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Има два поустинга на една и съща тема, но в различни клубове. Реших, че ще е най-добре ако изведа тази информация в отделна тема!!!
Извадих това есе(Introduction to the Book) на Martin H. Greenberg от зборника разкази "My Favourite Fantasy Stories", чийто редактор е тои самия.
И така:
As soon as mankind began to tell stories, the concept of fanatasy was not far
behind. From the ancient myths and legends every culture created to explain
natural phenomena to the folktales, fairy tales, and our urabn legends today, our capacity for imagining the fantastic is exceeded only by our desire to find it. As the concept of fanatsy literature evoleved over the centuries, it has also become more frefined and now encompasses every type of fiction, from mainstream fantasy to epic high fantasy, from sword and sorcery to urban fantasy. But no matter how many types of fantasy literature exists today, the purpose behind the genre remains the same; toescape the real world and explore other places and events that exist only in the imagination.
Unlike science fictuion, which required the fantastic to develop before it could even exist, the roots of fantasy fiction stretch back before the dawn of history. The first structured mythologies, of Mesopotamia and Egypt, pre-date the invention of the written word, as they appear already fully developed in the earliest of texts. the very first "novel" --the Mesopotamian epic of Gilgamesh, elements of wich probably date back before the 4th millennium BC--in parts relates the type of quest beloved of modern fantasy readers as the hearstick king of Uruk searches for the secret ot etenal life.
In the 2nd millennium BC, a group of people known as Indo-Europeans migraeted from their homeland north of the Black Sea. Eventually this group took over most of Europe, part of the Middle East, and much of the Indian subcontinent, assimilating the local cultures into their own. From this mixture of languages and societies came what is generally believed to be one of the first creationmyths, the Rig-veda, in which Indra, the warrior god and leader of the Adityas, ancientchildren of the earth, does battle with Vritra, the great dragon and leader of the danavas, the children of Danu the Restrainer. After many epic battles, Indra destroys Vritra with his thunderbolt, making the creation of our world possible. It is here taht the important theme of warrior versus warrior, one concerned with protecting the mankind, the other with destroying it, emerged.
When the Greeks rose to prominence in the 2nd millennium, they took the best elemnets of the creation myths of all the indigenous populations and made them their own.Indra, the lighting god, evolved into Zeus, god of thunder and the heavens. The Indo_European god of the sun. named Mitra, became Apollo, and so on. In fact Hera, Poseidon and several other gods actually originated on the Indian continent, and were brought into the local Mediterranean cultures when Indo_Europeans settled in those areas. Several minor gods, including Demeter, Aphrodite, Rhea, and others have their beginnings firmly established in the Medirranean subcultures.
Although the Greeks had used written language in the 2nd millennium BC, they did not start writitting down their stories until the 8th century BC. Add to this the fact taht each poet , playwriter, or author interpreted the myths in a way most suitable to what they were writing, and the genealogy of Greek mythology becomes even more muddled.The poet Hesiod was the first to acctually weave the dissimilar fragments of the Indo-Europena, Mediterranean, and Greek myths into a cohesive whole. He played a large part in the creating the Greek pantheon we know today, chronicling their exploits and genealogy as real beings in his works " Theology". it is in his work that we find the myths of Uranus, who mates with Gaea, the earth, creating the Titans, includingt Cronos, who gives birth to the gods as we know them.
The epic poems of Homer, including the Illiad and the Odyssey, utilized the myths of the times symbolically in some of the first stories to use a connected narrative element and theme. Homer set the stage for a new, dynamic form of storytelling, solidifying the pantheoin's place in history in the process.
The comedic playwriter Aristophanes used fantasy in his play "The Birds", written in 414 BC, which describes how a greek vagabond convinced the birds to build a utopian city in the sky , and eventually made the gods do hi bidding. Other Greek playwriters used fantasy for satire and humour in their plays, and fantasy flourished as it never had before.
With the rise of the Roman Empire came an emphasis on a more practical pantheon. The Roman gods existed primarily for the use of the people, to be venerated on their particular festival days or at designated physical locations. However, the creation story of Rome, tale of of the brothers Romulus and Remus, as well as Virgil's "Aeneid" are excellent examples of the Roman fantasy stories, in which larger-than-life characters struggle against the forces of nature to achiev their goals.
The first English fantasy epic is the classic Northumbrian poem "Beowulf", written down for the first time sometime during the 18th century. Again, this tale of the struggle of the greatest Geatish warrior against almost elemental evil creature Grendel continues the warrior vs. warrior myth Beowulf the protector saving the Danes from Grendel thje Destryer. The 19th centurt poet Cynewulf wrote "Andreas", often called the Christian "Beowulf" as well as "The Dream Of the Rood", an imaginative poetic meditation that was precursor to the dream visions of the Middle Ages.
The next major step in the developmnet of fantasy occured in the 12th century, when the Welsh cleric Geoffrey of monmouth transformed a minor Celtic war chieftain into one of the greatest legendary figures in the English language, King Arthur. ordinally published in LAtin in the 12 century, Monmouth's partly legendary "History of the Kings of Britian" wa s translated into French by historians Geoffrey Gaimar and Robert Wace of Jersey. The English priet Layamon then retold the tale in English in 1205 in his poem, "The Burst", the first Anglicized version of the story of King Arthur. Again the theme of protector vs destroyer is set down, King Arthur vs Mordred, with the sorcerer Merlin in the middle.
To be continued...
When You Dream, There are no Rules!<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small"><EM>Редактирано от De_Vor на 27.07.01 04:12.</EM></FONT></P>Редактирано от De_Vor на 27.07.01 05:08.
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Origin of Fantasy
