DETAILS

Title: Quest

Categories:

Fantasy

Speculative Fiction

Location: David Eddings, The Belgariad Trilogy Terry Goodkind, Wizard's First Rule The Dragonlance Series

Pagination: 0

Illustrations: - young protagonist - object of power - sense of isolation and hardship

Document Type: Graffiti

Notes:

Quest tales form a major subcategory of epic fantasy, encomapssing a number of archetypes from traditional and folk literature. The hero (ususally male) endures many hardships and trials while seeking and returning an object of power that will defeat the enemy. Frequently, the quest is a subplot within a greater fantastic tale. The significance of the quest can be seen in a wide variety of tales, from the most basic "Jack and the Beanstalk" story to the complex and layered Arthurian legends of the Holy Grail. Vladimir Propp's work of theory, Morphology of the Folk Tale (1928) is a valuable resource for critical appraisal of the quest theme and other archetypes in fantastic literature. See also: High/Epic fantasy