Category Archives: Discworld

Listen to the Banshee

Posted on March 18, 2023 by Nathan

I’m not sure I’ve ever done a post about Banshees, of Inisherin or otherwise. I haven’t seen that movie, but I suspect it doesn’t have any literal Banshees in it. I did write before about the Bean-Nighe, which is sometimes considered a type of … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Authors, Cartoons, Celtic, Characters, Discworld, Etymology, Magic, Monsters, Music, Mythology, Oz, Television, Terry Pratchett | Tagged aiobheall, banshees, bean-nighe, birds, blarney castle, blarney stone, brigid, carrigcleena, cats, ciabhan, cliodhna, cormac maccarthy, crows, dragons, dryads, dwarves, fairies, forest of burzee, funerary rites, gargoyles, gebann the red druid, ghosts, gnomes, going postal, gryle, guards! guards!, hares, keening, leprechauns, leprechauns in oz, manannan mac lir, mark haas, morrigan, moving pictures, mr. ixolite, o'caoimh, ruadan, sean mac seamas, sirens, stoats, the colour of magic, tiny toon adventures, tonn cliodhna, tuatha de danann, weasels | 1 Comment

Serious About Series

Posted on March 9, 2023 by Nathan

I’ve finished reading the latest issue of The Baum Bugle, which is largely dedicated to Kabumpo in Oz. Editor Sarah Crozter co-wrote a piece with Nick Campbell on the book and Oz as a series in general. I’ve seen a … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Authors, Book Reviews, Cartoons, Characters, Christmas, Cults, Discworld, Dr. Seuss, Families, Games, Holidays, L. Frank Baum, Language, Magic, Names, Oz, Oz Authors, Plays, Religion, Ruth Plumly Thompson, Terry Pratchett, Toys | Tagged allison mcbain, black gold saya, cora-lee marcus, cory in oz, curious cottabus, dinosaurs, edward eager, fabia, fumaro, garrett kilgore, glinda, halloween island, i am jinjur, international wizard of oz club, jinjur, jonathan markoff, kabumpo, kabumpo in oz, kalidahs, kaliko, kuma party, limbo, lin carter, mary austin, nick campbell, nome king, nomes, on beyond zebra, ozma, ozma of oz, ozwold, pigasus, radiation, sarah crozter, teddy bears, the baum bugle, the gnome king of oz, the green glass castle, the man who didn't believe in christmas, the tired tailor of oz, the wonderful wizard of oz, tik-tok of oz, transformation, wizard of oz, writing, wumbo | 4 Comments

Mazes, Memory, and Magic

Posted on December 10, 2022 by Nathan

Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke – This is the first thing I’ve read by this author, and it was pretty fascinating. The protagonist and narrator is called Piranesi after the eighteenth century Italian artist and archaeologist (not that he knows that), … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, Book Reviews, Discworld, Final Fantasy, Games, Magic, Terry Pratchett, Video Games | Tagged andrew lloyd webber, dungeons and dragons, final fantasy viii, gaston leroux, guyal of sfere, jack vance, les miserables, mazirian the magician, piranesi, rincewind, susanna clarke, the colour of magic, the dying earth, the phantom of the opera, tunnels of doom | 3 Comments

Winners and Choosers

Posted on January 28, 2022 by Nathan

After looking at the notion of people chosen by the gods, I became curious as to how the concept of a specific person being the Chosen One originated. It’s a pretty common trope in fantasy, someone being prophesied to save the world … Continue reading →

Posted in Arthurian Legend, Authors, Babylonian, British, Captain N: The Game Master, Cartoons, Characters, Christianity, Discworld, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Futurama, Greek Mythology, Harry Potter, J.R.R. Tolkien, Magic, Mario, Mythology, Oz, Philosophy, Religion, Semitic, Star Wars, Television, Terry Pratchett, Video Games, Zelda | Tagged anakin skywalker, andrew heller, aragorn, armor, bender's big score, brain spawn, carrot ironfoundersson, chosen ones, chosen people, dark king, darth plagueis, darth vader, donald abbott, dorothy gale, dragon quest iii, dragon quest iv, dragon quest v, emperor palpatine, epic of gilgamesh, erdrick, fate, final fantasy mystic quest, flood, gilgamesh, glinda, gondor, hammurabi, how the wizard came to oz, hyrule, jedi, jesus, king arthur, king david, kylo ren, link, lord of the rings, middle-earth, nibblonians, oedipus, oz: the great and powerful, philip j. fry, professor hubert farnsworth, prophecy, return of the jedi, sith, swords, time travel, utnapishtim, voldemort, weapons, witches, wizard of oz | Leave a comment

The Gods Must Be Choosy

Posted on January 19, 2022 by Nathan

Paul Dana suggested a few weeks ago that I should look into the concept of chosen people in religion, and how common that was. Nowadays, it’s mostly used to refer to the Jewish people, or sometimes to other religions that … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, Christianity, Comics, Discworld, Greek Mythology, History, Judaism, Mythology, Neil Gaiman, Religion, Semitic, Terry Pratchett | Tagged 2 kings, american gods, animal sacrifice, athena, bible, chemosh, chosen people, covenant, hogfather, human sacrifice, israel, jesus, john of patmos, judah, maasai, mesha of moab, mesha stele, moab, poseidon, revelation, sacrifice, small gods, spider-man, stan lee, supersessionism, twelve tribes of israel | 1 Comment

All in How You Spell ‘Em

Posted on October 14, 2021 by Nathan

I saw something recently about the difference between the words “fairy” and “faerie.” Really, there’s no difference; the latter is just an archaic spelling. The word comes from the French for “fate,” and therefore “enchantment”; and was applied to many different … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, British, Celtic, Discworld, Etymology, Greek Mythology, J.R.R. Tolkien, L. Frank Baum, Language, Magic, Mythology, Norse, Oz, Oz Authors, Ruth Plumly Thompson, Terry Pratchett | Tagged aleister crowley, dennis wilson wise, dwarves, elves, fairies, fairyland, gnomes, goblins, immortals, john william polidori, lee speth, lord of the rings, noldor, nomes, nymphs, orcs, ozma of oz, spelling, the baum bugle, the hobbit, the hungry tiger of oz, vampires, words | 2 Comments

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Posted on December 31, 2020 by Nathan

The Stand, by Stephen King – This was a long book, even more so since I read the unabridged edition, but I don’t know that I’ll have a long review for it. I did like it, and it’s pretty timely since … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Art, Authors, Book Reviews, Comics, Discworld, Health, Humor, Jasper Fforde, Mario, Monsters, Politics, Prejudice, Terry Pratchett, Video Games | Tagged bouldergeist, caleb cook, coronavirus, dr. mario, foxes, kooper, luigi mario, mario and luigi: partners in time, new super mario bros. wii, paper mario, paul kidby, puns, rabbits, stephen king, super mari-old, super mario manga mania, super mario sunshine, super mario-kun, super paper mario, superflu, sushie, the art of discworld, the constant rabbit, the stand, time travel, weasels, yoshi, yukio sawada | 4 Comments

Where the Worlds Have No Name

Posted on October 14, 2020 by Nathan

One night last week, I had a fitful sleep with a bunch of weird dreams. I remember one of them had me ranting about how J.R.R. Tolkien was never clear on whether Middle-Earth was his entire imaginary world or just … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, C.S. Lewis, Captain N: The Game Master, Cartoons, Chronicles of Narnia, Discworld, Dragon Quest, Dreams, Final Fantasy, J.R.R. Tolkien, L. Frank Baum, Language, Maps, March Laumer, Mario, Mythology, Names, Norse, Oz, Oz Authors, Places, Ruth Plumly Thompson, Television, Terry Pratchett, Video Games, Zelda | Tagged alefgard, Arda, calormen, continent of imagination, dragon quest ii, dragon quest iii, final fantasy iv, final fantasy ix, final fantasy vii, gaia, galaxies, hyrule, jupiter, mars, middle-earth, midgard, moon, mushroom world, narnia, nonestic ocean, planets, professor wogglebug, saturn, sun, super mario bros. 3, the royal book of oz, world tree, yggdrasil | Leave a comment

Fearsome Furnishings

Posted on December 5, 2019 by Nathan

Living versions of inanimate objects are common in fiction. The Oz books have a lot of them, although most of them are friendly. There are, however, many animated objects that are deadly, especially in role-playing games. I was recently thinking … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Authors, Discworld, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Focus on the Foes, Games, Jack Snow, Kid Icarus, Magic, Mario, Monsters, Oz, Oz Authors, Terry Pratchett, Video Games | Tagged angler whelk, anglerfish, bag of devouring, canniboxes, demon wall, doorbusters, doors, dragon quest iii, dungeons and dragons, final fantasy iv, final fantasy vi, hidon, interesting times, kid icarus uprising, luggage, mad piano, manticores, mimics, mimicuties, piano, piranha plants, pit, rincewind, super mario 64, super mario rpg, the colour of magic, the light fantastic, the magical mimics in oz, trap doors, treasure chests, tv tropes, twoflower, urnexpected | Leave a comment

You’re in Luck

Posted on August 4, 2019 by Nathan

I’d thought before about how the appellation “lucky” is applied to so many Oz characters. Well, only three that I can think of, but that’s still kind of weird. They were introduced by three different authors, however. The first is … Continue reading →

Posted in Advertising, Authors, Characters, Comics, Discworld, Greek Mythology, John R. Neill, L. Frank Baum, Melody Grandy, Mythology, Oz, Oz Authors, Philosophy, Religion, Roman, Ruth Plumly Thompson, Terry Pratchett | Tagged atreyu, carl barks, cereal, charles lindbergh, davy jones the wooden whale, deadpool, deadpool 2, domino, donald duck, dragons, falkor, fate, fortuna, fortune, fred meyer, fred otto, fuchur, fukuryu, giants, gladstone gander, interesting times, jenny jump, lady luck, leif erikson, leprechauns, leprechauns in oz, loxo the lucky, luck, luck dragon, luck o' the irish, lucky bucky in oz, lucky bucky jones, lucky charms, lucky the leprechaun, margolotte, mark haas, michael ende, ojo, ojo in oz, oziana, prince pompadore, prince pompadore in oz, probability, psychopompus, rincewind, speedy in oz, the colour of magic, the forbidden cave of grapelandia, the lady, the last hero, the neverending story, the patchwork girl of oz, the seven blue mountains of oz, the wonder city of oz, tyche, x-force, zazie beetz, zim greenleaf of oz | 1 Comment

Category Archives: Discworld

Listen to the Banshee

Serious About Series

Mazes, Memory, and Magic

Winners and Choosers

The Gods Must Be Choosy

All in How You Spell ‘Em

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Where the Worlds Have No Name

Fearsome Furnishings

You’re in Luck

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