Theme: Epic Fantasy

Epic Fantasy refers to any type of fantasy adventure that takes place in a Fantasy Otherworld. This is given a variety of different names – High Fantasy, Adventurer Fantasy, Heroic Fantasy. There is also the use of the term Sword and Sorcery, which is used to refer to more red-blooded treatments such as Conan the Barbarian or is often applied in a dismissive way to works that use cliche fantasy elements.

Epic Fantasy has a long history on the written pages, although what we think of today was popularised and its tropes set in place by J.R.R. Tolkien with The Lord of the Rings (1954-6). The popularity of this resulted in numerous copies. Elements were then boiled down to character types in a playable gaming system with Dungeons and Dragons (1974) and later by videogames.

Epic Fantasy takes place in a secondary world. In written fantasy, most book series come with detailed maps that depict the land where the story takes place. The land is usually one that is self-contained but sometimes is tied to this world – in the case of Narnia is reached through a Portal, or in the case of Conan’s Hyboria is to said exist in the ancient past. Also included here are Arabian Nights adventures that take place in a mythical version of the Islamic Golden Age and various Arthurian Legends are set in the mythic England of Camelot.

The land are usually filled with an array of exotic creatures, which can include Elves, Fairies, Dwarves, Dragons, Goblins and Trolls, Orcs and assorted mythical creatures, as well as ones invented for the particular story. The peoples of the land usually live in some type of feudal world where the dominant form of government is always a monarchy, where swordmaking has evolved but it is before the industrial revolution. Magic is widespread to varying degrees and any adventure can at least be counted on to have a Magician join the party where sometimes the nemesis they are fighting is a sorcerer or Witch.

Screen treatments began with various Arabian Nights adventures in the 1920s, reaching a peak with the works of Ray Harryhausen in the 1950s. Following the success of Star Wars (1977), there was a boom in Epic Fantasy filmmaking in the late 1970s/early 1980s. A new boom began in the 2000s following the success of The Lord of the Rings films.