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The genre has a long and distinguished history, with beginnings in Greek mythology and Roman mythology (famous examples are Homer's Odyssey) and other epics such as Beowulf, and a very strong influence from medieval romance . The legend of King Arthur, with its magic, swordplay, and romance is another clear precursor of contemporary fantasy.
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, much fantasy was published in the same magazines as science fiction (and often written by the same authors). After the great popularity, in the mid-20th century, of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, as well as of C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea series, fantasy writing saw renewed popularity, often influenced by these seminal works and, like them, borrowing from myth, epic, and medieval romance.
Comic fantasy -- especially the works of Terry Pratchett -- should also be mentioned here, which parodies the above ideas as well as ideas outside the genre, in a postmodern manner. This category might also include the so-called 'worst science fiction story ever published' The Eye of Argon.This fiction and its older predecessors in turn gave birth to fantasy role-playing games, probably in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Dungeons & Dragons is arguably the most successful and influential role playing game.
Role playing games in turn spawned more fiction in the genre. Game companies have published fantasy novels set in their own fictional game universes; the Forgotten Realms and Battletech series are some of the more popular.
Similarly, series of novels based on fantasy films and TV series have found their own niche.
See list of fantasy authors for information about individual authors who write in this genre.
Fans of fantasy get together yearly at the World Fantasy Convention. The first was held in 1975 and it has occurred every year since. The convention is held at a different city each year.
Since the rise of popular fantasy fiction in the twentieth century, the fantasy genre has subdivided into a number of branches:
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