J. R. R. Tolkien derived the characters, stories, places, and languages of Middle-earth from many sources, including numerous modern works of fiction. These include adventure stories from Tolkien's childhood, such as books by John Buchan and H. Rider Haggard, especially the 1887 She: A History of Adventure. Tolkien stated that he used the fight with werewolves in Samuel Rutherford Crockett's 1899 historical fantasy The Black Douglas for his battle with wargs.
Tolkien appears to have made use, too, of early science fiction, such as H. G. Wells's subterranean Morlocks from the 1895 The Time Machine and Jules Verne's hidden runic message in his 1864 Journey to the Center of the Earth.
A major influence was the Arts and Crafts polymath William Morris. Tolkien wanted to imitate his prose and poetry romances such as the 1889 The House of the Wolfings, and read his 1870 translation of the Völsunga saga when he was a student. Further, as Marjorie Burns states, Tolkien's account of Bilbo Baggins and his party setting off into the wild on ponies resembles Morris's account of his travels in Iceland in several details.
Tolkien's other writings have been described by Anna Vaninskaya as fitting into the romantic Little Englandism and anti-statism of 20th century writers like George Orwell and G. K. Chesterton. His The Lord of the Rings was criticized by postwar literary figures like Edwin Muir and dismissed as non-modernist, but accepted by others such as Iris Murdoch.