[go: up one dir, main page]
Wikipedia

Sword and sorcery: Difference between revisions

Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
fixed bare url
No edit summary
Line 45:
Sword and sorcery's immediate progenitors are the [[swashbuckling]] tales of [[Alexandre Dumas, père]] (''[[The Three Musketeers]]'' (1844), etc.), [[Rafael Sabatini]] (''[[Scaramouche (novel)|Scaramouche]]'' (1921), etc.) and their [[pulp magazine]] imitators, such as [[Talbot Mundy]], [[Harold Lamb]], and [[H. Bedford-Jones]], who all influenced Howard.<ref name=tueof /><ref name=js> {{cite book |last=Shanks |first=Jeffrey |date=2013 |editor-last=Hoppenstand |editor-first=Gary |title=Pulp Fiction of the 1920s and 1930s |publisher=Salem Press |pages=6–18 |chapter=History, Horror, and Heroic Fantasy: Robert E. Howard and the Creation of the Sword-and-Sorcery Subgenre |isbn=9781429838436}}</ref> Mundy in particular, proved influential: early sword and sorcery writers such as Robert E. Howard, [[C. L. Moore]] and [[Fritz Leiber]] were admirers of Mundy's fiction.<ref name=bm1 /><ref name=js /><ref name=mth>Holmes, Morgan T. "Gothic to Cosmic: Sword and Sorcery in ''Weird Tales''" in Everett, Justin and Shanks, Jeffrey H. (Editors). ''The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales : the Evolution of Modern Fantasy and Horror''. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland, 2015 {{ISBN|9781442256224}} (p.65) </ref> However, these historical "swashbucklers" lack the supernatural element (even though Dumas' fiction contained many [[fantasy tropes]]) which defines the genre.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Clute |first1=John |last2=Grant |first2=John |last3=Ashley |first3=Mike |last4=Hartwell |first4=David G. |last5=Westfahl |first5=Gary |title=The Encyclopedia of Fantasy |date=1999 |publisher=St. Martin's Griffin |location=New York |isbn=0-312-19869-8 |page=300 |edition=1st St. Martin's Griffin}}</ref>
 
Another influence was early fantasy fiction. This type of fiction includes the short stories of [[Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany|Lord Dunsany]]'s such as "[[The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth]]" (1910) and "The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller" (1911). These works of Dunsany's feature warriors who clash with monsters and wizards in realms of Dunsany's creation.<ref name=bm1 /><ref name=js /> ''[[The Worm Ouroboros]]'' (1922) by [[E. R. Eddison]], a heroic romance written in a mock-archaic style, was an inspiration to later writers of sword and sorcery such as Fritz Leiber.<ref name=EoFSandS /><ref name=bm1 /> The "Poictesme" novels of [[James Branch Cabell]] (such as ''[[Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice]]'' (1919)) have been cited as a stimulus to early sword and sorcery writing. Cabell's novels depict picaresque exploits in imaginary lands, and were an influence on Leiber and Jack Vance.<ref name=SFESandS /><ref>{{Cite book|title=This is Me, Jack Vance|author=Jack Vance|page=65|isbn=978-1-59606-245-0|year=2009|publisher=Subterranean Press}}</ref> [[A. Merritt]]'s novels ''[[The Ship of Ishtar]]'' (1924) and ''[[Dwellers in the Mirage]]'' (1932) have also been cited as influences on sword and sorcery, as they feature men from the then-contemporary world being drawn into dangerous adventures involving swordplay and magic.<ref name=bm1 /><ref>{{Cite web |title=not reached |url=http://www.swordandsorcery.org/Timeline.aspArchived+15+February+2010+at+the+Wayback+Machine |access-date=September 24, 2024 |website=www.swordandsorcery.org}}</ref> All these authors influenced sword and sorcery for the plots, characters, and landscapes used.<ref name=bm1 /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Moorcock |first1=Michael |title=Wizardry & Wild Romance: A Study of Epic Fantasy |date=2004 |publisher=MonkeyBrain |location=Austin, Texas |isbn=1-932265-07-4 |page=82 |edition=rev.}}</ref>
 
Also, many early sword and sorcery writers, such as Howard and [[Clark Ashton Smith]], were influenced by the Middle Eastern tales of the [[Arabian Nights]], whose stories of magical monsters and evil [[Magician (fantasy)|sorcerers]] were an influence on the genre-to-be.<ref>{{cite book |last1=de Camp |first1=L. Sprague |title=Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers: The Makers of Heroic Fantasy |date=1976 |publisher=Arkham House |location=Sauk City, Wisconsin |isbn=0-8705-4-076-9 |edition=1st |page=10}}</ref>
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_and_sorcery"