'Imperial Culture' (non-canonista)

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by combatmedic

There are hundreds of inhabited worlds; surely fantasy and ghost stories are popular on many of them. Ghost stories have been told in pretty much every human culture, for as long as anyone can recall.

Does fantasy require that the audience be assumed to believe the plot impossible? For instance would Beowulf have been a thriller to the original audience and a fantasy to us? Because, if so "as long as anyone can remember" is dubious.