Uchronia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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'.
The word is a portmanteau of the word utopia (Greek u-topos not-land), replacing topos with chronos (time). It was originated 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 are only implicitly located on the same planet 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 Atlantis.
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.
