Sword and sorcery

:This article is about a fantasy sub-genre. For information on the game company, see Sword & Sorcery.

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Sword and sorcery (S&S) is a fantasy sub-genre featuring swashbuckling heroes in violent conflict with a variety of villains, chiefly wizards, witches, evil spirits, and other supernatural creatures.

Related Topics:
Fantasy - Genre - Wizard - Witch - Supernatural

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The subgenre has old roots. Ultimately—like much fantasy—it draws from mythology and Classical epics such as Homer's Odyssey, but its immediate progenitors are the swashbuckling tales of Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers (1844), etc.) and Rafael Sabatini (e.g., Scaramouche (1921), itself rooted in the Italian commedia dell'arte) - although these all lack the supernatural element - and early fantasy fiction such as E. R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros (1922) and Lord Dunsany's The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth (1910). In addition, many early S&S writers, such as Robert E Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, were heavily influenced by the Middle Eastern tales of the Arabian Nights, whose stories of magical monsters and evil sorcerers was a major influence on the genre to be. But S&S proper really began in the pulp fantasy magazines, most notably Weird Tales.

Related Topics:
Homer - Odyssey - Alexandre Dumas - The Three Musketeers - Rafael Sabatini - Scaramouche - Commedia dell'arte - E. R. Eddison - The Worm Ouroboros - Lord Dunsany - Arabian Nights - Pulp - Weird Tales

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