Uchronia

Uchronia refers to a hypothetical time period of our world, in contrast to fictional lands or worlds. A concept similar to alternate history but different in the manner that uchronic times are not easily defined (mainly placed in some distant point near prehistory), reminiscent of a 'Conworld'. Still people often use uchronia to refer to an alternate history. [cite web |url=http://www.scifi.com/sfw/issue249/books2.html |title=Off the Shelf: The Peshawar Lancers |accessdate=2008-10-01 |author=Paul Di Filippo |date= |work=Book Review |publisher=SciFi.com]

The word is a neologism from the word utopia (Greek "u-topos" not-land), replacing "topos" with "chronos" (time). It was coined by Charles Renouvier as the title of his 1876 novel "Uchronie (L'Utopie dans l'histoire). Esquisse historique apocryphe du développement de la civilisation européenne tel qu'il n'a pas été, tel qu'il aurait pu être.", reprinted 1988, ISBN 2-213-02058-2.

The concept of Merry England is an example of uchronic myth. It refers to a poorly-defined point after Medieval England, mainly existing as a collective memory and nostalgia of a better past, although historically such a period never existed.

Robert E. Howard's "Hyborian Age" is an example of an explicit uchronian period, while Tolkien's first three ages of Middle-earth may or may not be located in the same world as the modern Earth. In the uchronian interpretation of Middle-earth, this and other fantasy-genre fiction takes place during uchronian periods, set roughly in the prehistoric times, around and after AtlantisFact|date=March 2008.

The alternative and minor interpretation of an entirely separate mythology divorced from real history and taking place in another universe says that these stories are not uchronian.

Uchronian settings

*Middle-earth/Arda
*Hyborian Age
*Glorianna
* [http://www.sq7.org/KQ/index.php/Daventry Kingdom of Daventry]
*Terre D'Ange and the setting of Kushiel's Legacy
*The world of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series

ee also

*Merry England
*Anachronism
*Steampunk

References

External links

* [http://www.uchronia.net www.uchronia.net]