Harry Potter, Tolkien, and the Roots of Fantasy

The media circus around the release of the last Harry Potter novel is finally beginning to die down, but that does little to disguise the fact that the fantasy genre is alive and well in the twenty-first century. Hundreds of millions were spent to bring Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Rowling’s Harry Potter series, C.S. Lewis’s Narnia and others to the big screen, and the gamble has paid off.

But where did the genre originate? Many have the mistaken idea that the fantasy genre began with Tolkien. Though Tolkien brought fantasy into the literary spotlight, fantasy itself has been around for far longer and indeed in some respects dates back to the very beginnings of literature.

The Epic of Gilgamesh and Homer’s The Illiad and The Odyssey, while set in familiar realms, contain many of the aspects – heroes, warring gods, monsters, quest-related adventure – that has become part and parcel of modern fantasy. Much of the fodder for modern fantasy is taken from early literature, especially myths, legends, and religion.

Elements of fantasy have appeared throughout the history of literature, whether as religious facets (ala Dante’s Divine Comedy), allegory (Spenser’s The Faerie Queen), or in mythology and the various medieval legends of King Arthur and Roland. The popular Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf, full of fantastic elements, became an important text for many later fantasy writers. Other literary precursors to the fantasy genre include such notable works as Shakespeare’s Macbeth & The Tempest; Milton’s Paradise Lost; and Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso.

Modern fantasy literature, as we know it, began with the Victorians, who had a long-abiding love for fairy tales and the fantastic. There was a great resurgence of interest in mythology and folklore. Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm traveled throughout their native Germany, gathering old folktales. Hans Christian Anderson wove bits and pieces of Scandinavian folklore into his tales. Elias Lönnrot published the Kalevala, an epic poem compiled from Finnish folktales. Andrew Lang wrote and published a series of color-coded "Fairy Stories" during the latter part of the nineteenth century.

William Morris – one member of a group of Victorian writers, poets, and artists known as the "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood" – was among the first to write pure "fantasy" tales, that is, tales set in an entirely invented realm. Morris’s novels, heavily influenced by his love of northern (particularly Norse) mythology, set the stage for the fantasy masters of the twentieth century.

J.R.R. Tolkien, arguably the single most influential writer of modern fantasy, took this idea to the next level. His fictional world of Middle-earth contained all the depth of our own – a complex history, lovable and detestable characters, gods and heroes, mountains and rivers, joy and despair. Tolkien never foresaw the mass popularity that his works gained. He wrote primarily for pleasure and diversion, weaving bits and pieces of mythology and philology (the study of language) with his own imagination.

Much as his friend and fellow scholar C.S. Lewis did with his Narnia series, Tolkien drew on his immense knowledge of mythology, language, and literature to build a fully-developed and internally consistent world. Tolkien’s well-known essay, "On Fairy Stories", lays out some ground rules for successful fantasy.

Tolkien discounted the idea of "willing suspension of disbelief", noting that:

"What really happens is that the story-maker proves a successful ‘sub-creator.’ He makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is ‘true’: it accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment disbelief arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, has failed." (JRR Tolkien, The Tolkien Reader, pg. 60).

In the years since Tolkien, the genre of fantasy has exploded upon popular culture. Some very gifted writers – among them Ursula LeGuin, Stephen R. Donaldson, Tad Williams, Phillip Pullman, Neil Gaiman, and George R.R. Martin - have left (or continue to make) their mark upon the field of fantasy fiction.

J.K. Rowling, with her immensely successful Harry Potter books, has helped to keep the genre in the limelight, introducing a whole new generation of readers to the fantasy genre. Rowling has scoured the depths of mythology and folklore in the pursuit of material for her created world.

Each individual writer uses these fantastic elements differently. Tolkien captures the mood and stark beauty of northern mythology. George R.R. Martin, with his enormously popular Song of Ice and Fire books, uses bits of mythology (dragons, sorcery) and mixes them with a heady dose of historical details. Rowling uses her phantasmagoria of mythological creatures and legends almost whimsically.

Varying styles aside, the modern fantasy genre has roots deep in the history of literature. There is an innate human need for the magical, to rise above the mundane. It is what drives each culture to create mythology, to look for a meaning higher than the everyday. It is that curse word of modern literary criticism – "escapism" – but it is also something more. Mythology (and fantasy) fulfills needs that the everyday world does not.

This drive, going back to the very beginning of literature, is what still drives millions of readers to pick up Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows or The Fellowship of the Ring.

Revered scholar Joseph Campbell once said: "Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths."

Fantasy novels are often those dreams given expression.