Fantasy literature
Classical mythology is replete with fantastical stories and characters, the best known (and perhaps the most relevant to modern fantasy) being the works of Homer (Greek) and Virgil (Roman).
[9] The Fornaldarsagas, Norse and Icelandic sagas, both of which are based on ancient oral tradition influenced the German Romantics, as well as William Morris, and J. R. R.
Celtic folklore and mythology provided a major source for the Arthurian cycle of chivalric romance: the Matter of Britain.
The English Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (c.1408–1471) was written in prose, and the work dominates the Arthurian literature.
[24] Several fantasies aimed at an adult readership were also published in 18th century France, including Voltaire's "contes philosophique" The Princess of Babylon (1768) and The White Bull (1774).
[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.
[24] Another noted Gothic novel which also contains a large amount of Arabian Nights-influenced fantasy elements is Vathek (1786) by William Thomas Beckford.
The tradition begun with Giovanni Francesco Straparola and Giambattista Basile and developed by Charles Perrault and the French précieuses was taken up by the German Romantic movement.
The German author Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué created medieval-set stories such as Undine (1811) and Sintram and his Companions (1815), which would later inspire British writers such as George MacDonald and William Morris.
[36] In France, the main writers of Romantic-era fantasy were Charles Nodier with Smarra (1821) and Trilby (1822)[37][38] and Théophile Gautier who penned such stories as "Omphale" (1834) and "One of Cleopatra's Nights" (1838) as well as the novel Spirite (1866).
[39][40] Fantasy literature was popular in Victorian times, with the works of writers such as Mary Shelley, William Morris, George MacDonald, and Charles Dodgson reaching wider audiences.
[41] From this origin, John Ruskin wrote The 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 to J.R.R.
[44] The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris, an admirer of the Middle Ages and a poet who wrote several fantastic romances and novels in the latter part of the 19th century, including The Well at the World's End (1896).
[48] H. Rider Haggard developed the conventions of the lost world subgenre with his novel King Solomon's Mines (1885), which presented a fantastical Africa to a European audience still unfamiliar with the continent.
[61] In Britain in the aftermath of World War I, a notably large number of fantasy books aimed at an adult readership were published, including Living Alone (1919) by Stella Benson,[62] A Voyage to Arcturus (1920) by David Lindsay,[63] Lady into Fox (1922) by David Garnett,[62] Lud-in-the-Mist (1926) by Hope Mirrlees,[62][64] and Lolly Willowes (1926) by Sylvia Townsend Warner.
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 is The Worm Ouroboros (1922), a long heroic fantasy set on an imaginary version of the planet Mercury.
Herbert Read devoted a chapter of his book English 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".
[67] The first major contribution to the genre after World War II was Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan (1946), the book that launched the Gormenghast series.
J. R. R. Tolkien played a large role in the popularization and accessibility of the fantasy genre with his highly successful publications The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954–55).
[68] Tolkien was largely influenced by an ancient body of Anglo-Saxon myths, particularly Beowulf, as well as William Morris's romances and E. R. Eddison's 1922 novel, The Worm Ouroboros.
Tolkien's close friend C. S. Lewis, author of The 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 of The 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.
[76] Symbolism often plays a significant role in fantasy literature, often through the use of archetypal figures inspired by earlier texts or folklore.
[77] Ursula K. Le Guin, in her essay "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie", presented the idea that language is the most crucial element of high fantasy, because it creates a sense of place.
