Experts fear BookTok fantasy threatens Welsh culture

A Court of Thorn and Roses, also known as ACOTAR is the TikTok-viral fantasy book series which took the genre by storm in 2024.

But with character names including Rhysand, Gwyneth, Alis and Morrigan, it seems American author Sarah J Maas drew inspiration far from home.

Dubbed “the Tolkien effect”, after the author of the The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit who was influenced by the Welsh language and literature, Wales has undeniably influenced fantasy writing, both old and new.

But while some applaud the spread of Welsh culture and language, others fear its misuse could have a detrimental impact.

“It was something that, at first, would always really excite me, but has become increasingly something of a pet peeve,” said bookseller and fantasy blogger Bethan Hindmarch, from Kidwelly, Carmarthenshire.

“Tolkien was the one who opened that floodgate [and] Terry Pratchett always did it in a great way. His own daughter has a Welsh name, and it was about honouring [the language] and being respectful.

“But you do get authors who want their fantasy to sound more mystical, magical and made up.”

Prof Dimitra Fimi, a lecturer in fantasy and children’s literature at Glasgow University, and lived and taught in Cardiff for more than 20 years, said the genre was “particularly good at connecting us with the past in imaginative ways”.

“Fantasy has – definitely in the last couple of centuries – been consciously playing with myths, legends, folk tales… Wales in particular has a very rich tradition in terms of that and there is a chain of key fantasy authors that have played around with that material.”

She said, for Tolkien, Welsh language was the main influence, particularly in his more popular works.

“If you think of Sindarin – one of the two main Elvish languages – it’s very much based on the phonology and grammar, at points, of Welsh,” she said.

“I think what happened is you get a generation of writers after Tolkien who want to write fantasy, [but] they don’t want to replicate what Tolkien has done.”

She said the natural starting point for many authors was their own, often Welsh, roots, and the impact on awareness of Welsh language and culture was huge.

“It’s a positive thing in terms of discovering a very rich new culture or opening up to other perspectives [but] what worries me is a particular perception of Wales that is developing within fantasy, which is that it’s this magical, rural, romantic place.

“It can be pretty patronising, it creates an image of the country which isn’t realistic. That’s not all that Wales is.”

Ms Hindmarch said she hated the “snobbery” which could surround books such as ACOTAR and other fantasy sagas made mainstream by social media.

“I have always been a bookworm. I will read a bit of anything, but fantasy is my niche because it’s escapist,” she said.

“Other genres really looked down on it and now within fantasy there is snobbery towards so-called romantasy books, and it really upsets me.

“It brings a whole host of new readers to the genre. I have people coming into my shop who would normally never have come in.”

As a teacher on the only fantasy literature masters course in the world, Prof Fimi had seen the genre “expanding and developing into more hybrid genres” and “moving away from the Tolkien model”.

But, while they acknowledged some authors had evidently done their research well, both women said issues could arise when distinctions were not clearly made between something inspired by Wales, and being authentically Welsh.

“There’s a pan-Celticism sort of situation that has developed in fantasy, where everybody thinks that all of that can be thrown in together – that’s Gaelic, Irish, Welsh, Manx, Cornish, the lot – and it just becomes one big amalgamation and anybody can pick anything they want out of that pot,” said Prof Fimi.

Ms Hindmarch added that Celtic languages could sometimes be used sloppily, citing the blunder by Fourth Wing author Rebecca Yarros, where she was forced to apologise after using Scottish Gaelic names but mispronouncing them.

“People assume if you’re an author, you know what you’re talking about. It doesn’t take much to get a sensitivity reader, do your research, and pay a bit more respect.”

She recalled sending a message to one self-published author who had used Welsh terms, asking about his inspiration and whether he was a Welsh learner, only to be told he “just liked the sound of it”.

Prof Fimi said choosing to use the Welsh language needed “justification”.

“You have to think it through, there must be a reason for it.”

Ms Hindmarch said she was “so moved” to be asked to be a sensitivity reader for an author who wanted one of his characters to have a similar style of speaking to his ex-colleague in Carmarthen, and other Welsh speakers would “jump at the chance” to help their language reach others.

She said there was an international appetite for Welsh-inspired works, with books such as Morgan is My Name by Sophie Keetch, based on Arthurian legend, and Claire Fayers’s Welsh Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends, selling very well.

“It’s fantasy with strong characterisation and it’s done properly – people are loving it.

“For example, everyone has heard of the Mabinogion, but people think it’s quite archaic and worry it’s not accessible. So when people write something inspired by it, there is interest in that.”

Prof Fimi called Howl’s Moving Castle, by Diana Wynne Jones a good example of a fantasy novel which was aware of the inaccurate perceptions of Wales and consciously critiqued that within the work itself.

She said while Welsh was “very well established” within the UK, its international perception was where its misuse becomes “problematic” and called for more awareness of the risks across the publishing industry.

“It’s the outside, where people talk about England and they mean the whole of the the UK,” she said.

“That’s where I think it could be very easily misinterpreted.”