Editing Sword and sorcery (section)

===Rise in popularity===

In the 1960s, American paperback publisher [[Lancer Books]] began to reissue Robert E. Howard's ''Conan'' stories in paperback, with cover illustrations by artist [[Frank Frazetta]]. These editions became surprise bestsellers, selling millions of copies to a largely young readership.<ref name=tueof /><ref> Sammon, Paul. ''Conan the phenomenon : the legacy of Robert E. Howard's fantasy icon''. Dark Horse Books, Milwaukie, OR, 2013 (p.45) {{ISBN|9781616551889}} </ref> The commercial success of the Conan books encouraged other publishers to put out new and reprinted books in the style of Howard's work.<ref name=tueof />

Initial works in the 1960s by other authors closely followed the Conan mould, with [[Lin Carter]]'s [[Thongor of Lemuria]], [[Gardner Fox|Gardner F. Fox]]'s Kothar the Barbarian, and [[John Jakes]]' Brak the Barbarian being the most popular of the imitators. Notably different works were [[Michael Moorcock]]'s [[Elric of Melniboné|Elric of Melnibone]] stories, which were designed to be in counterpoint with the barbarian trope, and the revival of interest in the original [[Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser|Fafhrd & Gray Mouser]] stories with their focus on urbane rogues, by [[Fritz Leiber]] led to Leiber writing new stories with the characters that he would periodically revisit through out the 1970s and 1980s. 

Despite this, the initial barbarian-focused boom crashed in the early seventies, before the mid-1970s led to newer, more varied authors and books being published with it, such as [[David Drake]], [[Tanith Lee]], [[Charles R. Saunders]], [[Michael Shea (American author)|Michael Shea]], [[Karl Edward Wagner]] and others.<ref> “A Brief Introduction to Karl Edward Wagner” by David Drake, ''Weird Tales''Fall 1989, </ref>

From the 1960s until the 1980s, under the guiding force of Carter, a select group of writers formed the [[Swordsmen and Sorcerers' Guild of America]] (SAGA) to promote and enlarge the sword and sorcery genre. From 1973 to 1981, five anthologies featuring short works by SAGA members were published. Edited by Carter, these were collectively known as ''[[Flashing Swords!]]'' Because of these and other anthologies, such as the [[Ballantine Adult Fantasy]] series, his own fiction, and his criticism, Carter is considered one of the most important popularizers of genre fantasy in general, and S&S in particular.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Clute|first1=John|last2=Grant|first2=John|last3=Ashley|first3=Mike|last4=Hartwell|first4=David G.|last5=Westfahl|first5=Gary|title=The Encyclopedia of Fantasy|date=1999|publisher=St. Martin's Griffin|location=New York|isbn=0-312-19869-8|page=171|edition=1st St. Martin's Griffin}}</ref>

Despite such authors' efforts, some critics use sword and sorcery as a dismissive or pejorative term.<ref name=EoFSandS /> During the 1980s, influenced by the success of the 1982 feature film ''[[Conan the Barbarian (1982 film)|Conan the Barbarian]]'',<ref name=Shaw1996>Andrea Shaw. "1980s - 1990s: Sword and Sorcery". Seen That, Now What?  The Ultimate Guide to Finding the Video You Really Want to Watch. Fireside. 1996. pp [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=vgVStU_SWRcC&pg=RA1-PA443#v=onepage&q&f=false 443] & 444.</ref> many fantasy films, some cheaply made, were released in a subgenre that would be called "sword and sorcery".

Examples of sword and sorcery films include ''[[The Beastmaster (film)|The Beastmaster]]'' (1982), ''[[The Sword and the Sorcerer]]'' (1982),<ref name=Shaw1996/> ''[[Hercules (1983 film)|Hercules]]'' (1983),<ref>Jacobs. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VIJ8DwAAQBAJ&pg=PR224#v=onepage&q&f=false Screening Statues: Sculpture in Film]. 2017.</ref> a Conan sequel, ''[[Conan the Destroyer]]'' (1984),<ref>Tambling (ed). A Night in at the Opera: Media Representations of Opera. John Libbey. 1994. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BMzl-08heWwC&pg=PA133#v=onepage&q&f=false p 133]</ref> ''[[Ladyhawke (film)|Ladyhawke]]'' (1985) and ''[[Red Sonja (1985 film)|Red Sonja]]'' (1985), which, like the Conan films, also starred [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]].<ref name=Shaw1996/> The sword and sorcery boom is said to have begun with ''[[Hawk the Slayer]]'' (1980).<ref name=Shaw1996/><ref>Nick Curtis. [https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jul/06/hawk-the-slayer-film-sequel-terry-marcel-jack-palance Hawk the Slayer is back – and he's brought his mindsword]. The Guardian. 6 July 2015.</ref> The [[sword and planet]] film<ref>Nicholas Diak. The New Peplum. Macfarland. 2018. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=dThCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA5#v=onepage&q&f=false p 5].</ref> ''[[Masters of the Universe (1987 film)|Masters of the Universe]]'' (1987) contains elements of sword and sorcery<ref>Baer. How He-Man Mastered the Universe. Macfarland. 2017. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7nRPDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA19#v=onepage&q&f=false p 19].</ref> and has been called a Conan hybrid.<ref>[https://variety.com/1986/film/reviews/masters-of-the-universe-1200427185/ Masters of the Universe]. Variety. 31 December 1986.</ref>

''[[Clash of the Titans (1981 film)|Clash of the Titans]]'' (1981), ''[[Excalibur (film)|Excalibur]]'' (1981) and ''[[Krull (film)|Krull]]'' (1983) are characterised as sword and sorcery films by some writers,<ref name=Shaw1996/><ref>Ray B Browne (ed). Objects of Special Devotion. Bowling Green University Popular Press. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=NO5DkzptBeoC&pg=PA51#v=onepage&q&f=false p 51].</ref> but this is disputed by Butler.<ref>Butler. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=UWEYAQAAMAAJ Fantasy Cinema: Impossible Worlds on Screen]. Wallflower. 2009. p 73.</ref> ''[[Star Wars (film)|Star Wars]]'' (1977) was influenced by sword and sorcery,<ref name=SFESandS/> and in turn influenced<ref>Alexander Zahlten. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=D74zDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT60#v=onepage&q&f=false The End of Japanese Cinema]. Duke University Press. 2017.</ref><ref>Toshiyuki Matsushima. 角川春樹インタビュー「里見八犬伝」の映画化は私の長い間の念願だった! [[Kinema Junpo]]. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=87I2AAAAMAAJ December 1983]. pp 44 to 46.</ref> ''[[Legend of the Eight Samurai]]'' (1983), a Japanese sword and sorcery style film.<ref>Chris D. Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film. IB Tauris. 2005. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=MbaKDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA13#v=onepage&q&f=false p 13].</ref>

After the cinema and literary boom of the early to mid-1980s, sword and sorcery once again dropped out of favor, with epic fantasy largely taking its place in the fantasy genre. There was, though, another resurgence in sword and sorcery at the end of the 20th century. Sometimes called the "new" or "literary" sword and sorcery, this development places emphasis on literary technique, and draws from epic fantasy and other genres to broaden the genre's typical scope. Stories may feature the wide-ranging struggles of national or world-spanning concerns common to high fantasy, but told from the point of view of characters more common to S&S, and with the sense of adventure common to the latter. Writers associated with this include [[Steven Erikson]], [[Joe Abercrombie]], and [[Scott Lynch]], magazines such as [[Black Gate (magazine)|''Black Gate'']] and the ezines ''Flashing Swords''{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}} (not to be confused with the [[Lin Carter]] anthologies), and ''[[Beneath Ceaseless Skies]]'' publish short fiction in the style.<ref>[http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/page.php?p=about] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120508103934/http://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/page.php?p=about|date=8 May 2012}}</ref> According to the literary critic Higashi Masao regarding Japanese works ''[[Guin Saga]]'' and ''[[Sorcerous Stabber Orphen]]'', they were initially planned by their authors as novels that could be classified as belonging to the European sword and sorcery [[subgenre]] but had various major elements that distanced themselves from the typical novels in the genre.<ref name="HMAI">{{cite book|last=Higashi|first=Masao|editor1-last=Ai |editor1-first=Ishidou |title=Encyclopedia of Japanese fantasy writers|year=2009| language=ja |publisher=Kokusho Kankōkai|isbn= 9784336051424|pages=45}}</ref>

In the 1990s, sword and sorcery boomed in popularity in [[Great Britain]] and other parts of the world.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Science fiction |url=https://www.britannica.com/art/science-fiction |access-date=2023-04-24 |publisher=[[Encyclopedia Britannica]] |language=en}}</ref>