The Origins and Development of the Fantasy Genre 

It was impossible to mention in the space of this video all the fantasy authors who deserve to be mentioned in an account of the genre. Which authors would you mention?

Listening to you talk about fantasy makes me reaffirm why I love it so much. I love the part when you say fantasy is about "nurturing the imagination", and "what could be more human than the capacity to imagine?"

Man, I really hope this channel blows up. You're so insightful.

I read Tolkien's masterpiece in 1973, age 12 (in Dutch). It awakened my love for fantasy, so the next few years I read nothing but - in English. The Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series, edited by Lin Carter, revived lots of forgotten fantasy authors, like Morris, Eddison, Cabell, Dunsany... The study that became my Bible then, was Lin Carter's Imaginary Worlds, in which he did the same as this video: lay bare the roots and history of the fantasy genre (and a lot more). Recommended!

What an awesome treatise this was. I have to talk about the definition of myth and what not in my classes when we do mythology. So cool to see the genre's evolution past what I knew it to be. Please do more videos like this, Professor!

Great to see a video giving attention to the late prose romances of William Morris as my own encounter with fantasy literature started with Morris, back in 1970 when I was an undergraduate, the very first being "The Water of the Wondrous Isles", followed by "The Well at the World's End" - I read these and Morris' other prose romances in hardcover as my university had a complete set of his Collected Works (this was just before Ballantine began publishing Morris in paperback). To this day these two tales remain my absolute favourite works of fantasy and I re-read them every few years. Birdalone from "The Water of the Wondrous Isles" and Ursula from "The Well at the World's End" are at the top of my list of most beloved literary characters. After I read those two books I went on to read most of Morris' prose romances, as well as "The Lord of the Rings". I came to very much enjoy Tolkien's work - over the years I have also re-read TLotR many times and read the books aloud to my children, but I have always been disappointed by the paucity of female characters in Tolkien.

One of the main lines of fantasy that I enjoy is saga. It dates back to the myths. A hero sets off on a quest trip gathers friends as he goes and eventually wins his goal against the odds.

I haven’t read much fantasy yet (only a few foundational works) but I believe it’s important. Thanks for this video, it will help me in my future fantasy journey. I will be looking through your backlist to see what other aides I can find.

I came from Elliot Brook's shoutout of you and I'm really excited by the prospect of a literature professor's take on fantasy booktube. This video was a great insight on the origins of my favorite genre, both as a writer and reader. Wishing you much success!

This is a great video. You are wonderful at create concise and engaging conversation!

I love your deep analysis of the Fantasy genre!! Super informative but entertaining as well ☺️

Aha, found this! I love Morris' use of archaisms, it's good practice for me and it helps me expand on the list of archaisms I keep, currently at 1100+ in said list with much help from Tolkien and Morris.

very interesting historical analysis of the development of the genre, in tandem with sociocultural history !!

I hope you consider making this a series. It was really informative. I never dove into the history of fantasy but I’ve always heard that Tolkien was one of the best at adding many different types of mythology and such to his work.

Great video. You should make a video on the work of Gabriel Garcia-Marquez and how fantastical elements and "magic realism" is a major component in a lot of Latin American literature.

POV: an alumnus who loved Prof Chase 5 years ago and randomly finds him on yt... So happy to see you here and your content is wonderful!

My guy, great video! You seem so knowledgeable about the genre and it's easy to see how passionate you are about fantasy. You honestly deserve way more subscribers. I can't imagine the amount of time you put into the research for this video. Also, I absolutely love the 10 different copies of Beowulf lmao.

very informative and interesting video, thank you

"Brief tour". Good lord. That was quite a long history! Very informative. Impressive amount of information that must have taken a lot of time to research and pull together. It would be interesting to see some deep dives into subgenres of fantasy too, such as high fantasy, sword and sorcery, grimdark, etc. Their characteristics, who started that subgenre, writers in that subgenres, etc. Might make for a good side video series from your reviews. I'd also like some advice from you on poetry if you're at all into it. I'm looking to find some good poetry with a fantasy tilt to it to read once a while. Sometimes I like a read a good poem or two. Anyways, wonderful job with this one.

We need more content like this.. it was so informative.

I was just looking for some of your older stuff and stumbled across this great video. I hope one day you will do some reviews of some of the books you mentioned here. Dunsany, McDonald, Edison, Peake and especially T. H. White who is one of my absolute favorites. They are all soooo good. And a supplement to your remarks: Following on from the Brothers Grimm, one should definitely also take a look at the German Romantics, especially Novalis (Heinrich von Ofterdingen), Tieck (his art fairy tales), Fouque (Undine) and ETA Hoffmann (The Golden Pot), all of whom must be classified as fantastic literature and are still very much worth reading today. At least through Edgar Allan Poe have also developed their influence in the English-speaking world.

This is an excellent little lecture. I’ve been trying to work my way up to LOTR by reading earlier works first. I started with Morris’s Well At The Worlds End, then Eddison’s Worm Ouroboros, Peak’s Gormenghast etc. I gotta say, it’s a shame later authors have abandoned efforts tell their stories with their own form of archaic prose. I think that old-english style really puts an extra layer of paint on the strangeness of an imagined world. Shame it’s so out of fashion.

Great Video! I would really love to see a whole series on the history of fantasy as a literary genre, may be dedicating an episode per decade, diving deep into the authors, trends, titles, and what not! If there is any fantasy booktuber who could do it it's you, Philip Chase!

Would love to see a more in depth lecture that goes on for hours! Thanks, this was enlightening

Wow! This one just popped up in my suggestion box. Great run down on the history of fantasy literature! It would take a much longer class, heck, even a whole semester to really delve into it. I would even like to re-examine the link the between mythical stories and fantasy stories. To me, they are all fantasy in one way or another whether the creator believed it was or not. The reason why modern fantasy authors can mine the depths of mythical literature is because it was already fantasy to begin with. Ha, just a theory of mine. I'm sure you've talked about this stuff more over the past two years, but I really enjoyed this and love thinking about this stuff. Cheers!

Just stumbled upon this channel and have watched a few videos now. Keep up the great work you have rapidly become one of my favourite youtubers.

This is a great and approachable history of Western (read, European and Euro-descended) fantasy, but it's presented as if the Western European case is representative of ALL fantasy. It would be nice to see a less eurocentric approach (or at least to mention openly that you're only talking about the Western tradition).

Thanks Philip for this, this video helped me on this June 16, 2024 in becoming a fantasy series fan, i did initially think of it all as escapist, but not as drivel, i often would pine for the commitment required, and indeed am setting my first task to be a lofty one, to read The Wheel of Time before settling on another series, by finishing it i earn the right to spend money again, (spending problem history)

Nice video and summary. I wonder why I never see Alice mentioned in discussions of early modern fantasy? Wonderland should qualify. I also think books like A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court should count. And I would also mention the tremendous influence of Dungeons and Dragons on a whole generation of authors, which is at least as large as the shadow of Tolkien. (Forgotten Realms, Malazan, GRRM, Dragonlance, just to name a few).

Have you ever read The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson? I ask for a few reasons. The first being I think it is a mostly forgotten work that inspired a lot more fantasy than most people would assume. It was published in 1954 (same year as The Fellowship of the Ring) and while it shares the same folklore influences they are literally night and day to one another. The Broken Sword is brutal and adult in ways you never see in the LotR. I think the closest modern comparison would be Wheel of Time to Game of Thrones. It is also one of those pillars of fantasy that was not influenced by The Lord of the Rings in any way. I look at it as a forking point in fantasy. You have The Lord of the Rings leading to things like Shannara and other Tolkien-esque works and then on the other side you have The Broken Sword leading to Moorcock's Eternal Champion novels and more experimental dark fantasy in the 60s and 70s like Karl Edward Wagner's Kane and so on. Tolkien used folklore in a cozy way with a sense of adventure like a fantasy version of H Rider Haggard(who was one of his influences as a boy) and made a meandering epic that shows you good vs evil and the power of friendship. Anderson takes the dark road and uses the same folklore to create a tragic, brutal, epic tale about the wickedness of man and the thirst for revenge. Anderson's elves are also shall we say "old school" elves. The kind that steal children. The other reason I bring it up is that, based on your education and interests, the 1954 version of The Broken Sword was literally written for you. He uses a lot of archaic words and mostly forgotten folklore from northern Europe to write a powerful dark fantasy epic unlike anything else published before or after. Anderson said as much when he "revised" the novel in 1972. He said he is not the same person that wrote that book back then. He could not write like that again. I know this video is almost 4 years old and with only 15 minutes or so you couldn't make a comprehensive history. I just felt that I would be remiss if I didn't mention one of my favorite books of all time, knowing that you too would enjoy it. This is a great video and a wonderful guide for all the fantasy lovers out there!

Oh, and I had to laugh at the choice of pictures after your comment about "unpredictable deaths". No subtle spoilers there or anything haha.

It is always a pleasure to learn from your videos, Philip. When you mentioned Morris and his work as a craftsman and the pictures you featured, it remembered me of a music album's cover by the singer Loreena McKennitt: "The mask and mirror", because of the medieval inspired themes that are often found in her songs.

What a great video! As someone who loves fantasy as well as history, this was just the most enjoyable thing ever for me. Anyhow, I have been wanting to ask you something for some time now, so here goes: For my last year of high school, I have to write this really big thesis/essay (I don't know the English equivalent, but in Dutch it is called a 'Profielwerkstuk'). As a subject I, naturally, chose 'the fantasy genre'. Since you always come across so well-informed and you just love the fantasy genre, I was hoping I could maybe get your perspective on some things and some insights in being a college (literature) professor as well as a fantasy booktuber! So, would you maybe be open to me interviewing you about some fantasy related things? This could either be in written format (which would be easier for me, since I will have to write it all out in the end) of in video format, whatever you feel most comfortable with and works best for you! Sadly, I do have limited time because of deadlines, so if we could make this happen within about a month or so,that would be awesome! I would love to hear from you soon! In the meantime, keep doing you, I love all the content you are coming out with! Have a nice day! Esmay

Thank you so much for this video. I think you may have answered a question I have wondered about for a long time. I've been searching for the writer who first conceived of the concept of a fantasy world set in another world han ours (as opposed to a fiction time in our Earth's pre-history such as JRRT's Middle-earth or REH's Hyberboria). Would you say William Morris (whom I am unfamiliar with) can be credited as the first to create a fantasy world, independent of our Earth's pre-history?

Great content as always. Waiting for your TBR video.

Thank you for the video! It was really inspiring to hear about the history of fantasy because lately, I have been trying to understand what the fantasy genre even is... I'm worldbuilding for worldbuilding's sake, without a very clear goal of ever writing a story or publishing anything. However, I've been struggling with the question of why do I even do it? For some reason, I just have to. And this makes me think that the world I create should perhaps be able to support a fantasy story if I ever decide to write one. The thing is, I have been avoiding all the clearly fantastical elements (magic, fantasy races and creatures) and have just created a fantasy world with its kingdoms, cultures, histories, pantheons etc. The world has its mysteries, of course, but they are analogic to the mysteries of our world (or of my life). Is this fantasy? Or more importantly, would anyone care to read fantasy without fantasy? Anyway, I still don't have the answers, but your video somehow made it easier for me to consider including something fantastical.

Thanks for this interesting and informative video. I love learning about how authors were influenced by the issues of their time, and how other authors were subsequently influenced by these works.

Amazing video, thank you!

This is such a great video, I am subscribing! I am currently reading the Lord of the Rings and the Divine Comedy at the same time. It is amazing to see the similarities between Dante's Inferno and both Moria and Mordor. The way how Dante's demons and the Orcs behave is exactly the same! I did some research, and I fount out that Tolkien was part of the Oxford's Dante Society. It is trulz fascinating.

I just subscribed and watched this video first. I've not read that many Fantasy books and the ones that interest me (like Joe Abercrombie's) are not available in my local library. :( But I've read The Fellowship and recently finished The Two Towers, so this video was really interesting and informative. Thank you for your work, you were very eloquent and well-prepared! ^^

So Don Quixote was published in 1605 and in it the main character is said to have read so many stories about knights and sorcerers to the point that he basically decides to cosplay for life as a knight errant. I always wondered if the fantasy genre was not already a thing by 1605. What are these books he’s reading? Are they just folktales? Were they specifically penned by individuals and marketed for those interested in the genre. Yes, Don Quixote is a comedy spoofing a time period of writing that we’re probably not very aware of, much like the movie Airplane! spoofed and outlived the airplane disaster movies that it used as source material. I just wonder if there is a kind of lost birth date to fantasy fiction that started before the romantic era that academics seem to have planted their flag in. Again I say this because Cervantes states rather matter of factly that there was a large quantity of poorly written material about swords and sorcery available for Don Quixote to glut and addle his brain with. When there’s that much material available it sounds like a well establish genre to me.

This is such an informative video! Although this is a different angle than what you're discussing, I once wrote a paper in a music history class about how the Scientific Revolution influenced spiritual beliefs (concepts and theories of the unknown) and the classical style of music. The Romantic era then became a shift back into the unknown with much more explorative views and questions pervading science, spirituality, and art forms (can't help but think about Berlioz's Symphony Fantastique since you are discussing fantasy--I highly recommend if you aren't familiar with it). Then came the emergence of Darwinism and Wagner with his "Music of the Future," which is then followed by Debussy who called Wagner's music "a beautiful sunset mistaken for a dawn." Long tangent, but I am very curious to learn how past and present fantasy authors explore current trends in science and spiritual beliefs in conscious-and maybe sometimes unconscious-ways. I appreciate how you focused on the social and psychological applications in this video. I learned so much and appreciate how fantasy authors are taking us on journeys into new, contrasting perspectives. Truly fascinating.

fantasy is the reason i prefer english literature, i always wondered why fantasy was developed so much in english, when you mentioned the industrial revolution it finally clicked in my head. but still, i wonder why it didn't have as amazing as a "boom" in other languages/cultures (there are very few exceptions)

You referenced this video in your Week That Was this morning so I figured I'd check it out! I enjoyed it, as well as the brief chat you had with AP in the comments below! I am curious that when you taught (or still do teach) your course on Fantasy novels if you started with MacDonald, or referenced those early authors and started with Tolkien?

Really enjoyed this video! I am curious about your opinion on the relationship between fantasy and religion. In my mind, the influence is seemingly twofold: (1) fantasy series often have their own gods/religions/cults (2) many plotlines or figures in fantasy parallel those found in religious texts (Gandalf and Coltaine come to mind in connection with Judeochristianity). How would you discern the influence of ancient tale vs. religion in fantasy?

Thank you, I really appreciate the academic approach you took to discuss this topic while still keeping it fun- I learned a lot. Keep up the great work!

Nice video, I really hope that you do some chapters to this, because I'd love to hear your take on some of the authors mentioned in the early years of fantasy like Dunsany. Also, what is your opinion on the literary value of the pulp fantasy and horror authors? Keep em coming, Professor Chase.

Excellent video. I really enjoyed the detailed breakdown of these old stories in chronological order and how they went on to inspire Fantasy today. I think this one is one of your best videos yet!

First of all, I enjoyed this breakdown of early fantasy history very much. I wonder what your thoughts are on what is inhibiting Fantasy as a medium from being taken seriously amongst other "hard" fiction? Is the hurdle of it being inherently make believe too great for a novel to break into the "high art" category? The closest we get in most high schools is magical realism, like Rushdie's 'Midnight's Children' or Marquez. Not that it really matters, just curious what you think as a student/teacher of the genre.

Excellent talk, really enjoyed listening to this, this morning. Keep up the good work.

I have a friend whose opinion of not only fantasy but fiction in general is quite low. He only reads historical or political accounts and biographies with some, what I to his chagrin would call, esoteric spiritual self-help books in between. While I do acknowledge the biographies of important historical figures as a worthy read, I read all three available Monty Python bios after all, I can't get behind everything else. When I read historical books, I can't help but think about the biases that went into it, from history being written by the victors up to educated guesses as to what somebody's thought processes and inspirations might have been. While on the other hand my argument toward fictional works is always the social and political values and lessons portrayed, with motives and situations, while totally made up, still in a certain sense less of an 'opinion'. The best books to me, are the ones that make me empathise with all sides of a conflict, and show the nuances in beliefs, which I think would help a lot of people who in recent years seem to fight every issue on a binary black and white field. I believe I learned more about the hopes and fears occupying a 16th century (noble man's) mind by reading the fictional 'Utopia' by Sir Thomas More than I would ever have from some historical account.

Well Philip, this was awesome. You mentioned a couple of the pioneers that I really need to look into. Much appreciated. Keep up the good work ^_^

Love these kind of deep dives and lectures! It is rather silly that fantasy hasn't been taken seriously by critics for a long time, indeed a lack of imagination on their part. Both Literature and fantasy spring from the mind of imaginative humans, use the same languages, and can deal with exactly the same themes. One just uses meaning imparted on the colors or textures of mostly objects like curtains or clouds, where the other uses any shape or being the creator can come up with. Part of it is because fairy tales changed into just fun little stories for little children - is Disney most to blame for this? Originally these tales were cautionary and actually quite grim (😏), as well as fantastical. This devolved into thinking any story featuring elves and goblins, witches and magic etc must just be for kids. Meanwhile older sources for fantastical stories were still worthy of study, like the Greek myths, the Edda and even Shakespeare and Dante.

great video. thank you!

This is a really well made video, I learnt a lot! Looking forward to seeing your channel grow :D

In my reading some have included works as far back as Le Morte d'Arthus and The Faerie Queene as origins in the 16th century. I wonder how influenced Tolkien was by both of these. Aragorn = Arthur...

I can't believe that people just dismiss fantasy as "chicken-head stories" as they are only what the human brains biggest though function is: Imagination.

Considering Chaucer was able to revive a dead language with the Canterbury Tales, I'd say you are right in saying fantasy is more than mere escapism.

I just read When Books Went to War by Molly Guptill Manning. It's about the Armed Services Editions of books that were distributed to soldiers during WW2. It didn't mention fantasy being part of the book rations. Now I'm curious why The Lord of the Rings wasn't one of the ASEs. Was it considered unsuitable or could they not get the copyright? It surely would have been a good soldierly read.

Yet another great video, Philip!

Why is social critique THE criterion by which a work is considered "literary?" Why not deep characters or challenging technique?

Two things I don't agree with regarding this overall all-encompassing history discussion. 1) Myth did not become all of a sudden the province of kids with the enlightenment. Perhaps some myth was but the oldest myths of Greece and Rome continued to be taken seriously by intellectual movements and circles for at least until the 1900's. The neoclassical art movement of David and discussion and incorporation of symbols and allusions to myth by our founding fathers are two examples. Religion and politics were strengthened by comparison to moral tales and metaphors from these tales by leading intellectuals and popular discussion. 2) People talk about Terry Brooks sparking interest of the genre in the 80's but I wonder at the truth in that. Dungeons and Dragons was a popular force that got people into fantasy in the 70's and 80's so much that it was controversial and covered by the New York Times as early as 84. It had itself been influenced by Vance, Moorcock, Lieber, Howard, and Tolkien probably.

When it comes to Prophet's view on fantasy there are two branches of it really western fantasy like Lord of the Rings, Conan the Barbarian, and Elric of Melnibone. Then you have eastern fantasies like Journey to the West, The Investiture of the Gods, and other Gods and Demons fiction as well. The Prophet isn't saying Conan and LOTR are part of the same genre only of the same cultural background that being the western world.

Cool video, do you have any tips on how to read more/ faster

I have to ask, but do you teach? You do a great way of discussing topics and teaching at the same moment. I know you're a dad, so that means you teach in my opinion the best/most impactful way, but do you do it as a career in any capacity? Hope you don't mind me asking, just always feel to tell people when I see potential. Lord knows we as a species should do more of that. Ps: I love your Buddha statues. As someone with a great deal of respect for the 'path' I think it's cool when others explore it too!

Do you have any idea why the British were so pivotal in the development of this genre?

Saying that ancient stories required some amount of belief just isn't true. Many seemed to serve no other purpose beyond enforcing a moral or even just being entertainment, the same as modern stories.

Super interesting! I'm curious, with Morris's obscure language choices, who do you believe he thought his audience was? Who would have put up with (or been intrigued by) his language choices?

Even though it's a TV show, I think BUFFY is a seminal work of urban fantasy, and highly recommend it if you haven't already seen it.

👏🏽👏🏽 great

Wow, good job

Very interesting. I've never heard of most of the pre-Tolkien stuff you talked about. I gather a lot of it is probably quite difficult to get into, are there any pre-Tolkien books you'd recommend to a lover of modern fantasy such as myself?

very interesting

What kind of fantasy was popular in the 1860's in America ? That the average person might be reading.

The first fantasy novel ever made is called the bible.