Original D&D's Appendix N

I feel as though most people reading this blog will be familiar with "Appendix N", the list of inspirational works that Gary Gygax wrote up for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Masters Guide.  It's become a bit of a touchstone for the old-school D&D community over the years, a sort of guiding light that points towards the style of play that the game's originators favoured.  It's significant enough to have its own Wikipedia entry, for those who want to refresh themselves as to what books and authors made the cut.

 

Original D&D never included such a list, but Gygax and Dave Arneson weren't shy in peppering references to its literary sources throughout the text.  I got curious a little while ago, and made a list of the authors and books that are specifically mentioned in original D&D and the Chainmail wargame.  In a way it's the original, albeit unofficial, version of "Appendix N", and I wanted to see what would - and would not be -included if I listed it all together.

Here's the list below.  I was thorough, but it's always possible that I missed something.

 

• The Martian/Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• These 11 novels, published from 1912 to 1943, are the first literary source mentioned in D&D.  It's one of four exemplary works mentioned in the "Forward" of Volume 1: Men & Magic, a list that's as interesting for what it doesn't include as for what it does.  Various creatures from this series are given in the wilderness encounter tables as well.  It doesn't rate a mention in Chainmail though.
• The Conan stories by Robert E. Howard
• 19 short stories and a novel were written by Howard about Conan of Cimmeria, and it's also one of the four works mentioned in the "Forward". Surprisingly, there are few specific game elements drawn from these stories, not even stats for giant snakes or semi-human apes.  Conan does get referenced in Chainmail.
• The fantasy stories of L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt
• The third set of works mentioned in the "Forward" is probably the most obscure.  Presumably it's referring to the Harold Shea stories, five of which had been published before the creation of D&D.  I've never read them (aside from The Green Magician, which would be later reprinted in Dragon Magazine).
• The Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories by Fritz Leiber
• The final series mentioned in the "Forward", comprised of (I believe) 36 short stories and a novel.  Nine of these were published after D&D, but the best stuff definitely predated the game.
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
• It's surprising that Tolkien's novels aren't listed in the "Forward", but in terms of sheer volume it's Tolkien who gets the lion's share of attention, with specific references to his work scattered throughout D&D and Chainmail.  A decent number of D&D's monsters, as well as its player character races, come directly from Tolkien.
• Lord Dunsany
• Dunsany is mentioned once in D&D, as part of the monster entry for Gnolls.  The specific reference here would be the short story "How Nuth Would Have Practised His Art Upon the Gnoles".
• Three Hearts and Three Lions by Poul Anderson
• Trolls in D&D are drawn directly from this book, but neither Anderson nor his work get name-checked there.  They do in Chainmail, however. 
• The Elric stories by Michael Moorcock
• Moorcock is the sole author here who is mentioned in Chainmail but not in D&D.  His character Elric (somewhat humorously misspelled as Eric of Melnibone) is given as an example of a combination warrior/wizard.  Moorcock wrote loads of Elric stories before and after D&D's publication, but - as with Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser - the best ones were published before.

That's a decent summary of the most prominent works from "Appendix N", although there are some notable omissions.  Jack Vance's Dying Earth is the most surprising, given its huge influence on D&D magic.  Lovecraft is another author that Gygax directly cited as being hugely influential, but he's not here either.  Of course, this wasn't a deliberate list, simply a bunch of authors and works that Gygax and Arneson thought to mention while writing D&D, so of course not every influence would be there.  I find it interesting nonetheless to see what did get included, especially the four works singled out in the "Forward".  Tolkien not being part of that list, in spite of his books being raided for D&D's bestiary, is particularly telling I think.

I'll probably post some more about the works above over the coming months.  I've been working my way through them, at the glacial pace that I now finish books as an adult.  I've read Tolkien and Howard, of course (and re-read them recently), and the Elric stories about 25 years ago.  I've read the first five Barsoom books, and I'm currently reading the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories.  It's a slow process, but I'm planning to do a post on each one and how I think they influenced D&D.  Not the most original content, as just about every old-school D&D blog has covered "Appendix N" at some point, but perhaps I'll have some of my own insights to add to the conversation.  Expect posts on Tolkien and Howard soon, with the rest to come once I've read the relevant works.