The word fantasy is primarily a psychological term which means the faculty by which simulacra of sensible objects can be re-produced in the mind: the process of imagination. It is curious that mental images can be formulated for which no actual equivalents exist. For this reason, Geoffrey Chaucer uses the word fantasy to refer to strange and bizarre notions that have no basis in every-day experience, and this is quite applicable to the notion of fantasy literature because it is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary plot element, theme, or setting.
Saricks states that fantasy, "appeals more to the emotions than the intellect...deals with otherness of time or place...takes a familiar story, legend, or myth and adds a twist...[with] the presence of magic" [23]. Fantasy employs supernatural, unreal and imaginary elements to create a secondary world consistent both with work and within itself.
While rather young in terms of scholarly classification, fantasy can be traced back to the times even before there was much of a written literature.
Beginning perhaps with the Epic of Gilgamesh and the earliest written documents known to humankind, mythic and other elements that would eventually come to define fantasy in all its subgenres have been a part of some of the grandest and most celebrated works of literature. From The Odyssey to Beowulf, from The Mahabharata to The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, it is possible to see fantastic elements. However, there are some distinct differences between fantasy genre and some early fantastic works, which are, indisputably, predecessors of modern fantasy.
First of, modern genre fantasy postulates a different reality with a tendency to define its rules, geography and history, whereas traditional tales have no precision, often saying simply that it happened "long ago and far away." Secondly, fantasy works are intentionally fictitious, when the myths and legends, on the contrary, are to some degree actually believed in. Finally, the fantastic worlds of modern fantasy are created using traditional elements, but with an individual interpretation. These transitions are evident in early Gothic novels, the ghost stories in vogue in the 19th century, and Romantic novels, all of which used extensively traditional fantastic motifs, but subjected them to authors' concepts.
With increases in learning in the middle of the medieval European era, there appeared literary fiction and specifically, the genre of Chivalric romance which embraced fantasy. Such tales as Valentine and Orson, Guillaume de Palerme, and Queste del Saint Graal heralded nascence of the fantasy genre.
However, the history of modern fantasy literature is usually said to begin with George MacDonald (1824-1905), the Scottish author of such novels as The Princess and the Goblin and Phantastes, the latter of which is widely considered to be the first fantasy novel ever written for adults. MacDonald was a major influence on both J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris (183496), a popular English poet who wrote several novels in the latter part of the century, including The Well at the World's End. It wasn't until the turn of the century that fantasy fiction began to reach a large audience. Edward Plunkett, better known as Lord Dunsany, established the genre's popularity in both the novel and the short story form. Many popular mainstream authors also began to write fantasy at this time, including H.Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs. These authors, along with Abraham Merrit, established what was known as the 'lost world' sub-genre, which was the most popular form of fantasy in the early decades of the 20th century, although several classic children's fantasies, such as J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, were also published around this time.
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Authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wilde (in The Picture of Dorian Gray) also developed fantasy, in the telling of horror tales, a separate branch of fantasy that was to have great influence on H. P. Lovecraft and other writers of dark fantasy.
A important factor in the development of the fantasy genre was the arrival of magazines devoted to fantasy fiction. These includes Der Orchideengarten, Weird Tales, Unknown, The Magazine of Fantasy. Several of the genre's most prominent authors began their careers in these magazines including Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber, Ray Bradbury and most noticeably H. P. Lovecraft. Outside the pulp magazines, several American writers used the medium of fantasy for humorous and satirical purposes, including James Branch Cabell, Thorne Smith, with Topper (1926) and Turnabout (1931), and Charles G. Finney, author of The Circus of Dr. Lao.
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 by Stella Benson, A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay, Lady into Fox by David Garnett, Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees, and Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner.
In 1938, with the publication of The Sword in the Stone, T. H. White introduced one of the most notable works of comic fantasy.
Literary critics of the era began to take an interest in "fantasy" as a genre of writing. Herbert Read devoted a chapter of his book English Prose Style (1928) to fantasy, arguing it was unjustly considered suitable only for children.
However, it was the advent of high fantasy and, most importantly, the popularity of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings which finally allowed fantasy to truly enter into the mainstream. Tolkien had published The Hobbit in 1937 and The Lord of the Rings in the 1950s; while the first was a juvenile fantasy, the second was an epic fantasy of great scope and seriousness. It is difficult to overstate the impact that The Lord of the Rings had on the fantasy genre; in some respects, it swamped all the works of fantasy that had been written before it, and it unquestionably created "fantasy" as a marketing category. It created an enormous number of Tolkienesque works. While fantasists had created fantasy worlds from the time of William Morris, Tolkien's influence enormously boosted them. The impact that his books, combined with the success of several other series such as C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast series and Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea, helped cement the genre's popularity and gave birth to the current wave of fantasy literature.
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With the immense success of Tolkien's works many publishers began to search for a new series which could have similar mass-market appeal. Although many fantasy novels of this time proved popular, it was not until 1977's The Sword of Shannara that publishers found the sort of breakthrough success they had hoped for. As a result the genre saw an incredible boom in the number of titles published in the following years. Notable fantasy novels of the late 1970s and 1980s included Stephen R. Donaldson's Lord Foul's Bane (1977) the first in The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever series, John Crowley's Little, Big (1981), Raymond E. Feist's Magician (1982), Robert Holdstock's Mythago Wood (1984) and Glen Cook's Black Company series.
Notable books of the 1990s include Robert Jordan's popular series Wheel of Time, Tad Williams' Memory, Sorrow and Thorn series and George R. R. Martin's A Game of Thrones.
While fantasy has remained somewhat of a niche market, this has begun to change in recent years. The long-running series of light fantasies by Piers Anthony (Xanth) and Terry Pratchett (Discworld) regularly hit the bestseller lists from the 1980s onward. Thanks largely to J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, which have become the best selling book series of all time, fantasy is becoming increasingly intertwined with mainstream fiction. The blockbuster success of several film adaptations of fantasy novels such as The Lord of the Rings and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has helped further this trend.
As for the main rules that apply to the modern fantasy canon, we can mention that fantastic elements cannot be employed casually and authors not only create a new set of physical laws but they conform unerringly to them. Critics hold this genre to the same basic critical standards as they do other genres. For instance, modern fantasy must have strong, believable characters and should examine issues of the human condition, the universal truths found in all well-written books.
Some of the most popular fantasy categories include talking animals, toys and objects that come alive, imaginary worlds, supernatural and magical powers, time travels etc. There can be singled out six main fantasy motifs: magic, other worlds, good vs. evil, heroism, special characters and fantastic objects. If a story contains all six, it is either a classic fairy tale or an example of modern high fantasy.
1. Magic. Magic is fantasy literature's most basic element. In fact, each of the other five motifs is tinged by magic to some degree. Magic is often a part of the setting, explaining otherwise inexplicable events.
2. Secondary worlds. In much of fantasy, a special geography or universe is established, a place wherein magic may freely operate. Sometimes, the whole story is in the secondary world, and sometimes characters move in and out of it.
3. Good versus evil. The ancient, archetypal theme of good versus evil is the basis for much fantasy. Fantasies can show how good and evil works out in individuals. Its usually easy to tell who is good and who is bad.
4. Heroism. The hero's quest is an age-old pattern that is the backbone of many of today's fantasy stories. This "hero's round" is a circular journey, including separation, initiation and return.
5. Special character types. These often come from our legendary or folk literature past: fairies, pixies, giants, wicked witches, ogres, vampires, wizards, dwarves, elves etc.
6. Fantastic objects. Characters often employ magical props in accomplishing their heroic or evil deeds: magic cloaks, swords, staffs, cauldrons, mirrors, etc.
It is fair to say that over the course of centuries fantasy has reached in all possible directions, backward into the mythical past, forward into science fiction, and sideways into all sorts of parallel worlds [27].
