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Sunday Inspiration: Impossible
It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.
—Robert H. Schuller
Building Your World through Multiple Texts
Lisa Walker England has put her finger on something that I have been groping toward for a couple of years now. There are just too many details of a well fleshed-out world to ever fit comfortably in any number of novels. In her recent post at Mythic Scribes, Lisa challenges us to think in terms of other sorts of texts that might be useful in conveying that information. Namely, she suggests
- Bestiary
- Fable Collection
- Comic Book
- Letters
- Fight or Magic Manual
I’ve worked out some of the basics of a bestiary for my Into the Wonder series as well as a fairly extensive essay on magic. Those who’ve read Children of Pride know that I’ve also written a handful of indigenous fables. (The idea of the kinds of stories faeries might tell their young children captured my attention at some point in the writing process.)
I was surprised History wasn’t one of Lisa’s suggestions, but perhaps that is such a common companion piece that it didn’t really bear mentioning. She also mentioned in passing the idea of a Law Code. In fact, the laws of the fae are an important plot point in my work-in-progress sequel, The Devil’s Due.
Good stuff all around. It’s a blog post well worth reading!
Ten Latin Spells from Harry Potter
Because you should never pass up the opportunity to learn something!
The magical world of J. K. Rowling is known by millions (if not billions) of children, teens, and adults. Especially those who grew up reading the books and then watched the magic come to life of the silver screen later on. J.K. Rowling created the world of Harry Potter from her vast imagination (and personal experience) and perhaps from other sources. These included Dickens and Tolkien, which she says filled her free time during her college years.
J. K Rowling attended University of Exeter and received her BA in French and Classics. It is evident that she received a degree in Classics, because the Harry Potter series is filled with Latin words and ancient mythology. While the mythological references may be easier to see in character names (i.e Minerva McGonagall as in Minerva the Roman goddess of wisdom); the Latin reference may not be as discernible.
Dragons of Ancient India
Adrienne Meyer of Wonders and Marvels is blogging today about the dragons of ancient India:
“Dragons of enormous size and variety infest northern India,” concluded Apollonius of Tyana who traveled through the southern foothills of the Himalayas in the first century AD. “The countryside is full of them and no mountain ridge was without one.” Locals regaled visitors with fantastic tales of dragon hunting, using magic to lure them out of the earth in order to pry out the gems embedded in the dragons’ skulls.
Trophies of these quests were displayed in Paraka at the foot of a great mountain, “where a great many skulls of dragons were enshrined.” Ancient Paraka has never been identified, but linguistic clues suggest it was the ancient name for Peshawar. In later times a famous Buddhist holy place near Peshawar was known as “the shrine of the thousand heads.”
Not surprisingly (to me), the bones of prehistoric creatures are likely the explanation for these legends:
Apollonius traveled through the pass at Peshawar and southeast on a route that skirted the Siwalik Hills below the Himalayas. The barren foothills of the Siwalik range boast vast and rich fossil beds with rich remains of long-extinct bizarre creatures. On these eroding slopes and marshes from Kashmir to the banks of the Ganges, people in antiquity would have observed hosts of strange skeletons emerging from the earth: enormous crocodiles (20 feet long); tortoises the size of a Mini Cooper; shovel‑tusked gomphotheres, stegodons, and Elephas hysudricus with its bulging brow; chalicotheres and anthracotheres; the large giraffe Giraffokeryx; and the truly colossal Sivatherium (named after the Hindu god Siva), a moose‑like giraffe as big as an elephant and carrying massive antlers. It seems safe to guess that the “dragon” heads exhibited at Paraka included the skulls of some of these strange creatures from the Siwalik Hills.
Medieval Fantasy vs. Actual History
Fantasy doesn’t necessarily have to be historically accurate, but some tropes are so entrenched in Medieval-style fantasy that people come to mistake them for historical fact. What is based on real history and what is just a convincing fiction?
Sunday Inspiration: The Secret of Life
The secret of life isn’t what happens to you, but what you do with what happens to you.
—Norman Vincent Peale
Five Griffins and Griffin-like Creatures
There is something about a majestic eagle in flight that fills most of us with wonder. And there is also something awe-inspiring about a powerful lion on the prowl. It doesn’t surprise me that mythology is full of fantastic beasts that combine the characteristics of these two powerful hunting beasts.
I’ve been pondering how to work a griffin into an upcoming novel, simply because large flying things are cool, and griffins are among the coolest. So I’ve done a little bit of research on griffins and other part-bird part-lion creatures from mythology and heraldry. Here are some of my favorites.
Griffin
The griffin of Greek mythology was said to hail either from the far north or from Ethiopia, “Ethiopia” being a Greek word meaning “too far away to verify, but you can take my word for it.” It is described as a creature with the head, wings, and talons of an eagle and the hindquarters of a lion. It has long, external ears and, sometimes, a snake-like tail. They are often seen guarding treasure, and they seem to be particularly fond of gold.
In medieval times, griffins came to be associated with Christ. Since they combined aspects of a lion, the “king of beasts,” and an eagle, the “king of birds,” it was deemed appropriate that they symbolize Christ, the “king of kings.” These creatures are also said to mate for life, even to the point of not seeking a new mate if the first one dies.
There are a number of magical properties associated with the relics of griffins. Their talons change color in the presence of poison, making them ideal to fashion into drinking vessels. Furthermore, the feather of a griffin is said to be able to restore sight to the blind.
Griffins are especially fond of horse meat.
Alce
The alce may have been the earliest form of griffin, although its name comes from medieval heraldry. Simply put, it is a wingless griffin. The ancient Scythians, inhabitants of the region north of the Black Sea, depicted wingless griffins in their art.
According to folklorist Adrienne Mayor, they may have been inspired by the fossil skeletons of Protoceratops and other beaked dinosaurs they found while mining for gold in the Tian Shan and Altai Mountains of Central Asia.
Hieracosphinx
Another creature that combines raptor and felid characteristics is the hieracosphinx of Egypt. Like the alce, the hieracosphinx is a wingless creature. It combines the body of a lion with the head of a falcon. In artistic depictions, the distinct coloring of a falcon’s face is plain to see on this creature.
The presence of a hieracosphinx is sometimes interpreted as an evil omen.
Opinicus
Like “alce,” “opinicus” is a fairly modern term. Most ancient and medieval peoples would have classified this creature as simply a griffin. Opinici can be distinguished from true griffins by their lack of external ears, cat-like rather than bird-like forelimbs, and short camel-like tail. The opinicus is more of a scavenger than are griffins proper.
Hippogriff
Harry Potter notwithstanding, the hippogriff is a joke—literally! They were first mentioned by the Latin poet Virgil, but only received their name in the 16th-century poem Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Ariosto where, it should be noted, it was a swift steed ridden by magicians.
But the hippogriff is also an impossibility, the offspring of a mare and a griffin. Since horse is one of a griffin’s favorite foods, the idea of a griffin and a horse mating was remarkable. Mention of such a creature would have likely been the Classical equivalent of “when pigs fly,” “hen’s teeth,” or (more to the point) “horsefeathers.”
Sunday Inspiration: Comparisons
Don’t compare your beginning with someone else’s middle.
—Jon Acuff
Celtic Mythology Reading List
Dan McCoy suggests the Five Best Books on Celtic Mythology over on his Norse Mythology blog. Plenty of folks are interested in both mythologies, so it makes sense that an expert in one would have credible opinions about the other.
There’s a ridiculous number of introductory books on Celtic mythology out there. Figuring out which ones are the best can be a daunting task. This already difficult quest is further complicated by the fact that most of these books have extremely generic titles like “Celtic Myths and Legends” or “Celtic Mythology.” At first glance, they all appear to be more or less identical.
But anyone who’s well-acquainted with this field will tell you that nothing could be further from the truth. Some are far superior to others in terms of the scope and accuracy of the information they present, as well as in writing style. Some are written for scholars or an educated audience, while some are written for a more general audience and are written in a more entertaining and engaging way.
Darrell J. Pursiful 