7 Answers
Most often I notice 'furthermore' showing up in the kind of fantasy prose that wants to sound stately, learned, or slightly old-fashioned. In my readings I associate it with narrators who adopt a scholarly, omniscient tone—those voices that pause the action to explain lineage, law, or lore. It’s the connective you hear when an author wants to add weight to a sentence without breaking the formal rhythm, so wizards, chroniclers, heralds, and epistolary framings tend to use it in dialogue or narration.
I’ll admit I lean toward writers who deliberately mimic medieval or Renaissance diction—think of the folks who dress their sentences in lace and Latin-derived vocabulary. Those writers sprinkle 'furthermore' alongside 'moreover' and 'whereupon' to create a kind of ritual cadence. It’s also common in translations or scholarly editions of old myths, where modern editors insert it to preserve a sense of solemn continuity. By contrast, pulp or gritty sword-and-sorcery tends to avoid it, preferring punchier connectors.
From a stylistic point of view, 'furthermore' does a neat job of signaling authority: it tells the reader that what follows is part of the established truth of the world. That makes it great for worldbuilding asides, genealogies, or any moment when the story steps back and clarifies stakes. Personally, I love spotting it because it often signals a patch of lore that’s about to get interesting; it’s like a little literary drumroll before the next detail drops.
You’ll catch me getting a bit excited about this because 'furthermore' reads to me like a costume piece in a period drama—when an author dresses their prose up to parade its history. In lighter, more conversational fantasy it's rare, but in the formal, high-register stuff it pops up a lot. I don’t keep frequency stats or anything, but in the older, ornate fantasies or deliberately archaic retellings I’ve seen, authors use it to stack facts neatly: it’s clean, neutral, and carries that slightly elevated tone.
Comparing styles in my head, modern epic fantasy writers who favor clarity and immediacy tend to avoid 'furthermore'—they go with shorter, livelier transitions. On the flip side, novels that mimic chronicles or are framed as translations lean into it because it feels credible for a chronicler to use. Even in dialogue, characters of rank or scholarship will slip into that register. I kind of like it when done sparingly; too much turns the prose into a lecture. But used well, it’s a tool for building an atmosphere of gravitas, and I often find myself admiring that craftful restraint.
I keep bumping into 'furthermore' in older fantasy because it suits a certain rhetorical habit. Reading through late-19th and early-20th century texts, authors often adopted formal, essay-like structures within their narratives, especially when narrators shift into exposition. Writers like George MacDonald and William Morris favored that measured, cumulative style; they were heirs to Victorian prose habits that prized linking devices to march an argument forward.
There’s also a class of writer who uses 'furthermore' in a knowing, almost baroque way — E. R. Eddison being a prime example. His sentences relish ornamentation, so conjunctions and transitional adverbs crop up frequently. By contrast, modern epic fantasy authors often avoid those older signals, preferring leaner transitions or purely scene-driven flow. I like to mentally tag sentences that use 'furthermore' as ones that belong to an older conversational etiquette, and it helps me place books in a historical and stylistic context — kind of like dating fashion by collar style.
If you read fantasy for the rhythm as much as the story, 'furthermore' is a fun fingerprint. I’m the type who skims a paragraph and thinks about voice: who’s narrating, how formal the world is, and whether the author wants to feel like a tutor or a fellow adventurer. In classic texts, that little word often signals an author who delights in formal rhetoric — folks like Eddison, Morris, and sometimes Lewis. It’s less common in stripped-down yarns like 'The Hobbit', which prefers plain, chatty narration.
What fascinates me is where 'furthermore' shows up structurally. It tends to anchor explanatory passages, historical digressions, or moralizing moments. In prefaces, footnotes, or those long, panoramic passages describing kingdoms and laws, it helps the prose feel cumulative and authoritative. Modern authors who mimic older styles will sprinkle it in deliberately to evoke that antique tone, and that’s always a wink I enjoy catching. Makes reading feel like overhearing an old professor spinning a tall tale.
To my ear, 'furthermore' belongs to the classically formal register of fantasy prose: it’s used most by narrators and characters who want to sound authoritative, and by writers who are imitating historical or mythic voices. I notice it in sections that read like chronicles, legal proclamations, or scholarly aside—places where the text needs to accumulate facts and wants to feel measured and official. Translators of old works often favor it because it’s a tidy modern equivalent for an older, formal connective.
It’s less at home in rough-and-tumble sword tales or snappy, modern-voice fantasy, where conversational transitions feel more natural. Instead, 'furthermore' signals a certain narrative choreography: the author is lining up reasons or details, asking the reader to observe and accept. That little implication of ceremony is why I always perk up when I see it; it usually means some piece of lore or authority is about to be established, and I enjoy that sense of discovery.
Curiously, if you start scanning old fantasy paperbacks and library bindings, a certain kind of voice keeps popping up — the sort that loves formal connectors like 'furthermore'. I tend to notice it most in the more ornate, late-Victorian and Edwardian fantasy writers: think William Morris and E. R. Eddison. Their prose flows like a ceremonial speech, piling clauses on clauses, and 'furthermore' becomes a wardrobe piece in that grand stylistic costume.
I also find 'furthermore' sneaking into prefaces and narrator intrusions in works like 'The Worm Ouroboros' or 'The Well at the World’s End', where the author enjoys addressing the reader with a slightly lecturing tone. J. R. R. Tolkien is more varied — at times archaic, at times conversational — so he uses similar formal signposts, but not as dependably. C. S. Lewis leans into didactic clarity in 'The Chronicles of Narnia', so he’ll use it when making moral or explanatory bridges.
Spotting that little adverb has become a personal hobby; it tells me whether I’m in a pompous courtly chamber or a cozy, straightforward tale. I love how a single word can reveal an author’s cadence and attitude toward the reader.
Give me late-night rereads and I’ll point out the sentences that feel ceremonious — 'furthermore' often flags them. In many of the classic fantasies I love, the word belongs to authors who relish ornamental prose: William Morris and E. R. Eddison come to mind instantly. They use it to pile meaning upon meaning, the way a bard layers motifs.
It’s also common in introductions and authorial asides in works like 'Phantastes' or collections of fairy tales, where the narrator steps out of the scene to address the reader. I find it charming more than stuffy; it places you in a literary era where clarity and formality were virtues. Reading that cadence today feels like sipping a timeworn drink — slightly bitter, oddly comforting.