Who’s On First
“Does it have any sports?’ Fred Savage asks. That, I think, is the question for the day, and on roughly the same topic: Sports in fantasy.
Fantasy is not the genre in which you expect to encounter sports and games. And yet it shows up, even beyond fencing and fighting. Of course those are the two big ones. Wrestling makes an appearance surprisingly often. One of the heroes squares off with the local champion in the castle/village/barracks/whatever. Or a dispute is decided. The Worm Ouroboros provides a good example.
As the film A Knight’s Tale illustrates, jousting serves as a spectator sport analog. Medieval based epic fantasies provide a showcase for jousting scenes, continuing a tradition stretching back to Thomas Malory and beyond. G.R.R. Martin has you covered for a (relatively) recent example.
But what about non-combat sports? The Lord of the Rings mentions in passing hobbits’ love of quoits and other games of the aiming and throwing variety. Books playing with Irish mythology often include hurling. Then there’s quidditch. You can have it; it never made a great deal of sense to me as a coherent sport, but then it doesn’t have to. Others enjoy it. I understand there are even quidditch leagues, so someone has been able to piece together a playable sport out of it. (Speaking of turning fictional sports into real-life contests — and at the risk of going off topic by mentioning post-apocalyptic fiction — jugger, the game played in the Rutger Hauer film Blood of Heroes, has spawned leagues worldwide, playing versions of varying degrees of authenticity and violence.)
I suppose I ought to mention the tangentially related Blood Bowl, which I’ve never had the chance to play but looks like fun. Does Car Wars count? What to you is the most memorable appearance of sport in fantasy fiction? And, while we’re on the topic, may I suggest that some publisher put together an anthology on the theme? I’d read it. Hell, I’d submit something.
Anyway, that’s all the time I have today for rambling on. The project I have in progress demands my attention (and is likely to do so for the rest of the year at least.) If you’d like to read something I’ve actually completed, why not give Under Strange Suns a try?
