The secondary world of high fantasy can not be totally fantastic, however, or the reader
would not be able to understand a word of what was written. There have to be elements
of the secondary world which the reader can recognise and understand, and no small
amount of critical effort has been expended over the years in enumerating the
traditional sources on which high fantasy has drawn for its reality. The roots of high
fantasy, and the literatures which continue to be a source of everything from general
inspiration to specific character names, can be traced back to the most ancient of
traditional literary impulses in Western Europe: myth, epic, legend, romance and folk-
tale.
Some of the most imaginative aspects of modern high fantasy have come from the
oldest of stories. The continuing battles between the dragon and the dragon slayer can be
traced through the St George legends and Sigurd’s slaying of Fafnir in the Volsunga
Saga to the battles between Thor and the Midgard Serpent in the Norse myths; and the
avuncular magician/tutor who guides the young prince or hero to manhood and
triumph has his origins in the stories of Merlin, himself based on the Celtic druids. The
contemporary fantasy hero looks back through a myriad of folktale and legendary heroes
to the epic heroes: Beowulf, Achilles, and Odysseus; and the ‘larger than life’ aspects of
the hero’s task or quest and those supernatural powers which are effective in the
fantasy world come from myth and epic as well.
If much of the content and many of the concrete items come from myth, epic, and
legend, the essential structure of high fantasy is taken from the magic tale, the
Märchen.
The Märchen is, in fact, an adventure story with a single hero... The hero’s (or
heroine’s) career starts, as everyone else’s, in the dull and miserable world of
reality. Then, all of a sudden, the supernatural world involves him and challenges
the mortal, who undertakes his long voyage to happiness. He enters the magic
forest, guided by supernatural helpers, and defeats evil powers beyond the
boundaries of man’s universe. Crossing several borders of the Beyond, performing
impossible tasks, the hero is slandered, banished, tortured, trapped, betrayed. He
suffers death by extreme cruelty but is always brought back to life again. Suffering
turns him into a real hero: as often as he is devoured, cut up, swallowed, or turned
into a beast, so does he become stronger and handsomer and more worthy of the
prize he seeks. His ascent from rags to riches ends with the beautiful heroine’s
hand, a kingdom, and marriage. The final act of the Märchen brings the hero back
to the human world; he metes out justice, punishes the evil, rewards the good.
Dégh 1972:63Although not all high fantasies contain each and every element in Dégh’s outline, each
tale contains most of them; and sometimes, as in the case of the death and rebirth of
the hero, the action may be metaphoric rather than realistic.
The society of high fantasy is drawn from medieval romance as is much of the
material culture and technology. The people live in castles and manor houses, the
transport (unless magical) is by horse on land and by sailing ship at sea, both the
domestic and military technologies (except for wizardry) are essentially frozen at a level
302 TYPES AND GENRES