In Harry Potter, the hero soars above a fi restorm on a fl ying broomstick, fi ghting a deadly serpent or a fl ame-belching dragon. In The Chronicles of Narnia, brave Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, helped by the lion Aslan, fi ght an all-out war with giants in the eternal winter inhabited by the wicked White Witch.
The author Philip Pullman creates fantasy worlds in which characters battle with the forces of evil. His books are fi lled with witches, demons and warriors, danger, terror and ferocious battles. Pullman is a master at creating fabulous original names for his characters: Balthamos, Lord Boreal, Xaphania, Ma Costa; and for places: Trollesund, Svalbard, Bolvangar or the World of the Dead.
In the world of fantasy, you fi nd magic, mystery and mayhem. The forces of evil rise and seek to dominate, but – more often than not – the powers of good overcome the terror and restore peace and justice. Until the next time …
This passage gives you vocabulary and ideas for characters, settings, battle scenes and sounds in fantasy fi ction. Write a war or battle paragraph that could appear in a fantasy novel. You could use action, characters, vocabulary and description from the passage above or create your own original setting, action and characters.
