High Fantasy

High fantasy, also called epic fantasy (and, derisively, elfy-welfy fantasy), is a sub-genre of fantasy, defined either by its setting in an imaginary world or by the epic stature of its characters and plot.

Marshall Tymn, Kenneth Zahorski and Robert H. Boyer distinguished between high fantasy, set in a fully realized secondary world, and low fantasy, which features supernatural intrusions into our own world.

Quintessential works of high fantasy, such as J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time, are epics set in fully-realized worlds.

• Epic Fantasy entry in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy.
• High Fantasy entry in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy.

See also: Fantasy, Heroic Fantasy, Classification of Fantasy, Tolkien Imitators.

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