Celtic Themes in Modern Fantasy

““This edited volume aims to open a conversation about fantasy’s multifaceted and enduring fascination with the Celtic past, and its various perceptions” (p. 4).”

“The collection is divided into four sections: the first deals with what is loosely defined as “intrusion fantasy,” in which a Celtic “otherworld” overlaps with our own; section two looks at “worldbuilding” and the way authors use Celtic elements to create a fantasy world; section three has discussion of works in languages other than English; and the fourth and final section looks at how “the fantastic is situated within cultural practices perceived as Celtic” (p. 5).”

“many of the most popular ideas about “Celtic mythology” or “Celtic traditions” actually arose from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.”

“Angela Cox uses Critical discourse analysis to examine the record of a year’s worth of internet discussion by fantasy fans, both readers and writers, in order to get a sense of the way in which fans perceive the role of “Celtic” material in fantasy texts. Her overwhelming finding is that the threads of Celtic material in fantasy are “so strong, consistent and so enmeshed into the very definition of what the fantasy genre is that they become indistinguishable from fantasy genre tropes, and thus functionally invisible to many fantasy readers and even fantasy writers or critics” (p. 196).”

“individual and authentic (for example Irish or Welsh) Celtic elements become invisible because they are associated with fantasy tropes rather than any particular source culture.”

“Fantasy fiction for Silhol, Bergue argues, is “the heir of myth and fairy tale”; “Celtic” folklore is “something ancient, mysterious and deeply concerned with nature” (p. 143).”

“Angela Cox comments on the way that “the fantasy genre has become increasingly marked by the practice known as ‘worldbuilding’ and notes dryly that although the members of the fan community placed value in something grounded in historical or literary material, “what qualifies as ‘research’ has a fairly low bar of admission” (p. 200).”