This little message just sort of reached out and grabbed me...and I just felt compelled to share it with everyone...and maybe get some feedback on your own thoughts and ideas about the whole concept of ~Midieval Fantasy~


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Medieval...Fantasy....what is it about them that entrigues us? What is it about them that fills us with wonder, amazement, excitement....passion? Never has there been a person full of more passion than one that was enchanted by fantasy. Never has there been a person enchanted by fantasy that wasn't full of passion...for life..for love.

"We are the dreamers of dreams" and fantasy is the stuff dreams are made of. Or rather...dreams are the things fantasy is made of. Just as Bastian learned, every dream and wish a person makes helps to form Fantasia. The possibilities are limitless. Anything your mind can dream up it can be so.

And medieval...what better time for a true romantic? Chilvalry....courtly love. Who doesn't love the knight in shining armour coming to save his princess and everyone living happily ever after?

What about the action? The knight slaying the dragon and becoming hero and savior of the realm?

What child doesn't love to hear fairy tales and the legend and stories of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table or Robin Hood and his Merry Men robbing the rich and giving to the poor?

It captures a part of us that many of us lose after childhood...the wonder...the imagination. But, those of us who retain this quality after our childhood are only better for it. More passionate. More alive.

I like to think it gives me wings.
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written by Jana
http://www.janasrealm.com

Ahhhhhhh ..... ~ sighing ~

Medieval fantasy .... Good one Char!!!

It does indeed seem to capture a better part the parts of us as humans.
A part of us that for what ever reason .... we seem to hide away as something beneath our dignity!!

I feel the essence of Medieval Fantasy is represented by honor, hearts that are brave and true!!!
Of a kind of gentle nobility ... a quiet strength that for what ever reason .... we hide away in the light of day ... where it seems unacceptable, here in the real world!!
We treat it as something too soft for us .... and too romantic.
As though that were a bad thing!!!
Too graceful ....as though “gentle grace” ... or a soft hand were something to shun!!

What woman doesn’t dream of being rescued by her brave knight???
What man ... deep in his heart ... doesn’t want to be Lancelot??

I’ll never be afraid to admit to being a dreamer of dreams ... of longing for that “Happy Ever After” Faery Tale come true!!

Thank you for sharing this with us Char ... it’s definitely the stuff my dreams are made of!!

Yup!! me too Dove!!...all my life I think I've dreamed the midieval fantasy dreams. Something about the night in shining armor...and the beautiful maiden being rescued from a tower..or a dragon or something...

I dunno...is there any reality to the fantasy??? Are the sweet maidens and honorable nights of chivalry really out there??...Or could it be that we are only drawn to it all because they truly don't exhist....?

lol...all through school my teachers made comments in my file that I daydreamed too much in class...oh well...just how fun is it to have your feet planted firmly on the ground and your head out of the clouds??

If you like that....
Some of the best (and worst) bits from this "genre"

Lord of the Rings (has to be here)
Hamlet (Well, it is fantasy... there's a ghost!)
Mort. (Terry Pratchett)
HP Lovecrafts "DreamQuests" - A series of books set in a world seperated from us by our dreams. The scarierst medievil world around.
DragonLance. (The first trillogy. No more After this they were just poor cash in novels)

Do not read:
Anything by RA Salvatorie (er... good books, but not your style)
Anything I wrote that I may try to fob of on you.
And never watch "Hawk the Slayer" while sober.

Pssssssst.
Don't tell anyone, but I read Medieval Fantasy.
I love them!!!!
My bookshelves overflow with them!!
What's even worse, I attempt to write it!!
Why???
Well very simply ... because selfishly .....
I want the wonderful characters I read about in other tales .... to behave according to how I think they would!!
And I want to have the ending to MY liking!!!

Of course ....
Here’s me thinking that the more apt description should be ....
“Medieval Fantasy / Romance!!!!

You know ....
Romance is defined as a prose narrative, based on legend, chivalric love treating imaginary characters involved in events remote in time or place and usually heroic, adventurous or mysterious.

Add that to Medieval Fantasy and Hey!!!!!
Holy cow, what's not to appeal?

Mysticism and magic, castles and courtly love, knights and noble ladies . . . The pages of a medieval romance are filled with the fantasy elements of fairy tales.
Medievals tap into our childhood dreams of life as a prince or princess, Growing up in a castle with our every whim provided for, right down to our very own horse!!! ... LOL

The landscape of the medieval is so richly different from our own, the modern reader can't help but become lost in the fantasy world.
The stories perfect the escapist element that appeals to romance readers.
As for adventurous ....
The medieval romance couldn't ask for more fertile fields.
There are quests and battles, jousts and tournaments.
Every now and then the adventure extends to the Otherworldly, offering modern readers a brush with the magic and mysticism that permeate Arthurian tales.
Strange old wise women, herbalists, healers and seers often flit through the pages of a medieval, lending to the magical tone, as do enchanted objects or cursed characters.
These devices raise the level of the medieval adventure to mythic, larger-than-life proportions.

And what about the heroes?
One of the reasons medievals have such allure for readers is the wealth of possibility for the hero!!
As a knight, a hero can encompass all the "mad, bad and dangerous!!
LOL ...
In real life .... we may want a caring, sensitive, modern man .....
But we want a swaggering, rough-hewn, mythic man in our books!!

The medieval knight who is raised apart from his mother, in the household of a knight who will teach him to be ruthless and battle ready.
By the time the heroine gets to him he is all warrior!!!
A supreme challenge for the persuasive power of romance!!!
~sighs~

Medieval Fantasy Romance ????
It’s all about our secret desires and fantasies.
It’s all about escaping the dull by comparison, world of reality, we’re forced to endure everyday.
It’s about stepping out of the roles we have all somehow come to accept.

It’s plain and simply what I spend far too many hours escaping into!!!
By golly ......
Give Me More!!!