Slavic fantasy
Fantasy genre drawing on Slavic folklore and mythology.
Slavic fantasy is a sub-genre of contemporary art that emerged in the late 1990s and early 2000s, incorporating Slavic folklore, legends, bylinas, and myths into the general canons of fantasy literature. Its genre boundaries remain indistinct, and it exists both within Russia and beyond, notably in Polish works such as The Witcher series.
Quick Facts
- Emerged
- late 1990s and early 2000s
- Prominent author
- Maria Semyonova
- Major non-russian example
- The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski
Facts from the source article.
History
Slavic fantasy grew in opposition to Western fantasy rooted in Celtic and Norse mythology, though its literary tradition emerged over a century ago. Russian folktales and medieval tales of Bovo Korolevich and Yeruslan Lazarevich are sometimes cited as origins, though these were adapted translations of Chivalric romances and the Iranian epic Shahnameh. Eighteenth-century writers Mikhail Popov, Mikhail Chulkov, and Vasily Lyovshin produced fantastic works about Russian Bogatyrs filled with Slavic mythology and Russian history, but these reinterpreted Western court literature and are considered predecessors to Pushkin's poem Ruslan and Lyudmila. In Polish literature, Józef Ignacy Kraszewski's An Ancient Tale and Władysław Orkan's Drzewiej are important precursors. Gogol's Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka and Alexander Veltman's novels The Immortal Koschey and Svyatoslavovich, Nursling of the Devil also fit the framework. Yuri Nikitin founded modern Slavic fantasy with his series The Three from the Forest, and Maria Semyonova wrote the Wolfhound series. Some Russian-speaking writers draw on Norse mythology, while English-speaking writers like Carolyn Cherryh use Old Russian pagan folklore. Slavic fantasy motifs appear in Anton Vilgotsky's novel Shepherd of the Dead. Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher series and the Kajko i Kokosz comic book series are Polish examples.
Classification
Scholars have proposed different ways to categorize Slavic fantasy. Elena Safron, using a system derived from Mosis Kagan's work, identifies types based on plot and theme (epic and romantic), time period (historical), values (heroic and comedic), and mixed forms that include outside genre elements. Evgeny Gartsevich narrows it to historical and heroic subgroups, while Sergei and Zhanna Zhuravlev add comedic as a third trend. Examples include Yuri Nikitin's series The Three, which contains comic elements, and Sergei Fomichev's Meshchersky Magi series. Elizaveta Dvoretskaya's Princes of the Forest cycle centers on divine and earthly love. Historical fantasy, a subgenre blending historical novel elements, begins with Maria Semyonova's Wolfhound, a five-book series that inspired the World of the Wolfhound series by authors like Pavel Molytvin, Andrey Martyanov, Alexey Semyonov, and Elena Khaetskaya. Dvoretskaya also merges historical fiction with Slavic fantasy in her Princes of the Forest novels. Other works in historical Slavic fantasy include Olga Grigorieva's The Sorcerer, Berserk, and Ladoga, as well as Sergei Shvedov's Rogue Bear.
More in Slavic Mythology in Popular Culture
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced