[firemoon]

It says under the general comments for Tolkien that he did not invent the genre, well has anyone any opinions on who did ?

[Bardos]

Homer

[lacorte]

I don't want to sound sarcastic, but it was probably the ancient Greeks with their stories of Jason, Minotaurs and the Gorgans etc.

[Belgarion]

God. We are fantasy.

[azaz]

I'll agree with Bardos. Homer.

[LeMort]

The fantasy genre has always been around.

Consider our first ape-like ancestors scratching their crude images on cave walls. Or, perhaps, the founder of the first religion, converting the masses with his wonderous tales.

Fantasy is a broad genre, it encompasses everything that it out of the ordinary, and as such it has been around ever since sentient beings have had the ability to think creatively and express their thoughts to others.

[This message has been edited by LeMort (edited July 13, 2001).]

[sueVee]

Fantasy was invented the first time a man went fishing and came home empty handed talking about the one that got away.

[wolfshead]

Possibly the first written fantasy was the Sumerian legend THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH. Definitely worth a read.

[wolfshead]

Just looked it up--Gilgamesh dates from 2000
BC!

[FitzChivalry]

I don't know who was the first to write fantasy, but what some of you are talking about is Mythology.
There is a major difference between Mythology and Fantasy although it seems that they deal with the same kind of stories.
Mythology is a part of a religion, the mythological stories are stories that people believed that are real, like some of us today believe in the Bible or the Kuran.
Fantasy is stories that are something to pass the time with, entertainment or maybe art, but not religious texts.