The ROOTS OF fantasy

Fantasy is a genre often seen as one that evokes the past, drawing upon distinctive historical periods in creating its unique worlds and locations. As such, it seems only suitable that it should be a genre with its own long past, which arguably still hangs over much fiction in the field today. With that said, the term itself only came into common usage in the 1940s, so much work that came before it has been retroactively argued to fit into a definition that simply didn’t exist at the time – and that is not a problem solely encountered by fantasy either.

Of course, as writers, it is hugely beneficial to know the roots of our chosen ‘patch’ in order to provide a better understanding of the tropes and archetypes that fill it, as well as the stories that have laid down the facets that helped define it. In this piece we’re going to look back – and I mean way back – into