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West African Monsters and Faeries
James Calbraith has started a new series on less-familiar (to North Americans) mythologies over at Fantasy Faction. Check out the first installment, which deals with a number of creatures from West Africa:
Elves, trolls, dwarves, goblins… There’s no denying that the Western fantasy is strongly entrenched in a Northern European mindscape: those ancient myths of the Celtic and Germanic people that inspired Tolkien and his epigones. Writing about elves and dwarves is always a safe bet; when an author wants to be original and adventurous, they might look into the myths of the Mediterranean: Greek, Roman, Egyptian. Sometimes we venture into the Far East, and populate our worlds with qilin and long dragons, or, even rarer, into India or Persia. This seems to be the farthest horizon of our inspiration. Beyond that is the weird territory, with creatures born out of the writer’s own half-deranged mind in an attempt at uniqueness – not that there’s anything wrong with that.
But the world is vast and old, and every culture has its share of strange and fascinating; there is a vast stock of ideas out there that you can tap into before running out of inspiration. In this series I will attempt to present some of these myths and legends. In the first episode, I tackle the mythologies of Western and South-Western Africa, a region stretching from Sahara Desert to the jungles of Congo, populated by a complex mix of cultures, nations, tribes and peoples descended from ancient Empires.
If West African mythology is your thing, you might also enjoy some of my write-ups about West African faery folk:
Sunday Inspiration: Doing Unto Others
Do unto others 20% better than you would expect them to do unto you, to correct for subjective error.
—Linus Pauling
Sunday Inspiration: Responsibility
There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.
—J. K. Rowling
The Elves of Middle Earth
Kate Horowitz of mental_floss has posted “7 Regal Facts about the Elves of Middle Earth” in honor of the anniversary of J. R. R. Tolkien’s birth.
Sunday Inspiration: Wonder
Wonder signifies that the world is profounder, more all-embracing and mysterious than the logic of everyday reason had taught us to believe. The innermost meaning of wonder is fulfilled in a deepened sense of mystery. It does not end in doubt, but is the awakening of the knowledge that being, qua being, is mysterious and inconceivable.
—Joseph Pieper
Sunday Inspiration: The Work of Christmas
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heart.
—Howard Thurman
Sunday Inspiration: Tears
“You tried to give us the slip once before and failed, Frodo,” [Pippin] said. “This time you have nearly succeeded, but you have failed again. It was not Sam, though, that gave you away this time, but Gandalf himself!”
“Yes,” said Gandalf; “for it will be better to ride back three together than one alone. Well, here at last, dear friends, on the shores of the Sea comes the end of our fellowship in Middle-Earth. Go in peace! I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.”
—J. R. R. Tolkien
Have Yourself a Ghostly Little Christmas
Did you know that telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve is a long-standing English tradition?
“Whenever five or six English-speaking people meet round a fire on Christmas Eve, they start telling each other ghost stories,” wrote British humorist Jerome K. Jerome as part of his introduction to an anthology of Christmas ghost stories titled “Told After Supper“ in 1891. “Nothing satisfies us on Christmas Eve but to hear each other tell authentic anecdotes about specters.”
The practice of gathering around the fire on Christmas Eve to tell ghost stories was as much a part of Christmas for the Victorian English as Santa Claus is for us.
Formations for Youth
Well, this looks interesting:
This January, we are proud to announce a new addition to the Formations line of curriculum resources. Available as a digital download, Formations for Youth is an engaging, low-prep curriculum resource for Middle and High School youth groups. The lessons in this resource begin with activities that ask youth to consider a common theme in their relationship with God and their everyday lives. Then questions help youth explore those themes more deeply in discussion.
I’m proud of Michelle Meredith, the editor of this new offering from NextSunday Resources, and of all the great work she has put into making Formations for Youth happen!
Fantastic Beasts Trailer
I’m hoping Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will reflect the whimsy and lightheartedness of the book on which it’s based. I have nothing against the later, darker Harry Potter books and movies, but I still love the earlier, lighter stuff just as much. Fantastic Beasts ought to be a good place to recapture some of that.
Darrell J. Pursiful 