The Shape of Fantasy

Investigating the Structure of American Heroic Epic Fantasy

Charul Palmer-Patel

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780429581366
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: North American Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

The Shape of Fantasy is an in-depth look at Heroic Epic Fantasy. It depicts structural and narrative patterns with models stemming from science and philosophy. Although Fantasy Fiction is generally defined by its impossibility, Fantasy Fiction not an illogical form. It is, in fact, governed by a sense of rules and structure, one that reflects our current understanding of space-time and cosmology. These models are an integral part of the structure of Heroic Epic Fantasy itself. Thus, this book introduces new ways of perceiving current productions of the Fantasy genre. In doing so, it also explores how Fantasy Fiction exhibits a conscious awareness of its own form.

1 The Shape of a Hero’s Soul

Interrogating the Destiny of the Hero in Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion (2001)

Prophecy or the idea of the ‘destined hero’ are essential motifs in Heroic Epic Fantasy fiction. Customarily, a seer will predict some outcome of the future where a hero will arise who is capable of ‘saving the world.’ As the declaration of a prophecy seems to imply that a hero must live according to their destiny, does this then mean that heroes are incapable of acting of their own free will? Certainly, C. N. Manlove in Modern Fantasy (1975) argues that:

Kingsley, MacDonald, Lewis and Tolkien (and Charles Williams) all limit the free choice of their protagonists in order to get them where they want to go; though the degree to which they do it varies, they are all ‘benign determinists’ who do not allow evil or free will full scope. (260)

Influenced by a Christian theology, Manlove views fate and free will as mutually exclusive terms, taking the stance that a figure of destiny is not a ‘free’ character and that all actions made by the protagonist are determined as a result of fate. In Rhetorics of Fantasy (2008), Farah Mendlesohn likewise asserts that the Fantasy hero is not free due to the motif of prophecy: “Prophecies allow knowledge to be imparted, so that in fact the goal is ‘known’ even though its meaning is not understood […]. The hero does not have free will in a narrative driven by prophecy” (42). While these critics maintain that prophecy and fate limits the free will of the characters, I counter that, while prophecy may motivate or ‘drive’ characters and events in a narrative, the hero’s free will is not limited, and, is, in fact, a crucial component of the Heroic Epic Fantasy structure.

In this chapter, I demonstrate how the genre of Heroic Epic Fantasy effectively combines a paradox of fate and free will in order to create a narrative with open possibilities. I argue that this paradox is an essential part of the genre itself as the author must blend the idea of the destined hero with a free character who is allowed to make choices. I examine this argument through a conception of the hero as a pre-determined shape. Drawing from a tradition of Stoic philosophy, I assert that, while the shape of the hero’s nature is pre-determined, it remains up to the hero’s free will to determine whether to fulfil the functions of their design.

This chapter utilises Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion (2001) as a case study. While other Heroic Epic Fantasy authors also briefly describe the shape of the hero as a vessel, this conception of shape is an essential theme in The Curse of Chalion and I have selected it as a case study accordingly. In The Curse of Chalion, Lady Ista informs the hero Lupe dy Cazaril of the following prophecy: “the gods might draw the curse back to them only through the will of a man who would lay down his life three times for the House of Chalion” (360–361). At this time, neither he or Lady Ista is certain whether Cazaril is the man spoken about in the prophecy, or, indeed, even though they are explicitly told how to break the curse of Chalion, they cannot comprehend how to bring it about. Using the novel as a model of Heroic Epic Fantasy, I demonstrate that in a narrative with prophecy and fate, the hero interacts with these devices through an assertion of free will.

The Hero as Pawn or Avatar

Before we examine the paradox of fate and free will, it is important to note that the hero of a Heroic Epic Fantasy often acts as an agent of a metaphysical entity in the physical world. In his book Lois McMaster Bujold (2015), Edward James argues that: “The centrality of religion in Bujold’s presentation of the world – the action of all three novels is directed at a crucial stage by the intervention of a god – is refreshingly different from the bulk of modern fantasy” (54). However, as I outlined in this introduction, the concept of a higher power that directly impacts on the narrative is an essential part of the structure of the Heroic Epic. Bujold’s text is not notable in this regard but is instead representative of the genre. Inspired by or deriving from Mythology, a presence of divinity or a metaphysical power is seen in both modern and early Epic Fantasy. When a divine presence is explicitly noted in the narrative, an idea of positive and negative dualism may emerge, as the hero’s perception of the god as ‘good’ or ‘evil’ may initially be taken at face value by the reader. Regardless of whether this moral coding is correct, a central structure of Heroic Epic Fantasy is that the hero chooses to align themselves to a higher power and accept or reject a responsibility as their agent.

The idea of fate being an absolute determined future may have come about because of this association between heroes and divinity. In Thomas Carlyle’s evaluation of different types of heroes in On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History (lectures 1835; published 1904), Carlyle suggests that the first phase of hero is where the hero is divine. Such examples would include Heracles in Greek Mythology and Ramayana in Hindu Mythology, where Heracles has divine blood and Ramayana is a god reborn in mortal form. The next phase in Carlyle’s assessment is hero as prophet: “The Hero is not now regarded as a God among his fellowmen; but as one God-inspired, as a Prophet” (42). The hero as prophet is one who is inspired by the words of god and acts or speaks accordingly. This phase leads to the third, of the hero as poet. In Anatomy of Criticism (1957), Northrop Frye likewise describes how the poet is god-touched:

[I]t is clear that the poet who sings about gods is often considered to be singing as one, or an instrument of one. His social function is that of an inspired oracle; […] The poet’s visionary function, his proper work as a poet, is on this plane to reveal the god for whom he speaks. This usually means that he reveals the god’s will in connection with a specific occasion, when he is consulted as an oracle in a state of “enthusiasm” or divine possession. (55)

Frye describes a process where the prophet and poet are one, speaking out loud the words of the gods in a state of “divine possession.” Like Carlyle’s categories of heroes, Frye makes a direct connection between divinity, the prophet, and the poet, through the act of speaking. In Heroic Epic Fantasy Fiction, this connection is often revealed through the device of prophecy and fate.

The word ‘fate’ itself may be connected to the ‘word of god.’ In Religion in Virgil (1935), Cyril Bailey argues that the word fate (fatum):

is connected with the verb fari, “to speak,” and that it is in fact its passive participle, meaning “the spoken word.” […] To Virgil himself it seems to have implied primarily the notion of the “spoken word” of divine beings and in particular of Iuppiter, which was the expression of his will and so of the destiny of mankind. (205)

Thus, accepting fate means accepting the spoken words of the gods. In Virgil’s The Aeneid (19 BCE), ‘fate’ conveys the idea that the action is not something that one wants to do, but it is the best possible action to do at the time. Accordingly, the hero – Virgil in Bailey’s examination or Cazaril in our example of Heroic Epic Fantasy – agrees to become a pawn of the gods and follow the “spoken word” of these divine beings.

The necessity of having a hero as an agent of divinity is imposed by the limitations of the universe where the gods are unable to directly act in the physical world. Many Epic Fantasy writers create an origin story for the setting of their world that is reminiscent of Mythology. Lord Dunsany’s The Gods of Pegāna (1905) is one of the earliest modern Fantasy texts which invents a new pantheon of gods where the chief of the gods Mana-Yood-Sushai creates lesser gods who in turn create humanity. Likewise, in the stand-alone sequel to The Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls (2003), the origin story of the world is depicted as follows:

The world was first and the world was flame, fluid and fearsome. As the flame cooled, matter formed and gained vast strength and endurance, a great globe with fire at its heart. From the fire at the heart of the world slowly grew the World-Soul. […] But the eye cannot see itself, not even the Eye of the World-Soul. So the World-Soul split in two, that it might so perceive itself; and so the Father and the Mother came into being […]. (Paladin of Souls 41)

This creation story in Bujold’s Chalion universe is similar to many Mythologies in that the world and god(s) are created from chaos first and then the created gods or world create humankind in turn. After creating humans, the gods are made to depart the physical plane as James Campbell notes in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949): “The cosmogonic cycle is now to be carried forward, therefore, not by the gods, who have become invisible, but by the heroes, more or less human in character, through whom the world destiny is realized” (271). There is first a ‘Golden Age’ where the gods are visible and actively present, interacting directly with humankind. But, due to a ‘Fall,’ this Golden Age where the gods are on Earth soon passes and the gods leave the Earthly dimension for another one. Following the creation of the world, the gods are not allowed or capable of returning to Earth and must then operate through other means. In The Epic Hero (2000), Dean A. Miller likewise concludes for the Mythological hero that:

Strictly speaking this hero is a representative, even a pawn, of the vast inhuman potencies, and his destiny is constrained (and may be formed) by the whim of divine cosmogonies and supernatural arbitrators. […] The mythological epic and its archetypical thematic elevates the hero, who is made the shadow partner or the earthly avatar of divinity, to an awesome height. (31)

In Mythology, as the gods have become “invisible” (Campbell 271) or are incapable of carrying out these actions on their own, a god must designate a hero as an agent. In Heroic Epic Fantasy, as gods are removed from the physical material world of humans, they must operate through a hero who has allowed a benevolent or malevolent divine force to guide their actions. The Heroic Epic Fantasy hero fulfils the same function as the Mythological hero, as a god’s pawn or avatar, and in doing so, transcends in some way “to an awesome height” (Miller 31) – a notion that will be expanded on further below.

Note that the hero’s position as agent of divinity may be depicted as either pawn, knight, or avatar, dependent on the text. Thus, throughout this book, I use these words not interchangeably, but as the language of the text require it. For instance, Bujold uses this word ‘avatar’ in a ceremonial circumstance, where, in a spring rite, a person is chosen to fill the role of the goddess. This person is in no way actually possessed by the spirit of a god as the ceremony is only representational. Yet this symbolic event foreshadows the conclusion of the novel, when the body of the hero Cazaril does, in fact, become a temporary vessel for the spirit of a god. The use of the word ‘avatar’ is an interesting word choice, as it would derive from the Sanskrit word. In the Hindu Epic Mythologies Ramayana and Mahabharata, the gods literally descend down to earth in mortal forms to correct the evils of the world. In The Curse of Chalion, the gods can only modify blunders in the world by possessing the body of a mortal person; since they are removed from the physical world, they must operate through the body of the hero.

The narration in The Curse of Chalion indicates that the gods are unable to comprehend the physical world, which may be the reason why, in Bujold’s Chalion universe at least, the gods are unable to cross into the physical world:

If the gods saw people’s souls but not their bodies, in mirror to the way people saw bodies but not souls, […] Perhaps heaven was not a place, but merely an angle of view, a vantage, a perspective.

And at the moment of death, we slide through altogether. […] Death ripped a hole between the worlds. (Curse of Chalion 457–458, original emphasis)

A motif of crossing borders occurs here, with very violent imagery indicated in this transgression: “Death ripped a hole between the worlds.” As an agent of the divine, the Heroic Epic Fantasy hero operates as a figure of transgression, of fluidity, in order to cross borders where no human – and not even the gods – can cross. Miller likewise contends that: “Beneath the literary constructions persists a widely accepted common notion of the ‘hero’ as a mediator, a conduit between the living world and whatever nonhuman powers and zones exist” (4). As this book will explore, like the Mythological hero, the ability to cross borders and to act as mediator between humanity and metaphysical forces is a significant role of the Heroic Epic Fantasy hero as well.

In The Curse of Chalion, the prophecy that Cazaril must fulfil involves removing a curse that has affected the land of Chalion. This curse is, in fact, “a drop of the Father’s blood” – a god of Chalion – that was improperly “spilled, soiled” into the physical world of humans (477, 466). Bujold expresses a recurrent motif of spilling, pouring, and fluidity, which seems to indicate a transgression or a crossing of borders and boundaries. As I expand on throughout this book, similar motifs of crossing borders are also apparent in other works of Heroic Epic Fantasy. That only a drop of a god’s blood results in a generational curse across the whole land of Chalion seems indicative of the gods’ inability to cross the boundary into the physical world. As a result, they are only able to influence the physical world through the actions of a hero: “The gods […] worked […] through the world, not in it. […] – men’s free will must open a channel for good or evil to enter waking life” (66). Note that while above Manlove argued that fate does not “allow evil or free will full scope” (260), here the narration indicates that free will allows for the possibility of good or evil. As the gods are removed from the physical world, the Heroic Epic Fantasy hero acts as an agent or a ‘channel’ that allows a metaphysical entity – benevolent or malevolent – to enter into the world.

Does Fate Deny Freedom?

While the gods may not be able to...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction – Defining Heroic Epic Fantasy
• 1 The Shape of a Hero’s Soul: Interrogating the Destiny of the Hero in Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion (2001)
• 2 Forks in the Road: Assessing the Paradoxical Nature of Fixed and Fluid Time in Mercedes Lackey’s The Fairy Godmother (2004)
• 3 Building Layers of Character: Analysing the Construction of the Hero in Robert Jordan’s The Great Hunt (1990)
• 4 The Ou-Hero: Considering the Possibility for the Hero to Become Villain (and Vice Versa) in David Farland’s The Wyrmling Horde (2008)
• 5 The Messianic Hero: Exploring the Hero’s Willing Confrontation with Death in Gail Z. Martin’s The Summoner (2007)
• 6 Breaking into Fantasyland: Investigating How Fracturing and Entropy Motivates the Plot in Terry Goodkind’s Stone of Tears (1995)
• 7 The Hero as Portal: Examining the Hero’s Role as Reversal of Entropy in James Clemens’ Shadowfall (2006)
• 8 Perfect Epic Empires: Appraising Cycles of Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Brandon Sanderson’s Hero of Ages (2008)
• 9 Chaotic Cycles: Evaluating Patterns Within and Between Sequel Series in David and Leigh Eddings’ The Seeress of Kell (1991)
• Afterword – Probing the Potentials of the Heroic Epic Pattern with a Brief Look at Anne McCaffrey’s All the Weyrs of Pern (1991)
• Index