Tales of Walden: Inspirations
As happens to many fantasy writers of our time, one of my biggest inspirations for the Tales of Walden collection was the work of J.R.R. Tolkien. When he wrote The Lord of the Rings, he set a precedent for work that would follow, though I don’t know whether he knew it at the time. For much of the world of Walden, from the wise elves to the Great War, I am indebted to him, who is as much a creator of Middle-Earth as Eru Ilúvatar (which sounds absolutely blasphemous to say, but I’ll say it anyway).
The addition of dwelves, sea-people, and fairies was my own invention, though the dwelves’ origin was partially inspired by Tolkien’s story of Beren and Lúthien. The sea-people I decided to include because of my own interest in fairy tales and mythology. This interest also prompted the inclusion of fairies, an idea that seems to have dropped out of most fantasy literature these days. Oddly, I decided to give each fairy a magic specialty long before I read the Disney Fairies books (which feature fairies with specific talents) or even the kids’ series Rainbow Magic (which has a similar premise). I don’t know what inspired me to have them do boat races, to be giants in the presence of their kind, or other things like that. Those were pretty original.
I was also greatly inspired by the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, a series my mother read to my brother and me as kids. In fact, I think Aslan was a big inspiration for Chaimvin. And I owe a debt to Henry David Thoreau, since I took my world’s name from the title of his best-known work, Walden; or, Life in the Woods (which, ironically, I have not actually read more than an excerpt of).
