The fantasy genre has remained a steadfast in the arsenal of a writer since the dawn of man. Dating back to the earliest writings such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, The Odyssey, or Beowulf, fantasy has been used to teach lifelong lessons or entertain the reader with intricate stories containing ideals from cultural folklore and mythology.  No matter which cultural folklore or mythology is used, however, it is understandable that while the purpose of fantasy genre is usually to entertain; the reader should never overlook the work and thought process put into creating stories of the fantasy genre.

While contemporary fantasy draws on these ancient writings, it has a number of unique conventions critical to success of the modern genre. Fantasy, while at times may seem vast, has key characteristics that define it as a specific genre. Fantasy embeds itself in the beliefs of mythologies and folklore to guide the storyline into following rules of its own accord; allowing magic and unparalleled physics to be intertwined within the fabrics of the characters and stories. In pursuit of creating their own stories, recent authors have made the genre a growing field. Readers, intrigued into seeing the expansive imagination capable in the human mind have supported the development of writers such as George R.R. Martin in the novel Game of Thrones and John Flanagan in Rangers Apprentice.   The stories are usually centered around medieval time periods which can be seen in books such as Game of Thrones or Rangers Apprentice and contain races such as goblins, dwarfs, and elves living alongside human counterparts in a world full of magic and deep connections between family, friends, and loyalties.

One convention of the genre, which is to have a medieval setting, can be seen in the novel, Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin. The Seven Kingdoms, which is the world in the novel, is set in the medieval time period, allowing readers to see characteristics that separate the fantasy genre from other genres of today. The medieval setting is specific to the genre since the time period, specifically periods such as the dark ages, allow for the use of magic and unexplainable phenomenon to become more realistic to the reader since so little is known of the time period even today. The setting in the medieval genre sets the mindset and allows the conventions of the genre to be more acceptable to the reader.

The medieval age, with the decline of civilization and writing that defines the era, forced the people of the time to rely heavily on loyalties, family, and friendships that show another key convention in the fantasy genre. The settings of the genre in medieval times placed the people in wide spread clans such as , The Starks, in Game of Thrones, which in isolated areas, forced them to rely heavily on one another to survive in the challenging time period. They live in the nonsensical world of magic and treachery during the medieval time period of swords and dragons, forcing them to choose their loyalties, family, and friendships carefully in the struggle of survival.

The connections between loyalties, family, and friendships are directly affected by the use of magic that influences the world the characters live in and shows another key factor of the fantasy genre. The use of the magic in the genre allows for the vast expandability and unrealistic outcomes of stories that separate and define the genre. The novel, Rangers Apprentice, shows this convention in the elite order, The Rangers, in which the order uses magic to eliminate their targets and complete the objectives they are tasked with.

The conventions of the genre showing a medieval time period, the relationships of loyalties, friendships and family as well as the use of magic can all be seen in the fantasy novel Rangers Apprentice by John Flanagan. The novel introduces an orphan who is taken as an apprentice Ranger, a soldier who masters in the art of stealth and speed in which he learns to utilize magic to perfect his art. The orphan, Will, strives to keep the medieval Kingdom of Araluen safe as he creates relationships with his mentor Halt and builds lifelong friendships with other Rangers in the realm. The novel demonstrates key characteristics of the fantasy genre in showing a medieval setting in which magic directly influenced the world and the connections of loyalty, family and friendships.

In pursuit of writing in the genre such as John Flanagan did in, Rangers Apprentice, a good place to start is to first create the world in which the characters can live in. The task of having to create an  entire new world may seem daunting to some of the more timid writers yet the task can be very easy once broken down. Anyone can do it. Separation from the boundaries of the ideas and natural laws of the world are essential in order to open the mind to new avenues of creation.  It is important that the writer remembers that they are not limited to any place; the world can be in the sea, on the ground, or even floating among the clouds. The world will set the newly imagined physics and rules of the land that can be altered and changed anytime at the will of the author. After the world is created the land must be filled with the presence of characters that will drive the plot and ultimately show the purpose and lessons to be learned from the fantasy.

The key element that can be seen in these examples of fantasy is that there are no boundaries to the expansive power that the genre offers a writer. The writer is not limited by the fantasy genre; instead the genre encourages the author to dive fully into their own realms of worlds and ideas. The ideas that are created are not dictated by the accepted physics and rules of our world today but are instead encouraged to discard everything that should make sense in order to create new settings and reasoning for what happens in the world around us. The use of magic in, Ranger Apprentice, such as the use of invisibility by the Rangers to eliminate their enemies shows how the rules of the world can be bent in the fantasy genre to fit the goals of the author.

The flexible genre of fantasy set its roots in some of the earliest writings of man and is defined by the characteristics of a medieval setting having deep connections between loyalties, family, and friendships and the use of magic. The genre will never be outstretched in its wide range of novels and writers capable of creating their own individual worlds and stories. The separation from our own world’s laws and natural physics and the integration of imaginative and sometimes unbelievable ideas are key to the creation of a fantasy genre. While scientific reasoning is generally strayed away from in fantasy there is still a general cohesion between the created fantasies of magic and traditional physics such as those in the medieval time period.  Fantasy genre is flexible in its ability to be molded by the writer in order to refresh the imagination of people of today; the genre sets a unique spark in the limited and dull world we live in today and allows the author to teach people unique lessons that would otherwise be missed in other more ridge genres.

Work Cited

Martin, George R.R., Game of Thrones: A Song of Fire and Ice. New York: Bantam Spectra, 1996. Print.

Flanagan, John. Rangers Apprentice: The Burning Bridge. New York: Puffin Books, 2005.Print

Beowulf: A New Verse Translation. Trans. Seamus Heaney. New York: Norton, 2000. Print.

Homer. The Odyssey.  Translated by Robert Fagles. New York:  Penguin Books,1996

Stephen Mitchell. Gilgamesh: A New English Version. New York: Free Press, 2004.