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here some great fantasy websites:

Storm The Castle.com - Fantasy and creativity with an edge

Epic-Fantasy.com - website devoted to the genre of epic fantasy

The Fantasy Guide - The complete guide to fantasy on the web

The Heroic Dreams Fantasy blog - daily updates and info on the genre in movies books and more

The Heroic Dreams Forum - Come share your thoughts and opinions on the genre of fantasy

 

 

The History of Epic Fantasy

Have you ever heard of the Trojan Horse? Have you ever heard of Achilles? Odysseus? Jason and the Argonauts? Siegfried and Brunhilde? King Arthur? Hercules? Perseus? Robin Hood? Beowulf? Finn Mac Cumhail? Gilgamesh? Gawain?The stories of these epic figures are hundreds of years old, some even thousands of years old yet still they persist.

The Earliest Epic Fantasy

Book Gilgamesh the kingEpic fantasy is as old as the human race itself. We have a fascination with the singular hero who rises up against all odds to conquer or unite a kingdom or who embarks on an epic quest. This fascination is so strong that the oldest known version of any story is that of the epic fantasy called Gilgamesh.

The Epic of Gilgamesh was inscribed on stone tablets a thousand years before the Iliad was written.

Gilgamesh was a king who embarked on a quest to slay the beast Grendel and find immortality. It is generally considered by scholars that Gilgamesh did in fact exist and that he was a king of Uruk in about the 26th Century BC.

If you want to understand and learn about epic fantasy right from its beginning this is the place to start. There is good reason for this story having survived so long.

This epic has been recently released in an easy to read and well translated version and for a story like this that was probably told verbally for many generations you may want to consider getting the audio version -To hear this story rather than read it brings a sense of tribal connection.

Book The First Heroes

 

(If you like the epic fantasy from this period you may want to try The First Heroes a collection of stories written today but that take place in the Bronze Age.)

 

 

 

Ancient Greece and Epic Fantasy

The ancient greeks elevated the epic fantasy to new heights and the predominat theme in these epics was that of the boy who was rightfully king but through deceit of others was not allowed to take the throne. The hero must embark on a quest to overcome this and often times the gods themselves were obstacles to this quest.


Jason and the argonauts DVDWhen we think about epic heroes few come to mind as quickly as these ancient Greek heroes. Literature is full of examples. Jason and the Argonauts is an epic tale where Jason, in order to claim the kingdom that was rightfully his, embarked on a quest to find the golden fleece. This story was also made into a motion picture (Jason and the Argonauts).

The Odyssey is another great epic of ancient Greece which many consider to be the greatest epic ever to be written or told. It takes place around the 12th or 13th century bc and tells the story of a ten year journey that Odysseus makes in returning to his home after the Trojan War. In the Odysses he faces obstacles like the Sirens of the Sea, a cyclops, giants, and many others. He overcomes these obstacles through luck, wit and strength.

Perseus is another epic hero who faces and slays the Medusa on his path to claiming his kingdom. The Movie Clash of the Titans was based on the story of Perseus. This movie was acclaimed for it's amazing special effects created by Ray Harryhausen.

 

The Middle Ages

the Once and Future KingThe Middle ages is another period of Epic Fantasy and it is clearly defined by a distinct change. The epics of the Greek period focused on a single man battling the gods and the creatures of the world but the epic fantasy of the middle ages, although still replete with bad creatures, leaves out the gods and instead turns the focus of our hero toward the inside of himself.

This is the age of epic fantasy where chivaly and morals take center stage. Our hero who still has to accomplish great quests and overcome huge obstacles has to do this through the lens of his own moral compass.

The quest becomes one of internal journey along with external accomplishment. Our hero is not guided strictly by the desire for a kingdom but is also guided by the rule of what is right.

The foremost epic is that of King Arthur which takes place around the 5th - 6th century and the story has evolved over the centuries to include the Knights of the round table, excalibur and Lancelot. King Arthur and his knights journeyed on fantastic quests including the quest for the holy grail.

One the earliest works about King Arthur was Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur which was written in the 15th century. It contains the story lines of Guinevere, Lancelot, and the quest for the holy grail. This story was rewritten and retold and updated by T.H White in his 1958 modern classic The Once and Future King.

The epic of King Arthur has been brought to the silver screen many times and in many ways but one of the absolutely finest renditions of the story is in the movie Excalibur. It is a masterpiece.

One of the most noted changes to epic fantasy of this period is the use of magic. It changed from a power of the gods to one that could be mastered by wise humans. This is epitomized in Merlin.

The Modern era

Epic Fantasy in the modern era has its roots in all the epic fantasy of the past but it has evolved. Many of the elements are the same; The hero struggles with seemingly insurmountable obstacles both within and without, but the setting for the story has changed. In epic fantasy of the past the world was our world.

At the time these stories were told or written a person could be expected to live his entire life within a few miles of the same village or town. The world itself was large and strange. It was entirely believable that there were dragons and strange beasts on the next continent over -the world wasn't yet fully explored. We now know that there are no dragons next door so epic fantasy writers have created new worlds and populated them with dragons and beasts of all kinds.

This is illustrated well in the modern epic fantasy TheLord of the Rings (also made into movies). The main character, as all the epic fantasy heroes before him, embarks on a quest where the whole of the world is at stake and along the way he overcomes many obstacles both internal and external.

In the modern epic fantasy the world itself is changed. It follows different rules, has different, and more formidable creatures and enemies. Through this the sense of epic is brought even higher and the sense of fantasy is deepened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is a list of books quoted in this essay: