Further information: Early history of fantasy

Romances[edit]



The Damsel of the Sanct Grael, by Dante Gabriel Rossetti: medieval romance.

With increases in learning in the medieval European era, literary fiction joined earlier myths and legends. Among the first genres to appear was romance. This genre embraced fantasy, and not only simply followed traditional myths and fables, but, in its final form, added new fantastical elements.^[2] Romance at first dealt with traditional themes, above all three thematic cycles of tales, assembled in imagination at a late date as the Matter of Rome (focusing on military heroes like Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar), the Matter of France (Charlemagne and Roland, his principal paladin) and the Matter of Britain (the lives and deeds of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, within which was incorporated the quest for the Holy Grail), although a number of "non-cyclical" romances also achieved a great deal of popularity.^[3]

The romances themselves were fictional, but such tales as Valentine and Orson, Guillaume de Palerme, and Queste del Saint Graalwere only the beginning of the fantasy genre, combining realism and fantasy.

During the Renaissance, romance continued to be popular. The trend was to more fantastic fiction. The English Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory (c.1408–1471), was written in prose; this work dominates the Arthurian literature, often being regarded as the canonical form of the legend.^[4] Arthurian motifs have appeared steadily in literature from its publication, though the works have been a mix of fantasy and non-fantasy works.^[5] At the time, it and the Spanish Amadis de Gaula (1508), (also prose) spawned many imitators, and the genre was popularly well-received, producing such masterpiece of Renaissance poetry as Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando furiosoand Torquato Tasso's Gerusalemme Liberata. Ariosto's tale, with its endlessly wandering characters, many marvels, and adventures, was a source text for many fantasies of adventure.^[6] With such works as Amadis of Gaul and Palmerin of England, the genre of fantasy was clearly inaugurated, as the marvels are deployed to amaze and surprise readers.^[1]

Portrait of Isabella Saltonstall as Una, a character from The Faerie Queene, by George Stubbs.

One English romance is The Faerie Queene of Edmund Spenser. The poem is deeply allegorical and allusive. Leaving allegory aside, however, the action is that of a typical knightly romance, involving knightly duels, and combats against giants and sorcerers. That is probably the first work in which most of the characters are not men, but elves (although the difference seems to be rather little). There are mentioned also the wars between goblins and elf, which were destined to have a great future in fantastic fiction.

The tale of Don Quixote deeply satirized the conventions of the romance, and helped bring about the end of this time of romance, although assisted by other historical trends in fiction.^[7] Nevertheless, large subgenres of the field of fantasy have sprung from the romance genre, either directly or through their imitation by latter fantasy writer William Morris.^[8]