Harry Potter is High Fantasy And I Can Prove It

Check it out, my title is my thesis. And my thesis does not come without receipts.

What are High and Low Fantasy?

High fantasy, also known as epic fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy fiction that presents sprawling, immersive worlds completely different from our own. They have their own histories, cultures, and mythologies, often containing magical elements and fantastical creatures. Most high fantasy stories take place in a medieval-esque setting, often with familiar creatures like dragons, dwarfs, and maybe a unicorn or two.

The key aspects of high fantasy are around the scale of the novel, detailed world building, and the presence of elements that can be fantastical, such as magic, witches, and wizards. High fantasy also tends to have a grandiose scope to the novel, events that take place during one novel can have far reaching consequences impacting different worlds and civilizations.

In other words, we can measure high fantasy by its scale, and by its relation to our known world.

Low fantasy is more closely related to urban fantasy, magical realism, and paranormal literature.

The key distinction between high fantasy and low fantasy is the level of magical immersion. High fantasy takes place in an entirely different world from our own, while low fantasy is grounded in our world with magical elements woven in.

High fantasy tends to have more prominent and well-defined magic systems, while low fantasy might have magic that’s more subtle or even hidden. High fantasy often features epic journeys and world-changing events, while low fantasy can be more personal and character-driven. High fantasy is likely to have a wider variety of fantastical creatures, while low fantasy might focus on specific types of myths or legends.

Therefore, we can conclude that the less grounded in reality our story is, the more likely it is to be considered high fantasy.

Understanding the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is the official name for the entire Harry Potter franchise. The original, 7-book story takes place from July 30, 1980 to September 1st, 2017; though outside of the epilogue and prologue, most of the action takes place across the 1990’s. Flashbacks and secrets discovered eventually reveal a timeline reaching back to the 1930’s and even beyond to a medieval period; the “Magical Beasts” extended Harry Potter universe even included additional stories from the 1930’s era.

Also, most of the action takes place in and around Hogwarts, a fantastical location magically hidden and protected from the Muggle world. Notice, here we do not identify “the Muggle world” as “the real world,” as there is a marked difference between the two.

Make no mistake, dear reader, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter is not our own, actual, physical world, in which we have grounded our logic and our understanding. The world in which Harry Potter lives is similar, but it is a world in which magic has long existed, and been used to shape history.

There are shadow governments run by powerful wizards and witches, controlling not only the events of the Wizarding World but that of the Muggles’ as well. It is a world in which magic folk can alter or erase memories, time travel, kill with a word, become invisible, and directly control people. It is a world in which dragons and goblins and zombies and ghosts and unicorns exist. It is about as real a London as the Shire was a real Ireland.

Conclusion

The scale of the story of Harry Potter is undeniably epic. Events from medieval time resulted in important decisions in the present. The story crosses generations, and characters are faced with the entire world being at stake. These are epic journeys and world-changing events.

In the case of classifying the “magical immersion,” we can plainly see this is not a real world in which magic has been “immersed,” but rather a magical world into which small specks of realism have been injected. It is a world separate from our own, in that the logic, physics, and histories of our worlds could not ever be remotely compatible.

Harry Potter is high fantasy, clear as day. You can all eat slugs.