[whitesilkbreeze]

I've seen it said in these forums and in other places that fantasy is the oldest form of literature. In what ways can this be justified? Wouldn't mythology, folklore and fairy tales date back to ancient, perhaps even prehistoric, times, which would make them older than the fantasy genre? Or would you use 'fantasy' as an umbrella term to cover mythology, folklore and fairy tales as well?

[Erfael]

I think that because fantasy incorporates many elements of the forms you mention that people argue that fantasy goes back that far, which isn't an illogical position to take.

[Jumbo Frendie]

Fantast incorporates so much literature taken from different types of writing that its hard to tell if it is the oldest genre. For example many fantasys have romantic plotlines which makes the writing seem to have derived it self from the romantic genre. But i guess its just your opinion on what you define fantasy.

[Brys]

If you take mythology etc as fantasy, I don't have any doubt that it's the oldest genre, as you can go back to some of the oldest writings that exist (Gilgamesh). But even if you don't, there's still a strong argument for fantasy being one of the oldest genres, with Shakespeare in a Midsummer Night's Dream, and from the 18th century onwards there were a lot of fantasy novels written. But we also have to remember that until relatively recently, the genre boundaries had been very fluid. People were unlikely to have thought of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast as fantasy, because there was no fantasy publishing genre. Or ER Eddison's The Worm Ouroborous. And much of modern fantasy comes from the Gothic romance and romance (not in the sense of love stories, in the sense of romantic ideals - this was where epic fantasy came from).

[Evil Agent]

Very informative post, Brys. Thanks.

I definitely agree that mythology can be considered fantasy, and that it is most likely the oldest genre of writing. Legends, stories, myths, magic, religion...fantasy.

[Miriamele]

I have always considered mythology to be fantasy; it's filled with stuff that could never happen in real life. Very few of the fictional writings of the ancient world contained much realism at all. In a time when life could be very hard and cold and dreary, people wanted fantastic stories of invincible heroes and ugly monsters, of magic and demons and beautiful gods. Much of this literature, if you put it down with a modern writing style, would sound quite similar to a lot of the fantasy out there today.

There are some really fascinating and imaginative stories in ancient mythology. I love to read about them. Fairy tales are slightly newer (most of them originated about 300 years ago) but contain many of the same elements--only the gods and demons are replaced with fairies and witches. Both forms of literature I would say are fantasy. The need to escape reality for a little bit while listening to a story (or reading it) is nothing new--people have always felt it.

Anyway many modern fantasy writers (most notable Tolkien) have borrowed heavily from mythology and folklore for story material.

Therefore, I agree that fantasy is the oldest genre! :)

[Sasca]

It's very hard to define 'fantasy', I think. After all, there are many texts that pre-date Christianity, pre-date any form of 'religion', and still have worth. We look at the writings and beliefs of others as if they had a mythology- but why? Their 'mythology' is actually religion. Do we, in these modern and 'enlightened' times think that earlier people didn't know the 'Truth'? The Navajo faith holds that Spider Man and Spider Woman had a place in the creation of man. Have we, as Westerners, decided that this is 'mythology' and ranks with the fairy tales we have been told as children? Why?

I guess I'm trying to say that early folklore and fairy tales are not, in my mind, 'Fantasy'. Any more than a bible that tells me Noah lived to be one hundred and twenty...

[KatG]

Well that would be me. At least, I'm one of the people who is always saying that. And yes, I include myth, folklore, fairy tales, parables and legends as fantasy in that sense.

If you throw out all of those, and stick to written fantasy fiction that is not general folklore (Grimm's fairy tales,) or religiously-connected (such as the Christian Bible,) fantasy fiction is still pretty old, though historical fiction may give it a run for its money. Category fantasy, what is sometimes called modern fantasy, is however only about forty or fifty years old tops, which makes it relatively young as a category market. However, category (genre) markets of any sort are a relatively recent phenomena.

[Liam Sharp]

I would have to argue, too, that not all mythology is a form of early religion. Certainly the Greek heroic sagas, such as the Illiad and the Odyssey, were just that: Sagas. Epic poetry. They may feature the Greek Gods as characters, but the Mythic beasts were fantastic - they served as parables, related to natural phenomena, or possibly ethical examples, but they were fantasies non-the-less.
I think this is also true of works like Gilgamesh, Beowolf, The Ring Cycle, The Viking Edas, and so on. Epic stories, epic sagas and poetry are not to be mistaken as sacred tomes, but as great stories. The ancients liked a good tale too, it wasn't ALL religion! :)

So I would strongly argue the case for fantasy as one of the oldest forms of storytelling, if not THE oldest. Indeed, even the cave paintings in France often show images of beast that never lived in those regions, making even THESE works of imaginative fiction. And that's not even including the images of stag horned men...

Cheers,

Liam.

[algernoninc]

I agree, one example will best support this theory: "Ghilghamesh" - it is considered the oldest story, older than the biblic or greek references - it is a story of adventure (Conan style), kingdoms rising and falling, magical journeys through space and time, conversations with Gods - I read it in primary school in a collection of famous legends [other titles included "The Works of Hercules", "The Song of Roland", "Lancelot and Guinevere", "Tristan and Isolde" - all familiar fantasy themes]