"How to write "classic" fantasy novels." Topic

I was skimming Poul Anderson's "The Broken Sword", and it struck me how much the way it was written just cried out "Fantasy!" You did not need to have leves or trolls or magic swords.
All you need is the following:

1) Use the "did" structure a lot for past tense. As in:
"He did swear a mighty oath."
"He did gnash his teeth at Skimmilk."

2) Use King James Bible sentence beginnings.
"For Skinned Knee was a mighty troll."
"Yet, he did gainsay the words of Bedric."

3) Use archaic words.
"For he did wax wroth."

4) You don't need elf songs. Use a fake saga poetic meter.
"Clangy clanged the clangers.
Skippily sang the words…"

Now, I love that book, and I did read it many a fine time. And I did wax wroth when the binding die disintegrate, leaving me in a cleft stick.
It's just good that the book is not as long as … somewe could mention.

"Clangy clanged the clangers" – Hah! I'll have to use that sometime.

The OFM doth put forth a right good review.

Use both hands.

Revieweth not lest thee be reviewed!

I thought to write a classic fantasy novel you needed long discourses on various trees…

Damon.

I read that book decades ago. Don't remember much about the story except the song and dance sequences, but I recall that I liked it. Never sell in today's market.

"Use a fake saga poetic meter."

Or a real one. Poul Anderson studied the Sagas extensively.

If anyone had a formula to write fantasy books, it was David Gemmell. Still enjoyed them mind.

By Dwalka, John's thoughts mirror mine, yet I was reading of Kothar the Barbarian as told by Gardner F. Fox. 'Tis true, some might call him a insipid imitator of Conan, yet the tales of Kothar are filled with stylings most archaic and vocabulary most obscure – filled, that is, in the few spaces not occupied by the gently swelling curves of the unclothed damsels that seem to occupy much of Kothar's plane of existence. Derivitive and formulaic, perhaps, yet in Frostfire's curse there is a grain of originality and cleverness worthy of outright theft, that it might be inflicted on some unsuspecting and ill-read player of the games of roleplaying. Many are those who would balk at seizing the black sword Stormbringer or the staring eye of Vecna, yet blithely would they grasp the hilt of Afgorkon's accursed blade, for its mysteries are virtually unknown in this late age.

Incidentally, you can spend $3.50 USD and you can have a copy with the binding intact:

auction

At the other end of the spectrum, you could splurge and spend $50 USD to get a signed first edition copy, if you're feeling seriously nostalgic:

auction

Talk not just of Kothar, mighty barbarian that he be, but hist! I will tell ye tales of Kyrik, he who was both Warlock and Warrior. He dwelt in a realm of soft fleshed and scantilly clad damsels of a most welcoming disposition. And, yay ! He did overcome many strange and eldritch weilders of arcane powers afore he overcame many of the foretold damsels of great welcome. His were strange times, by the power of his wizadry and the might of his sword arm did he carve his place in the pantheon of legends.

And all that the sages of Wiki say of him is "Gardner Fox made up lots of characters in comics". Truly their knowledge of his craft is lacking in the extreme.

Add lots of 'heaving breasts' and axes, and you are set John!

Indeed, in these fading years of fantastic literacy, when the great sages of lustrums past are lost to human memory, only the awesome craft of Clark Ashton Smith remains in my mind as the true exemplar of fantastic writing.

By my troth, these here tidings leave me sore vexed, forsooth!

I loved Kyrik the Warlock Warrior! Haven't thought about him for years! Dray Prescott, John Carter – how I wish I could embroil myself in those yarns again. Sophistication that comes with age is a double edged, heaving breasted sword…