This. You might have never read or seen LotR, but your idea of medieval fantasy is essentially LotR, I love a quote by Terry Pratchett:
J.R.R. Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way that Mt. Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Sometimes it’s big and up close. Sometimes it’s a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it’s not there at all, which means that the artist either has made a deliberate decision against the mountain, which is interesting in itself, or is in fact standing on Mt. Fuji.
Somwhow, no one has mentioned Lord of the Rings, which basically invented modern fantasy.
It’s a foundational work, but I’d argue that modern fantasy is more of a synthesis of LOTR and Conan the Barbarian.
This. You might have never read or seen LotR, but your idea of medieval fantasy is essentially LotR, I love a quote by Terry Pratchett:
GNU Terry Pratchett
GNU Sir pTerry.
That’s a great quote, thank you!