� The Aesthetics of Fantasy � Literature and Art 1.1 �,. edited by Roger C. Schlobin Copublished by • UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME PRESS I and I f THE HARVESTER PRESS � I .,'J !_;_ � •,;. .,.t: I ·�� •. ,•4 .,,, • • • . n,,-,ii� - Kenneth J. Zaborski and Robert H. Boyer 57 It is J. R. R. Tolkien, appropriately enough, who has pro­ vided us with some of the most perceptive and illuminating ob­ servations on the nature and function of setting in faery stories and other typ·es of fantasy literature. His seminal essay, "On Fairy-Stories," should be placed first on any required reading list for students of thegenre. Indeed, this essay serves as our primary The Secondary Worlds lexicon of terms used in contemporary fantasy criticism. Page quickly through it and the terms pop out: "sub-creator," "Pri­ mary World," "Secondary World," "arresting strangeness," "Per­ of High Fantasy ilous Realm," "Recovery," "Escape," "Consolation," "Eucatastro­ phe." Most contemporary critical treatises on fantasy .reflect, in Kenneth J. Zahorski one way or another, Tolkiens germinative ruminations. Perhaps most influential, however, have been his comments about set­ and Robert H. Boyer ting. Let us examine some of these. To begin with, Tolkien makes it quite clear that there is a close correlation between successful fantasy and successful sub­ creation. The sub-creator must invent secondary worlds_ that are P.ERIT..ous REALM, LEGENDARY land, mythic country, Faerie, home credible: worlds that possess their own "inner consistency of of the gods: these are a few of the generic names for the land­ reality." Although it isn't necessary for an invented world to be scape or "secondary world" (Tolkien's term) of high fantasy. governedby laws and causality identical, or even similar, to those its This secondary world, fully as glamorous as various epithets of our primary world, there must be some internal logic at work suggest, is the subject of this essay. However, since there is such in the sub-creator's invention. Tolkien is clear on this point: an .integral connection between "secondary world'' and "high fantasy," this latter term should be examined before going any What really happens is that the story-maker proves a suc­ further into -theformer. cessful "sub-creator." He makes a Secondary World which High fantasy is, in fact, distinguished from low fantasy your mind can enter. Inside it, what he relates is "true": it largely on the basis of setting. Low fantasy (low is a descrip­ is accords with the laws of that world. You therefore believe tive, not evaluative, term here) set in a conventional here and it, while you are, as it were, inside. The moment dis belief now, in our "primary world," to again use a Tolkien term. Low in arises, the spell is broken; the magic, or rather art, bas fantasy is like high fantasy that it contains nonrational phe­ failed. You are then out in the Primary World again, looking 1 nomena, that is, creatures or events that cannot be explained at the little abortive Secondary World from outside. scientifically or rationally according to our norms of what is real. But unlike its opposite number, low fantasy offers no explana­ The secondary world of high fantasy, then, should possess a con­ tions for its nonrational happenings; in fact it cannot, precisely sistent order that is explainable in terms of the supernatural ( i.e., because it is set in the ordinary, primaryworld. In the secondary deities), or in terms of the less definable, but still recognizable, worlds of high fantasy, on the other hand, there are explana­ magical powers of Faerie ( e.g., wizards and enchantresses). tions that are plausible in those other-world settings, explana­ Although of vital importance, verisimilitude is not enough. tions that point to magical ( faery tales) or supern:1tural ( myth­ A secondary world must also c,reate in the reader a feeling of based) causality. Having defined high fantasy in general, we can it "arresting strangeness," a feeling of awe and wonder. Thus, an now begin to understand better by e:\.-ploring, as systematically invented world must be wondrous, or at least extremely inter­ as is feasible without distorting matters, a variety of its secondary esting, as well as credible. The sub-creator must attempt to de­ worlds. pict a world with truly marvelous aspects. The new worldscape 56 The Secondary Worlds of High Fantasy 58 Kenneth J. Zaborski and Robert H. Boyer 59 should also be different from our own. So different, as a matter mote secondary worlds; others have created jtuctaposed primary of fact, that we are allowed to escape for a while from the mun­ and secondary worlds with magical portals serving as gateways dane existence so often experienced in the primary world. Fur­ between them; and still others have created worlds-within­ thermore, we shoulq. be given the opportunity to recover a new worlds. Each 0£ these treabnents deserves examination. and fresh perspective on the primary world (Tolkien's concept Many £antasists choose to ignore the primary world com­ of "Recovery"). And, finally, if everything works exactly right, pletely, introducing readers to their remote secondary worlds we should be able to experience the greatest joy of all, the joy from the outset. Thus, Ursula X. Le Guin's Earthsea, a maritime of Consolation ( i.e., the joy of the happy encl;ng). secondary world of countless islands and vast oceans, has no con­ The creation of such a secondary world is not, as might be nection with our world; there is no portal through which one may expected, an easy task. Tolkien vividly describes the difficulty of pass from one world to the other. The primary world simply the challenge: does not exist-physically or geographically. Spiritually, of course, the two worlds are related, since Le Guin lives in the p1imary To make a Secondary World inside which the green sun world and writes, as do all authors, from her human imagination will be credible, commanding Secondary Belief, will prob­ and experience. As Tolkien explains: ably require labour and thought, and will certainly demand a special skill, a kindof elvish craft. Few attempt such diffi­ Fantasy is made out of the Primary Wor1d, but a good crafts­ cult tasks. But when they are attempted and in any degree man loves his material, and has a knowledge and feeling for accomplished then we have a rare achievement of Art: in­ clay, stone and wood which only the art of making can give. deed narrative art, story-making in its primary and most 2 By the forging of Gram cold iron was revealed; by the mak­ potent mode. ing of Pegasus horses were ennobled; in the Trees of the Sun and Moon root and stock, flowers and fruit are mani­ It is clear from Tolkien's statement that to have any hope of suc­ 5 fested in glory. cessfully practicing the "elvish craft" of world-making an artist must be gifted, industrious, and adventurous. But even the pos­ Authors of high_ fantasy have created a large variety of re­ session of these .rare qualities does not automatically guarantee mote secondary worlds. Most of these worlds, however, can be success. It is a truly mysterious process, this invention of 9ther placed into four broad categories. Our categories do not neatly worlds, and even the master-fantasist, Tolkien, has difficulty try­ pigeonhole all works of high fantasy, but they can help the reader ing to explain it. When he attempts to define the process, he ad­ come to grips with the many typesof invented worlds. mits that the word which most readily comes to mind is "magical," The first category consists of works set in secondary worlds but he resists the temptation to use this term, exp1aining that "Magic should be reserved for the operations of the Magician."3 vaguely defined in terms of their relationship to our world and to our time. While these worlds do bear some resemblance to our He finally settles upon "Enchantment" as the term which best i prmary world, their geographical and chronological settings are describes the "elvish craft" of the fantasist: too nebulous to permit solid identification. This is not to say that Enchantment produces a Secondary World into which both the specific features of the worlds are vague and general. In­ designer and spectator can enter, to the satisfaction of th�� deed, the worlds have their own unique personalities; it is sim­ senses while they are inside; but in its purity it is artistic in ply difficult to place them in the history of the primary world, if that is where they belong. Like faery tales, they are usually desire and purpose.4 set "a long time ago in a far away kingdom," or "once upon a Operating under this artistic Enc11antment, writers of high time, in tbe heart of the country." Into this category we can fantasy have dealt with the secondary world as related to tlie place such works as Patricia McKillip's land of Eld, Peter Beagle's primary world in three different ways. Some have created re- land of the la.st unicorn, Piers Anthony's magical land of Xanth, and Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea. 60 The Secondary Worlds of High Fantasy Kenneth J. Zaborski and Robert H. Boyer 61 The invented worlds of the second category are those clearly earth some hundreds of years after the "'Great Wars," clearly set in the primary world of the very distant past. Their milieu is nuclear holocausts. One of the consequences of the atomic devas­ frequently mythic or legendary in nature. The myth fantasy tation is the appearance of races other than man: dwarves, trnlls, novels_ of Thomas Burnett Swann offer the best collective exam­ gnomes.