Transformation of Traditional Fantasy Characters in Joe Abercrombie’s ‘The First Law’ Trilogy

Abstract

Joe Abercrombie is a prominent contemporary British author famous for working in such a currently popular branch of fantasy as grimdark. The characteristic feature of Abercrombie’s novels is a conscious play with conventions, traditions and clichés of classical fantasy. This article is devoted to analysis of some central figures of Abercrombie’s The First Law trilogy: infamous warrior Logen Ninefingers, young nobleman Jezal dan Luthar, inquisitor Sand dan Glokta, and Bayaz, First of the Magi. The study aims to reveal, through comparison with classical models, how the mentioned characteristic feature of Abercrombie’s books manifests itself at the level of character development. The analysis shows that for creating his characters Abercrombie employs classical archetypes (a wise mentor, a young protagonist on a long journey to find treasure), which have roots, as much as fantasy literature itself, through adventure fiction and chivalric romance, in the fairy tale and mythos. However, in distinction from the authors of classical fantasy such as J.R.R. Tolkien and his numerous less talented followers, Abercrombie fills the characters who impersonate those archetypes in his works with psychological content that is not in accord with or even contradicts their traditional plot functions. Moreover, the writer changes and transforms the meaning of those functions, thus creating a complex, shadowy realistic image of his grimdark fantasy world instead of an optimistic fairy-tale one typical of earlier fantasy books. Abercrombie’s characters are not only realistic and impressive, they are built upon a three-element structure, more complex than that of characters in classical fantasy, which demonstrates the development of this kind of literature in general.