page_title: Early history of fantasy
section_title: Medieval Europe
hierarchical_section_title: Early history of fantasy / Medieval Europe
context_page_description: Elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were an element of literature from its beginning, though the idea of a distinct genre, in the modern sense, is less than two centuries old.
  The parallel article History of fantasy deals mainly with fantasy literature in the English language. The history of French fantasy is covered in greater detail under Fantastique.
context_section_description: Medieval European sources of fantasy occurred primarily in epic poetry and in the Fornaldarsagas, Norse and Icelandic sagas, both of which are based on ancient oral tradition.  The influence of these works on the German Romantics, as well as William Morris, and J. R. R. Tolkien means that their influence on later fantasy has been large.
caption: Thor's Fight with the Giants, by Mårten Eskil Winge, 1872
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