Heroic fantasy is a sub-genre of
fantasyFantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting. Many works within the genre take place on fictional planes or planets where magic is common...
which chronicles the tales of heroes and their conquests in imaginary lands. Stories tend to be intricate in plot, often involving many peoples, nations and lands. Grand battles and the fate of the world are common themes, and there is typically some emphasis on a universal
Good versus EvilThe conflict between good and evil is one of the precepts of the Zoroastrian faith, first enchrined by Zarathustra over 3000 years go. It is also one of the most common conventional themes in literature, and is sometimes considered to be a universal part of the human condition...
conflict.
Frequently, the protagonist is reluctant to be a champion and is of low or humble origin, and frequently having royal ancestors or parents but not knowing it.
Heroic fantasy is a sub-genre of
fantasyFantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting. Many works within the genre take place on fictional planes or planets where magic is common...
which chronicles the tales of heroes and their conquests in imaginary lands. Stories tend to be intricate in plot, often involving many peoples, nations and lands. Grand battles and the fate of the world are common themes, and there is typically some emphasis on a universal
Good versus EvilThe conflict between good and evil is one of the precepts of the Zoroastrian faith, first enchrined by Zarathustra over 3000 years go. It is also one of the most common conventional themes in literature, and is sometimes considered to be a universal part of the human condition...
conflict.
Frequently, the protagonist is reluctant to be a champion and is of low or humble origin, and frequently having royal ancestors or parents but not knowing it. Through events usually beyond his control, he is thrust into positions of great responsibility where his mettle is tested in a number of spiritual and physical challenges. Although it shares many of the basic themes of
Sword and SorcerySword and sorcery is a fantasy subgenre generally characterized by swashbuckling heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts. An element of romance is often present, as is an element of magic and the supernatural...
the term 'Heroic fantasy' is often used to avoid the garish overtones of the former.
Initially indistinguishable from the early fantasies of
ER EddisonEric Rücker Eddison was an English civil servant and author, writing under the name "E.R. Eddison."-Biography:...
and CS Lewis and the pulp fiction of Robert E Howard, it began to assume its own identity following the publication of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (and the increase in popularity of fantasy fiction in general), following a form similar to that first sketched out (in modern prose) by William Morris at the tail end of the nineteenth century.
From the seventies onwards a number of authors began publishing longer, sometimes formulaic, fantasy works -- capitalizing on the market Tolkien had shown to exist. At the same time, the resurgence of the fantasy adventure short story (known as Sword & Sorcery, a form which had previously dominated fantasy writing) and the deliberate distancing many authors took to Tolkien's work in particular (as well as similar material) (i.e.
Michael MoorcockMichael John Moorcock is an English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels....
), began to create distinct delineations around an emerging genre.
Heroic Fantasy in the Modern Age
Many new authors now shed, at least partly, the traditional concepts of heroes and even of good and evil. They tend, like George RR Martin,
Robert JordanRobert Jordan was the pen name of James Oliver Rigney, Jr. , under which he was best known as the author of the bestselling The Wheel of Time fantasy series. He also wrote under the names Reagan O'Neal and Jackson O'Reilly.-Biography:Jordan was born in Charleston, South Carolina...
, or
Robin HobbRobin Hobb is the second pen name of novelist Margaret Astrid Lindholm Ogden who produces primarily fantasy fiction, although she has published some science fiction....
, to use several viewpoints, of "
heroA hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
es" or "
villainA villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist, the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters...
s", and to blur the distinction between those two categories.
A recent rewriting of the formula heroic-saga central to the genre, by Jacqueline Carey that, while not located in the same world, also describes the struggle of a company against an evil god and his army, showing this evolution well. The main characters of the book are actually the "villains", shown not as inherently evil, but as the victims of betrayal and bad choices. On the other hand, the "heroes" are portrayed as arrogant, narrow-minded, and unforgiving. In other words, there is not much difference between the two sides. Even the "evil" god has been forced into the role, not by fate, but because of his brother's pride.
Perhaps an even better example of this evolution is the rise of irony and self-derision in heroic-fantasy. Authors like Martin like to break the clichés of the genre by featuring "usual" heroes -- such as the chivalric ideal of the knight -- as murderers, bullies and rapists, while kings and regents are devious and uncaring manipulators.
The only decent people are powerless commoners, who struggle to survive during a civil war that does not concern them. There is little that is "heroic" about them, in the usual sense. Another type of irony is the use of the "
anti-heroIn fiction, an antihero is a protagonist archetype whose character or goals are antithetical to traditional heroism. The term dates to 1714, although literary criticism identifies the trope in earlier literature. - History :...
."
Jacqueline CareyJacqueline Carey is an author and novelist, primarily of fantasy fiction.-Life:She attended Lake Forest College, receiving B.A.'s in psychology and English literature. During college, she spent 6 months working in a bookstore in London as part of a work exchange program. While there, she decided...
's
PhèdrePhèdre is a dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by Jean Racine, first performed in 1677.-Composition and premiere:...
is essentially a clever, resourceful and caring young woman... who incidentally happens to be a masochistic
courtesanA courtesan was originally a woman courtier, which means a person who attends the court of a monarch or other powerful person. In feudal society, the court was the centre of government as well as the residence of the monarch, and social and political life were often completely mixed together...
.
A popular example of self-parodying heroic-fantasy is provided by the British writer
Terry PratchettSir Terence David John Pratchett, OBE , more commonly known as Terry Pratchett, is an English novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre. He is best known for his popular and long-running Discworld series of comic fantasy novels...
, whose parodies of the genre are widely acknowledged as a prime example of British humor.
In recent years, heroic fantasy has matured somewhat out of its staid image as sub-par 'fat fantasy', becoming a genre of its own, the best examples of which have received much praise .
Selected authors
- Patrick Rothfuss
Patrick Rothfuss is an American fantasy writer and college lecturer. He is the author of three-volume series The Kingkiller Chronicle which was rejected by several publishing companies before the first book of the series, The Name of the Wind, was published in 2007, going on to win critical...
- E R Eddison
Eric Rücker Eddison was an English civil servant and author, writing under the name "E.R. Eddison."-Biography:...
- Jessica Amanda Salmonson
Jessica Amanda Salmonson, born January 6, 1950, is an author, editor and writer of fantasy and horror fiction. She is the author of the Tomoe Gozen trilogy, a fantasy version of the tale of the historical female samurai, and as the editor of the anthologies Amazons! and Amazons II.Salmonson's...
- David Gemmell
David Andrew Gemmell was a bestselling British author of heroic fantasy. A former journalist and newspaper editor, Gemmell had his first work of fiction published in 1984. He went on to write over thirty novels. Best known for his debut, Legend, Gemmell's works display violence, yet also explore...
- Charles R. Saunders
Charles R. Saunders also credited as Charles Saunders is an African American author and journalist currently living in Canada...
- Edgar Rice Burroughs
Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...
- Karl Edward Wagner
Karl Edward Wagner was an American writer, editor and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. His disillusionment with the medical profession can be seen in the stories "The Fourth Seal" and "Into...
- Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock is an English writer primarily of science fiction and fantasy who has also published a number of literary novels....
- Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. His most famous character — created in the pages of the Depression-era pulp magazine Weird Tales — is Conan the Barbarian.With Conan and his other heroes, Howard created the genre of...
- J. R. R. Tolkien
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion.Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from...
- Robert Jordan
Robert Jordan was the pen name of James Oliver Rigney, Jr. , under which he was best known as the author of the bestselling The Wheel of Time fantasy series. He also wrote under the names Reagan O'Neal and Jackson O'Reilly.-Biography:Jordan was born in Charleston, South Carolina...
- Jacqueline Carey
Jacqueline Carey is an author and novelist, primarily of fantasy fiction.-Life:She attended Lake Forest College, receiving B.A.'s in psychology and English literature. During college, she spent 6 months working in a bookstore in London as part of a work exchange program. While there, she decided...
- Mercedes Lackey
Mercedes "Misty" Lackey is an American author of fantasy novels. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of Velgarth, mostly in and around the country of Valdemar...
- Lloyd Alexander
Lloyd Chudley Alexander was a widely influential American author of more than forty books, mostly fantasy novels for children and adolescents, as well as several adult books...
- Christopher Paolini
Christopher Paolini is an American writer. He is best known as the author of the Inheritance Cycle, which consists of the books Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, and a for now untitled fourth book...
- Terry Goodkind
Terry Goodkind is a contemporary American writer and author of the best-selling epic fantasy series The Sword of Truth, which, according to his publisher Tor Books in an August 2006 press release, has more than 10 million copies in print and has been translated into 20 different languages...
- Joe Abercrombie
Joe Abercrombie is a British fantasy writer and film editor. He is the author of The First Law trilogy.-Biography:Joe Abercrombie was born on 31 December 1974 in Lancaster, England. He was educated at Lancaster Royal Grammar School and Manchester University, where he studied psychology. He moved...
- Christopher Paolini
Christopher Paolini is an American writer. He is best known as the author of the Inheritance Cycle, which consists of the books Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, and a for now untitled fourth book...
Quotations
"Heroic fantasy" is the name I have given to a subgenre of fiction, otherwise called the "sword-and-sorcery" story. It is a story of action and adventure laid in a more or less imaginary world, where magic works and where modern science and technology have not yet been discovered. The setting may (as in the Conan stories) be this Earth as it is conceived to have been long ago, or as it will be in the remote future, or it may be another planet or another dimension.
Such a story conbines the color and dash of the historical costume romance with the atavistic supernatural thrills of the weird, occult, or ghost story. When well done, it provides the purest fun of fiction of any kind. It is escape fiction wherein one escapes clear out of the real world into one where all men are strong, all women beautiful, all life adventurous, and all problems simple, and nobody even mentions the income tax or the dropout problem or socialized medicine.
— L. Sprague de CampLyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction and fantasy books, non-fiction and biography...
, introduction to the 1967 Ace edition of ConanConan the Barbarian is a fictional character in books, comics and movies. He is a hero, a well known and iconic figure in American fantasy, and the most famous barbarian in fiction.Conan is often associated with the fantasy subgenre of sword-and-sorcery and heroic fantasy...
.
See also
- High fantasy
High fantasy or epic fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that is set in invented or parallel worlds. High fantasy came to fruition through the work of authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis whose major fantasy works were published in the 1950s...
- Sword and sorcery
Sword and sorcery is a fantasy subgenre generally characterized by swashbuckling heroes engaged in exciting and violent conflicts. An element of romance is often present, as is an element of magic and the supernatural...
- Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America (SAGA)
The Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America is the name of a literary group of American fantasy authors active from the 1960s through the 1980s, noted for their contributions to the fantasy subgenre of heroic fantasy or "Sword and Sorcery."...
External links