Poul Anderson, The Broken Sword

Dennis Wilson Wise (University of Arizona)

Ed. by Dimitra Fimi, University of Glasgow
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1954

Places

United States (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Fantasy

Resources

It is one of the ironies of Poul Anderson’s career – which spans six decades, 66 novels, and almost as many short story collections – that his most important book might be the first he ever wrote: The Broken Sword (1954). It is a powerful, dark, and gripping fantasy tale of heroic doom and forbidden love, a modern “romance” set within the tradition of fornaldarsögur, medieval Norse sagas about ancient times. Ignored upon publication and never a bestseller, The Broken Sword nevertheless found its initial audience among a small yet significant coterie of “sword and sorcery” (S&S) enthusiasts, a fantasy subgenre – also sometimes known as “heroic fantasy” – that originated in the American pulp magazines, and it emphasized adventure-style plots, morally ambiguous heroes, and physical action in quasi-medieval settings. The fantasist Michael Moorcock, for...

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2497 words

Citation: Wise, Dennis Wilson. "The Broken Sword". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 26 June 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=39304, accessed 12 July 2026.]

Poul Anderson, The Broken Sword

Dates

Places

Genres and Modes

Resources

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