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Today's fantasy fiction has a very long history. In fact, one could say that it has a very long prehistory. Myths and stories were a staple of cultures long before writing was invented. In fact, many of our myths and legends had a long history of storytelling before they were ever written down. Some of our older religious texts were passed on through storytelling before written language existed, such as the Jewish Torah.

The oldest known written fairy tale comes from Egypt from roughly the time of the Old Testament's Joseph, some 3,500 years ago. Many tales were in the form of poetry, as in Homer's Odyssey. Some stories in the Torah/Old Testament are in the form of a poem, like the book of Job.

When it comes to talking about today's fantasy, we have to look at the origins to understand its popularity, past and present. The term "fantasy" is fairly new. Before that, we had myths, legends, epic poems, and fairy tales. Often, the lines are blurred in this list of fiction types.

For example, Tolkien's "The Hobbit," George Orwell's "Animal Farm," and L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" all predated the use of the term fantasy. They were considered fairy tales. Over the preceding years, fairy tales branched out considerably to include many tales that did not involve fairies. Even today, the classification of such tales is in dispute among the experts.

What we know about these older stories is that most of them were morality tales or religious lessons. The religious myths were designed to show a people their place in the universe. Where did we come from? Who created us? What is our purpose? Many of the popular old fairy tales that are familiar to us in the present are very focused on morality and right and wrong. Where would fantasy be without good and evil?

Because of the focus on morality and the importance of laying a spiritual foundation for a tribe or a people, many of these older tales, while told to children, were designed as lessons for life for all ages. They gave a spiritual underpinning and a reminder to the adults of who they were and what was expected of them in life.

The popularity of these older myths, legends, fairly tales, and morality tales is evident from their longevity. No one can say if today's fantasy fiction will have that kind of longevity. The making of some of these classics into movies has guaranteed a longer lifespan for some than would otherwise be the case. "The Wizard of Oz" is possibly an example of a timeless tale. Although there

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