Defining Genre: High Fantasy and Its Landscapes
The sub-genre that has been pigeonholed in one setting for too long
High Fantasy. The genre of medieval settings and politics. Horse riding. Arrows. Epic world-changing events that move at the pace of a snail because no faster form of long-distance communication has yet been invented, unless there are dragons or wizards involved. Medieval and Early Modern European influences thrive.
Wrong.
Or, well, not wrong, but a narrow window into the genre.
In my first installment in the Defining Genre series I made a broad definition for fantasy in general, which states:
Fantasy is a genre of literary fiction that takes place in either a secondary world or our world. The plot of a fantasy novel involves some form of magic, magical or supernatural creatures/beings, and has several plot devices that do not occur in the natural world.
I wanted a simplified version of the umbrella term before taking a deep dive into the subgenres, especially ones with such confusing definitions as high fantasy. Below, Wikipedia gives a somewhat broad definition, in my opinion roping in other subgenres that perhaps it should not.
"High fantasy" often serves as a broad term to include a number of different flavors of the fantasy genre, including heroic fantasy, epic fantasy, mythic fantasy, dark fantasy, and wuxia.[11] It typically is not considered to include the sword and sorcery genre.[12] - Wikipedia
The subgenres I most squint at as additions are dark fantasy and heroic fantasy. I feel like both of these can operate in other genres, and should not be defined alongside high fantasy. Epic fantasy I see as a synonym for high fantasy, in most cases, though I do wonder why the distinction is made between high and low fantasy in regards to epic. We have epic historical novels, do we not? Is epic fantasy so closely related to high fantasy because it takes place in secondary worlds? But why can’t epic fantasy take place in our world?
But, like I said, the definitions were contradictory and confusing and sometimes all over the place. One blogger even stated that high fantasy typically included European medieval inspired settings (while not stating that this was part of the genre, it was not clear). While that is typical for earlier high fantasy novels by and large, and certainly has become such a pull for the genre that people tend to write their stories in those settings as if that is part of the genre, but not something I would put as part of a definition or explanation of high fantasy.
I’m not embarking on this journey without looking at the experts, though, and there are few places where there is an obvious plethora of experts than the MasterClass website. Thankfully (as an aside), you can read some of their blog posts without being a member.
Hence the below, edited list of high fantasy components. I highly recommend reading the actual post, which I will have linked below.
High Fantasy Components (According to MasterClass)
A non-Earth setting
A world-level conflict
A hero (they note that a hero is not necessarily required)
Fantastic creatures
Historic or unusual technology
Magic
Seems fair to me, and straightforward. Their list of high fantasy examples was also straightforward, including The Lord of the Rings, The Cosmere, The Fifth Season, and classics like The Discworld Cycle and The Earthsea Cycle. R. R. Virdi’s The First Binding, among many, many others.
But let’s talk diversity for a second. Though the MasterClass list had some diverse authors, and the landscape of high fantasy has broadened to other settings in terms of cultures and characters, high fantasy novels can still feel very rote. Not just rote in whiteness (and by that I mean white, European centric inspired characters and settings) but also rote in time period, where the tropes of the genre seemed to have become what’s weighing it down.
Fonda Lee writes about this in her Medium article, “Epic Fantasy: Let’s Get with the (Non-Medieval) Times”.
Although Middle Earth and Westeros are not our world, both Tolkien and Martin set their sweeping stories in a recognizable historical context and aesthetic that is often taken as being synonymous with epic fantasy itself: namely, medieval Europe.
As much as I love both those works, there is a downside to their iconic stature. When I critique the work of beginning writers in convention workshops, perhaps two-thirds of the fantasy stories I see take place in a medieval setting, and many of them feature elves, dragons, sorcerers, and the like. My question, invariably, to these writers is: why? Why are you writing about this geography and time period? Is it simply because it’s familiar to you? Or do you have something new and fresh to add, something uniquely yours that I can’t get from all the writers that’ve come before?
Fonda Lee
I mean, she hit the nail on the head. What hasn’t been done? The article is great, and Fonda Lee goes on to suggest some high fantasy novels that travel different roads. It’s a great list.
She really touched on something in her articles that has always bothered me. The setting of high fantasy. The same tired tropes: medieval or early modern technology, medieval mores, medieval values, medieval philosophies, with some wizards and dragons thrown in, and sometimes a progressive female protagonist. I love certain books that follow this route, but I can only read so many of them. How did an entire subgenre of a genre like fantasy become so formulaic?
Of course, I’m writing this in a time where we are seeing not only diverse voices in the genre, but imaginative settings inspired by different time periods and cultures than Medieval or Early Modern Europe. And I love it. I crave it.
Back to one question I brought up earlier, though, before I go on. Even when high fantasy is written in a time period that is not Medieval Europe, it seems like many epic fantasies are often categorized in such a way because their settings are pre-Industrial, and settings that are post-Industrial or even futuristic get stamped with the urban fantasy label.
But what makes high fantasy a subgenre besides its setting?
If you refer back to the MasterClass list, they give some simplified plot points. The one that really focuses your novel into the high fantasy genre is world-level conflict. Think world wars, plagues, invasions, magical famines or storms, something that effects a large percentage of the population.
Your hero (or main ensemble cast) is either thrown into the middle of these conflicts, starts these conflicts, or is the chosen one to end these conflicts. There are variations on the theme, of course, and should be, but that is the gist.
In my mind, that means that high fantasy does not have to be low tech. Perhaps not so mundane (although you want your characters to either be new to it or familiar) as technology now, but I think dragons can coexist with running water and showers given a little imagination. Or spaceships, if you want to go futuristic.
Certainly there are types of technology that have subgenres of their own. Steampunk is one example, and then there is cyberpunk, and so on. Some of those settings I think shifts the genre a bit, but not all.
Overall, I think high fantasy is a subgenre with some unexplored settings and technology, where plot marries setting in such a way as to remain firmly within the high fantasy genre. Imagine, if you will, The Lord of the Rings characters and plot, but in a planet-hopping, futuristic society. Would it be any less epic? Would Frodo, Aragorn, and the other characters be any less heroic? Would the magic mean less or be used less? I don’t think so. It would certainly change some things, but if the eagles did not fly the Fellowship to Mordor because of the Nazghul and the Eye of Sauron sighting them from a hundred miles away, then modern vehicles or space ships would still not be an option. And a journey through a futuristic society on foot to stay under the radar would certainly be interesting.
Also, just because spaceships exist does not mean there is no Treebeard, or giant eagles, or dwarves and elves and wizards.
High fantasy. The subgenre of fantastic epics, filled with magic, world-changing events, and a hero or heroes for the ages.
In my next Defining Genre post, we’ll be examining low fantasy, why it’s called that, with some more book recommendations for the genre.
Let me know in the comments your thoughts on high fantasy and if you have recommendations for me I would love to read them!