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A few thoughts on western fantasy
May. 17th, 2013 01:33 pmI’m not much of a fantasy reader. I enjoy Tolkien’s work, but I mostly read speculative fiction in preference to full-fledged fantasy fiction. I’m not familiar with all the traditional legend-cycles either.
But the most important western legend-cycles have included classical Greek and Roman legends set before the 13th-8th century collapse, biblical legends, and medieval/modern legends set before the 6th-9th century crisis.
These come out of largely oral cultures, and are transmitted in characteristically oral fashion, Homer, the troubadours, etc. and they take place centuries before written versions supplement the oral ones. My brother has argued that the trobadours’ tales share a common chronology, and the British ones share a common geography. But on he whole, oral traditions recombine freely, and oral memory tends to fade after several decades, so that the stories aren’t historical sources.
I think western fantasy gaming, though, tends to try to emulate late medieval and early modern periods. Consider Dungeons & Dragons, Runequest, Pathfinder, etc. Runequest combines bronze age elements with the late medieval and early modern elements, which is bold, but otherwise almost all of these show the same bias towards late medieval and early modern elements. It might be worth focusing on the periods when these legends took place, and the periods when they reached their most familiar forms, to get a better feel for the legends and the histories behind the legend.
But the most important western legend-cycles have included classical Greek and Roman legends set before the 13th-8th century collapse, biblical legends, and medieval/modern legends set before the 6th-9th century crisis.
These come out of largely oral cultures, and are transmitted in characteristically oral fashion, Homer, the troubadours, etc. and they take place centuries before written versions supplement the oral ones. My brother has argued that the trobadours’ tales share a common chronology, and the British ones share a common geography. But on he whole, oral traditions recombine freely, and oral memory tends to fade after several decades, so that the stories aren’t historical sources.
I think western fantasy gaming, though, tends to try to emulate late medieval and early modern periods. Consider Dungeons & Dragons, Runequest, Pathfinder, etc. Runequest combines bronze age elements with the late medieval and early modern elements, which is bold, but otherwise almost all of these show the same bias towards late medieval and early modern elements. It might be worth focusing on the periods when these legends took place, and the periods when they reached their most familiar forms, to get a better feel for the legends and the histories behind the legend.
