Top Ten Fantasy Royals
In this week where Oxford (along with the rest of the UK and the Commonwealth) celebrates the extraordinary long reign of Elizabeth II, I thought it would be fun to pick out the top ten royals to appear in fantasy. Now I should start with a caveat: I’m not going to include fairy stories as we would be awash in Prince Charmings and Wicked Queens. Instead I’m going to think of the perennials who feature outside fairyland. Let’s go in reverse order:
10
Coming in at 10 is the king who rocked our world most recently - and changed perceptions in Hollywood as to who should star in fantasy films. I’m talking about T’Challa, of course, aka the Black Panther. The character had existed in the Marvel comic series since 1966, dreamt up by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, but didn’t really hit worldwide fame until the 2018 film starring the much-missed Chadwick Boseman. I admit I wasn’t a huge fan of the plot as it seemed a little too close to Lion King and Hamlet in structure, but the real pleasure and originality rested in other aspects of the film. I loved the evocation of an independent African kingdom - Wakanda - with some seriously kick-ass women and an amazing design. Boseman was gentle and brave - great qualities for a king - though I also have a huge soft spot for Shuri (Letitia Wright) his genius younger sister, allowed on this list as she is a princess of Wakanda. However, most of all I (and the millions who went to see it) adored the fact that finally a film dominated by an excellent black cast had blasted its way to the top of the box office and changed society as a result. That’s the power of fantasy right there: allowing us to imagine the world in new ways!
9
Royalty can also be found in outer space. At 9 on the list is Duke Leto Atreides. I did debate with my husband if he was allowed in but we decided that this was equivalent of a royal title as he clearly rules planets as well as his House. After all, the British royal princes are dukes so there is a precedent of royal duchies. He appeared first in Frank Herbert’s Dune series and also on screen in adaptations of the story. Oscar Isaac is the most recent actor to take on the role in 2021. He is a caring family man, tries to be a good and just leader and ultimately sacrifices all to protect those he loves. He is also a tragic figure, in the mould of the Ancient Greek heroes, as signalled by his name and House iconography. He is a modern Priam, father and King of Troy, so we will let him stand for all the heroes of that Greek tradition that could have also been on this list.
8
Moving back to the more familiar royal title of princess, I am staying in space. My first most remarkable cinema experience was seeing Star Wars in 1977 - now called Star Wars IV - A New Hope. It might be hard for those born into a digital age to imagine the experience of seeing these massive starships sailing overhead and onto the screen. Don’t tell me they were little models and clever lighting. For me, they were the first time that I’d seen live action manage to transport the audience somewhere else and believe it real for the duration of the film. The story telling was excellent in so many ways, with good use of humour to undercut getting too self-important. Here we come to Number 8 - Princess Leia. From the original posters, you would think that she would be the sexy damsel in the tower to be saved by the brave Prince Skywalker. Yet what does she do when she first meets her rescuers? She tells them that they are short and complains about the lack of planning in the rescue. From the outset she is a political mover and shaker of the trio, knowing the politics that Luke doesn't understand and Han Solo despises. She is the serious adult leader, not a pretty piece of arm candy - though it was a dip in the series when she was used just like that as what looks like a sex slave to Jabba the Hutt in the third film. Ok, teenage boys might have enjoyed the fantasy, but to us teen girls it was a let down at the time. At least she gets to strangle the bad guy and go back to her white robes. RIP Carrie Fisher - you were a trailblazer!
7
From princesses I'm turning to princes. Please allow room on this list for the baddest bad guy of them all. No, not Voldemort or Sauron, but Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness. I'm talking here about his fictional appearances as opposed to religious. You could argue that he appears first in Marlowe’s Faust (1604), but there he is the tempter Mephistopheles, rather than the scene-stealing main character. The most famous incarnation of this idea is Milton’s Satan from back in 1667. He is the archetype or brooding antihero:
Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;
And in the lowest deep a lower deep,
Still threat’ning to devour me, opens wide,
To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.
The antiheroes of Marvel and DC, even a hero like Batman, have taken a page out of this book. His infernal energy threatens to destabilise the conventional religious messages of Paradise Lost, tempting us to root for the bad guy just a little. That's why William Blake in the early 19th century said:
The reason Milton wrote in fetters when he wrote of Angels & God, and at liberty when of Devils & Hell, is because he was a true Poet and of the Devil’s party without knowing it.
Others have borrowed this energy for their own fallen angels. He glimmers in Frankenstein's creature, the gentleman vampires of Bram Stoker and successors, even Darth Vader as Anakin Skywalker owes much to the fallen angel story arc. Most recently he's appeared in a more comedic take on the concept such as in Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens and the TV series Lucifer (2016 to 2021) starring Tom Ellis, which is based on the DC comic character.
6
Coming in at Number 6 is a royal from another tradition: Japan. Another of the world’s oldest systems of monarchy, it is not surprising to find princes and princesses cropping up in Japanese culture. I’ve picked on an unconventional royal for this one: Princess Mononoke, a film from the animation powerhouse Studio Ghibli and made in 1997. San is not conventional lady: she was raised by wolves and represents the forest fighting back. She is a warrior and force to be reckoned with. Her journey is that of a hater of humankind to finding love for one among them, the Prince Ashitaka. They eventually fight together to break a curse and bring healing to their communities. She is even less conventional than Mulan, having more in spirit to do with Mowgli (the original Jungle Book version, not the Disney one) able to unleash the forces of the wild. It is as well to remember that not all fantasy royals live in castles!
5
It would not be fair to let this list be dominated by movie versions of royals so I thought I would bring in a Dutch classic by Paul Biegel, The King of the Copper Mountain (1964). It is a lovely children’s storybook with connected tales told by different animal characters who are trying to keep the eponymous king alive while his doctor goes in search of a cure for his heart condition. Why is it worthy of a place on the list? The King offers a different kind of leadership: loving, patient, welcoming to creatures as diverse as bees and a dragon. It really is extremely charming and highly recommended if you are looking for a non-militaristic king to share with your children! It reminds me also of the little gem of an animation The King’s Beard (2002) written by Tony Collingwood, where - as the title suggest - the monarch’s facial hair is the problem for the quester to solve! Unconventional and fun, it had my children singing the title song for years. Let’s remember that not all fantasy kings and queens have to be sword-fighting heroes; there are other kinds of courage and bravery.
4
We are remaining in unconventional territory for our fourth pick: The Princess Bride, S Morgenstern’s (or William Goldman’s!) 1973 novel, as well as the film 1987 adapted by William Goldman. I suspect many of us can quote lines from this cult film but what about the princess herself? Buttercup is the heart of the story and not at all royal. She is only a Princess Bride because Prince Humperdinck wants to marry her and she only agrees because she believes her true love is dead. In some ways she is the archetypal princess - beautiful and needs a lot of saving - but that is the point. The story takes the archetypes and then has ridiculous fun with them, spoofing the thing it loves which is a fairytale romance. And, of course, the story itself is a story within a story. The reading of it is hilarious as the commentator realises he has remembered only the good parts and left out all the commentary and politics. So Buttercup doesn’t become a royal - she rides off into the sunset with Westley (we hope - even here the happy ending is undercut), but she is a wonderful fantasy almost-princess!
3
Now we arrive at the top three. The list would be instantly rejected if it did not find a place for King Arthur, the most enduring of fantasy kings. From the early medieval versions of this mythic king, via Malory, the Victorians such as Tennyson, to T H White’s Once and Future King, and even the bromance version in the BBC Merlin, Arthur keeps coming back. If you want a discussion of the Arthur legend, do listen to Mythmakers Season 2 May 30th where Dr Gabriel Shenck and I discuss the literary appearances of Arthur. https://oxfordcentreforfantasy.org/mythmakers Do you have a favourite? Arthur himself is usually the royal hub around which other stories revolve, but I did enjoy his appearance in Merlin because you saw the friendship grow with the young Merlin, full of banter and adventure. The young Arthur (Wart in TH White) is also very relatable, taking his training from an eccentric wizard who is growing backwards like Benjamin Button. This is no schoolroom experience but being transformed into birds and fish to understand the world around him. He represents an ideal of chivalry in a time that never really existed but is alive and well in fantasy worlds. Fantasy monarchs wouldn’t be the same without him!
2
I debated with myself about first and second place and decided in the end to rank them by what I once thought was the epitome of kingship and what I now think might be best. As a child I loved the idea of going into a world where (of course) I would be a king or a queen. Enter Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie. Once a King or Queen of Narnia, always a King or Queen of Narnia! They are given their titles by the son of the Emperor over the Seas, Aslan, so he is the supreme king in CS Lewis’ world. And what a king he is! A mane and fur to stroke, a roar that echoes across the land, a breath that can undo evil spells. To be with him is ‘like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten’ according to Lucy. Now I might wonder why one of the very competent beasts couldn’t have sat on the thrones at Cair Paravel, but the fantasy felt right to the eight-year-old who would play dressing-up princesses. I imagine Lewis was reflecting on the privilege we have as ‘sons of Adam and daughters of Eve’, made in God’s image, but still it is a powerful make-believe and one that is hard to beat. And like any good fantasy, it includes it own end. You come back through the wardrobe from your time as kings and queens to resume ordinary life, but you must keep the Narnian experience alive in your heart so you act with the values you learned there.
1
Who gets to be Number 1? No surprises when the Oxford Centre for Fantasy is dedicated to Tolkien that we pick one of his kings and queens. He is not unblinkered about the corruption that monarchical power can bring - the Ringwraiths were once lords and kings - but he does give us one perfect king: Aragorn. He is the Renaissance ideal of a monarch: learned, cultured, able to fight, fair and just. I think, though, that for me he makes this spot because he has a sense of humour and doesn’t grow to big for his boots. He names his house Telcontar which means Strider in Quenya, the name by which he was known, somewhat slightingly, in the north. These qualities were well brought out by Viggo Mortensen in his portrayal of this hero king in Peter Jackson’s trilogy. Viggo made up his own tunes and sang them to Tolkien’s words in honour of the character - something those who have the extended edition will remember. But perhaps above all, Aragorn shows the quality of friendship, or fellowship. In the appendices we read that it is Merry and Pippin who lie beside him on his deathbed on little beds of their own. He remembered the little folk even to the end of his glorious days. Maybe that is the ultimate fantasy? That there would be such a perfect leader. Knowing real life characters are more likely to be flawed, I think we should probably stick with democracy and constitutional monarchies like Elizabeth II rather than hope to find Aragorns to rule us all!
Congratulations to Elizabeth II on 70 years of dutiful service.
