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Category Archives: Etymology
We Belong Dead
Today, I’m back from the dead (that might have worked better if I hadn’t just written yesterday) to talk about three Frankenstein movies. There are SPOILERS for all of them, as well as the original novel. Frankenstein – The original … Continue reading
Posted in Etymology, Magic, Medicine, Monsters, Names, VoVat Goes to the Movies
Tagged boris karloff, bride of frankenstein, elsa lanchester, frankenstein, helena bonham carter, kenneth branagh, lord byron, mary shelley, mary shelley's frankenstein, percy bysshe shelley, prometheus, robert de niro, tom hulce
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Sorting Out Sorcery
One running theme in Glinda of Oz is that there are several different types of magic in Oz, all of which have their specialties, but none of them can do everything. L. Frank Baum contrasts the fairy magic of Ozma … Continue reading
Posted in Alchemy, Characters, Etymology, Games, Jack Snow, John R. Neill, L. Frank Baum, Language, Magic, Magic Items, Oz, Oz Authors, Politics, Religion, Ruth Plumly Thompson, Technology, Theosophy
Tagged abrog, akbad, belfaygor, blinkie, conjo, cookywitches, dorothy and the wizard in oz, dr. pipt, dungeons and dragons, fanny the weather witch, flatheads, gayelette, glinda, glinda and the red jinn, glinda of oz, good witch of the north, gorba, grampa in oz, great book of records, gwig, handy mandy in oz, imperial squawmos, jack pumpkinhead of oz, kadj the conjurer, krumbic witch, magicians, mangaboos, miserable mesmerizer, mombi, mooj, necromancers, ojo in oz, oz magic, oziana, ozma, ozwoz, paul dana, peter brown, pirates in oz, potaroo, prophecy, queen coo-ee-oh, red jinn, robert pattrick, rora flathead, soob the sorcerer, soothsayers, sorcerers, speedy in oz, supreme dictator of the flatheads, the cowardly lion of oz, the giant horse of oz, the gnome king of oz, the lost princess of oz, the marvelous land of oz, the patchwork girl of oz, the runaway in oz, the scarecrow of oz, the shaggy man of oz, the wonderful wizard of oz, three adepts at magic, ugu the shoemaker, unexplored territory in oz, waddy, wicked witch of the east, wicked witch of the west, witches, wizard of oz, wizard of wutz, wizards, wozards, wumbo, yookoohoos
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What’s Buggane You?
The Buggane is a monster in the folklore of the Isle of Man, which I suppose makes it a Manxome foe, like the Jabberwock. As an American, the main thing I know about the place is the tailless cats. Since … Continue reading
Posted in Animals, British, Christianity, Etymology, Fairy Tales, Language, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Religion
Tagged bogeyman, boggarts, bugganes, chicken rock, fairies, fionn mac cumhaill, giants, greeba mountain, isle of man, kitterland, pookas, st. trinian's church
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Where There’s a Will, There’s a Wisp
The term “Will o’ the Wisp” refers to a sort of light that appears over swamps and marshes, caused by photon emissions from gases. Or at least that’s the scientific explanation. There’s a lot of folklore devoted to these weird … Continue reading
Posted in Animal Crossing, Animals, Authors, British, Christianity, Dragon Quest, Etymology, Fairy Tales, Final Fantasy, German, J.R.R. Tolkien, Japanese, Lewis Carroll, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Plays, Poetry, Religion, Science, Scottish, South American, Video Games, William Shakespeare
Tagged a midsummer night's dream, ariel, boitata, bram stoker, dracula, dragon quest iv, fairies, frodo baggins, ghosts, gollum, hobbits, ignis fatuus, irrwisch, jack o' lantern, john milton, karl haupt, lord of the rings, lost souls, paradise lost, puck, rogue wispers, samwise gamgee, snarks, st. elmo's fire, st. erasmus of formia, the hunting of the snark, the tempest, tonberries, umibozu, will o' the wisp, wisp, wisps, yokai
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Such Shellfish Women
I’m not really not that knowledgeable about Pokémon, but I have played Pokémon Yellow and picked up a few other things here and there. These are mostly about the original Pokémon, though, and there have been so many others since … Continue reading
Posted in Animals, Chinese, Etymology, Japanese, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Pokémon, Video Games
Tagged baku, carp, dragon gate, dragons, drowzee, fish, froslass, futakuchi-onna, gyarados, hermit crabs, kappa, lombre, magikarp, mawile, namazu, sazae-oni, shellder, slowbro, slowking, slowpoke, snails, top snail, turban snail, whiscash, yuki-onna
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Worm Your Way
Looking into mythology and fiction involving giant worms is a little tricky because it seems like a lot of early societies thought worms and snakes were variations on the same thing. I guess they didn’t want to investigate all that … Continue reading
Posted in Animals, Authors, Cartoons, Etymology, Final Fantasy, Futurama, Greek Mythology, J.R.R. Tolkien, Language, Monsters, Mythology, Science, Television, Video Games, Zelda
Tagged a link to the past, al gore, alien, annelids, arrakis, asclepius, beetlejuice, beowulf, carl linnaeus, dragons, dune, earthworms, final fantasy v, final fantasy vi, final fantasy X, frank herbert, glurmo, gobi desert, gogo, graboids, indus river, indus worm, john schoenherr, lambton worm, link, moldorms, mongolian death worm, moon worms, neitherworld, olgoi-khorkhoi, orcs, philip j. fry, professor hubert farnsworth, sandworms, saturn, skolex, slurm, slurm queen, sockburn worm, the battle of the five armies, the hobbit, tim burton, tremors, turanga leela, were-worms, worms, wormulon, wyrms, xenomorphs, zone eater
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Yale, Yale, the Gang’s All Here
Today’s mythical creature is the Yale, which was included in a list of uncommon mythical creatures on Quora, a site I’m always getting e-mails from despite not remembering ever signing up for, but I don’t unsubscribe because there’s interesting stuff … Continue reading
Posted in Animals, Etymology, Greek Mythology, Language, Monsters, Mythology
Tagged basilisk, bible, camelopard, centicore, ethiopia, giraffe, heraldry, jael, john of lancaster, judges, lady margaret beaufort, little nemo, natural history, pliny the elder, whiffenpoofs, yale, yale university
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Warrior Women at Work
The Dark Prophecy, by Rick Riordan – The follow-up to The Hidden Oracle continues the adventures of Apollo in a mortal body, with only occasional access to his godly powers when he least expects them. The previous volume established the … Continue reading
Posted in Authors, Book Reviews, Comics, Etymology, Greek Mythology, Humor, Language, Mythology, Poetry, Rick Riordan, Roman, Trials of Apollo
Tagged apollo, artemis, blemmyae, calypso, dc comics, griffins, hemithea, hercules, lucius aurelius commodus, the dark prophecy, trophonius, wonder woman, wonder woman a celebration of 75 years
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