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Fantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, the majority of fantasy works have been written. Since the 1950s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of video games, music, painting, and the like.
History It is difficult to define the precise 'beginning' of fantasy literature, as stories involving magic and terrible monsters have existed since time immemorial. Many agree that English professor of philology J. R. R. Tolkien was instrumental to the mass-popularization of the fantasy genre, with his hugely successful novels, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien himself, however, was largely inspired by an ancient body of Anglo-Saxon myths—particularly Beowulf. Preeminent authors in the genre who undertook popular fantasy works after Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings phenomenon of the 1950s and 1960s are listed below. Their most famous works are also listed. Many other, slightly less notable fantasy authors have published under the popular TSR label, usually in the Forgotten Realms sanctum. In recent years, the ratio of female-to-male authors in a typically-stocked bookstore has skyrocketed, with female authors surpassing the volume of their male counterparts. See also Bibliography | ||||||||
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