Clearly commercialism is not the winner here. Rowling has 'invented' nothing and uses the typical fantasy characters of wizards, brooms, wands etc.

Tolkien for most purposes INVENTED fantasy. He invented whole languages and races of fantasy dwellers that still are in use today. Defacto denizens of any fantasy map. Then, he spurred on the massive and entertaining stories that millions have enjoyed.

Tolkien is the Isaac Newton to Rowling's modern day scientist. She is merely standing on the shoulders of giants. Period.

She is, however, standing very well.

Read more about "The Hobbit" on my blog:
http://marketsaw.blogspot.com

It is Tolkien plain and simple. He also had to fight plagerism all his writing career.
Rowlins is a very good writer, but she took the plots for the first 5 books from a series of stories published by a woman who lived in Camp Hill, PA. She was sued and forced to reach a settlement for plagerism. The settlement was sealed, but long rumoured to be in the range of 10% of the Harry potter books gross sales plus 5% of the movie earnings. The woman in question received so many threats she has changed her name and moved.

Oh well, one undoubtedly sees people voting in the poll are mostly young. Sorry guys, Rowling might be huge, but she cannot be compared to Tolkien on any creative level.

One can say Harry Potter is The Lord of the Rings of this century, but Rowling contributes way less to the literary and fantasy world than Tolkien did.

Nothing against Rowling, but read a little about and by Tolkien, and later we'll talk. ;)

Aw, I saw this battle comin'..
Well, in the first place, there's no way to compare Rowling to Tolkien besides that they've writen best-sellers. Even though, she's the best ever!
Okay, I gotta face it, he's also a briliant writer, but, cum'on, Lord of The Rings is the most boring story I've ever read about (my opinion)! The story doesn't let us caught up like Harry Potter does.. The books just don't let us counting the moments to read it again once we end it.
My vote goes, no wonder, to J.K Rowling, The woman that made my world prettier, and way more interesting. I just admire her so much that I can't even put it into words.

> Andrés, Tolkien might've contributed to literary, but it was J.K. Rowling who made history among all the best writers of this century! Harry Potter's not the Lord of the Rings of this century, it is a lot better.

Rowling's books are inventive and charming, to be sure. And they are clearly a commercial phenomena of the highest order. Which, of course, has little or no relevance in terms of their literary merit. Tolkien's, on the other hand, are the product of a lifetime of meticulous scholarship, literary passion and unrivaled creative genius. There's simply no comparison. In fact, Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy is an infinitely more worthy heir to the Tolkien legacy than the Potter series. With all due respect to Ms. Rowling, she simply does not belong in the same discussion, or sentence, as Professor Tolkien. Jeez, Louise.

While Tolkien was busy at building up his armies, describing battle scenes, creatures and language and generating his fantastic universe, Rowling was busy telling of intimate relationships between her characters and her magical world was always at the background and was never at the core. In spite of the similarities mentioned in the article, there's a huge distinction between both novels and authors. I would say that while Tolkien's writing reads older and sounds more influential, which could be the result of living a decade ago, Rowling's plot has more charm and wit. I personally would rather read Ms. Rowling, but as to whom of both writers had more impact on literacy, I guess it's Mr. Tolkien. Though, perhaps we shall not judge for now... perhaps not yet... not until Rowling's books have existed as much as Tolkien's.

i love the two authors... i've read tokien first. but my sister convinced me to read the potter books... as ms. rowling says her own, she didn't created a whole new mithology like Tolkien, but she is funnier than he was... i completely agree whih her... but definitly who is more influential it's tolkien, no doubt... you know what you got to do: read the two series. it will give you severeal hours of magical worlds and wonderfull sensations... i dare not to say who's better... i love both of them...

As some said: Read both.
And so I've done. . . and well, in my opinion, J. K. Rowling is much better.
We're not discussing about who created the whole new mithology, but who was able to explore it better, and doubtlessly it was Rowling.
I totally agree with Louise when she sais The Lord is boring, because it really is. Some people (dummies?) can't even understand it, as they do understand Harry Potter.
HP is funny, daring, tear jerker, all thats supposed to be in a best-seller and much more. . .
I also suppose that those that say Tolkien is soooo much better than Rowling are the ones that never even wanted to read HP, not all of them, but a lot of them.
And to be honest they're not even contemporary so each one had their influences. . .
:D

There is no doubt in the fact that Tolkien created a large, detailed world, while Rowling's world has large gaps.

I am a huge Middle-Earth fan and there isn't a thing I don't know about the world of Harry Potter.

I don't want to say that Tolkien's books are better, but they are certainly more complete.

Rowling's HP series has come to an end (at the age of 42), while Tolkien dedicated his life to his creation, and even now, long after his death, books of Middle-Earth are still published.

My answer: The better writer is Tolkien.

You crazy...
tolkien is very very very better then rowln...

the quality stand still...

BRASIL.

I have read the LOTR trilogy thee times (as well as some of the side novels), and each of the potter books between 2 and 3 times. i say this not to credit my opinion but to show that i am an avid fan of both series. rowling's stories are intoxicatingly page turning and have unparalleled commercial appeal, and i believe, "wins" in those categories. the potter series also has almost unprecedented mass appeal, anything that can read is reading harry potter, suitable for ages from go-to-the-bathroom-in-my-pants, to .....go-to-the-bathroom-in-my-pants. Tolkien's works, on the other hand, demonstrate such intricate dedication and creativity and his world has been square one for a large chunk of fantasy lore since. Arguments can and have been made for both, but perhaps we would benefit from a more concise question, is this a money maker sort of best author or dedication to literature sort of best author. it seems to me that they will, in time, prove to split these awards. tokien did more, and is in my view the better author, but rowling is still young (and has offspring to "finish" her works and carry on the empire) yep.

I'm amazed by people's stupidity!!! You're comparing one of the greatest poets/authors to ever walk the planet to a conceited old plagiarist who deserves very little, if any, of the praise she's received! I beg the mentally deformed two-year-olds, who refuse to admit that Tolkien's work is vastly superior to Rowling's, to pick up a copy of LOTRs, and indulge their aritstically deprived minds on one of the greatest works of literature of all time. Rowling's writing style is tantamount to poo when compared to Tolkien's!!!!!!!!! (I'm just 15, by the way)

Tolkien is by far the better writer. His work can not be compared to the pitiful Harry Potters which are far from the perfect like the lord. Harry Potter introduces nothing new, nothing Heartwarming and offers no worthwhile lessons. It is not a clever series, she would have done better if she reduced it to a trilogy perhaps five books-but i guess money prompted her to add more rubbish which was of course quite delicious to people with little imagination-surely it was a predictable long stuff

Bem,sou fã de J.R.R. Tolkien assim como de J.K. Rowling,mas bastar ler e ver os mundos criados por ambos de maneira mais funda que podem ter certeza que Tolkien e um escritor bem melhor.
Ele criou a quenya e o sindarin,duas linguas complexas as quais Rowling nem seu deu o trabalho de tentar criar uma outra lingua Ex:Copa de Quadribol.
No Silmarillion vemos a criação do mundo e de todo o mal que estaria por vir,além de ser um ótimo livro ele e bem complexo...

Bem essa é uma humilde opinião de um brasileiro fã desses dois grandes autores.


Well, I am fan of J.R.R. Tolkien as well as of J.K. Rowling, but to be enough to read and to see the worlds created by both in way deeper than can have certainty that Tolkien and a writer well better. It created quenya and sindarin, two linguas complex which Rowling nor its gave the work to try to create one another one lingua Ex:Copa de Quadribol. In the Silmarillion we all see the creation of the world and the evil that would be for coming, besides being an excellent book well complex it and... This is a humble opinion of a Brazilian fan of these well two great authors.