Anachronisms in Fantasy

[Desdichado]

People are getting confused with the terms anachronism and non-sequitur.

An anachronism is somthing that is in the wrong place in a given timeline.

The knight in shining full plate armor in King Arthur's court is an anachronism because full plate would not exist for a long time. And King Arthur is often portrayed in a 1200's style, which again is an anachronism. A cleric in Krynn casting spells post cataclysm and pre war of the lance is an anachronism. These are things that are not out of place in their world but simply in the wrong period.

"King" Arthur's "court" is an anachronism itself, if you buy into the Romano-british warlord theory of who he really was.

Besides, I think we all know what the point is, that if by fantasy you mean something that resembles medieval earth, then something that would be an anachronism in medieval earth could reasonably, if not 100% correctly, be called an anachronism. Hence my earlier gripes about "hair-splitting" on the genre; many genres of fantasy make no pretension of being based on medieval earth, making any such usage of the term anachronism meaningless. Including many of the genres that rounser was quoting to attempt to make his point.