What IS Sword-and-Sorcery?

Ask a dozen readers for their definition of sword-and-sorcery and you'll get a dozen answers. Is it only Conan and Conan-esque tales? Is it anything with bladed weapons and magic? Can it be post-apocalyptic, or must it be secondary-world faux medieval? Can it be modern? Is it humanocentric or can it have orcs? And what about mages? Can my protagonist be a mage? Can she be a vampire? CAN MY S&S HAVE HOBBITS?!

Okay, okay. Calm your moist nuggets. 99% of the things readers mention in the same breath as "is it S&S if it has . . ." is nothing but window-dressing. These things are tropes. And tropes can be borrowed, repurposed, and made to fit almost anything. Much like cyberpunk, sword-and-sorcery is an aesthetic; it's a narrative style combining Westerns, Norse sagas, and Noir. It is the fiction of the wanderer from the edges of civilization, the barbarian, the nomad; it's the tale of the guttersnipe with big dreams, the mercenary, the exiled prince. It's the disgraced scholar searching for a means to thwart Death, or to master the Black Arts. Thieves, courtesans, sorcerers, and killers of every stripe inhabit tales of S&S. But no matter the setting, it's never as bleak and hopeless as Grimdark. S&S does not worry itself with the destruction of the world; it's not typically a genre marked by the rise of Dark Lords. It DOES like to topple thrones and tread them under sandaled feet. Or stop them from toppling by the application of cold steel to the skulls of sorcerers . . .

All that said, here are the three canonical (according to Saint Scott) measures of what is and what isn't sword-and-sorcery:

The STORY must be relatively short, action-packed, full of wonder and adventure; low-stakes or high-stakes, but with a personal focus.

The PROTAGONIST(S) must be outsiders; they are not part of the status quo -- they're thieves, wanderers, exiles, marginalized folk at the edges of civilization, figuratively (and sometimes literally).

And finally, the SORCERY must not be ubiquitous; it must be dangerous to wield and have consequences to the wielder. It's not a stand-in for technology, nor is it something everyone possesses. And there must be an aspect of horror to it.

For myself, I prefer S&S set in pre-modern times, either real or imagined. But, to each their own. Some writers could likely kick massive ass with an S&S tale set in a dying star empire or a post-apocalyptic America. I'm more of a traditionalist.

So, that's the definition of sword-and-sorcery as I see it. The rest of you louts adopt it, embrace it, and make it your own. You'll thank me in the long run . . .