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@mgtask

Hey Michaela,

The most common answer is Tolkien. I found this in an article I read recently by Dominik C. Durst.

“A lot of fantasy readers first traveled to the legendary world of Hobbits, Elves, Orcs and such. Even though little Johnny started with Tolkien, it doesn’t mean he was the only one writing the genre so early. Books like The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis and all the way back to Cervantes and his parody in Don Quixote came before or were written during Tolkien’s time. J.R.R. Tolkien is a big name in fantasy and there’s a good reason for that. Even today, a hundred years later, writers are still influenced by Tolkien’s imagination and world building. Tolkien set standards for fantasy tropes and cliches which are still used up to this day.

In the non-official definition of fantasy worlds, which can be described as a tolkienesque world with fixed setting and plot rules we can say a lot of fantasy stories follow, there is something that surpasses the setting boundaries. The tropes — fantasy tropes. And why do I mention them? Because a lot of non-fantasy settings use the same tropes to build plots and characters. The most mainstream example would be the Star Wars Saga. Even though it’s placed in future, in a space-colonizing culture, it uses a lot of fantasy tropes. Specific type of world building, battle between good and evil, mysterious and royal-blood characters, dark lords opposed to morally straightforward “good” characters. We’ve seen these tropes in thousands of stories.

Why? Short answer: It works.

Even though it’s common, Medieval doesn’t necessarily imply European Middle Ages. But why is it customary? Short answer: Western readers in general are more familiar with the European setting. There are popular novels such as Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay, which is set in Medieval China, or The Chronicles of Sword and Sand by Howard Andrew Jones, set in ancient Arabia. But there’s no doubt that non-European Middle Ages are in minority opposed to European ones. The purpose is to see these settings exist, but aren’t nearly as popular.

In the end…
…we realize we’re all Johnny. Maybe our fingers weren’t greasy and maybe we didn’t reach for The Fellowship of the Ring first, but all of us enjoyed some fantasy set in the Dark Ages. By reading and writing that kind of fiction we keep the genre breathing. And that’s the true beauty of Fantasy.“

Hope this helps you!

-Katja