The History of Fantasy: The 70s in Focus & How it Changed the Genre - The Ride of the Corncrake Valkyries!

How The Essay Came to be…

I had an interesting talk lately, this time with the Corncrake Magazine. I’ve been friendly with them for awhile, and they’ve been nothing but kind and polite. The conversation veered towards a favourite of mine as Nathan, who was introduced to me by the lovely

Call of the Shieldmaiden

was fascinated by some older videos of mine about the history of Fantasy fiction.

Corncrake can be found here, they’re almost and all about supporting English Literature old and new, especially Fantasy Fiction so do get out there and spread the news about them (I love their site and plan to work ever more with them on yt and elsewhere).

But he objected to one thing; my skipping over the contributions of Michael Moorcock and Gary Gygax, or at least glossing over them. It was as we spoke and I though about the 70s in relation to the earlier and later history of the Genre that I came to a realization about why that was.

It is almost impossible not to take the era for granted but one shouldn’t. It was for better or worse a transitionary period for Fantasy, just as it was for Horror and Science-Fiction. Arguably the Sci-Fi that came out of this era was better than before, the Horror was more violent and yet carried a different essence from the earlier European dominated one. Horror had undergone a magnificent American period in the 30s and 40s but it faltered around the 50s when it happened that England took up the lead and began making the magnificent Hammer movies that still please audiences to this day.

The 70s though were when young filmmakers and authors of a new generation, well versed in Hammer and Universal took things in a new direction. These great creatives for great they were in their own way were to produce some great stories and some mediocre ones.

The period from the 70s to the 90s were pretty good for Horror. Sci-Fi was also to benefit from the same period and something was to happen also for Mythic fiction.

Medieval Beginnings

Uncouth Barbarian

and I have discussed as I’ve mentioned before the origins of this Genre, just as it was discussed with

MaKenna Grace

and

The Man Behind the Screen

that it first began in ancient times, notably with Gilgamesh. All that Fantasy Fiction is, is an attempt to continue after the fiction of the Medieval period and the Faerie-Stories of the 17th century-19th century.

It is a continuation, as many of the Golden Age authors didn’t know they were writing in some new Genre, rather they perceived themselves as writing in a much more Medieval tradition.

Robert E. Howard himself references the Norse Sagas and Irish epics of the Middle-Ages, Shakespeare, and even tales he read about Genghis Khan and even the Samurai of Japan. Meanwhile Tolkien was busy referencing the Nordic Sagas, the Greek Epics, and Beowulf, Shakespeare, Arthuriana and folk-tales.

What does this mean for us in the Modern Age? It means that the Genre was originally predicated upon the great classics of the Medieval and Romantic era stories that seem utterly at odds with those of the present day. So that originally the stories were follow-ups and continuations of what came before.

Safe to say that the Genre of Fantasy is like no other, in that it looks back to the past more than any other Genre of Fiction (save for perhaps Historic Fiction, just ask

Holly A Brown

). The Genre has undergone a great deal of transformations since it was first conceived and it was morphing even as Tolkien continued his work on the Silmarillion after the 50s (he never quite got it right but passed along the work to his magnificent son the ‘Stupor Mundi’ of the Editing world Christopher).

He was however displeased by much of the changes he saw, so that one could say that the shift was beginning from the 50s to the 70s. It was gradual then all of a sudden. But one shouldn’t look at the 70s with scorn or hatred. I stress the importance of this age in the development of the Genre.

What’s important to bear in mind is that the Conan Pastiches kept on trucking, and the comics were doing quite well. They kept the Sword & Sorcery flame alive, while the rest of the Genre began to morph.

In turn while this happened Michael Moorcock came out with the Elric stories that were to become a phenomenon at the time. They helped popularize ‘edgy’ leads which reflects the trends in music, film and other Genres of Fiction at the time. Not all of these art pieces and the like were bad, many were good and even great.

Elric is considered great due to Moorcock’s prose and his intelligence. Same with the immensely cultivated Gary Gygax, who built up such a LARGE stock of literary references, folk-inspirations and the like only to meld them together into his many DnD volumes that helped to expand the Fantasy ‘lexicon’ as a friend calls the expansions that these two men infused into it.

Where does Elric fall into the Genre? I’d argue that Elric is incredibly important. Same with Gary Gygax. As I mentioned in my essays almost two years prior, are more of the foundation for modern Fantasy stories than actual myths and legends.

The Lexicon was not only expanded upon, but they also strangely acted like a focusing lens for the Genre into the new era. The 80s as the Bronze Age could not have been without these two as they really jump-started it in a lot of ways. So that they were to turn the page.

Both men loved the old tales, but they did one thing that I’d say was to have something of a negative influence on the Fantasy Genre. That something was trying to streamline, make things easier and more digestible in some ways than those who came before them. They were to establish a lot of norms and ideas for Fantasy, this is important to bear in mind. It isn’t that we should blame them (never that!), but that we should consider their own role and place within the history of the Genre.

They did much good, but the thing is that after them I’d argue a whole slew of great tales came along. Ones that would reshape the Genre. You see Moorcock showed that there was more that one could do with regards to S&S than just the formula. He really revolutionized it, as the sub-genre had fallen into a bit of a rut with the death of Howard and the comics while great couldn’t be everywhere.

Moorcock sought to revitalize things and kudos to him for that. Same with Gygax for the rest of Fantasy, he also tried to open it up to a whole new sort of medium in the form of Tabletop Gaming.

This was good. Trouble was that it had the adverse effect of causing a whole new generation of authors to stop looking further back than they ought to have, and to have begun to ‘circle-jerk’. The reason being that they look to one another for inspiration rather than the myths of old and the old stories of Shakespeare or something.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t read each other’s works. But that one must look also to the past for good stories and technique. I cannot imagine cutting oneself off from all that is coming out these days as there’s a lot of good stories.

The transition from the old to the new was done painlessly this was for the most part good. The bad is that there was a transition. It was bad because what was needed was for people to continue to read Lord of the Rings and to learn the lessons of how to world-build not to just simply imitate or copy Gygax and Elric.

Imitation might be the highest form of flattery but it isn’t the highest artistic form if we’re being blunt. It can be good or useful. But Gygax and Elric ought to be looked on as guides of sorts, as a kind of inspiration not the be all end all.

The 80s were a solid era and there was many good stories that resulted. But there’s some problems. The stories in hindsight have little connection it seems to the Medieval epics. Some do have some sort of similarities but many don’t. It is hard to look at say Forgotten Realms and think; ‘this is definitely a follow up in some manner to Nibulenlied and El Cid.’

It’s not that the stories are all bad, only that there’s something almost deracinated, almost unconnected. Then there’s the stories of Red Sonja, for all that they titillated and entertained many they were in no way connected to Howard’s work. They don’t even feel like his works, or those that came before (I know Red Sonja is supposed to be alive in the Hyborian Age but there’s really something jarring about the character). She works better in either Elric’s stories or in a DnD setting.

Solution to the Circle-Jerk

I call it the ‘Circle-Jerk’, as it is something that has enveloped Fantasy and has begun to do something that has twisted the Genre. It’s the cause for the ‘rut’ it fell into and made it such easy prey for someone like Martin to come along and sully it.

The rut has to do that when someone mentions the word ‘Fantasy Fiction’ people automatically think of Dungeons and Dragons and nothing else. The thing about a great many of these people who write within the Genre have never read older literature.

It is key to writing better stuff. To write better stories and refine your technique you have to be bold yes, and write your own stuff and chart your own course! But don’t forget to read stuff like Gilgamesh (which reminds me, I have to do that and start doing some essays on that particular story).

So read more, refine your craft and perfect yourself.

You should look into for example the St-George Myth, the stories of St-Jehanne D’Arc, read the Gallic Wars of Julius Caesar, read le Chanson de Roland. Read, read, read. But also look into what your peers are doing but stay faithful to your own vision, to the traditions of the Genre.

Because if you say ‘I’ll deconstruct’ or ‘I’ll imitate so and so’ you might find that in the case of the former you’ve broken your story to understand something without achieving anything, as to the latter you’ll end up imitating or copying some idea that doesn’t work for your story. So be very careful.

I always recommend choose to write some sort of story that reflects the aesthetic, the ideals, the philosophy and thinking of your own civilization or those you really like. A baseline ‘DnD’ styled mythos intended to please everyone might have worked in the 80s, but as

David V. Stewart

has been wisely reminding people these days; we’re not living in the 80s anymore.

So in short we should almost do what the ‘Texan Inklings’ of which Dave & Makenna and I joked about on the podcast the other day did; message, team up and work together yes but also encourage each other to read classic fiction and generally have fun with the old stuff whilst pressing forward with our works.

People want pre-modern Fantasy feels, and settings so write for them and strive for eternity.

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Also Crown of Blood has a new edition, with maps, character bios and more!