Week 3: A Fantasy Reader: I

What are some archetypes (e.g. common character types) of fantasy fiction?

Fantasy as a genre seems to be a very difficult one to define transparently, however there are certain aspects of it that are very common. The archetypes or ‘common characters’ in fantasy fiction seem to remain reasonably the same throughout different stories e.g. Tolkien’s ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and C. S. Lewis’ ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ and Ursula K. Le Guinn’s ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’.

“They are tales of witches, dragons, soldiers, and princesses, pitting tailor against king, godmother against stepmother, jack against giant. Their origins are obscure, but they seem to be akin to epic and myth, deriving from them or evolving alongside.” One very common archetype in fantasy I found to be common and play a big part in the importance of the story is the old wise mentor type character. In the case of ‘A Wizard of Earthsea’, that character is Ogion the Silent. Ogion plays a part similar to Gandalf in ‘The Lord of the Rings’. He is wise and powerful, but humble all the same and is often expressing his wisdom in mysterious ways.

“Though a very silent man he was so mild and calm and Ged soon lost his awe of him, and in a day or two he was soon bold enough to ask his master, ‘When will my apprenticeship begin, sir?’
‘It has begun,’ said Ogion. Like Gandalf, Ogion’s task in the story is to pass on as much wisdom as he can to the main character Ged (Frodo in ‘The Lord of the Rings.) This archetype is both realistic and magical which is what fantasy seems to be about, as J. R. R. Tolkien expressed, 'Founded upon the hard recognition that things are so in the world as it appears under the sun; on a recognition of fact but not a slavery to it.’

Alot of fantasy also seems to be set in a not so modern world probably to make it seem more magical as science fiction seems to be set in a more modern world. ‘European folktales are stories, usually of peasant origin, not told as fact but as entertainment.’


Le Guinn, Ursula K. (1993, 1968). A Wizard of Earthsea. In the Earthsea Quartet (pp. 13-167). London, Penguin.

Atterbury, B. (1980). Locating fantasy. In the fantasy tradition in American literature: From Irving to Le Guinn (pp. 2-9). Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1980.