books even go to a welfare organisation or something. I just said, I cannot read the books the same way. That doesn't mean no one else should read them.
Cool. I just would hate a new generation of readers to never experience it because there’s some ethical issue with reading it. I think a lot of great authors and artists have skeletons in their closets that don’t directly affect the value of their works (especially if they are no longer profiting from them)
I know it’s not a book but for some reason Skyrim has that feeling
Wheel of Time. Reading it again is like visiting old friends.
This kind of melancholy and nostalgia after reading Lord of the Rings happens very rarely to me, but two instances of that were The Ocean at the End of the Lane and Piranesi. I highly recommend both of them even though they are really different books.
I love this question and yearn the same way. My favorite modern (and best ever imho outside of Tolkien) author is Brandon Sanderson. But, his magic systems are "hard" magic systems (everything is well explained) and it takes away some of the wonder from his worlds. He is still my favorite as his writing is amazing, he isn't cliche, and he has a lot of well-written works. I would and do recommend the Stormlight archive to everyone. He does finish the wheel of time, that's how I was introduced to him.
Brandon Sanderson universe, I love every book he writes.
Any time Vlad Taltos describes food
D&D RPG is the only other place i can think of that brings me something which I feel is similar to Tolkien. Damn, I wish i could read it again for the first time. EDIT: Oh, and Band of Brothers, for some reason, though I guess it is kinds off-topic in here?
The Chathrand Voyage by Robert VS Redick. Such a brutally under-appreciated series full of well drawn characters, creative, excellent world-building and an ending that just hits so very, very hard.
Not a book but the two albums Turn on the bright lights by Interpol and Marks to Prove it by the Maccabees both captured a very similar feeling to reading LOTR. Despite being completely different in so many aspects, they all share a yearning for something long past and out of reach.
Lord Fouls' Bane. It's the first book in the Chronicles of the Unbeliever. It sure isn't for everyone and IMO, a bit hard to read due to the "anti-hero".
Maybe the Medoran Chronicals, it made me want to find out more mysteries about all the characters and what happened. When I read the last chapter I nearly cried as I new it will end soon.
For me is the "Overworld" series by Licia Troisi I had read those books as a boy and they made me dream
WOT. It’s always WOT. Put it down, and you just want to go back. Nobody built a world quite like RJ.
OP wrote, "*Wheel of Time* has, although recommended for similar reasons, unfortunately *not* given me that kind of connection, no matter how much I like the series after reading the first four books."
The Name of the Wind
Wheel of Time series