Masters of Truth in the Middle-Earth or the Worlds of Fantasy as seen through the Lens of Detienne’s Theory

The essay analyzes the importance of true speech (as described in M. Detienne’s Les Maîtres de Vérité) in epic fantasy. Starting with J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, through Lyndon Hardy’s magical worlds, Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea and AnnMcCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern series, speech carries an added value of truth, preserving and shaping the universe in turn – such understanding of privileged speech links modern fantasy literature to its ancient models (Homer or Hesiod).