The Divine/Arcane Magic Split in Fantasy Literature

[Shades of Green]

Which piece of fantasy literature (or film?) inspired the split between Divine and Arcane Magic? This is an interesting question as some of the books most influential on D&D (LotR and Elric of Melnibone) didn't have this clear separation. After all, Jagreen Lern, Elric's theocratic adversary, was nothing less than a demon-summoning, Chaos-worshipping sorcerer, albeit with religious trappings; and as far as I can remember, LotR had no real clerics or priests in it.

Did it come from the Hammer horror films, as the Cleric class did? Or from somewhere else?

 

[Dioltach]

Rather than being an element of early fantasy stories, I think that perhaps the inspiration for divine magic was drawn from Biblical (and possibly other religious) stories of holy men healing the sick, creating food, banishing demons, raising the dead, summoning plagues, commanding the tides, summoning divine fire, etcetera.

 

[the Jester]

Rather than being an element of early fantasy stories, I think that perhaps the inspiration for divine magic was drawn from Biblical (and possibly other religious) stories of holy men healing the sick, creating food, banishing demons, raising the dead, summoning plagues, commanding the tides, summoning divine fire, etcetera.

Yeah, there's some strong evidence in the early game to support this- sticks to snakes, flame strike and insect plague among them. All three are straight outta the Bible.

 

[Serendipity]

Lots has been written about the de facto assumption of early D&D that correlated cleric = medieval catholic (with old testament magic/miracles) but the artificial arcane - divine divide is just that, artificial. It's a game construct that, by virtue of having never been challenged in later editions has become a sacred cow.

 

[Alzrius]

It's worth noting that the influence of Lord of the Rings on the development of D&D is actually a lot more minimal than most people think it is. Gary took advantage of what was, at the time, a resurgence of popularity in LotR when he created D&D. That's why the game has elves, dwarves, halflings (hobbits), treants (ents), and a few others that are clearly inspired by Tolkien.

The rest of the game draws inspiration from a wide range of pulp stories, including Conan, Elric, John Carter, Fafhrd and Grey Mouser, and many others. Hence the famous "Appendix N" in the back of the 1E DMG, listing some of the most influential books.

But to bring it back around to the topic, there is no clear literary precedent for the arcane/divine magic divide in any of the books that Gary drew inspiration from. The cleric, as a class, is largely inspired by the old Hammer horror films. The actual clerical spellcasting, however, is - as others have pointed out - mostly built off of Biblical accounts of religious miracles.

Arcane magic, by contrast, tends to be modeled off of the works of Jack Vance (of the Dying Earth series, and other stories) in terms of how its utilized, with the effects coming from a wider range of stories.

EDIT: This is slightly off-topic, but there's a good article on the Biblical influences of early D&D over here.

 

[Corathon]

IMO the greatest source of the idea of "divine magic" is the accounts of miracles (both in the Bible and in later stories of saints). However, there is a (weak) precedent in pulp stories for such a thing. Henry Kutner's "Elak of Atlantis" tales contain "druids" with magical powers that seem different than those of the sorcerous villains. IIRC, Kutner is mentioned in Appendix N.

Although set in (what was then) the modern era, Seabury Quinn's "Jules De Grandin" stories occaisionally involve the use of what me might call good "divine magic" against evil "arcane magic". I'm not sure if Quinn was an inluence on D&D, though.

 

[apoptosis]

With the Biblical influence there was a bit of divine vs arcane in the Moses story. With Moses calling on Gods power and the sorcerers using a different power.

I think generally though the divide (particularly in medieval lore) was sorcery was of the devil and priests called upon Gods aid.

Like when Saint Peter struck a levitating Simon Magus (Simon the Sorcerer or Simon the Sorcerer in other tales) out of the air with a prayer.

 

[GSHamster]

I think the divide comes mostly from the fact that the two classes come from two different "traditions" of stories. So when you make a wizard, you emulate one tradition, and when you make a cleric you emulate a different tradition.

Most stories don't really mix the two types. They either focus on one or the other. D&D creates the divide by using both traditions at the same time.

 

[Yora]

I've actually been to a seminar about this last semester.

It was about Religion and Magic, and at the end of the semester most students agreed on a model that could easily have been described as arcane and divine magic.
The primary distinction we discovered is that thar religious rituals/divine magic are repeating periodic activities that sustain the long term good relationships between the community and the gods and spirits, while magic ritual/arcane magic is done on behalf on the individual as a solution to a singular problem.
To ensure the anual harvest, a priest would perform a ritual on behalf of the whole community every year. But to get a love spell on the woman you want to marry or to have your neighbor cursed, you would visit a wizard.

However, this separation seems to be confined to ancient the mediteranean societies, from which they spread through the modern western and islamic worlds. It's not a fictional separation, but one that has been a fundamental part of western-christian culture for a very long time. However in other major cultural areas, like East-Asia, such a seperation does not exist. You still have the two purposes, but they are very often unified in the same person.

 

[Stormonu]

although I can't point to any specific myth or story, one of the main division points, healing, seems to come from the idea that wizardly magic could do everything but bring back life from the dead. Magic could bring a perverse life back to the dead (like in pet cemetary), but only clerical magic could restore the dead to life - and heal wounds, I suppose.