What is Fantasy?

Fantasy fiction, the term brings to mind images of armored knights, terrifying dragons, mighty sorcerers and wise elves. What separates the genre from fairy-tales and mythology? Is it merely the fact that fantasy was written by identifiable contemporary authors while fairy-tales and myth are so old that the original author is often unknown? What then of witches and ghosts that appear in Shakespeare? If the Bard is sufficiently old to escape classifying as fantasy, is Dickens?
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