Quote:
|
The central gimmick of both works is basically the same - a ring that grants the bearer the power to rule the world, but is cursed.
|
However, in Tolkien it is the meek who inherit the earth, or at least who can resist temptation, whereas in Germany (to be cheeky) it was Hitler who inherited the Ring (des Nibelungen).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ak Mike
Sparrow and pshrynk - the Wagner Ring Cycle is regarded as the most influential work of art of the nineteenth century, and it cast a long shadow into the twentieth. There's no doubt that Tolkien took a lot from Wagner. The central gimmick of both works is basically the same - a ring that grants the bearer the power to rule the world, but is cursed. Both Ring works exist in mythological worlds with magic.
|
Anyway, this seems a bit of an overstatement. The 19th century was filled with composers and writers, not the least among them being Beethoven. And considering most of the concert tradition builds on him rather than Wagner, (including Wagner himself) and considering that instrumental music is fairly different from vocal music, and performed far more widely, it seems a bit misleading to call it the 'most influential work of art' (which presumably also includes the visual and literary arts?) of the entire century that was Romanticism.