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Romantic Conversationalist
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 Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2008 8:32 am
I was browsing Wikipedia, and read that The Epic of Gilgamesh was possibly the first story in the fantasy genre. Unless I'm mistaken, Gilgamesh is thought to be the earliest (surviving) piece of written literature, which would make fantasy the oldest (known) genre in human history.
Of course, the genre is up for debate, I'm sure, since it may be considered mythology. Even so, what do you think about the earliest literary work being a work of fantasy?
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 8:04 am
Gilgamesh was intended as a history, not meant as a fantasy. I like the story of Gilgamesh, but I wouldn't consider it fantasy. Fantasy is my fave genre, so if the first wrtitten work WAS fantasy that would be brilliant. The first complete story written in words, not pictures like Gilgamesh, is Beowulf, which could be considered fantasy because of the dragon, but again was meant as a history on the historical figure Beowulf was based on.
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Posted: Tue Sep 02, 2008 3:53 pm
Off the top of my head, the earliest fantasies I can think of are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (published 1865) or Frankenstein (published 181 cool .
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Posted: Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:08 am
If you go back far enough, I would say that the genre of fantasy evolved from mythology. Now they have become very distinct, but I would guess (I haven't researched this is any way) at one time they were pretty much the same.
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Posted: Tue Dec 09, 2008 4:55 pm
People would tell tales of fantesy or Mythology to explain things in a way that made sence to them... like if you told the Anceint Greeks that lighting was caused by static electricity and not by Zeus's lightning bolts then they wouldn't believe you because they couldn't relate to it. That is why they put most things as being the work of Gods or Goddesses.
They were just telling facts and history in a relateable way for the time that they lived in... mrgreen
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:01 am
Yes, but would mythology be considered fantasy? The people who told the original stories thought they were real. For them, the static eletricity would be the fantasy.
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Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2008 9:08 pm
Would a couple of Shakespeare stuff be fantasy? The stuff with fairies and witches? If he counts, then we have at least 400 years of fantasy on our hands, but I'm sure there have been fantasy stories before him...
WAIT! Is the Odyssey fantasy? It's epic and deals with mythology though...
I just don't know.
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Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2009 3:03 pm
I think it is more accurate to say that the fantasy stories we know are based on the mythology of the past. Sure, epics such as Gilgamesh, the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Beowulf have a lot of fantasy elements in them, but these stories were told as a historical reference. Also, their mythological references were a way to describe what our modern science has shown us already.
As far as Shakespeare, his stuff can be considered fantasy, though I can't say for sure.
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Posted: Tue Feb 10, 2009 7:32 am
So when does it stop being mythology and segue over into fantasy?
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Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2009 8:52 am
I think the big difference between mythology and fantasy is that in mythology people once thought those stories to be reality and in fantasy we all know it to be...well fantasy.
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Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2009 10:22 am
OliviaFalconer So when does it stop being mythology and segue over into fantasy? I'd say it starts when people realize that the fantastical elements are fictional and they no longer think them of entities that exist despite being out of their subjective experience.
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Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:48 am
I just looked at history of fantasy on wikipedia and that article lists Arabian Nights as on of the earliest works, because that can't be seen as mythology. I think to classify as mythology a story has to involve Gods or be about the creation of the World or so.
Now I'm wondering are fairy tales fantasy? Because in that case the genre is pretty old indeed.
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Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 5:47 pm
Well, fairy tales started out as oral literature, until people like the Brothers Grimm went around collecting the folklore and writing it down. Perhaps the Arabian Nights are just the oldest written form.
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