The Retreat of Magic
Rather than creating their own fantasy world, many authors choose to set their novels in Earth's past. In order to explain the absence of miraculous elements, authors may introduce "a retreat of magic" (sometimes called "thinning") that explains why the magic and other fantastic elements no longer appear: For example, in The Lord of the Rings, the destruction of the One Ring not only defeated Sauron, but destroyed the power of the Three Rings of the elves, resulting in their sailing into the West at the end of the story. Larry Niven details the idea in The Magic Goes Away, as an allegory for a modern-day energy crisis. A retreat can also be used as a plot device in a non-Earth setting, such as the diminishing of the Spirit-skills in Zilpha Keatley Snyder's Green Sky Trilogy.
A contemporary fantasy necessarily takes place in what purports to be the real world, and not a fantasy world. It may, however, include references to such a retreat. J. K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them explains that wizards eventually decided to conceal all magic creatures and artifacts from non-magic users.
Read more about this topic: Fantasy World
Famous quotes containing the words retreat and/or magic:
“When we retreat to the country, we are hiding not from people, but from our pride, which, in the city and among people, operates unfairly and immoderately.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“Both magic and religion are based strictly on mythological tradition, and they also both exist in the atmosphere of the miraculous, in a constant revelation of their wonder-working power. They both are surrounded by taboos and observances which mark off their acts from those of the profane world.”
—Bronislaw Malinowski (1884–1942)