Selecting Fantasy Literature

Abstract

Ancient and universal, fantasy was most likely the first mainstream literature rather than the naturalism later recognized as mainstream. Every generation of every culture tells and retells tales based on psychological archetypes, the elements of fantasy. For instance, the Celtic tale “Leir and His Daughters” has been reworked and updated by authors ranging from Shakespeare to Diana Paxson (The Serpent's Tooth, Morrow, 1991). One of the old English/Scottish ballads collected by Francis James Child in the late 19th century (Child ballad No. 37) has recently reappeared as the novel Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner (Morrow, 1991). Similarly, retellings of the Arthurian legend are legion, from Geoffrey of Monmouth to Malory to Tennyson to such modern writers as T.H. White, Mary Stewart, Marion Zimmer Bradley (The Mists of Avalon, Knopf, 1982), and Guy Gavriel Kay (The Wandering Fire and The Darkest Road, Collins, 1986).