If Dragons Then Royalty
Apr. 9th, 2010 01:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lea_hazel posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fantasyRoyalty and nobility are one of the most common conceits of epic fantasy. Almost every fantasy novel takes place in a world comprised of a series of kingdoms, or similarly structured alternatives. Epic plotlines usually follow the royalty or at least high nobility of one or more of these kingdoms. This applies doubly when the protagonist is a commoner; gaining access to the higher echelons of society is part of their reward.
When I tried to think about fantasy novels (excluding contemporary, and even those have their vampire kings and fairy queens) that defy this convention, I thought first of A Wizard of Earthsea. I may be misremembering, since I read it in translation years ago, but I don't recall Ged or any of the other major characters being noble. A few other books came to mind, where characters sometimes deal with nobility but don't wind up discovered as the long-lost heirs to something, or receiving a noble title, or anything.
I can't think of many fantasies that don't take place in a royal hierarchy, though. For some people, the crowns and swords and other medieval trappings are a major part of fantasy's charm, but it's still a pretty diverse genre. Do people think non-monarchic systems are too much of a divergence for fantasy, or does it just not occur to them that there are other options? Like the title says: If dragons -- then monarchy?
When I tried to think about fantasy novels (excluding contemporary, and even those have their vampire kings and fairy queens) that defy this convention, I thought first of A Wizard of Earthsea. I may be misremembering, since I read it in translation years ago, but I don't recall Ged or any of the other major characters being noble. A few other books came to mind, where characters sometimes deal with nobility but don't wind up discovered as the long-lost heirs to something, or receiving a noble title, or anything.
I can't think of many fantasies that don't take place in a royal hierarchy, though. For some people, the crowns and swords and other medieval trappings are a major part of fantasy's charm, but it's still a pretty diverse genre. Do people think non-monarchic systems are too much of a divergence for fantasy, or does it just not occur to them that there are other options? Like the title says: If dragons -- then monarchy?
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Date: 2010-04-12 02:55 am (UTC)My first thought was Samuel R. Delany's Return to Nevèrÿon series. More "sword-and-sorcery" than high fantasy (currency, cloth, and writing are all still new technology, cities are rare, etc., though there's also quite a bit of deliberate anachronism in a sort of Earth-esque indeterminate location with a mix of Old World and New World influences), but the attitude towards royalty isn't the usual. The main characters (of both the series as a whole and the individual stories) tend to be commoners; even Gorgik, the main character of the series, mostly stops being the main character of the individual stories once he gains access to the aristocracy and political power. The monarchy is still present, but there's a pretty strong sense (especially in Neveryóna) that the royalty is prevented by their position from understanding the significance of some of the major events and cultural shifts of the series.
That said, it's not quite the usual approach to "epic fantasy" -- the focus on semiotics tends to make things a bit too messy in implication for a single overall big story.