herso of fantacy literature
...alric Spain during an imaginary period of the Middle Ages through the tales of privateers. A(braham) Merritt began his long career in fantasy by writing about the exploits of an American adventurer who is drawn into a twilight world that lurks within an artifact in the Forbidden City of China, in "Through the Dragon Glass" (All-Story, 1917). James Branch Cabell's Jurgen (1919) is located in the magical realm of Poictesme, a place of Europe overlooked by mapmakers and geographers in a time between the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance, and peopled with ironic heroes who are also somewhat philosophical. E(ric) R(ucker) Eddison's swaggering prince, in The Worm Ouroboros (1922), reaches the planet Mercury through a dream, and battles witches, demons and powerful ladies of a Renaissance court. These fantasy stories aimed to run away from the scientific universe to mythological realms where the notions of chivalry and heroic ideals maintained a constant vigil over the forces of evil. Like Morris and Dunsany, Edgar Rice Burroughs abandoned the modern era for far-flung adventures on a mythical Mars, a forgotten Africa, an undiscovered kingdom at the center of the earth, and other lost worlds. His first two stories, Under the Moons of Mars (later released as A Princess of Mars, 1917) and Tarzan of the Apes, both appeared in 1912 in the pages of the pulp magazine All-Story, and introduced two very memorable characters. Former Civil War Captain John Carter of Virginia, while prospecting for gold in Arizona, is whisked away to Mars - known as "Barsoom" to its inhabitants - to battle with the barbaric yet highly technological natives and rescue the beautiful Dejah Thoris. With his cavalry sabre and six-shooter, Carter is equal to the challenge, and eventually conquers the entire planet. Similarly, John Clayton, the English Lord Greystoke, is born in the African jungle, orphaned, and raised by intelligent apes as Tarzan. Like Carter, Tarzan battles strange peoples, finds lost cities, and confronts odd beasts. Both heroes are tall, lithe and powerful fighting men who use their wits and endless adaptability to conquer strange worlds. Admittedly, these stories, and the other remarkable adventures set in Pellucidar, the "land that time forgot," and Venus, are closer in nature to science fiction, but they also share many of the same hallmarks of heroic fantasy, including their exotic locales and magical realms, cliffhanging dangers and hairbreath escapes, occult mysteries and celebrated heroes.11 H(oward) P(hillips) Lovecraft was also influenced by Lord Dunsany and wrote his first effective fiction set in the same twilight landscapes, reprinted in early issues of Weird Tales. Later, he broke "down the barriers" between worlds with "The Call of Cthulhu" (Weird Tales, 1928), by exploring the darker side of human experience. Other writers in Weird Tales followed Lovecraft's lead, and invented the new sub-genre, which would be later termed Sword & Sorcery by Fritz Leiber,12 that preserved magic, the occult, and all the trappings of the lost worlds' story by removing them to remote moments in time. Robert E. Howard was the first and most prolific contributor to Weird Tales to enter this new realm, introducing a host of heroic figures from King Kull and Bran Mak Morn to Solomon Kane and Cormac Mac Art; but his most influential figure on the genre was Conan the Barbarian. Set in an imaginary past (known as the Hyborian Age), "The Phoenix and the Sword" (Weird Tales, 1932) featured the first appearance of the violent and mighty swordsman named Conan. Sixteen additional stories, like "The Scarlet Citadel," "The Tower of the Elephant," "Black Colossus" and "Red Nails," not only helped expand the legend of Conan but also fueled the public hunger for similar tales. Clark Ashton Smith followed with several series of his own, featuring colorful heroes against the background of the medieval land "Averoigne" or the imaginary polar continent (still free of ice) known as "Hyperborea." C(atherine) L. Moore broke into the lucrative market with her first story "Shambleau" (Weird Tales, 1933) in which space adventurer Northwest Smith rescues a psychic vampire (still surviving from ancient times) from a bloood thirsty mob. Subsequent adventures found her hero, like John Carter of Mars, in weird and fantastic settings. Moore's "Jirel of Joiry" (Weird Tales, 1934) and six other highly colorful, romantic tales set in an imaginary medieval society firmly established the archetype of the female hero. Moore's husband, Henry Kuttner created his own heroic figure with Elak of Atlantis, contributing "Thunder in the Dawn," "Spawn of Dragon," "Beyond the Phoenix (all in 1938) and "Dragon Moon" (1941) to the same, noted pulp magazine. Fritz Leiber (and Harry Fischer) reworked many of Howard's notions about heroic fantasy for rival publication Unknown by creating Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. These two heroes--one huge and powerful, the other small, nimble and quick-witted --first appeared in "Two Sought Adventure" (1939), and continued their swashbuckling exploits for another thirty years. While Weird Tales and other pulp magazines published Sword & Sorcery stories into the late forties, tales of heroic fantasy took a different turn in the fifties with the publications of several important works. J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings (1954-56), which many regard as the first genuinely modern heroic fantasy, introduced an epic romance, set in the mythical world of Middle-Earth, in which humans, hobbits, goblins, elves, and a dragon battle for control of a magical ring. His heroes are very small in comparison to Howard's larger-than-life figures, and they are also very moral, choosing a spiritual path to greatness (rather than a bloody one). Tolkien first entered Middle-Earth with the simple children's fantasy The Hobbit (published in 1937), but his return to that richly imagined world meant a turn from the blood-and-thunder of Howard and his contemporaries back to the purity of vision that once established the genre. A much larger work, entitled The Silmarillion (1977), gave Tolkien the opportunity to expand upon his imaginary world of Middle-Earth. Longing for simpler more nostalgic times as well, T.H. White's The Once and Future King (1958) also brought the genre back full circle to the writings of Morris and Dunsany. The influence of both Howard and Tolkien can be found in much of the work of the sixties, seventies and eighties. Michael Moorcock, one of the few British writers to work in the genre, introduced one of the first anti-heros in 1961 with "Elric of Melnibone," an albino monarch dominated by an evil, sentient sword; but beyond his fascinating series, much of the work seemed inspired by the amoral vigor of Howard or the magical sincerity of Tolkien. Lin Carter's Thongor (from The Wizard of Lemuria (1965), John Norman's Tarl Cabot (from Tarnsman of Gor (1966), and John Jakes' Brak the Barbarian (1968) were all cut from the same cloth as Conan, and carried on the traditions created by Howard. In fact, in the last twenty-five years, tales of sword-wielding heroes have proliferated in one form or another, from Andrew Offut's Messenger of Zhuvastou (1973) and My Lord Barbarian (1977) to Karl Edward Wagner's tributes to Howard to Mark Roger's wildly humorous Samurai Cat yarns. Similarly, Lloyd Alexander's Prydain, Joy Chant's Kendrinh, Alan Garner's Alderley Edge, Terry Brooks' Shannara are all wonderfully evocative of Tolkien. Only Stephen R. Donaldson's highly stylized Thomas Covenant series, Robert Silverberg's stately Lord Valentine books, or Piers Anthony's richly textured Xanth books offered anything new to the notions of heroic fantasy by imagining unusual heroes or worlds. The prevailing tone of most modern works of fantasy is somewhat satiric, and current heroes tend to be "anti-heroes." The newest and most promising trend in heroic fantasy has come from women wr...