[1][2] The term thus contrasts with high fantasy stories, which take place in fictional worlds that have their own sets of rules and physical laws.
An alternative definition, common in role-playing games, rests on the story and characters being more realistic and less mythic in scope.
Early nineteenth century scholarship in folklore led to fantasy fiction dominating Victorian children's literature.
Since being popularised in the works of E. Nesbit, the "low/portal variety" of fantasy has become a staple for its facility in challenging "established orders of society and thought.
as "low fantasy" because they de-emphasize magic and non-human intelligent races in favor of a more cynical portrayal of human conflict.
[n 3] Tolkien himself disagreed with the notion that his stories diverged from reality, but rather defended his position that the "essentials of that abiding place are all there (at any rate for inhabitants of N.W.
Karin E. Westman, writing in The Oxford Handbook of Children's Literature states that because "[J. K.] Rowling is much more interested in how fantasy provides perspective on everyday experience and the individual's place in society," and her inclusion of bildungsroman (a coming-of-age story) and the school story genres, "align her primarily with the domestic (or low) fantasy of authors such as E. Nesbit, Elizabeth Goudge, and Paul Gallico...as well as authors like Philip Pullman and Jonathan Stroud, who are also interested in the intersection of the personal and the political within quotidian experiences.
However, a real world setting can include the kind of mythic elements this book classifies as high fantasy.