ABSTRACT
Farah Mendlesohn identifies portal and quest fantasies as having similar structures: both involve the protagonist leaving their known world, and passing through a portal into an unknown place, though she elaborates that not all portal fantasies become quests, though they are commonly so. Portals have three main functions: the first two are connected, as they can be used to see other places and/or communicate, as with the palantir in The Lord of the Rings; the third function, travel, is arguably the most common. The presence of portals also influences sociocultural world-building, often by inciting or worsening wars, as discussed for Deep Space Nine and Stargate. In the Stargate series, the Stargate serves as a bracket to the narrative; while it is used mid-narrative on occasion, it is the beginning and end of all quests, with the departure and return through the wormhole serving as iconic steps for the adventurers.
