The Secret Myths Behind Your Favorite Fantasy Stories

There is an ancient, magical secret that explains why fantasy authors are so good at writing new stories.

Hey guys, it’s Jim Wilbourne, author of The Continua Chronicles, and today I wanted to talk about how the ancient myths and legends of various cultures have influenced the fantasy fiction we read today.

And don’t worry, I’ll give you the answer to that question at the end of this video. But you need a bit of background information first.

There are so many fantastic myths, legends, and stories passed down for hundreds and thousands of years. These stories have been told, retold, modified, updated, and remixed to such a great extent that they may not even resemble the stories as they were first imagined or experienced.

Even though many of them aren’t exactly the same as they were originally told, they’ve remained in our collective consciousness for a reason: they resonate with us in some way. 

It’s difficult to talk about every single individual legend or collection of traditions that have influenced modern fantasy storytelling, but I’d like to talk about three of them. And three different ways these ancient tales appear in our favorite fantasy stories.

In the West, you can’t understate how influential the Bible has been in storytelling. It’s a book filled with stories that are intended to serve as a spiritual guide for the Abrahamic faiths. Many of the stories and teachings of the Bible have informed and influenced the ethics and values of the western world, and because of that influence, it has found its way into our storytelling even today.

The Greek and Norse myths are some of the oldest and most influential bodies of work in the western fantasy canon and are often the easiest to see in our contemporary works. Everything from simple parallels to direct retellings is as prevalent today as they were hundreds of years ago.

Finally, there are many legends derived from China, Japan, India, and other Eastern cultures that have supernatural beings, conflicts of good and evil, and epic battles that we see so often in the fantasy worlds that we journey to today.

Magic and the Supernatural

Fantasy stories create a world in which the rules are different than the rules of our own, often using magic and supernatural elements as their primary appeal. 

The Bible has no shortage of depictions of the supernatural. Angels, demons, miracles, supernatural aid, supernatural destruction, prophets, and many other elements of magic that we see in modern fantasy storytelling can be found in the bible.

A great example of this is The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis where we see angels, talking animals, and even Aslan’s Country—a heavenly realm that serves as an afterlife.

Like the bible, Greek and Norse myths also feature magic and the supernatural. The powers to curse, change the physical world, and accomplish incredible acts of strength are common in these stories like they are in modern fantasy. God-like powers have fascinated humans for as long as we know, and that shows in both our ancient and modern stories.

For example, Thor, the Norse god of thunder, appears in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and many other Norse-based fantasy tales, wielding a powerful hammer and battling against a variety of monsters and villains.

The Eastern canon is full of the supernatural as well. 

The Chinese legend of the Monkey King is a mischievous and powerful being who can shape-shift and wield magical powers. A derivative of the myth appears in the popular manga and anime series, Dragon Ball.

Good vs. Evil

The battle between good and evil is a strong go-to for fantasy storytellers. It’s an endless well of inspiration because we struggle with ethics and morality between societies and within our personal lives every day, and stories are an excellent way to explore both the challenges and solutions to these conflicts in a safe space.

Like many fantasy epics, the bible also chronicles a vast, generation-spanning battle between good and evil. From the grand stories like Sodom and Gomorrah to more intimate stories of morality like the tale of Job. 

Possibly one of the largest influences of the Bible is how the messianic story of Jesus Christ has influenced the hero’s journey and the chosen one trope. The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan is a prime example of a story that depicts a struggle between good and unrelenting evil in a way that mirrors many of the Bible’s descriptions of the conflict, including the chosen one trope. 

Europe’s ancient legends are also engaged with the war of good vs. evil. The large and developed world of the Greek mythos imagined supernatural forces for both good and evil, including heavenly and hellish realms from which those forces may lead their charge.

Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and Olympians series is one of the first that might come to mind when thinking of how these myths have found their way into our modern stories, but also Christopher Paolini’s The Inheritance Cycle does a grand job of building a story that culminates to a final battle where Galbatorix—an excellent parallel for the Titans of Greek lore—battle an analog for the greek gods—the dragon riders.

On the Eastern side of mythology is the Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson. The tale is influenced by Indian and Southeast Asian mythology. Powerful gods, demons, and other supernatural beings, the concept of reincarnation, and the portrayal of the final battle between good and evil as a reflection of the struggle between the gods and the demons in Eastern mythology run deep in the series.

War and Epic Battles

While not all fantasy stories have a focus on war, it’s a common trope to have wars and battles in stories that lean epic in nature. These stories explore political intrigue and conflict between factions of people influenced by religion, birthright, and jealousy.

The biblical story of David and Goliath is one of many timeless battles that are retold time and again. Scott Lynch’s The Lies of Locke Lamora has its Goliath in the Capa Raza, and though he’s outmatched in skill, Locke must defeat him.

Neil Gaiman’s American Gods is a story that’s heavily influenced by mythology, including Ragnarok and the Aesir-Vanir war, pitting groups of gods against each other in an epic conflict.

The Druids in The Chronicles of Shannara share many similarities to the Eight Immortals from Chinese mythology. Like the Eight Immortals, the Druids have unique abilities and play a key role in the battle between good and evil in the series.

While so many of the stories that we read and enjoy today have obvious influences from our ancient myths and legends, some of them aren’t nearly as easy to spot. 

But when you do spot them, it begs the question of whether the storytellers who imagined their stories were simply influenced by the ancient myths or intentionally set out to engage in a retelling.

C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia is an example of storytelling that is directly and unapologetically influenced by the Bible. Robert Jordan, Neil Gaiman, and Rick Riordan are also clearly meant to parallel the stories we’ve been telling ourselves for generations. 

However, many of the examples I’ve given are loose representations of our collective mythos. Is The Lies of Locke Lamora really a David and Goliath story? Can you really say that the Druids in The Chronicles of Shannara represent the Eight Immortals?

Without talking to the authors themselves, we may never have those answers. But because all of our literary works are in constant conversation with each other, it stands to reason that the many tropes and characteristics of modern fantasy stories do have their roots in the past.

Storytellers reanimate and reinvent, spin and embellish—an act of creativity that builds on our common, deeply rooted fears, beliefs, and cultural touchstones to tell a story that hasn’t been told before but isn’t entirely alien.

So what’s the ancient, magical secret to why fantasy authors are so good at writing new stories?

Fantasy authors have a magic spell that lets them dragon up old stories and breathe new fire into them.

But what do you think? What myths and legends have you seen in the fantasy stories that you enjoy? What would you like to see storytellers give a new spin on that you haven’t seen enough of?

Let me know in the comments. I’d love to know what you think and discuss it further with you.

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And until next time, err on the side of awesome.