127
votes
Accepted
When and why did orcs go green?
Okay, I really didn't intend to end up answering my own question, but this really piqued my curiosity so I dug into it.
The answer - weirdly - may actually be Spider-Man.
There does not seem to be ...
- 5,771
61
votes
Accepted
What was the first fantasy world/universe without real-world ties?
1884: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, a novel by Edwin Abbott Abbott writing as "A Square", available at Project Gutenberg.
Wikipedia plot summary:
The story describes a two-...
- 171k
61
votes
What is the earliest instance of "Dark Elves" in modern Fantasy?
The origin of the dark elf / light elf trope can be traced back as far as the 13th century, where Dökkálfar (dark elves)and Ljósálfar (light elves) are mentioned in the Prose (or Young) Edda by Snorri ...
- 21.1k
55
votes
Accepted
What is the origin of the “clerics can create water” trope?
A lot of cleric spells in early D&D were explicit Bible references; the one that comes immediately to mind is Sticks to Snakes, which is based on Exodus 7:12 (thanks to @RossThompson for this ...
- 1,049
53
votes
Accepted
What is the earliest instance of "Dark Elves" in modern Fantasy?
The first example of the "dark elves" as a distinct dark-skinned, subterranean, evil sub-race of elves may actually be their appearance in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. Prior to that, "dark elf" ...
- 102k
44
votes
When and why did orcs go green?
Wikipedia states that some Orc traits, notably their green(ish) skin color were later additions to the Orc archetype that was established by Tolkien.
Edit: to prevent misinterpretation, I did not ...
- 9,047
44
votes
In terms of word count, what is the longest published SFF universe?
Perry Rhodan - 93 million (approximately)
Here is a press release regarding the 60 year anniversary of the German weekly pulp series Perry Rhodan: https://perry-rhodan.net/presse/zahlen-zum-gr%C3%B6%...
- 19.4k
43
votes
What was the first story to feature the plot "the monsters were human all along"?
I Am Legend (1954), by Richard Matheson.
At the end of the novel:
- 6,825
39
votes
Accepted
Is Narnia high or low fantasy?
As pointed out in the comments to this question, there can't be a definitive answer because genres are a fluid thing. I wasn't aware that some commentators regard the idea of a link between the real ...
- 7,729
36
votes
Accepted
Is there special symbolism of evil and undead in the north?
Your examples are different.
The North - in our Northern hemisphere setting - is colder, and cold symbolizes death in a lot of our cultures, simply because winter means death :
People becomes sick ...
- 1,224
25
votes
Which Sci-Fi or Fantasy work introduced the idea of "Infinite Time Loop"?
Being stuck in an infinite time loop is the original normal. Indigenous cosmologies tend to have time itself as a regenerating cycle, and indigenous people often relate to their current existence as ...
- 4,316
19
votes
Which Sci-Fi or Fantasy work introduced the idea of "Infinite Time Loop"?
The SF Encyclopedia lists a 1932 fantasy-comic "The Prince's Birthday Present" as one of the earliest examples.
Note that the canonical physics-version of this, the "closed time-like ...
- 8,972
19
votes
Accepted
In terms of word count, what is the longest published SFF universe?
Star Wars - 129(ish) million
This includes 79 million in adult novels and novelisations (split into 70 million in Legends / 9 million in Canon) plus 50 million from in-universe factbooks. Taking ...
- 718k
16
votes
What was the first story to feature the plot "the monsters were human all along"?
I do not know which story was the first, but I do know of a story decades earlier than the examples in the question that made a big impression on me, a short story by Lord Dunsany.
The story is "...
- 43k
16
votes
What was the first story to feature the plot "the monsters were human all along"?
This is the woman who lives in the house … a woman about to face
terror, which is even now coming at her from - The Twilight Zone.
The Invaders - The Twilight Zone S02E15 (1961)
A woman hears ...
- 5,498
15
votes
What is the earliest movie/TV show with a sex changing character
The 1940 film Turnabout-- an adaptation of a 1931 novel by Thorne Smith-- comes to mind. From the synopsis:
Tim (John Hubbard) and Sally Willows (Carole Landis) are unhappily
married. Tim spends his ...
- 40k
14
votes
What was the first fantasy world/universe without real-world ties?
Edmund Spencer’s Fairie Queene, set in a magical “Fairie Land”, was published in 1590.
Though the setting is an allegorical representation of England, within the work’s fiction it is its own magical ...
14
votes
What was the first story to feature the plot "the monsters were human all along"?
Scooby-Doo (1969) is a good contender.
Most episodes follow exactly the plot you describe:
Some crime or shenanigans is afoot (though as a kid's cartoon there isn't egregious violence)
Some monster ...
- 11.3k
13
votes
Accepted
What work contained the first mushroom trees?
Jules Verne's Voyage au centre de la Terre or, Journey to the Centre of the Earth (1864) had a forest of enormous mushrooms as a feature of the interior landscape of the Earth.
I hastened forward. I ...
- 8,438
12
votes
Accepted
Did C.S. Lewis create the lamp-post in response to a comment by J.R.R. Tolkien?
J.R.R. Tolkien said that no good fantasy would have ELECTRIC lamps in it. You can read this in his essay On Fairy-Stories, available in PDF form here:
The electric street-lamp may indeed be ignored,...
- 136
12
votes
Accepted
First Chinese story with a flying sword
It is hard to trace back the very first flying sword in Chinese mythology or literary history, but I might try to give a list of what I could find.
In Chinese characters, "flying sword" is ...
- 2,034
11
votes
Which Sci-Fi or Fantasy work introduced the idea of "Infinite Time Loop"?
I've found a short story titled "Doubled and Redoubled" by Malcom Jameson published on 1 February 1941. PDF here if you're interested
- 1,654
11
votes
Accepted
When did an overlap in readership of both Sci-Fi and Fantasy first become recognized by publishers?
There was not really any period in the development of modern science fiction and fantasy writing in which the two were sharply distinguished. It appears that there was always presumed to be a ...
- 102k
10
votes
Which Sci-Fi or Fantasy work introduced the idea of "Infinite Time Loop"?
The earliest stories I've ever encountered are both by Robert A. Heinlein, All You Zombies and By His Bootstraps. BHB (October 1941) predates AYZ (March 1959).
- 8,379
10
votes
Spinning Silver: the first Jewish protagonist in fantasy?
No
To start with, the numbers are simply against this. By some estimates, as many as 1 million books are published in the US alone each year (here's some outdated numbers). Most of those are not ...
- 119k
10
votes
Do the makers of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle consider the film to be science fiction or fantasy?
The film, although containing some slight elements of science fiction (the characters, for example enter a fantasy world via a framing story involving a magical games console) was marketed exclusively ...
- 718k
10
votes
Accepted
What was the first story to feature the plot "the monsters were human all along"?
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1820), in which Ichabod is frightened by a headless horseman, is a good candidate.
From Wikipedia:
Although the true nature of both the Headless Horseman and Ichabod's ...
- 216
9
votes
Why is decay a common theme in fantasy?
There is a fundamental cultural reason for this, and the idea that The Past was more magical than the present goes back to the very earliest fantastical stories.
As Mark Olson points out, it is an ...
- 102k
8
votes
Accepted
When was the fantasy trope of psychological invisibility first used?
@eike seems to be correct, that the first mention of psychological invisibility is in G.K. Chesterton's short story, "The Invisible Man", published in 1911.
It is predicated on the notion ...
- 19.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible