THE POWERS OF MAGIC Elements of Fantasy Literature

classic fantasy stories of the English-speaking western world not only take place, but were written, hundreds of years ago. Robin Hood and King Arthur's tales are practically ancient classics that are undoubtedly still making contributions to the collective unconscious. SRobin Hood King Arthur

Religious Overtones Partially due to fantasy's relationship with times of old, religions, especially Catholicism and old Christian themes, play a strong role in shaping fantasy stories. Sometimes, angels would even step in to give advice. In such a context, all heroes of a story were aligned with God.

The Good-Evil Divide Fantasy often uses the notion that pure goodness and pure evil are always easy to differentiate between, and that there's no good reason not to root for the obvious good guys.

Magic Magic can come in many forms, from the mysterious powers of gods and goddesses, to the earth-moving forces of a sorcerer's might, to the sprite with the ability to change the colors of the leaves in the fall. Some magic happens unguided by any characters, and some is directly produced by them. it can cause shape-shifting, teleportation, levitation, telepathy, corpse reanimation, and precognition. It can even warp time.

Real and Mythical Creatures A great deal of fantasy, especially that written for children, has talking animals; some even concerns talking animals exclusively the unreal creatures in fantasy stories aren't created by the author, but pulled from numerous historical sources of mythology, often with slight changes to differentiate them from common conceptions.

The Quest Fantasy literature is required to have one or more protagonists, or heroes. The heroes are usually called (by a dream, a king's demand, or a message) to complete a quest that involves travel - protect a ring, defeat an evil overlord in a distant land, rescue a princess - and the plot follows the protagonists as they complete it.

Urbanism Modern urban fantasy has deforested the haunted marsh and moved the ghosts to the sewers and the bedroom closet

Morbid Macabre While usually reserved for horror stories, spooky, gory, and dark themes have wormed their way into fantasy in an influential way. The themes of dark fantasy are that of Gothic horror, integrated with swords and magic

The Role of Children Children are huge consumers of fantasy, and much of modern fantasy employs children as heroes. The trend is exemplified in fairy tales, Disney films, and popular stories. In children's fantasy, anything goes: plants eat dirty socks, cats become private investigators, and boys become wizards. That isn't to say that all the fantasy marketed to children is for children alone: adults can have just as much fun reading aloud at bedtime as their kids do.