For quite a while now, there has been constant discussion
regarding the difference between High Fantasy and Epic Fantasy. Most have
concluded that the two are interchangeable, and that there’s not much difference
between the two. High Fantasy is not a term that a lot of fantasy authors use
these days to describe what they write. Most subgenre terms used today are Epic
Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Historical Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Grim-Dark, YA
Fantasy, or just plain Fantasy. High Fantasy has kind of fallen out of term,
and has likely evolved into the term Epic Fantasy, which is why the two terms
are considered to be interchangeable.
I’m not completely sold on the two terms being the same.
I agree that High Fantasy is a work of fiction set in a secondary world filled
with a riot of fantasy races—like elves, dwarves, dragons, gnomes, and so on.
The setting is mostly based on the medieval period, populated with a character
or more bound on a task or adventure. Examples are: The Hobbit, Dragonlance
and Forgotten Realms novels.
Epic Fantasy takes the High Fantasy elements and ramps up
the magnitude of the story. The stakes are greater; the land/world is in peril;
the conflict shakes all who dwell in the world of the story. J.R.R. Tolkien
took his High Fantasy world of Middle-earth (introduced in The Hobbit) and composed it masterfully into a long epic: The Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings is Epic Fantasy,
and really the first of its kind in modern fiction, setting the mold for
High/Epic Fantasy up to today. Just as Leo Tolstoy’s novel, War and Peace, took historical fiction
to an epic scale, Epic Fantasy is that transformation of High Fantasy into epic
proportions; usually a long story, stretched out over multiple volumes and
building a host of characters within an ongoing conflict.
Epic Fantasy does not have to keep the exact identity of
what High Fantasy is. It still dwells in a secondary world; however, one is not
bound to only use the medieval setting, nor use the many different fantasy
races often found in High Fantasy. Works like the Wheel of Time series and the first Shannara trilogy are epic fantasies that followed in the same vein
as the Lord of the Rings. But Epic Fantasy does not have to stay in that
fashion.
Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn
trilogy is Epic Fantasy and has the medieval setting, but does not have
“sorcery” or “magic” so to speak, but abilities (powers). And there are no
fantastical creatures, at least not like we’re used to seeing, as all the
different kinds of beings in the story are of humans. George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series is epic,
and, though it has dragons in it, and even giants, you will not find very many
High Fantasy components within the story, as they are toned down around a host
of characters in a dark medieval setting, but still very much fantasy in many
ways.
Thanks to the likes of the new Flintlock Fantasy, works
like Brent Weeks Lightbringer series,
Brian McClellan’s Powder Mage
trilogy, and Django Wexler’s Shadow
Campaigns series, Epic Fantasy does not have to dwell in a secondary world
based only on a medieval setting.
So, to sum it up, High Fantasy can be Epic Fantasy, but it is not always. And Epic Fantasy does not necessarily have to have all the elements that make up High Fantasy. But, these two terms are closely related—not interchangeable—but near-identical siblings.
RELATED POSTS:
The Secondary World
Inspirations of Fantasy
Epic Worldbuilding
Epic Characters
