The Mythic/Golden Age of Fantasy
Arise, arise, Riders of Théoden!
Fell deeds awake: fire and slaughter!
Spear shall be shaken, shield be splintered,
a sword-day, a red day, ere the sun rises!
Ride now, ride now! Ride to Gondor!
This quote is taken from the Lord of the Rings, chapter 5 of the first book of the Return of the King when Théoden calls out to his men, espousing a great if short variant of a poem taken from the Poetic Edda altered by Prof. Tolkien. In many ways it is the high point of a grand age of literature, and of perhaps the grandest of all genres. No other genre in the modern age has filled people with longing, wistfulness, despair, hope and love and countless other emotions than this one. It is a grander genre, with higher stakes and infinitely more depth than any other. It is a genre that reflects the nature of life, the tragedies of history, hope for the future, despair at what has been lost and yet that has always succeeded in giving men and women of all ages the finest of examples to strive towards, to aspire to and to relate to in some cases.
It is a flawless genre in some ways. A genre that hearkens back to an age undreamed of; an age of glory, of war, of valour, of honour, barbarism and most of all heroism, a genre that has always spoken to the very heart of what it means to be human. It is a genre with the finest of villains, the most devious and cruel of tyrants, the most disappointing of figures and yet the most inspiring of tales of redemption, hope and goodness.
And it all began with the Mythic or Golden Age…
It was a time of myth-making, when writers such as Lord Dunsany, Robert Erwin Howard, Walter Disney and John Ronald Reuel Tolkien flourished. Living about the same time as one another, and creating mythologies and stories cut in the mould of the likes of Norse Sagas, Greek Tragedies, Medieval tales and Epics of Old, they all achieved greatness in their own way. None of them knew it though, but they were in effect planting the seeds for a future genre that was to grow and flourish, and become greater than any other in the west.
The first of these men to try his hand, did so with the goal of creating rather more folkloric, fairy-stories that are as different from those of Howard and Tolkien as they are from those that followed after them. Where the other two created national epics for Texas and England respectively, Dunsany wrote stories that seem to have more in common at first glance with those of the Brothers Grimm and Perrault.
That said, his stories belong no less to the realm of myth and his work myth-making respectively, than those of his two major successors.
Born in the year 1876 on July 24th, and passing away in 1957 on October 25, he was to be influenced by the very fairy-tale writers of whom I made reference along with others. He was the first to undertake the noble and unusual literary work of pioneering the new genre over the course of a long, and very respectable career.
His Sword of Welleran, King of Elfland’s Daughter and many others remain popular to this day, and though I’ve yet to read them (I will never fear) I’ve heard nothing but good things about them.
The next great myth-maker needs no introduction, as in many ways the story of the genre is the story of his greatest character; Conan the Cimmerian.
Conan though was not created in a vacuum. An expert on anthropology, Robert E. Howard was born in the year 1906 and was thus, writing in the prime of his youth by the 1920s and 30s. His first jab at creating myth was the legendary Kull the King, or Kull of Atlantis or Kull of the Thurian Age.
Dissatisfied, Howard cast the Atlantean aside, in order to create a number of other characters, but none more marked or important as Conan. Conan stole the hearts of many and it was he who starred in the first great mythological national epic in several centuries.
The Hour of the Dragon was arguably the finest novel of the 1930s. Finer than the Hobbit, and greater than any other volume produced in the 30s. In the popular imagination it has mostly been wiped away, and yet it stands tall as the only book that merits being placed in the same league as Lord of the Rings.
It was not that Hour was a Lord of the Rings slayer, but rather that the Lord of the Rings was the Hour of the Dragon slayer.
The book though not an initial success, was re-released in the 50s, then again later on in 67 and 77 and was to only grow ever more successful over the course of several decades.
It is not of Howard though that most think of, when they call back to the Golden Age but rather to Tolkien.
The good professor, was author as all know of the Hobbit in 1937, then spent the 40s working tirelessly upon his epic novel Lord of the Rings. One with the exact same plot as Hour of the Dragon minus Conan, this in spite of the fact that Tolkien had not read the Hour of the Dragon.
Lord of the Rings was the true harbinger of a new genre, spawning countless imitators and copy-cats, some good and others bad. Though arguably, far more people whether they know it or not copy Hour rather than LOTR, humorously enough.
That said, Lord of the Rings was arguably not Tolkien’s magnum opus, but the Silmarillion was. Easily the most finely written and edited work of the 20th century, published posthumously by the good Professor’s son Christopher, who continued to search his father’s archives for more writings in order to publish even more novel-epics of the Mythic Age of Fantasy Literature.
There simply aren’t enough words in the English dictionary (or the French one for that matter, or Japanese or any other language known to man) to praise Tolkien enough for his great epic, or his son for having dedicated his life to his father’s great works.
So that in many ways, Christopher was no less key to this perfect era of literature and its greatest auteur, so that though not a writer, Christopher stands tall creatively and otherwise alongside the forefathers of the genre, Dunsany, Howard & Tolkien himself.
Cinematically, the Mythic Age could also be called the ‘Age of Walt’ for it was during this era that Walt Disney, that great enterprising hero of American history and animation film-making, hero to my own mentor Don Bluth, created his magnificent and flawless masterpieces; Snow White, Bambi and Cinderella.
Born in 1901, Walter Disney was to suffer failure after failure after World War I, in his attempts to break even with his animation. Arguably it was his magnum opus and greatest commercial success that bank-rolled him to well-deserved success at long last; Snow White.
Afterwards he made movies such as Fantasia, a masterpiece of a film incomparable in its glorification of music and a stunning masterpiece. Walt then went on to create many a Disney shorts (each one charming and gloriously made), followed by Dumbo & Bambi (the latter which holds a special place in my heart).
But to traditional fantasy, Walt added another great gemstone to his magnificent imperial crown; Cinderella. A masterpiece which cannot be recommended enough and that still resonates to this very day.
It must be stated that Walt’s stories feel rather more targeted to girls, where Howard’s for example are more for boys. This is natural, and yet there’s a timelessness to Walt’s tales, a love and a faith there that even boys could appreciate (and have across multiple generations).
Walt and his brother Ron who helped to forge the Disney corporation, were less concerned with creating a grand sweeping Legendarium all tied in together, and more interested it seemed in creating a cinematic series of fairy-tales. His stories were grand, the art used in them incredible and his vision awe-inspiring. Frankly speaking, in my view only Don has surpassed him in these qualities, but on that front I’m biased.
But in the tapestry of the history of fantasy, Walt merits his place as a forebear of the genre alongside Dunsany, Howard & Tolkien. If only Tolkien had sold him the rights and Walt had made a film adaptation of that or Hour of the Dragon, the Mythic Age might either have been prolonged or given an incomparable climax.
But alas, in time Walt stepped away from supervising animation himself, to focus on other aspects of his business. This was natural, and he had other dreams with the Nine Old Men of Disney coming to supervise rather more than him the production of Sleeping Beauty (itself a great film), yet that movie ought to for this reason and others be firmly placed in the midst of the Silver Age as it feels rather different, plays to different themes and has rather more as a lead than the princess, her protectors the fairy-godmothers and the prince.
Walt Disney was to pass in 1966, having given more to the genre than one can imagine, and having done so with earnest love and passion for animation, film and children. Instilling in them the knowledge that they could dream, they could hope for much more than life would have them do.
The Mythic Age was not to last as you all know, for though LOTR was published in the early to mid 1950s, the Silver Age began just as the Golden was coming to a close.
Though much of Tolkien’s work was published posthumously, it belongs to the era prior to the Silver Age due entirely to his having written most of it before, and to his continuing to write in the mode of the Golden Age. An age that used more Victorian English, used Medieval literary devices and followed in those traditions and tropes rather more than any modern one. It was an age of experimentation, development and birth unlike any other for any other genre.
For within the fantasy genre, thanks to Tolkien and even Howard, it was to comprise within it all other genres (saving perhaps Sci-Fi).
What started the next age you may ask? Arguably it was Lewis, the great friend of Tolkien. He was really the one who jump-started with his highly allegorical first tale of Narnia. This was the herald of what fantasy would morph into, and began the process of metamorphosing it from something more Medieval and Victorian, and into something rather more modern. This in spite of Lewis himself hardly being a champion of modernity, with the Silver Age beginning rather inauspiciously, yet managing to leave its indelible mark upon the genre so that there is very little of the Mythic left, as writers preferred to imitate Lewis and his heirs rather than Tolkien & Howard (a grave error of literary history if I may say so).
