Investigating the Origins of Fantasy

A long time ago I took a college course called 'Fables and Tales'. I learned more in your 25 minutes than I did all semester of that class.

You should be a teacher. My favorite instructors weren't just knowledgeable, but they communicated their passion for the subject as well. You manage that beautifully. :)

There was a small group of people who all knew each other at the root of 19th century English fantasy. William Morris's wife Jane Burden was the model for some of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's most famous paintings, such as Proserpine by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Christina Rossetti, Dante's sister, wrote Goblin Market, which is at the root of dark fairy-based fantasy like Hope Mirrlees' Lud-In-The-Mist, Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, and Neil Gaiman's Stardust. George McDonald published his short stories in the Oxford & Cambridge Magazine, alongside Morris's early work. John Ruskin, the art critic who promoted the Pre-Raphaelites, wrote an early fantasy novel, The King of the Golden River, for his wife-to-be Effie Gray, who modelled for the Pre-Raphaelites and left Ruskin for Pre-Raphaelite painter John Everett Millais (Not Rossetti as I originally wrote). There's a fantasy story in there, I think.

The ladybird versions of fairy stories were really good back in the day. For older kids they also had versions of Frankenstein and Dracula. In the ladybird version, the monster doesn't build a funeral pyre for himself, he just "plods off into the darkness (of the arctic wastelands)."

I would love to see a video that tackles how the Bible has shaped storytelling and fantasy, since that has been such an influential text in the West and includes a collection of books of different genres, some of which are more fantastical than others (gotta love that Leviathan. And the story of Daniel and the dragon is one of my favorite!). I think it’s a great example of how stories communicate truth, but they do it in different ways (not always primarily literal)

I was introduced to Fantasy by my mother who read to my older brother and I when we were smol. She read classic faerie tales, more modern fantasy, The Hobbit, and books I would consider fantasy, though others may not, "The Phantom Tollbooth" falls into this category.

I discovered fantasy when I came across The Hobbit in my junior high school library. I hope you will cover The Worm Ouroboros and the Gormenghast trilogy

Great video. Very much looking forward to the upcoming series. Important authors not mentioned in this video: Edgard Rice Burroughs. Never been a fan myself, but there is no denying his influence. The Africa of the Tarzan stories is very much a realm of Fantasy. Robert E. Howard. If there is a "founder of modern fantasy" other than Tolkien, it is Howard. Tolkien is often (and rightly) hailed as the founder of Epic or High Fantasy. But Howard is the founder of Sword and Sorcery. Even though Howard was a very different man than Tolkien with a completely different outlook on life, I have always found it interesting that both men at very much the same time were doing much the same thing: imagining a Fantasy world that was NOT an "other" world or faraway realm but our own world in a long-ago lost period of pre-history. Tolkien's Middle-earth is our Earth. Howard's Hyborian Age is our world.

I moved from Dr. Suess and Breer Rabbit into Beverly Cleary and The Hobbit. My older brothers were fans of Tolkien's books. Once I discovered Mr. Tolkien I was hooked. I discovered Robert E Howard's Conan at about the same time or a little afterward. The Conan book covers painted by Frank Frazetta always pulled you into the story really well. I read anything I could get my hands on from L. Sprague de Camp, Fritz Leiber, and eventually Michael Moorcock. I branched off into Science-Fiction (which I consider to be a form of Fantasy) at about that same time. Much of what I read for quite a while was Sword and Sorcery or Science Fiction. Eventually I got around to reading people like John Steinbeck, Gore Vidal and other more serious- minded authors. Not that Fantasy can't be serious. I don't read nearly as much as I used to when I was a kid/young dude back in the 60s and 70s, but I occasionally pick up a book I've read many times before and enjoy it. I especially like David Brin, C.J. Cherryh, Robert Silverberg and all of the Sword and Sorcery authors I've mentioned.

My former stepdad introduced me to fantasy when he taught my brother and I how to play Dungeons & Dragons. I was so taken with that I had to read whatever fantasy type books I could get my hands on at the time, this being the mid ‘80s. I read Terry Brooks’ Sword Of Shannara and that quickly led to The Hobbit and LOTR and The Book of Swords series. Thankfully I had the kind of parents who encouraged reading, never questioning what I chose. I also had a high school English teacher who introduced me to Arthurian Literature and suggested The Once & Future King. Once I read that book I became an addict for Arthurian Literature and now have an entire bookcase dedicated to that specific genre within fantasy. I think having a grandfather who was a Master Storyteller had an influence on my decision to major in English ~ Creative Writing as well. I took all the Epic Fantasy, Folklore, Children’s Literature, and other related classes I could to get my fantasy fix. I had stopped playing D&D years ago until one of my nieces expressed an interest in learning. Now I’m back at it and had been watching a series of YouTube videos on the subject, along with LOTR, the last couple years, discovering your series recently. I really enjoy listening to your discussion on these topics.

My official introduction to fantasy was probably when my 6th grade librarian introduced me to Anne McCaffrey’s dragon riders of Pern series. I’d always been an avid reader, my mom encouraged that since I was smol, but it wasn’t until middle school I remember books. After that it was Tolkien, LOTR books/films that locked me into fantasy as a genre. I think the movies had just finished by the time I was in 6th grade or been maybe a year out. Harry Potter helped too, with the magic side of fantasy as those books came out when I was young as well. But for the fantasy with dragons and elves it was McCaffrey and Tolkien.

I love Lord Dunsany "Sword of Welleran" and "Chu-Bu and Shemish". I was wondering if you would do an episode of Fantasy artwork? The Pre-Raphaelites Sidney Sime Pauline Baynes And J.R.R.Tolkien (who drew his own pictures for his stories).

I discovered Fantasy while in middle school. Had a friend in my P.E. class who would spout things like "you don't even know what a hobbit is!" I was in a book store and saw a book called The Hobbit. I bought it and read it within a day. After that I was hooked. I read everything I could find from Tolkien, Michael Moorcock, Fritz Lieber, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Gene Wolff, and a host of others. In the early 80s I discovered Terry Pratchett when he released the Colour of Magic. I've read all of his books and consider him my favorite fantasy author. Glen Cook wrote the Garrett P.I. books which put detective novels into a fantasy world. Cook also wrote the Black Company series which gave a gritty outlook to a fantasy mercenary company. Thank you for the video Jess. It made me recall many wonderful stories I've read through the years.

My first exposure to fantasy was probably through fairy tales that were read to me as a child. But my first awareness of fantasy as a distinct genre came from the Rankin-Bass animated version of The Hobbit (which led to my love of Tolkien) and The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander (which was my favorite book series as a kid). From that point on, I was hooked. Fantasy has become my favorite genre. I love it because it offers escape from bland or depressing reality. But it can also comment on and reveal truths of the world around us through a veil of imagination.

This was actually pretty cool. Well done. I read a bunch of Medieval Arthurian literature this year. Reading the Mabinogian is on my TBR. I am currently reading Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival. It originated as a Welsh story in the Mabinogian. Also, I see you have Dune on your shelf. Dune got me to read the Iliad this year because Frank Herbert connects the House Atreides to the House of Atreus. Very cool stuff. Look forward to this series. Subbed. 👍

Loved the video! There's a brilliant exhibition on at the British Library right now about fantasy worlds that covers a lot of the same themes from Gilgamesh to Skyrim. They even have Gandalf's staff on display!

I found The Hobbit by myself, on a school library shelf, and I was very proud of having read it, aged about 8. But my fondest memories are the stories of E.Nesbit. They were still in the original editions; children's books didn't have author bios in those days, so I had no idea who or what E.Nesbit was. The Andrew Lang colour Fairy Books were there too. Unlike Tolkien I liked the French stories, especially the Marquis of Carabas. On the contrary, I must have completely passed over The Black Bull of Norroway and the Red Etin, both nineteenth-century pastiches which DID have profound effects on JRRT (in different ways). That's genius for you!

D&D 2nd edition and Dragonlance was my serious gateway into Fantasy back in the late 80's, and I'm a lifer! 🤘😎🖖🇨🇦🕊️

From the moment that the first anthropoid begun imagining, fantasy was born.

I love that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is seen as an important step in both fantasy and science-fiction. 😀