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Fantasy literature is literature set in animaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world.Magic, thesupernatural andmagical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fantasy literature may be directed at both children and adults.
Fantasy is considered a genre ofspeculative fiction and is distinguished from the genres ofscience fiction andhorror by the absence of scientific or macabre themes, respectively, though these may overlap. Historically, most works of fantasy were inwritten form, but since the 1960s, a growing segment of the genre has taken the form offantasy films,fantasy television programs,graphic novels, video games, music and art.
Many fantasy novels originally written for children and adolescents also attract an adult audience. Examples includeAlice's Adventures in Wonderland, theHarry Potter series,The Chronicles of Narnia, andThe Hobbit.
Stories involving magic and terrible monsters have existed in spoken forms before the advent of printed literature.Classical mythology is replete with fantastical stories and characters, the best known (and perhaps the most relevant to modern fantasy) being the works ofHomer (Greek) andVirgil (Roman).[1]
The philosophy ofPlato has had great influence on the fantasy genre. In the Christian Platonic tradition, the reality of other worlds, and an overarching structure of great metaphysical and moral importance, has lent substance to the fantasy worlds of modern works.[2]
WithEmpedocles (c. 490 – c. 430 BC),elements are often used in fantasy works as personifications of the forces of nature.[3]
India has a long tradition of fantastical stories and characters, dating back toVedic mythology. ThePanchatantra (Fables of Bidpai), which some scholars believe was composed around the 3rd century BC.[4] It is based on older oral traditions, including "animal fables that are as old as we are able to imagine".[5]
It was influential in Europe and theMiddle East. It used various animalfables and magical tales to illustrate the central Indian principles ofpolitical science. Talking animals endowed with human qualities have now become a staple of modern fantasy.[6]
TheBaital Pachisi (Vikram and the Vampire), a collection of various fantasy tales set within aframe story is, according toRichard Francis Burton andIsabel Burton, "the germ which culminated in theArabian Nights, and which also inspired theGolden Ass ofApuleius, (2nd century A.D).Boccaccio'sDecamerone (c.1353) thePentamerone (1634, 1636) and all that class of facetious fictitious literature."[7]
The Book of One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) from theMiddle East has been influential in the West since it was translated from the Arabic into French in 1704 byAntoine Galland.[8] Many imitations were written, especially in France.[9]
TheFornaldarsagas,Norse andIcelandicsagas, both of which are based on ancientoral tradition influenced the German Romantics, as well asWilliam Morris, andJ. R. R. Tolkien.[10] TheAnglo-Saxon epic poemBeowulf has also had deep influence on the fantasy genre; although it was unknown for centuries and so not developed in medieval legend and romance, several fantasy works have retold the tale, such asJohn Gardner'sGrendel.[11]
Celtic folklore and legend has been an inspiration for many fantasy works.[12]
TheWelsh tradition has been particularly influential, owing to its connection to King Arthur and its collection in a single work, the epicMabinogion.[12] One influential retelling of this was the fantasy work ofEvangeline Walton.[13] The IrishUlster Cycle andFenian Cycle have also been plentifully mined for fantasy.[12] Its greatest influence was, however, indirect. Celtic folklore and mythology provided a major source for the Arthurian cycle ofchivalric romance: theMatter of Britain. Although the subject matter was heavily reworked by the authors, these romances developed marvels until they became independent of the original folklore and fictional, an important stage in the development of fantasy.[14]
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Romance orchivalric romance is a type ofprose andversenarrative that reworkedlegends,fairy tales, and history to suit the readers' and hearers' tastes, but byc. 1600 they were out of fashion, andMiguel de Cervantes famouslyburlesqued them in his novelDon Quixote. Still,the modern image of "medieval" is more influenced by the romance than by any other medieval genre, and the wordmedieval evokes knights, distressed damsels, dragons, and other romantic tropes.[15]
At the time of theRenaissance romance continued to be popular, and the trend was to more fantastic fiction. The EnglishLe Morte d'Arthur bySir Thomas Malory (c.1408–1471) was written in prose, and the work dominates the Arthurian literature.[16] Arthurian motifs have appeared steadily in literature from its publication, though the works have been a mix of fantasy and non-fantasy works.[17] At the time, it and the SpanishAmadis de Gaula (1508), which was also written in prose, spawned many imitators, and the genre was popularly well-received. It later produced such masterpieces of Renaissance poetry asLudovico Ariosto'sOrlando furioso andTorquato Tasso'sGerusalemme Liberata. Ariosto's tale in particular was a source text for many fantasies of adventure.[18]
During theRenaissance,Giovanni Francesco Straparola wrote and publishedThe Facetious Nights of Straparola (1550–1555), a collection of stories of which many are literaryfairy tales.Giambattista Basile wrote and published thePentamerone, which was the first collection of stories to contain solely what would later be known as fairy tales. The two works include the oldest recorded form of many well-known (and some more obscure) European fairy tales.[19] This was the beginning of a tradition that would both influence the fantasy genre and be incorporated in it, as many works offairytale fantasy appear to this day.[20]
In a work onalchemy in the 16th century,Paracelsus (1493–1541) identified four types of beings with the four elements of alchemy:gnomes (earth elementals);undines (water);sylphs (air); andsalamanders (fire).[21] Most of these beings are found in folklore as well as alchemy, and their names are often used interchangeably with similar beings from folklore.[22]
Literary fairy tales, such as those written byCharles Perrault (1628–1703) andMadame d'Aulnoy (c.1650 – 1705), became very popular early in theAge of Enlightenment. Many of Perrault's tales became fairy tale staples and were influential to later fantasy. When d'Aulnoy termed her workscontes de fée (fairy tales), she invented the term that is now generally used for the genre, thus distinguishing such tales from those involving no marvels.[23] This approach influenced later writers who took up the folk fairy tales in the same manner during theRomantic era.[24]
Several fantasies aimed at an adult readership were also published in 18th century France, includingVoltaire's"contes philosophique"The Princess of Babylon (1768) andThe White Bull (1774).[25] This era, however, was notably hostile to fantasy. Writers of the new types of fiction such asDefoe,Richardson, andFielding were realistic in style, and many early realistic works were critical of fantastical elements in fiction.[26]
However, in theElizabethan era inEngland, fantasy literature became extraordinarily popular and fueledpopulist andanti-authoritarian sentiment during the1590s.[27] Topics that were written about included "fairylands in which the sexes traded places [and] men and immortals mingl[ing]".[27]
Romanticism, a movement of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, was a dramatic reaction to rationalism, challenging the priority of reason and promoting the importance of imagination and spirituality. Its success in rehabilitating imagination was of fundamental importance to the evolution of fantasy, and its interest in medievalromances provided many motifs to modern fantasy.[28]
The Romantics invoked the medieval romance as a model for the works they wanted to produce, in contrast to the realism of the Enlightenment.[29] One of the first literary results of this trend was theGothic novel, a genre that began in Britain withThe Castle of Otranto (1764) byHorace Walpole. That work is considered the predecessor to both modern fantasy and modernhorror fiction.[24] Another noted Gothic novel which also contains a large amount ofArabian Nights-influenced fantasy elements isVathek (1786) byWilliam Thomas Beckford.[30]
In the later part of the Romantic period, folklorists collected folktales, epic poems, and ballads, and released them in printed form. TheBrothers Grimm were inspired by the movement ofGerman Romanticism in their 1812 collectionGrimm's Fairy Tales, and they in turn inspired other collectors. Frequently their motivation stemmed not merely from Romanticism, but fromRomantic nationalism, in that many were inspired to save their own country's folklore. Sometimes, as in theKalevala, they compiled existing folklore into an epic to match other nation's, and sometimes, as inThe Poems of Ossian, they fabricated folklore that should have been there. These works, whether fairy tale, ballads, or folk epics, were a major source for later fantasy works.[31]
The Romantic interest in medievalism also resulted in a revival of interest in the literary fairy tale. The tradition begun withGiovanni Francesco Straparola andGiambattista Basile and developed byCharles Perrault and the Frenchprécieuses was taken up by the German Romantic movement. The German authorFriedrich de la Motte Fouqué created medieval-set stories such asUndine (1811),The Magic Ring (1812) andSintram and his Companions (1815), which would later inspire British writers such asGeorge MacDonald andWilliam Morris.[32][33][34]E.T.A. Hoffmann's tales, such asThe Golden Pot (1814) andThe Nutcracker and the Mouse King (1816) were notable additions to the canon of German fantasy.[35]Ludwig Tieck's collectionPhantasus (1812–1817) contained several short fairy tales, including "The Elves".[36]
In France, the main writers of Romantic-era fantasy wereCharles Nodier withSmarra (1821) andTrilby (1822)[37][38] andThéophile Gautier who penned such stories as "Omphale" (1834) and "One of Cleopatra's Nights" (1838) as well as the novelSpirite (1866).[39][40]
Fantasy literature was popular inVictorian times, with the works of writers such asMary Shelley, William Morris, George MacDonald, andCharles Dodgson reaching wider audiences.
Hans Christian Andersen took a new approach to fairy tales by creating original stories told in a serious fashion.[41] From this origin,John Ruskin wroteThe King of the Golden River (1851), a fairy tale that included complex levels of characterization and created in the Southwest Wind an irascible but kindly character similar toJ.R.R. Tolkien's laterGandalf.[41]
The history of modern fantasy literature began with George MacDonald, author of such novels asThe Princess and the Goblin (1868) andPhantastes (1868), the latter of which is widely considered to be the first fantasy novel written for adults. MacDonald also wrote one of the first critical essays about the fantasy genre, "The Fantastic Imagination", in his bookA Dish of Orts (1893).[42][43] MacDonald was a major influence on both Tolkien andC. S. Lewis.[44]
The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris, an admirer of theMiddle Ages and a poet who wrote several fantastic romances and novels in the latter part of the 19th century, includingThe Well at the World's End (1896). Morris was inspired by the medieval sagas, and his writing was deliberately archaic in the style of thechivalric romances.[45] Morris's work represented an important milestone in the history of fantasy, as while other writers wrote of foreign lands or ofdream worlds, Morris was the first to set his stories in an entirelyinvented world.[46]
Authors such asEdgar Allan Poe andOscar Wilde also contributed to the development of fantasy with their writing of horror stories.[47] Wilde also wrote a large number of children's fantasies, collected inThe Happy Prince and Other Stories (1888) andA House of Pomegranates (1891).[48]H. Rider Haggard developed the conventions of thelost world subgenre with his novelKing Solomon's Mines (1885), which presented a fantastical Africa to a European audience still unfamiliar with the continent.[49] Other writers, includingEdgar Rice Burroughs andAbraham Merritt, further developed the style.
Several classicchildren's fantasies such asLewis Carroll'sAlice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865),[50]L. Frank Baum'sThe Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), as well as the work ofE. Nesbit andFrank R. Stockton were also published around this time.[51]C. S. Lewis noted that in the earlier part of the 20th century, fantasy was more accepted in juvenile literature, and therefore a writer interested in fantasy often wrote for that audience, despite using concepts and themes that could form a work aimed at adults.[52]
At this time, the terminology for the genre was not settled. Many fantasies in this era were termed fairy tales, includingMax Beerbohm's "The Happy Hypocrite" (1896) and MacDonald'sPhantastes.[53] It was not until 1923 that the term "fantasist" was used to describe a writer (in this case, Oscar Wilde) who wrote fantasy fiction.[54] The name "fantasy" was not developed until later; as late as J.R.R. Tolkien'sThe Hobbit (1937), the term "fairy tale" was still being used.
An important factor in the development of the fantasy genre was the arrival of magazines devoted to fantasy fiction. The first such publication was the German magazineDer Orchideengarten which ran from 1919 to 1921.[55] In 1923, the first English-language fantasy fiction magazine,Weird Tales, was created.[56] Many other similar magazines eventually followed.[57] andThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction[58]
H. P. Lovecraft was deeply influenced by Edgar Allan Poe and to a somewhat lesser extent, by Lord Dunsany; with hisCthulhu Mythos stories, he became one of the most influential writers of fantasy and horror in the 20th century.[59]
Despite MacDonald's future influence, and Morris' popularity at the time, it was not until around the start of the 20th century that fantasy fiction began to reach a large audience, with authors such asLord Dunsany (1878–1957) who, following Morris's example, wrote fantasy novels, but also in the short story form.[45] He was particularly noted for his vivid and evocative style.[45] His style greatly influenced many writers, not always happily;Ursula K. Le Guin, in her essay on style in fantasy "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", wryly referred to Lord Dunsany as the "First Terrible Fate that Awaiteth Unwary Beginners in Fantasy", alluding to young writers attempting to write in Lord Dunsany's style.[60] According toS. T. Joshi, "Dunsany's work had the effect of segregating fantasy—a mode whereby the author creates his own realm of pure imagination—from supernatural horror. From the foundations he established came the later work ofE. R. Eddison,Mervyn Peake, and J. R. R. Tolkien.[61]
In Britain in the aftermath of World War I, a notably large number of fantasy books aimed at an adult readership were published, includingLiving Alone (1919) byStella Benson,[62]A Voyage to Arcturus (1920) byDavid Lindsay,[63]Lady into Fox (1922) byDavid Garnett,[62]Lud-in-the-Mist (1926) byHope Mirrlees,[62][64] andLolly Willowes (1926) bySylvia Townsend Warner.[62][65]E. R. Eddison was another influential writer who wrote during this era. He drew inspiration from Northern sagas, as Morris did, but his prose style was modeled more on Tudor and Elizabethan English, and his stories were filled with vigorous characters in glorious adventures.[46] Eddison's most famous work isThe Worm Ouroboros (1922), a long heroic fantasy set on an imaginary version of the planet Mercury.[66]
Literary critics of the era began to take an interest in "fantasy" as a genre of writing, and also to argue that it was a genre worthy of serious consideration.Herbert Read devoted a chapter of his bookEnglish Prose Style (1928) to discussing "Fantasy" as an aspect of literature, arguing it was unjustly considered suitable only for children: "The Western World does not seem to have conceived the necessity of Fairy Tales for Grown-Ups".[43]
In 1938, with the publication ofThe Sword in the Stone,T. H. White introduced one of the most notable works ofcomic fantasy.[67]
The first major contribution to the genre after World War II wasMervyn Peake'sTitus Groan (1946), the book that launched theGormenghast series.J. R. R. Tolkien played a large role in the popularization and accessibility of the fantasy genre with his highly successful publicationsThe Hobbit (1937) andThe Lord of the Rings (1954–55).[68] Tolkien was largely influenced by an ancient body ofAnglo-Saxon myths, particularlyBeowulf, as well as William Morris's romances andE. R. Eddison's 1922 novel,The Worm Ouroboros. Tolkien's close friendC. S. Lewis, author ofThe Chronicles of Narnia (1950–56) and a fellow English professor with a similar array of interests, also helped to publicize the fantasy genre.Tove Jansson, author ofThe Moomins, was also a strong contributor to the popularity of fantasy literature in the field of children and adults.[69]
The tradition established by these predecessors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has continued to thrive and be adapted by new authors. Theinfluence of J.R.R. Tolkien's fiction has—particularly over the genre ofhigh fantasy—prompted a reaction.[70]
In China, the idea of fantasy literature as a distinct genre first became prevalent in the early 21st century.[71]: 42 China has long had pre-genre stories with fantastical elements, includingzhiguai, ghost stories, and miracle tales, among others.[71]: 42 Similarly, fantasy novels in the style of Anglophone fantasy emerged in Arabic literature in the 2010s, beginning with Islām Idrīs'sʔusṭūra ("legend") series.[72]
It is not uncommon for fantasy novels to be ranked onThe New York Times Best Seller list, and some have been at number one on the list, including most recently,Brandon Sanderson in 2014,[73]Neil Gaiman in 2013,[74]Patrick Rothfuss[75] andGeorge R. R. Martin in 2011,[76] andTerry Goodkind in 2006.[77]
Symbolism often plays a significant role in fantasy literature, often through the use of archetypal figures inspired by earlier texts orfolklore. Some argue that fantasy literature and its archetypes fulfill a function for individuals and society and the messages are continually updated for current societies.[78]
Ursula K. Le Guin, in her essay "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", presented the idea that language is the most crucial element ofhigh fantasy, because it creates a sense of place. She analyzed the misuse of a formal, "olden-day" style, saying that it was a dangerous trap for fantasy writers because it was ridiculous when done wrong. She warns writers away from trying to base their style on that of masters such asLord Dunsany andE. R. Eddison,[79] emphasizing that language that is too bland or simplistic creates the impression that the fantasy setting is simply a modern world in disguise, and presents examples of clear, effective fantasy writing in brief excerpts fromTolkien andEvangeline Walton.[80]
Michael Moorcock observed that many writers use archaic language for its sonority and to lend color to a lifeless story.[31] Brian Peters writes that in various forms offairytale fantasy, even the villain's language might be inappropriate if vulgar.[81]
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