Sword and sorcery (S&S), or heroic fantasy, is a sub-genre of fantasy literature characterized by sword-wielding heroes engaged in exciting and violent adventures. Elements of romance, magic, and the supernatural are also often present. Unlike works of high fantasy, the tales, though dramatic, focus on personal battles rather than world-endangering matters. The genre originated from the early 1930s works of Robert E. Howard. In parallel with "sword and sorcery", the term "heroic fantasy" is used, although it is a more loosely defined genre. Science fiction author Isaac Asimov once stated in his own Science Fiction Magazine that "The contemporary Sword-and-Sorcery tale owes its existence to the imagination of Robert Howard and his invention of the Conan stories."
Sword and sorcery tales eschew overarching themes of "good vs evil" in favor of situational conflicts that often pit morally gray characters against one another to enrich themselves, or to defy tyranny.
Sword and sorcery is grounded in real-world social and societal hierarchies, and is grittier, darker, and more violent, with elements of cosmic or Lovecraftian creatures that are not a staple of mainstream fantasy. The main character is often a barbarian with antihero traits.
Etymology The website Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction records an example of "sword and sorcery" from 1953, where it appears in a headline of a review of an L. Sprague de Camp novel. In the 6 April 1961 issue of the fantasy fanzine Ancalagon, American author Fritz Leiber re-coined the term in response to a letter from British author Michael Moorcock in the fanzine Amra, demanding a name for the sort of fantasy-adventure story written by Robert E. Howard. Moorcock had initially proposed the term "epic fantasy". 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:
The term "heroic fantasy" has been used to avoid the garish overtones of "sword and sorcery". This name was coined by L. Sprague de Camp. However, it has also been used to describe a broader range of fantasy, including High fantasy.
Definitions In the introduction to his 1973 anthology Flashing Swords! 1, fantasy editor Lin Carter gave this definition of the sub-genre: "We call a story Sword & Sorcery when it is an action tale, derived from the traditions of the pulp magazine adventure story, set in a land, age or world of the author's invention–a milieu in which magic actually works and the gods are real—a story, moreover, which pits a stalwart warrior in direct conflict with the forces of supernatural evil." Science fiction historian Darrell Schweitzer has given another definition of sword and sorcery fiction: "In its broadest sense, a sword & sorcery story is one about heroic adventures, in a primitive or imaginary-world setting, with supernatural elements". Fantasy historian Brian Murphy has put forward another exposition of the sub-genre. Murphy writes that a sword and sorcery narrative "typically features men (and occasionally women) of action, pitted against enemies wielding dark and dangerous magic, in pursuit of personal and/or mercenary aims."
Style and themes
Heavily influenced by the adventure genre, the settings of sword and sorcery often revolve around Alternate history, pulling influences from early 20th century Archaeology and Theosophy. The setting can be an Earth in the mythical past or distant future, an imaginary other world or an alien planet. Sword and sorcery stories are also influenced by Horror, Mythology, Folklore, and Science Fiction. The technological level of most sword and sorcery settings is similar to that of the ancient or medieval periods with an emphasis on swordplay.
The Protagonist is usually an antihero who fights against supernatural evil and the occult. Unlike fantasy, the magic of a sword and sorcery story comes at a substantial cost, or what can be described as a hard magic system. Although the main character mostly behaves heroically, he may ally with an enemy or sacrifice an ally in order to survive. A hero's main weapons are cunning and physical strength. Magic, on the other hand, is usually only used by the villains of the story, who are usually wizards, witches, or supernatural monsters. A recurring theme in the genre is a damsel in distress. Although Robert E. Howard was known for writing strong female protagonists such as Agnes and Valeria, the 1960s onward saw an emphasis on male protagonists and underdeveloped female characters by the popular authors of the time. This issue has declined in recent years.
In his introduction to the 1967 Ace edition of Conan the Barbarian, L. Sprague de Camp described the typical sword and sorcery story as: [A] story of action and adventure laid in a more or less imaginary world, where magic works and where modern science and technology have not yet been discovered. The setting may (as in the Conan stories) be this Earth as it is conceived to have been long ago, or as it will be in the remote future, or it may be another planet or another dimension.
Such a story combines the color and dash of the historical costume romance with the atavistic supernatural thrills of the weird, occult, or ghost story. When well done, it provides the purest fun of fiction of any kind. It is escape fiction wherein one escapes clear out of the real world into one where all men are strong, all women beautiful, all life adventurous, and all problems simple, and nobody even mentions the income tax or the dropout problem or socialized medicine.
Sprague de Camp has since received considerable backlash from the modern sword and sorcery community for fueling misconceptions about the purpose and style of the genre. Organizations such as the Robert E. Howard Foundation and various fanzines have worked to elevate the embedded themes of social criticism and indicate the academic importance of the genre's relevance to the development of existentialist literature.
Many sword and sorcery tales have turned into lengthy series of adventures. Their lower stakes and less-than world-threatening dangers make this more plausible than a repetition of the perils of high fantasy. So too does the nature of the heroes; most sword and sorcery protagonists, travelers by nature, find peace after adventure dull.
Sword and sorcery experiences crossover with dark fantasy. The scale of the struggles depicted is smaller, and the main character usually pursues personal gain, such as wealth or love. The opposition between good and evil characteristic of fantasy also exists in Sword and Sorcery literature, but it is less absolute and the events often take place in a morally gray area. These features are especially emphasized in newer works of the genre. The stories are fast-paced and action-oriented, with lots of violent fight scenes. Like most speculative fiction, Sword and Sorcery has been criticized for its over employment of the Deus ex machina trope.
Writers such as Howard, Michael Moorcock and Samuel R. Delany have used the Sword and Sorcery genre to address serious themes such as Assisted suicide, anti-fascism, liberty, anti-slavery, sex trafficking, criticism of organized religion, and the cyclical rise and fall of civilization. Sword and sorcery is most well known for its discussion of agency and employment of ideas related to conflict theory. While sword and sorcery employs a wide variety of narrative conflicts, the most typical structure is Man Vs Man, presented in the context of Man Vs Society or Man Vs God, wherein the villain of the story is a symbolic representation of a greater evil.
A quote from The Alexandrian summarizes a core theme found within sword and sorcery:
"The mythic root of these stories is Robin Hood, whose idyllic society of Merry Men living in the barbarism of Sherwood Forest achieves the ideals of chivalry and nobility which are falsely claimed by the corrupt powers of "civilization." ...Where civilization fails to protect the innocent (and is, in fact, often the ones victimizing them), it is the "outsider" that civilization teaches you to fear that will ultimately sacrifice to help those in need."
History Origins In his introduction to the reference Literary Swordsmen and Sorcerers by L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter notes that the heritage of sword and sorcery is illustrious, and can be traced back to mythology, including the labors of Hercules, as well as to classical epics such as Homer's Odyssey, the Norse sagas, and Arthurian legend.
It also has been influenced by historical fiction. For instance, the work of Sir Walter Scott was influenced by Scottish folklore and ballads. Yet few of Scott's stories contain fantastic elements; in most, the appearance of such is explained away. Sword and sorcery's immediate progenitors are the swashbuckling tales of Alexandre Dumas, père (The Three Musketeers (1844), etc.), Rafael Sabatini (Scaramouche (1921), etc.) and their pulp magazine imitators, such as Talbot Mundy, Harold Lamb, and H. Bedford-Jones, who all influenced Howard. Mundy in particular, proved influential: early sword and sorcery writers such as Howard, C. L. Moore and Fritz Leiber were admirers of Mundy's fiction. However, these historical "swashbucklers" lack the supernatural element which defines the genre.
Sword and sorcery's focus on adventurers exploring a strange society were influenced by adventures set in foreign lands by Sir H. Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Haggard's works, such as King Solomon's Mines (1885) and She: A History of Adventure (1887) included many fantastic elements. Some of Haggard's characters, such as Umslopogaas, an axe-wielding Zulu warrior who encountered supernatural phenomena and loved to fight, bore similarities to sword and sorcery heroes. Haggard also wrote Eric Brighteyes (1891), a violent historical novel based on the Icelandic Sagas; some writers, (such as David Pringle) have stated that Eric Brighteyes resembles a modern sword and sorcery novel. Edgar Rice Burroughs' novels featured physically formidable male heroes such as Tarzan and John Carter of Mars. Burroughs' heroes had adventures involving the exploration of strange regions and battles with fearsome creatures. Burroughs' work was enormously influential on the initial generation of American sword and sorcery writers, such as Robert E. Howard.Holmes, Morgan T. "Gothic to Cosmic: Sword and Sorcery in Weird Tales" in Everett, Justin and Shanks, Jeffrey H. (Editors). The Unique Legacy of Weird Tales : the Evolution of Modern Fantasy and Horror. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland, 2015 (p.65)
Yet another influence was early fantasy fiction. This type of fiction includes the short stories of Lord Dunsany's such as "The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth" (1910) and "The Distressing Tale of Thangobrind the Jeweller" (1911). These works of Dunsany's feature warriors who clash with monsters and wizards in realms of Dunsany's creation. Dunsany's work proved inspirational to C. L. Moore, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, and Karl Edward Wagner. The Worm Ouroboros (1922) by E. R. Eddison, a heroic romance written in a mock-archaic style, was an inspiration to later writers of sword and sorcery such as Leiber. The "Poictesme" novels of James Branch Cabell, such as Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice (1919), have been cited as a stimulus to early sword and sorcery writing. Cabell's novels depict picaresque exploits in imaginary lands, and were an influence on Leiber and Vance. A. Merritt's novels The Ship of Ishtar (1924) and Dwellers in the Mirage (1932) have also been cited as influences on sword and sorcery, as they feature men from the then-contemporary world being drawn into dangerous adventures involving swordplay and magic. All these authors influenced sword and sorcery for the plots, characters, and landscapes used.