The Wizard Ingredient

Magic is prevalent in fantasy fiction; and without it, fantasy does not exist. Mainly, magic is willed in the countless tales and books of fantasy by the likes of wizards, magicians, sorcerers, mages, druids, witches, and other types of characters. Wizard is the name mostly used in fantasy stories for a practitioner of magic (mostly male). Famous wizards in literature, such as Merlin, Gandalf and Harry Potter, have kept the wizard tradition alive and strong.

Traditionally, wizards have been depicted as tall, old and often bearded, in the likes of Merlin (Arthurian legend), Gandalf (Lord of the Rings), Allanon (Shannara Trilogy), and (beardless) Zedd (Wizard’s First Rule). However, the latest popular wizards like Harry Potter, Harry Dresden and Atticus O’Sullivan (The Iron Druid Chronicles) sport entirely more modern images.

Merlin is likely the most famous and most adapted of the wizards, spawned from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s 12^TH century pseudo-history books, Historia Regum Britanniae; and later embellished by poet Robert de Boron, and many others afterward. From the original folklore, Merlin comes into being when an incubus (a demon in male form) impregnates a king’s daughter, which is why he has magic abilities. Robert de Boron’s version of Merlin’s story adds that Merlin’s mother has him baptized at birth, which liberates him from the power of Satan. Later tales formed the Merlin that we are accustomed to today—with him being the wizard advisor to King Arthur.

The wizards of Middle-earth are the Maiar, who were sent into creation by the (angelic) Valar to assist the elves and men of Middle-earth in contending with the dark lord, Sauron. Five wizards were sent, with Saruman the white as their chief. Gandalf the grey and Radagast the brown are the other two wizards that we are familiar with in Tolkien’s four books; but the “Blue Wizards”, Alatar and Pallando, are only mentioned in the Unfinished Tales edited by Christopher Tolkien.

Most other wizards in the genre do not hold such supernatural origins like the ones mentioned above. They’re generally people practicing the craft of magic, or inborn with the gift of it. Harry Potter had to become a student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to learn his magic abilities, even though his parents were wizards, but were killed when he was a baby. Harry Dresden had a wizard for a mother and a magician for a father; and he used his abilities to do his detective work. Kvothe (from the Kingkiller Chronicle) is not your typical wizard, but holds similar abilities, especially in book two when he is caught up in a battle. He learns his abilities at the University with subjects like Sympathy (sympathetic magic), Naming (a type of magic), and Alchemy.

While the old stereotypes of wizards may be fading, there is certainly no lack of creativity in the modern form of the genre for magic users. Whether they’re good, bad or gray, wizards continue to go strong in fantasy; even in the height of Urban Fantasy, in the growth of Flintlock Fantasy, and in their long reign in High/Epic Fantasy.

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Mormon Fantasy Authors

It has been a long discussion and debate over the past several years in regards to the reason(s) of why so many Mormons are successful writers of Science Fiction and Fantasy. It’s even a long discussion among Mormons themselves; many giving their different theories and assertions.

Since this is a blog that mainly focuses on fantasy fiction, I will try not to go too far into other genres of speculative fiction where there are a good portion of Mormon authors; but I would certainly have to bring up the mega success of Stephenie Meyer’s paranormal romance series, The Twilight Saga. I’ve never read the books nor have I seen the films (and probably never will), but I have certainly seen the mania that swept the world for the past several years.  

Orson Scott Card is probably the most successful in the Science Fiction and Fantasy genres when it comes to his awards and accomplishments, starting in the mid-80’s with Ender’s Game—which has finally been made into a movie, and releasing in theaters this November.

Tracy Hickman is well known for his Dragonlance books, collaborating with Margaret Weis, and also has many other works of fantasy that he’s written.

Brandon Sanderson is another best-selling author of fantasy, praised for his Mistborn trilogy, and honored to be the one chosen to complete the ultra-popular Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.  

A Mormon author that is probably the most acclaimed amongst the others that write YA Fantasy is Brandon Mull, with his Fablehaven books, and his latest YA Fantasy series, Beyonders.   

Dave Wolverton is popular for many works in SciFi/Fantasy, as well as a few Star Wars novels; but he is also well-known for his Runelords series, which were published under his pen name, David Farland.

John Brown is the author of Servant of a Dark God, which was published through Tor, and was supposed to be a series, but due to some “differences” in regards to the project, Mr. Brown and Tor mutually terminated the contract. The other two books in The Dark God series will be published independently by Mr. Brown.   

Anne Perry is not a SciFi/Fantasy author, as she is entirely famous for her Victorian-era mystery novels (in which I personally enjoyed a few books in her Thomas Pitt series); however, she wrote two novels, Tathea and Come Armageddon, which were categorized as fantasy, but are really more of religious allegory.

The list of authors above, of course, doesn’t cover all the Mormon writers in genre fiction, but it gives us a view of the success and impression that these folks of the Mormon faith have on speculative fiction. Some say that it is due to their belief in Mormon theology that these Latter-day Saints tend to be drawn to write almost exclusively in speculative fiction—as they explore their beliefs and imaginations through fiction. Others say that it is the close-knit writing community that the Mormons have. Some say it’s both. When reading statements from Orson Scott Card and Brandon Sanderson, as well as other Mormon writers (published and not published), regarding this subject, everyone seems to have their own opinions. I’m not Mormon, so I dare not debate the reasons, but it makes a lot of sense to me that if you have a tight community of people who love genre fiction, and they have a large focus on writing and reading in their schools and universities, then it’s obvious that you will see a lot of writers come out of that circle. Keep in mind that these are authors producing pretty good fiction, and published by major houses; so the classes and writing workshops must be doing something right. There’s also a lot of support within the community. So when you have successful writers teaching, inspiring and supporting aspiring authors in the community, it makes fertile ground for more successful writers to sprout out of.

People say that there is a disproportion of SciFi/Fantasy writers that are of the Mormon faith, but I don’t really agree with that. Sure there are a lot of authors in the genre that are Mormon, but I would not say that they dominate the genre. There are still more authors who do not profess a religion or have a different belief system. The real dominating community in the genre is geeks (people who love fantasy and role-playing games).

The good thing about Mormon authors is that they are moral writers. I feel that the fantasy genre started off in the beginning with stories that encouraged morals. Today, that is missing in the genre, especially with the rise of dark and gritty fantasy and urban fantasy. You can pretty much rest assured that when you pickup a book by Tracy Hickman you’re not going to find scenes of sex or foul language. Even Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series had the main character saving herself for marriage. Imagine if Laurell K Hamilton or Sherrilyn Kenyon had written the Twilight books; Bella would’ve been getting it on with the vampire and the werewolf—at the same time.

That’s the great thing about the fantasy genre: that folks of all walks of life and beliefs can write and read in the genre; and we all can enjoy multiple types of stories according to our tastes. Lovers of fantasy fiction are a community of their own, made up of many types of people.         

The Dwarf Ingredient

Like elves, my introduction to dwarfs was through popular culture; particularly Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and The Hobbit cartoon. The dwarf was my favorite character to play in the Sega video game, Golden Axe—that axe of his was lethal, and his ramming move was so cool. Dwarfs (or dwarves; a spelling made most popular by J.R.R. Tolkien) are the stuff of Norse and Germanic mythology, and have been a key ingredient in high fantasy since Tolkien made them popular in his Middle-earth world.

The classic archetype of dwarves in fantasy is the stocky, long-bearded beings who live in the mountains, smithing and mining; usually keeping to themselves. With the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms novels, the dwarf archetype continues with very little creativity. German writer Markus Heitz tried to give dwarves an interesting spin in his Dwarves series, but nothing entirely unique. But, I have heard of an out-of-print book by Gordon R. Dickson, called The Earth Lords, which is set in the frontier of late 19^TH century Canada, where dwarves enslave humans under the earth, and are plotting to eradicate mankind. This is a stand alone book that sounds like it may be worth reading, just to see what kind of story unfolds with such a concept.

I will name three dwarfs that have stood out to me in fantasy fiction—yet one is really not a dwarf at all. First is Gimli from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. To me, Gimli is not the greatest of characters; however, his relationship with the elf, Legolas, is quite memorable. The dwarves and the elves in Middle-earth have an ancient feud with one another, but Gimli takes a big step to be the first of his kind to befriend an elf—even giving reverence to Lady Galadriel—making him a good character, in the sense of casting aside old prejudices.

Second is Jugar from The Annals of Drakis trilogy by Tracy Hickman. When reading the series, I could not get enough of Jugar. I loved him; even to the end. He was witty, funny, mysterious, and was the igniter and extinguisher of the entire trilogy. I thought Hickman did a superb job in having the reader believe that Jugar was one way, when really he was a whole other person. You have to read the series in order to know what I’m talking about; but, Jugar is a character I continue to think about, even long after reading the books.

Last is Tyrion from A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. Tyrion is not a dwarf, but is a man that was born with dwarfism; like many people in real life. I join the rest of the fans of the series in saying that Tyrion is definitely one of my favorite characters in the books. He is a man that has to hold his own, and keep his wits about him in a world where men and women look down on him, not just in the literal sense, but figuratively as well. He is surely not a saint, but has his moments of being likeable. I think Martin did a fantastic job in putting Tyrion Lannister in his series, shattering the “dwarf” stereotype. I can’t think of the books being anything without him.

In conclusion, dwarves have certainly been overused in the fantasy genre; and are often not fleshed out very much, with the exception of the characters mentioned above. Like I have mentioned regarding other “ingredients” that I have posted about in the fantasy genre, dwarves need to be given a unique overhaul; keeping true to their essence, but going deeper than what has been presented to us thus far.

RELATED POSTS: 
The Dragon Ingredient

The Fairy Ingredient

The Elf Ingredient

The Wizard Ingredient

The Royal Ingredient

The War Ingredient