Sword and sorcery

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

Defining S&S

The term was coined in 1961 when the author Michael Moorcock published a letter in the fanzine Amra, asking for a name for the sort of fantasy-adventure story written by Robert E. Howard, and proposing "epic fantasy". Fritz Leiber replied in the journal Ancalagon (6 April 1961) suggesting "sword-and-sorcery as a good popular catchphrase for the field". He expanded on this in the July 1961 issue of Amra, commenting:

Related Topics:
Michael Moorcock - Robert E. Howard - Fritz Leiber

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::"I feel more certain than ever that this field should be called the sword-and-sorcery story. This accurately describes the points of culture-level and supernatural element and also immediately distinguishes it from the cloak-and-sword (historical adventure) story?and (quite incidently) from the cloak-and-dagger (international espionage) story too!" (Fritz Leiber, Amra, July 1961)

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Sword-and-sorcery has often been used as a catch-all phrase for a certain type of low grade fantasy that certainly influenced Dungeons and Dragons and the other TSR RPGs. Until quite recently, sword-and-sorcery was an oft used derogatory term amongst writers and readers of the fantasy genre. Magazines such as Black Gate and Flashing Swords have recently attempted to revive the genre to the state that it enjoyed during the pulp era of the twenties and thirties.

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Many attempts have been made to redefine precisely what defines S&S as a clear sub-genre. Although many debate the finer points, the general consensus is that S&S is characterized by a strong bias toward fast-paced, action-rich tales set within a quasi-mythical or fantastical framework.

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