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Though the fantasy genre in its modern sense is less
than two centuries old, its antecedents have a long and
distinguished history.
Elements of the supernatural and
the fantastic were an element of literature from its
beginning.
The hallmarks that distinguish the modern
genre from tales that merely contain fantastic elements
are the logic of the fantasy workings, the acknowledged
fictitious nature of the work, and the authorship of the
elements, rather than their source in folklore.
Works in which the marvels were not necessarily
believed, or only half-believed, such as the European
romances of chivalry and the tales of the Arabian
Nights, slowly evolved into works that showed these
traits.
Such authors as George MacDonald created
explicitly fantastic works.
The publication of The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien created an enormous influence on the writing of
the field, establishing the form of epic fantasy and
also did much to establish the genre of fantasy as
commercially distinct and viable.
History of fantasy
Differences between fantasy and earlier fantastic works
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