October is my favorite month, mostly because of the holiday that takes place at the end of it. I am from the United States, so Halloween is a pretty big deal here. It’s the largest holiday, second only to Christmas as far as the percentage of people who decorate their homes and spend money is concerned. However, Halloween isn’t just about dressing up in costumes and going door to door threatening tricks in return for treats. It’s the first real month of fall. If you live in Ohio, as I do, then this is the month when the leaves truly begin to change. The air is crisp and usually smells of bonfires and hay. Cider and caramel apples abound, and carved pumpkins, lit with candles, flicker on porches. It’s the season when nature makes ready for the hibernation of winter, going out with a burst of red, orange and yellow style.
But above all of this, my favorite part of October and Halloween are the scary stories. Being a reader, I love absorbing these tales while curled up alone in bed, or listening to them told around a crackling bonfire at night. As a writer, being able to scare myself is always promising, and scaring others is equally fun.
Earlier this morning, my fiancé and I were attempting to make a list of fantasy stories, the ones that would fit into the sword and sorcery motif, but were scary. We couldn’t think of any. This isn’t to say that they don’t exist out there somewhere. I’ve just never seen anything of the sort. So, this led me to investigate a question:
Where are all the scary stories in fantasy?
We know that there are many stories that exist that someone could tie to the genre. You have your typical ghost story, or supernatural thriller. You have the favorite Halloween tropes: witches, vampires, zombies, werewolves, demons, Frankenstein, mummies, and so on. You even have the less popular baddies: the bogyman, doppelgangers, the creature from the black lagoon, and the newly discovered Slender Man. Click here for a link to an artist’s re-creation of this intriguing new creature, and here for some of Slender Man’s story.
All of these are great examples of frightening, fantastical creatures. Yet, these creatures exist within another genre altogether: gothic horror (sometimes referred to as the “weird tale”). This genre can encompass all of the above mentioned entities, but where do you draw the line between gothic horror and fantasy? Or could one make the argument that gothic horror in itself is a subgenre of fantasy?
A Google search of the terms “scary sword and sorcery” and “sword and sorcery horror” provided no results, save for mentioning how some stories, such as Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings series has certain horror elements within them. But, generally, one doesn’t watch The Lord of the Rings trilogy looking for a quick scare (you’re not looking for anything quick when it comes to Tolkien). Other than this small mention, the internet didn’t have much light to shed on the issue.
Reading any genre of story, it’s easy to see how horror can be weaved in. But when you boil fantasy down to medieval knights and wizards, there doesn’t seem to be any story of the kind that would terrify you like a ghost story might.
This begs the next question: Can sword and sorcery fantasy be truly frightening? Can it have the same effect on you as The Exorcist did on viewers in the 70s? Or is that sort of gut emotion not possible with the genre? When it comes to things that scare us, most people find fear in those ideas that hit closest to home, or things that could possibly happen to them, like being killed or tortured. For someone afraid of death, the idea of seeing a ghost can be terrifying. Another person could be horrified at the idea of demons possessing them, especially if they have a religious background. Is the realism of the situation the thing that provides an opportunity for fear? Is it because we know that mummies could never rise, or that men could never turn to werewolves that keeps those things from truly haunting us?
Leave your thoughts in the comments! Oh, and Happy Halloween from Ohio!
Richard Marpole
Jennie Ivins
Hi Rachel,
Good article! My observation of Horror as a genre is that it is at its scariest when we can place ourselves in the characters position and believe in what is happening. The Shining for example, Poltergeist, Friday 13th and Halloween (before they got silly) ‘could’ happen to any one of us at anytime.
The problem with fantasy is that you are usually in another World. Therefore, right away you know it could never happen to you this way, right? The physics of this World are different to the one you are reading and therefore you are safe.
That said, I did ask about this at FantasyCon last year and the authors told me that Tim Lebbon (I’ve never read his stuff – although I own Echo city) has actually written a fair amount of horror/fantasy crossovers.
As you say though – it is certainly rare!
Hi Rachel,
Can sword and sorcery be scary? Probably not. But if your definition of each genre is elastic, there are a few excellent books that marry Fantasy and Horror. Song of Kali by Dan Simmons and Peace by Gene Wolfe lurch to mind.
Without a single ax-wielding barbarian, Song of Kali won the 1986 World Fantasy Award. This is an antidote to Travel Fiction where spoiled westerners visit wretchedly poor countries to return home upbeat and enlightened. Simmons’ Calcutta is seriously creepy and leaves the protagonist spiritually broken. Like all the best Horror, it has an ambiguity that make you question whether anything is really happening at all.
Peace is similarly ambiguous. This deeply weird book has shades of Faulkner and Kafka and begins in utter banality, watching a semi-senile old man potter away his final years. By the time you finish, you’re doubting not just the narrator but the fundamental reality of the world.
Neither book of course is straight Fantasy, but they’re certainly not straight Horror either. This is where an overly strict demarcation of genre ceases to be helpful. Both were written early the authors’ career, and each author went on to write a seminal Fantasy series- the Hyperion Cantos and The Book of the New Sun respectively For the reasons you suggest, generally Fantasy and Horror are ill-suited but I suspect hybrids like Peace and Kali are rare because of economics also; it’s telling that both were written before Horror’s decline in popularity and sales in the early 90s.
Happy Halloween!
Hi Rachael,
Interesting article! I’m not sure fantasy can be truly horror as a general observation, but there certainly can be frightening elements in fantasy novels. There are plenty of fantasy creatures that strike terror into the hearts of those who face them. What about Shelob in Lord of the Rings? Personally I have a fear of spiders, so the idea of a giant one is the stuff of nightmares for me. That part of the movie was like a horror film. Even the beginning of G.R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, the scene with the Others, had a terrifying element. I’m not sure I’d pick up a fantasy novel if I wanted to read something scary, but I do like the dark elements when they’re present.
George RR Martin has written lots of horror including fantasy and sci fi horror hybrids. Sand Kings is still prob the most terrifying novella I have ever read. King does both horror and fantasy. Feist has done a horror novel. Sure there are plenty more!
CJ Cherryh’s Rusalka fits the bill. So does most of Tanith Lee’s work. There is also a YA author who wrote about a metal or mechanical unicorn who had a good, fat dose of horror in her stuff. All of these are excellent.
[…] 2. http://fantasy-faction.com/2012/frightening-fantasy […]
One problem with fantasy and horror is that in fantasy stories we consider the supernatural and big dngerous monsters as normal and not something extraordinary. In a fantasy setting, the appearance of a monster is not a break in the normal rules by which the work is supposed to work.
I somewhere read the quote “Fairy Tales don’t tell children that monsters exist. Children already know that monsters exist. Fairy Tales tell children that the monsters can be killed.”
In fantasy stories, there can’t be anything truly “unnatural”. Horror like done by Lovecraft for example relies entirely on the normal rules of our world being violated and brushed aside. That is something that can’t be replicated in a true fantasy setting. Fantasy horror needs to be approached differently. “Situational horror”, like being trapped in the dark with a beast, would have much better prospects than “existential horror”.