As I've progressed through my latest series from The Great Courses (Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life) one of the many things I've learned is this:
The "Classics" have a lot of "Fantasy" in them.
I tend to think of the "Fantasy" genre being born with Tolkein. And, as a money-making statement, that might be right. But the "fantastic" was core to many books I've learned about in this Great Course.
The Iliad, Prometheus Bound, Oresteia, Gilgamesh and Beowulf, being written in ages when monsters and the gods were an integral part of human existence probably didn't read as "fantasy" in their original time, but they've been staples of a classical education and contain the elements modern readers would associate with fantasy.
But we needn't go back so far in history. The Divine Comedy might takes its fantastic elements from Dante's beliefs of the Christian afterlife, but they are clearly filled with fantastic creatures and mythical punishments. Mallory's Morte d'Arthur has wizards and sorcery and quests. And Faust is simply replete with fantasy, though again it is couched in Christian symbolism.
Our modern world treats "fantasy" as a childish genre, and yet some of the greatest works of humanity used the images and themes of the milieu to engage the mind in considering the largest questions of life. It's a noble method of storytelling with a long and distinguished record.
Let's remember that!
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