On the Decline and Rehabilitation of Medieval Fantasy: Part I

Hello everyone! Today, I’m introducing the first of a three-part analysis on the medieval fantasy stereotype, which I know a lot of people have…lets just say strong opinions on. For some, it’s a classic genre – the backbone of modern fantasy, if you will. For others, it’s a tired cliche that needs to be retired ASAP. 

First off, let me just clear my own opinion out of the way. I personally don’t connect with most medieval fantasies, and I tend to agree with the stereotype that medieval fantasy is often cliche. However, this isn’t meant to be a blanket statement encompassing every single medieval fantasy ever written, and it’s certainly not meant as an offense against any readers who write medieval fantasy! Rather, I want to take an in-depth look at why this stereotype has come about, and how we as writers can rehabilitate this genre!

Is Medieval Fantasy Actually Even Medieval?

Well…it’s complicated.

To write good medieval fantasy, I think it’s essential to have a decent understanding of medieval history. Unfortunately, there are a lot of preconceived notions about this era that aren’t good representations of real medieval politics and history, but end up being repeated in medieval fantasy books nonetheless. For example, when most Americans think of the “medieval era,” the image that comes to mind is usually that of stone castles, valiant knights, beautiful princesses, and very old-fashioned Germanic names. While this is a somewhat accurate view of one very limited aspect of medieval history, it by no means represents the massive scope of this era as a whole. For one, the medieval era wasn’t limited to Europe by any means! There were many powerful medieval civilizations in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, who all had wildly different cultures, governments, and aesthetics than our common perception of the medieval era. 

Similarly, you can’t lump all medieval European civilizations together as a singular cultural entity and call that “medieval Europe.” During the high middle ages, Scandinavian soldiers (“Vikings” if you will) served in the Varangian Guard under the Eastern Roman Empire (known today as the Byzantine Empire.) Hungary alternately battled against and allied with the nomadic Turkic Cumans, some of whom eventually converted to Christianity and settled among native Hungarians. Rus princes competed for political clout under the iron-fisted rule of the Mongol Golden Horde, and Italian maritime republics dragged age old rivalries to the Black Sea at the khans’ invitation. In the West, Frankish Kings communicated with the Mongol Ilkhans of Persia in hopes of joining forces in a crusade – an alliance that never came to fruition. In the East, the declining Byzantine Empire deftly played off rising tensions through intrigues and alliances. An Islamic caliphate ruled from what is now Spain, the heir to the Roman Empire ruled from Constantinople (now known as Istanbul, in modern day Turkey,) and Catholic Italians later found themselves caught in the crossfire of a dynastic war between the Islamic khans of the Golden Horde. Marco Polo even found himself all the way in China visiting the Yuan Emperor Kubilai Khan!

These are just a few examples of the huge variety of cultural groups that operated in modern day Europe, but I think you can see where I’m taking this. Our modern perception of the medieval era mostly draws inspiration from the culture and aesthetics of Western Europe, which is really only a tiny fraction of the rich history of medieval Europe – let alone that of the greater medieval world!

*a note on diversity

There’s been a lot of controversy recently about racial representation (or the lack thereof) in medieval fantasy, and how this representation should be depicted in modern works. I think that this is really unfortunate, because there are so many fascinating ways to diversify European medieval inspired fantasy that are actually inspired by real history! Medieval cities (especially around ports or trade centers) could be incredibly ethnically and religiously diverse, while warfare, alliances, and trade along the Silk Route also initiated contact between Europeans and other racial groups (specifically Asian and Middle Eastern peoples.) While I don’t believe that people should be writing diversity to check boxes (because that’s inauthentic,) if you’re writing a medieval fantasy that actually does include settings and societies where these cultural exchanges tend to occur, why not take inspiration from some of the other people groups that medieval Europeans interacted with?

and it’s not just because I really really REALLY want someone to write fantasy Cumans or anything like that…because I think there’s a lot of missed potential for nomadic horse warrior mercenaries with iconic mustachioed battle masks

just sayin’

The “Dark Age” Myth

Our perception of Western Europe has also been tainted by a sort of cultural prejudice towards the past. How many times have you heard that medieval Europeans were so ignorant and backwards that they believed that the earth was flat? Or that they never bathed and stank terribly? How many times have you seen medieval inspired movies portray everyone wearing dull, drab, raggedy shades of black and brown? These are actually all false assumptions, but they’re so commonly repeated that oftentimes we don’t even consider that they might not be true. On the contrary, there were many “modern” technological achievements from this period that go largely unnoticed. For example, did you know that the Byzantine Empire used a form of napalm that scientists and historians still can’t identify or recreate today? Or, that excavations of the Golden Horde capital of Sarai has revealed evidence of ceramic water systems? Speaking of which, Western Europe continued to use the Roman aqueducts even after the Empire fell, and medieval London even had a massive water conduit that supposedly ran with wine (!) for the coronation of Edward I! 

If the popular understanding of medieval European culture and politics is so skewed by preconceived notions, then it goes to say that a good percentage of medieval fantasy is likely also operating on similar misconceptions. And while fantasy obviously doesn’t have to mirror real life, it is very difficult to write an authentic fictional society without a solid understanding of how those civilizations operated in real life. I think that this fundamental lack of research has resulted in a lot of shallow and inauthentic portrayals of what people believe to be “medieval Europe” in fantasy, which has in turn led the genre as a whole to feel stale and cliche.

However, I also think there’s another factor that has lead to the over-saturation of medieval fantasy, and that revolves around the literary inspirations this genre pulls from. Next up, I’ll be discussing the influence of J. R. R. Tolkien on the popularization of medieval fantasy and the need for more literary role-models in Christian fantasy circles! So stay tuned for more, and feel free to comment your thoughts and opinions on what I’ve shared so far!