Why Are Fantasy World Accents British?

[CelticViking]

SparkNotes: The Hobbit: Themes, Motifs & Symbols
www.sparknotes.com/lit/hobbit/themes.html
Description and explanation of the major themes of The Hobbit. ... acknowledged that the nature of hobbits was based on the rural, middle-class English people

Only Pippin sounded Scottish.

[Graham]

........

[Kazimiera]

---> moved to Film, Music and TV

[Jackson]

Aren't most of the actors in Game of Thrones British or English anyhow? I haven't seen it or read the books.

[Illancha]

Aren't most of the actors in Game of Thrones British or English anyhow? I haven't seen it or read the books.

Yeah pretty much the entire cast is British.

The books and the series are obviously set in a fantasy world so there's really no specific accent. However, it sounds way more epic in British accents (I say British since a few of the actors are Scottish and Irish).

[Jackson]

Yeah pretty much all of the cast is British.

Then we have our reason!

[HillY35]

I think the reason why "fantasy" accents, etc., are British in these movies is because the average intelligence of a movie-goer is rather low. Or perhaps even the intended audience may be of a young, uneducated age. Such groups don't make much sense (and don't need to for that matter) out of why a dwarf talks the way he does, or why a wizard speaks in a funny accent. They just appreciate the color it adds to what they're being entranced by.
I guess what I'm saying is, the educational worth of why the accent "is the way it is" is so inconsequential to the needs of such an audience. Higher minds might find it an interesting subject, but what typical moviegoer goes to see a movie for the sake of the accents, etc? They're just going to get entranced and dumbed down for a while. This is the audience being catered to, and so accents are only varied for artistic effect. That's my opinion anyway.

[Nihtgenga]

I just assume it is because William Morris, E.R. Eddison, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were English and Lord Dunsany was Irish. So the fantasy genre was developed in the British Isles and people associate them. There were early American writers too though like A. Merrit, Clark Ashton Smith and R. E. Howard. *shrug* Those American writers wrote 'sword & sorcery' though rather than 'high fantasy.'

There are a lot of Russian fantasy films and I'm pretty sure everyone in them not only has a Russian accent but is actually speaking Russian.

[Smaug]

Characters from the Galactic Empire in Star Wars series speak with English accent, also the names of the space ships are all references to names from the British Navy.

[Nihtgenga]

Characters from the Galactic Empire in Star Wars series speak with English accent, also the names of the space ships are all references to names from the British Navy.

Not a huge Star Wars fan but Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin was a bad ass.