Romanticism

Romance is a word which has a lot of meanings. The most common you here is involved with Love and Courtship, but that's only one of them and comparatively recent. It's word roots means "in the Language of Rome" and is used to describe languages such as Spanish and French, Italian and Romanian which stem directly from Latin as well as a 19th century artistic movement which emerged in part to previous Enlightenment thinkers and the French Revolution in particular. It's roughly from the latter we get Romanticism, which is a major aspect in fantasy literature.

Picture this...

• An Agora the Classical World, with grand architecture of marble in which Philosophers can be found in every corner. They have lively debates with each other, gladly teach those that listen, sketch out grand ideas or just muse on the fundamental nature of reality and humanity.
• In the High Middle Ages group of proud Knights clad in gleaming armour advances down the street brave and bold astride mighty horses with banners fluttering in the wind and a fifer playing a merry tune march down a cobbled street of picturesque houses lined with cheering people. They are lead by a handsome young prodigy in shining plate, recently knighted and proven in tourney and skirmish with a smile on his face as he proclaims their mission and sets out in duty to his King and for the Glory of God.
• After two decades of miss-rule by a cruel usurper, a scion arises from the common folk and returns. The usurper's cruel regime is toppled and the True King now reigns again.
• The rough frontier of the Wild West; a Cowboy on his trusty steed with a stetson and a revolver on his hip rides towards a wagon train. He'd ridden ahead a few days ago through a harsh landscape baked by the in the day and chilled at night, braving and holding perils from rattlesnakes, to unexpected drops, to attack. Nevertheless, he found a place for these settlers to settle.
• Morning in 1950's American Suburbia. Street after street of cozy houses with manicured lawns and picket fences. A smiling milkman making his deliveries in his van and a paper boy on a bicycle making his rounds. After a hearty breakfast handsome men in business suits kiss their cute dress clad wives and drive off to work in their new 56' winged cars while their kids make their way to school.

All iconic images and each stir up a vision of the past in popular recollection which can invoke a strong emotional response: profound wisdom, bravery, honour, freedom, heroic duty, independence, self sufficiency and comfortable prosperity. This is relevant to the Fantasy genre as it often draws on these emotional images of the past at least as much as the often dry details of academia.

Even so these are at best only part of the picture.

• Not everyone in Ancient Greek was a philosopher. Many of them were just regular people trying to live as best they could. Similarly much of the "wisdom" that they spoke we'd find to be misguided at best and often repellent: such as blatant misogyny and an idea that some people were naturally slaves. Not surprising given their opinions on women or how readily slavery was accepted. That's when they are not being petty pedantic narrow minded inflexible jerks.
• In performing their quest these fair proud knights will brutally kill large numbers of people, not only for opposing them but because they were running low on supplies, needed some money to cover the expenses of the quest or they simply did not have the same religion that they did. They would also beat information out of captives, maim them or rape them and say a few prayers afterwards to cover their sins.
• The scion, even if he is 100% legitimate, can be just as cruel and incompetent as the usurper he ousted.
• One of the biggest perils for the cowboy the frontier were native peoples which were being displaced by the influx of settlers.
• 1950s Suburbs were indeed prosperous and fairly comfortable compared to what came before. But on the other hand the culture they existed in was highly conformist, excluded minorities by means both covert (Red Lining) and overt (segregation policies, compacts) and largely relegated women to specific roles . Similarly there was often behind the facade a fair deal of domestic abuse, drug abuse, alcoholism, etc.

This is not to say that Romantic images of the past (or other things for that matter) are necessarily a bad thing in of themselves nor that the people which enjoy them are bad or stupid. Even so, people should be mindful of the pitfalls they pose. The discrepancy between Romantic idealism and often grubby Realism itself can be a powerful theme and element in fantasy.