J R R Tolkein, George R R Martin, and William Shakespeare walk into a tavern.
While you might expect Tolkein and Martin to be seen sharing a horn of mead in a tavern where the laws of time and space have no meaning, Shakespeare could be thought of as an outsider in this setting. What does he have in common with the other two? It turns out more than you might think.
For the layperson, Shakespeare is shorthand for long boring plays about kings and battles that have no bearing on our world today. For the fantasy fan though, he could be seen as the inspiration for many modern works of epic fantasy.
Consider the iconic wizard Gandalf, the very archetype of wizard that comes to most people’s mind. Robes, staff, big hat, the whole shebang. However, Prospero in The Tempest was written over three hundred years ago as a staff-wielding magician with command of the elements and power over magical creatures. I think it’s a fair assumption that Tolkein reached into the cultural memory of England to create his grand folklore and used Prospero as inspiration.
The doomed thane Macbeth is prophesied to become ‘…king hereafter…’ by the three witches, not altogether dissimilar from Stannis Baratheon, who is claimed to be a prophesied hero by the witch Mellisandre. The parallels between these two are…stark.
Speaking of witches, the archetype of women cackling around a cauldron, muttering spells and incantations is clearly taken from those ‘secret, black and midnight hags’ seen in Macbeth. They themselves were possibly inspired by the ‘Graeae’, or ‘grey witches’ of classic Greek mythology. I’m sure Granny Weatherwax wouldn’t be around if not for their influence.
Epic fantasy also has monumental battles between the forces of good and evil or between man and demon, or in Shakespeare’s case, England and France. In Henry VI pt. 1, Joan De Pucelle (Joan Of Arc) calls forth ‘…familiar spirits that are cull’d out of the powerful regions under earth’ to aid the French in battle. Many enemies of Man call forth fell beasts and all manner of foul creature in epic/high fantasy battle scenes. Saruman’s Uruk Hai and The White Walkers are just two examples.
While I’m not saying that if there was no Shakespeare there would be no Song of Ice and Fire, or Lord of the Rings, stories like these tend to appear and reappear in our cultural landscape. We cannot exist without these stories. If they didn’t exist, someone would eventually create them. Shakespeare laid the groundwork and many others stood on his shoulders.
To find out more about our Heroic co-founders, Helen and Chris, head to heroicbooks.com/people
And if you’re a fantasy or science fiction novelist and you’re looking for a platform for publication, visit heroicbooks.com/manuscript to read our guidelines and submit your work.
