1.1 Fantasy

1.1.a Concept and approaches

The fantastic requires the fulfillment of three conditions. First, the text must oblige the reader to consider the world of the characters as a world of living persons and to hesitate between a natural or supernatural explanation of the events described. Second, this hesitation may also be experienced by a character; thus the reader's role is so to speak entrusted to a character, and at the same time the hesitation is represented, it becomes one of the themes of the work--in the case of naive reading, the actual reader identifies himself with the character. Third, the reader must adopt a certain attitude with regard to the text: he will reject allegorical as well as "poetic" interpretations.

Todorov, The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre,1975: 33

If we move to the other side of that median line which we have called the fantastic, we find ourselves in the fantastic-marvelous, the class of narratives that are presented as fantastic and that end with an acceptance of the supernatural.

Todorov, The Fantastic: A Structural Approach to a Literary Genre,1975: 52

These two considerations made by Formalist criticist Tzvetan Todorov present fantasy as a genre in which readers as well as fictional characters themselves have to become familiar with "strangeness"; the supernatural must remain as such while on the other hand it is a natural constant (italics are mine) And finally, the reader must keep a non-symbolicist attitude towards the text, far away from allegory or metaphor. This Formalist viewpoint about fantasy (or any other kind of narrative) turned out to be Tolkien's opinion about the way literary criticism should be made.

In a more specific approach to fantasy, Australian fantasy fiction writer and critic Lee Masterson has established a classification of fantasy into several sub-fields, according mostly to the plot and tematic contents of the text. The classification responds to the following terms: Arthurian Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Fairy Tales and Mythology, Heroic Fantasy, High Fantasy, and Sword and Sorcery. For Masterson "Arthurian Fantasy encompasses stories about King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table or Merlin etc." The Lord of the Rings, though to a certain extent a revision of the Arthurian myth as we will later see, cannot be adscribed to this genre insofar none of the likely references is that explicit. Epic Fantasy is defined by Masterson as "tales of a young nobody, thrown unexpectedly into a massive "Good vs. Evil" struggle, where he must learn to uncover his own latent heroism to save the day. Often also includes a "grail-finding" quest - regardless of whether the 'grail' is an icon, a person, a magical talisman or any other form of symbolic token. Usually involves a very large cast of characters and spans a vast area of a fantastical world." All the elements from this sub-genre point to J.R.R. Tolkien, as Masterson himself declares. Concerning Fairy Tales and Mythology, "the original versions of many fairy tales and myths were often violent stories set in mystical lands, sometimes with strange creatures and sometimes even stranger heroes" The traces from this sub-genre in The Lord of the Rings are undoubtful because as it will later be seen in this research, Tolkien himself devoted an entire essay to Fairy Tales, where he declared its influence. About Heroic Fantasy, it is set into "Fantastical worlds with an almost 'middle-ages' feel, peopled with wizards and sorcerers, communing with dragons and riding pet unicorns to tame a battalion of wild orcs and goblins. Heroes are generally muscle-bound sword-wielding types, determined to rescue a true damsel in distress. Magic is an accepted part of life, although the workings of such are usually left unexplained within this sub-genre." A completely suitable definition for Tolkien's text, except for heroes, who are much more into nobility and braveness than into physical strength. The so-called middle-ages feel, the orcs and goblins and the accepted presence of magic (or any other super-natural power) are a trade-mark feature of The Lord of the Rings. The two remaining sub-fields, High Fantasy and Sword and Sorcery are very similar to Heroic Fantasy. The former is defined as "the type of fantasy that most people expect when they regard 'fantasy' as a genre. Includes lords and ladies, medieval styles and settings, kingdoms and castles, and dragons and knights. High fantasy, while generally rooted in classical mythology and medieval European legends, focuses its themes on Good versus Evil. Sometimes called "Epic fantasy". Often plotted to encompass three or more books." The latter is "designed to follow the exploits of the 'hero' as he battles to overcome all the bad guys by use of his trusty sword and some really huge muscles." Tolkien's work fits the sub-genre of High Fantasy, and takes its "barbaric" side from Sword and Sorcery.

1.1.b Examples

Concerning generic fantasy novel, we have, for instance, the presence of a double-minded character such as Gollum-Sméagol who finds his precedent in Rober Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where we meet monster Edward Hyde, the other side of Dr. Henry Jekyll, as it will be later explained. By saying this, we don't mean that Gollum was Tolkien's Hyde, but that both authors needed the same device to present their visions on double personality and moral. Of course they were the main topic for an entire novel in the case of Stevenson, but in the case of Tolkien they were an ‘extra’ feature to depict one of his characters and illustrate moral matters as well. Similarly to Tolkien, Stevenson had some problems with the nature of his story, because his wife, who used to make the criticism to his works, had seen an allegory in it, when originally Stevenson's idea was just to write a bogey story. He was said to burn the first draft and re-write it again so he could finally have a horror story with a moral point. But the point is that even though both characters were similar in attitude and behaviour, it can be said that there is a substantial difference between their physical descriptions, insofar Dr. Jekyll still kept his human looks, unlike Gollum, who had achieved complete deformation: both Gollum and Sméagol had the same looks, so the feeling and sense of schizophrenia was greater in the creature. In that sense, Stevenson was more imaginative than Tolkien, for Dr. Jekyll experienced an on-the-spot switch between his two sides when drinking the potion, while Gollum had been suffering a slow and painful deformation. And that is precisely the key difference between Gollum and Hyde: the terms transformation and deformation. Deformation from hobbit to creature had no returning point, whereas transformation in the case of Jekyll could happen at will. And another great difference is that Gollum's agreements with Sméagol seem much more treacherous than the pact between Jekyll and Hyde.

According to fiction writer and scholar Lin Carter, in Tolkien: A Look Behind the Lord of the Rings, there were four English authors who had already written fantasy novels from the nineteenth century onwards:
- William Morris, a lover of Middle-age deceived of British Industrialization, considered by Carter to be the inventor of heroic fantasy novel, pioneering the genre with The Well at the World's End (1896)
- Lord Dunsany, a romantic bohemian and traveller in the likes of Lord Byron. For Carter, the most influential author in early 20th century fantasy writers, cited as the main influence for.H.P. Lovecraft, whose first texts were very similar to Dunsany. The Fortress Unvainquishable Save for Sacnoth
- E.R. Eddison, a lover of Nordic Eddas and Sagas, retired at 55 in 1937 and immediately turned to writer. His best-known works are The Worm Ouroboros (1922), Styrbion the Strong (1926) and Zimianvia: A Trilogy (1935-1958) Recognised by C.S. Lewis as his major influence.
- Mervyn Peake, an obscure and dense writer, almost Gothic, very Dickens-like in his prose Carter thought he was a direct heir to the Brontë sisters and Franz Kafka. His most influential work was The Gormenghast Trilogy (1946-1959)

Regarding Masterson's classification this research project includes an in-depth analysis of the presence of elements from the Arthurian tradition, mostly through the figures of Gandalf, the Wizard, and Aragorn, the ranger turned to king, for they keep noticeable resemblances to King Arthur and Merlin the Wizard.