Dungeon Fantasy: Beastmen

[demonsbane]

I don't agree, Vitruvian, by the simple reason the works of these authors aren't really traditional fantasy. Their works have very little to do with the earlier and different imaginatio vera -the source and root of traditional fantasy.

What do you regard as my interpretation of Kabbalah, isn't. In no moment I spoke about a "fictional" development of that doctrine, instead speaking exclusively about real world data. On the other hand, fictional treatments of Kabbalah for these and many other authors, including poets and what not -it is an abused theme-, can't be regarded more than as their own artifacts. What concerns these authors is fiction, not fabulisimilitude.

Moorcock isn't fantasy for me, but iconoclastic modern philosophy and science fiction in low TLs with swords and elementals around, really. Nor even his artifacts of "Law" and "Chaos" make really but partial sense, and they don't match with traditional fantasy very well. The same about most of the other authors & works quoted. Moorcock, along with Zelazny and others, are today regarded "Classics" of science fiction, fantasy, sword and sorcery, etc . . . But that quality of "classic" doesn't means traditional, implying this a continuation of something earlier than all these authors. Nor even Robert E. Howard with Conan fits entirely traditional fantasy. These authors tried to draw from the root, but their results are distorted in some different ways. Not all is useless, however, but the anti-fantastic elements portrayed can't be ignored.

Mainly, only the work of Tolkien was traditional fantasy, and some other minor works -including some you are quoting- share some of that in varying degrees, mostly in inconsistent ways, and not being able to be truly representative of the thing I'm speaking of.

In the measure Dungeon Fantasy incorporates elements from there along with many others coming more or less directly from myths and folklore and other sources -only in that measure- it shares traits of traditional fantasy as one of its "partial" developments.