Fantasy History and Technique 101

[Philip Overby]

I think a big part of understanding what works in fantasy is to study its history and be aware of who came before us. I recently stumbled across this Brief History of Sword and Sorcery and thought it was very informative an interesting. A Brief History of Sword & Sorcery

I would actually love to take some sort of "History of Fantasy" class or something, where it would be possible to read a selection of books from different eras of fantasy and have discussions about the authors and their techniques as well. I've been thinking about something like this for quite some time actually.

Maybe not now, but maybe in 2015 (maybe sooner if there seemed to be a lot of interest) I'd like to organize something that would combine history, reading, and creative writing together to make sort of an introduction to the heavy-hitters in fantasy combined with a workshop.

Maybe a structure like this:

1. Introduction to an author (for example Tolkien).
2. Discuss his major works and influence on the genre, maybe by reading a handful of essays or articles.
3. Read one of his works.
4. Discuss it.
5. Write your own work based off given themes closely related to Tolkien's work (friendship, sacrifice, etc.)

This would go on for an allotted amount of time, then would shift to a new author.

I'm thinking off the top of my head about authors: Tolkien for sure, maybe even go further back to works like Beowulf. I figure for the first course it could focus on maybe four important works throughout the eras. Then if the class garnered interest, there could be more later on with new authors and studies.

If anyone would be interested in such a thing, what four works would you focus on? Bear in mind, if the first class worked well, there would be more options in the future.

Anyway, just an idea I'm throwing around at the moment. I may just do it for myself for fun. I'm a nerd like that.

 

[Svrtnsse]

I can't say I'm all that familiar with pre-Tolkien fantasy. I know it's out there, but I haven't read much/any of it (would Lovecraft count?).

For more recent works though, I'd say that The Belgariad is definitely up there. Not everyone may agree on its literary qualities, but I've got the impression it's one of those series that "everyone" has read. I'm thinking it'd be a good example of Epic Fantasy. Other options for this slot might be Feist or Jordan who also wrote massive epics.

For more modern works I'd like to go with Jim Butcher as he's a personal favorite of mine. But, it may be argued that Twilight etc has had a bigger influence on modern fantasy. Then again, if we're going to start talking about modern day vampires we may just go for Anne Rice right away. I'm sure she wasn't the first one to do it, but I believe she may be the one most well-known/recognized.

Finally, for a modern take on the epic fantasy I'd go for Steven Eriksson. Because, to me, the Malazan Empire books raises the whole idea of epic fantasy to entirely new levels of epicosity. It'd probably be interesting to compare Eriksson's work with that of Eddings.

So, including Tolkien that's four, right? Looking at the list I see three versions of epic fantasy and one slot for urban/contemporary fantasy. Maybe I ought to stick with the theme and swap the vampires for Game of Thrones?

 

[Reaver]

I can't say I'm all that familiar with pre-Tolkien fantasy. I know it's out there, but I haven't read much/any of it (would Lovecraft count?).

I would count H.P. Lovecraft as a fantasy writer. Also Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland), Jules Verne (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, et al) and J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan). Going further back I'd include Homer (The Iliad and The Odyssey) and Dante Alighieri (The Divine Comedy).

 

[Ophiucha]

I can't say I'm all that familiar with pre-Tolkien fantasy. I know it's out there, but I haven't read much/any of it (would Lovecraft count?).

I actually wrote a thesis on the subject for a literature class I took at university - it's sort of a pet subject of mine. The best part about it is that it's nearly all free online, since the copyrights are up on most things that came before The Hobbit.

For my own amusement, some thoughts on what works could be taught and how to teach them under the cut.

Spoiler: literary history

Ancient Era

• Possible Texts: The Odyssey, Gilgamesh
• Though the numerous mythological texts of the ancient era are all fantastical, these two seem like the most significant historically as well as the ones with the strongest impact on literature.
• The Epic of Gilgamesh is a classic of the oral tradition. Repetition is key, and useful to both memorizing the text as an ancient 'bard' as well as having a part in the way the story is structured. It has zombies. Topics to explore: demi-gods and divine characters, a comparison between Gilgamesh and a modern bard's tale (perhaps The Name of the Wind).
• The Odyssey is a hero's journey, one of the earliest surviving examples. It features a ton of recognizable fantasy creatures, and a great story that is easy to connect with over the millennia since it was put to paper. Heavily influenced modern literature, fantasy or otherwise (see: Joyce's Ulysses). Topics: the significance of the journey home in the heroic cycle, a hero's personality/qualities, maybe even something regarding sequels and series.

Medieval Era

• Possible Texts: Beowulf, Le Morte d'Arthur, Nibelungenlied
• The medieval era breeds the vast majority of the creatures and tropes we've come to associate with modern fantasy, so it is an essential era to explore.
• Beowulf is one of my favourite stories. A hero's journey, dragons, epic battles, what more could you ask for? As with Gilgamesh, this story also comes from an oral tradition and similar explorations of our roots in music is worthwhile. Other topics include: a comparison of Beowulf's dragon with Tolkien's Smaug, significance of the hero from another land, or a discussion on the archetype of the 'mother of monsters'.
• Le Morte d'Arthur, for your Arthurian tales. This one lends itself well to being taught alongside a modern piece, in particular The Mists of Avalon. The significance of the sword in fantasy - the named sword with mystical origins, swords that 'choose' their owner (or are given by some pseudo-divine force). Merlin as a recurring character in fantasy literature.
• Nibelungenlied is a fairly easy-to-read version of the Norse stories. It'll have your dragons, your dwarves, and your hero's journey. Include a few older texts for references to elves, too, plus a great way to compare pre- and post-Christian versions of the text. Using the old Norse sagas is perhaps the best place to really discuss the mythological origins of modern fantasy creatures, since most of them come from here (thanks Tolkien!).

The Tudor Period

• Possible Texts: Faerie Queene, Macbeth
• An optional era to include, honestly, but an important one to literature. Like, what respectable literature course doesn't teach a bit of Shakespeare? (/sarcasm)
• Faerie Queene is a fairly political work, being written specifically for Queen Elizabeth. (Compare it to the Aeneid, perhaps?) Far from feminist, this story does feature quite a few prominent female characters. Arguably the first in this hypothetical curriculum to do so. And it deals with a bit of religious commentary, as well.
• Macbeth has witches and inspired an awesome scene in Lord of the Rings (disappointment in the prophecy may have led to Eowyn defeating the wraith king, the 'i am no man!' bit). The witches also deliver a classic, ambiguously worded rhyming prophecy which is a discussion and a half.

The 19th Century

• Possible Texts: Alice in Wonderland, Edgar Allan Poe, The Princess and the Goblin, The Wood Beyond the World, Dracula, Looking Backward, The Water-Babies...
• Literature shoots forward around this time. I shall save you all the read and group these stories together into a few categories.
• Horror. The adult fantasy of the century, really. Ghosts, vampires, unexplained forces. All precedents to modern urban fantasy and paranormal romances. I'd loathe to force academics into reading Twilight for the sake of comparison, but a brief look through the eras by means of short story - Poe to Lovecraft to perhaps Catherynne Valente. A discussion on how these creatures became so separate from the elves, dwarves, and dragons of high fantasy.
• Science fiction. Not fantasy, but with close ties to it for decades. They were often published in the same zines, and shared many of the same tropes for decades. Early precedents to steampunk. Utopian and dystopian fiction is also a crossover subgenre, one which was popular with mainstream readers at the time.
• Fairy tales and children's literature. Often the most interesting in terms of language - you could have an entire class for fantasy novelists on the use of language in the Alice books. The Water-Babies is, again, quite political and moralistic, but in a way that perhaps resonates better with adult students than the Brothers Grimm would.
• The Wood Beyond the World, and The Well at World's End, gets a special mention for being perhaps the earliest, recognizable fantasy novel. This isn't a myth or a fairy tale or magic realism (before the term for it existed), this is fantasy novel. It influences Tolkien and Lewis. This may even be the first book to which I can safely use the word 'worldbuilding', which opens up a whole new can of worms for possible discussions and writing assignments.

Pre-Tolkienian 20th Century

• Possible Texts: H.P. Lovecraft, The King of Elfland's Daughter, Conan the Barbarian, The Worm Ouroboros
• At this point, fantasy is kind of a thing. It's not a well-defined thing, it mingles loosely with horror and science fiction, but we're almost there. Fantasy at this point is much... lower than Tolkien's works. It's either swords and sorcery, or its not quite even fantasy.
• Lovecraft, oh you. Not much to say I didn't say above in 'horror', although he does offer the discussion of a mythos, a shared world (as many authors have since used it, bring in some of their work to discuss this; maybe compare to D&D), and, of course, a certain grandiloquence that will become common in the future.
• The King of Elfland's Daughter and The Worm Ouroboros offer the same function - a nearly-there version of the fantasy we know and love today. Lord Dunsany, a better writer. E.R. Eddison, a bit closer to modern fantasy conventions. Either or would do, but I wouldn't teach both.
• Conan the Barbarian is perhaps the first thing we can say on this list is a real fantasy classic. It's still known and popular today, it got a movie quite recently, and it's undeniably a fantasy novel - not ambiguously speculative scientifiction or a myth of old. Could have been the 'Tolkien', in another timeline. I would compare this one to Elric of Melnibone to explore that subgenre of fantasy, and discuss how the genre would be different if it had been just a bit more influential.

Tolkien and his Contemporaries

• Possible Texts: Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe, Titus Groan
• The turning point for the genre, as we begin to really define it. Inklings and other influential writers abound in these decades.
• Tolkien. 'Nuff said.
• Narnia offers a look at children's fantasy as it will come to be, lots of portal fantasies (someone going to another world from our own, one way or another). A fine time to bring out Harry Potter. A rather explicitly Christian fantasy. The place of talking animals in non-fairy tale fantasy.
• Gormenghast[/i] could be the middle piece in a low fantasy retrospect, Conan to Titus to Elric. Could make a great counterpoint to a discussion on the Song of Ice and Fire series, as well, given the common themes and worldbuilding choices.

The 60s and 70s

• Possible Texts: Elric of Melnibone, Earthsea, The Princess Bride
• Though Tolkien is out now, he hasn't quite made the impact that will later define the genre, so these are authors still inspired by what they grew up reading, though still shifting to fit the trends of increasingly modern literature.
• Elric I've touched on already, but Michael Moorcock remains a big name in the genre and this novel is an inspiration for nearly every author of low fantasy or swords and sorcery I've met. It is iconic.
• Earthsea is a fairly classic series that would come to influence a lot of your standard 'young orphan farm boy trains to become awesome and defeats evil' stories. The education of a wizard is a significant part of fantasy to come, Harry Potter and The Name of the Wind to name a couple great ones. Could be a lead-in to a discussion on race/diversity in fantasy, too.
• The Princess Bride would be a fun way to end the course, wouldn't it? A comedy, one which parodies some of the tropes that even in the few books we'd have read for this class would begin to grow tired quickly. It's an easy way to bring things to a close while also being able to touch on a lot of conventions we'd have gone over. Compare to Discworld.

 

[Philip Overby]

That is excellent, Ophiuca! Yes, this is exactly what I'm talking about. Perhaps if there was a course, it would focus on each of the Eras one at a time over the period of a few months? Meaning three months might be dedicated the Ancient Era, etc.

 

[Ophiucha]

By the years is definitely a valid approach. Perhaps get them into nice enough categories so each 'era' demonstrates the introduction of a literary convention or fantasy trope, so the classwork could have a clear topic to focus on writing about: ancient era for the hero's journey; victorian era for worldbuilding and language; medieval era for prophecy and fantasy creatures. Maybe only read one full novel-length work for each 'era', but include excerpts from others, as well as scholarly work on the subject and excerpts from modern pieces that relate to the themes or the stories directly.

 

[Ophiucha]

Also: reading scholarly texts written by fantasy authors. A lot of great fantasy authors are also professors of literature. I honestly like Tolkien's analysis of Beowulf more than I like Lord of the Rings.

 

[Chilari]

That's quite a list and an era-based approach would work nicely, I think. To add, though, to the Ancient Era, I'd suggest some plays like Medea or Hippolytus by Euripides, Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, or Agamemon by Aeschylus - all of which deal with important myths of Greece. They have themes of revenge, hubris and fate. I'd also suggest some later works, like Virgil's Aeneid, which borrows from the literary tradition of Homer but features the Roman approach and beliefs about the gods and also serves as a propagandaist piece to support Augustus' claim to rule as Emperor - because it was his direct ancestors who founded Rome and fought for the land on which Rome was to stand. This would work better under a theme of the hero's journey, while the plays deal better with ideas of fate.

Lucian of Samosata's True History/ True Story (depending on translation) also serves as a precedessor to Jules Verne, featuring as it does a battle between the people of the moon and those of the sun. It is a satirical commentary of his contemporary geographers and biographers, as well as of Homer, featuring the fanastical as much for entertainment as to ridicule the claims of those who made similar (though generally not quite so outrageous) claims about real people and places. This would also fit within the hero's journey theme.

 

[Ophiucha]

I'd consider most of those short enough for an in-class reading, but I'm not against them. I'd particularly go for Agamemnon, since it ties in closely with The Odyssey, and Oedipus Rex, because it has Tiresias and the ambiguously worded prophecy. Medea is one of my favourite myths, but I'm not sure it adds much to the fantasy repertoire besides the valuable lesson that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

Aeneid, I suggested later as a comparison with the Faerie Queene, since both were written with blatantly political intent. I think the Odyssey offers more to the fantasy genre, but I do like some things in Aeneid - plus, Ursula K. LeGuin wrote a novel that acts as a counter-story, from the POV of Lavinia, so you could read excerpts from that as they match up to the scenes in Aeneid.

I could definitely go with a True History/Jules Verne comparison, though. Might be better suited for a 'Science Fiction History and Technique' course, I suppose, but I rarely bother to separate the genres anyway.

 

[SeverinR]

I actually wrote a thesis on the subject for a literature class I took at university - it's sort of a pet subject of mine. The best part about it is that it's nearly all free online, since the copyrights are up on most things that came before The Hobbit.

For my own amusement, some thoughts on what works could be taught and how to teach them under the cut.

Spoiler: literary history

Ancient Era
Pre-Tolkienian 20th Century

• Possible Texts: H.P. Lovecraft, The King of Elfland's Daughter, Conan the Barbarian, The Worm Ouroboros
• At this point, fantasy is kind of a thing. It's not a well-defined thing, it mingles loosely with horror and science fiction, but we're almost there. Fantasy at this point is much... lower than Tolkien's works. It's either swords and sorcery, or its not quite even fantasy.
• Lovecraft, oh you. Not much to say I didn't say above in 'horror', although he does offer the discussion of a mythos, a shared world (as many authors have since used it, bring in some of their work to discuss this; maybe compare to D&D), and, of course, a certain grandiloquence that will become common in the future.
• The King of Elfland's Daughter and The Worm Ouroboros offer the same function - a nearly-there version of the fantasy we know and love today. Lord Dunsany, a better writer. E.R. Eddison, a bit closer to modern fantasy conventions. Either or would do, but I wouldn't teach both.
• Conan the Barbarian is perhaps the first thing we can say on this list is a real fantasy classic. It's still known and popular today, it got a movie quite recently, and it's undeniably a fantasy novel - not ambiguously speculative scientifiction or a myth of old. Could have been the 'Tolkien', in another timeline. I would compare this one to Elric of Melnibone to explore that subgenre of fantasy, and discuss how the genre would be different if it had been just a bit more influential.

Tolkien and his Contemporaries

• Possible Texts: Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe, Titus Groan
• The turning point for the genre, as we begin to really define it. Inklings and other influential writers abound in these decades.
• Tolkien. 'Nuff said.
• Narnia offers a look at children's fantasy as it will come to be, lots of portal fantasies (someone going to another world from our own, one way or another). A fine time to bring out Harry Potter. A rather explicitly Christian fantasy. The place of talking animals in non-fairy tale fantasy.
• Gormenghast[/i] could be the middle piece in a low fantasy retrospect, Conan to Titus to Elric. Could make a great counterpoint to a discussion on the Song of Ice and Fire series, as well, given the common themes and worldbuilding choices.

The 60s and 70s

• Possible Texts: Elric of Melnibone, Earthsea, The Princess Bride
• Though Tolkien is out now, he hasn't quite made the impact that will later define the genre, so these are authors still inspired by what they grew up reading, though still shifting to fit the trends of increasingly modern literature.
• Elric I've touched on already, but Michael Moorcock remains a big name in the genre and this novel is an inspiration for nearly every author of low fantasy or swords and sorcery I've met. It is iconic.
• Earthsea is a fairly classic series that would come to influence a lot of your standard 'young orphan farm boy trains to become awesome and defeats evil' stories. The education of a wizard is a significant part of fantasy to come, Harry Potter and The Name of the Wind to name a couple great ones. Could be a lead-in to a discussion on race/diversity in fantasy, too.
• The Princess Bride would be a fun way to end the course, wouldn't it? A comedy, one which parodies some of the tropes that even in the few books we'd have read for this class would begin to grow tired quickly. It's an easy way to bring things to a close while also being able to touch on a lot of conventions we'd have gone over. Compare to Discworld.

End the course with Princess Bride?! Inconcievable!
"As you wish."

Maybe just do a discussion of a persons works? Or compare them to another?

Maybe focus a discussion on an author's world building or history creating for a book? Focus on one part of the work?

Just from the Spolier here, there is alot of material to cover.