Tag Archives: dwarves

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Babes in the Woods

Posted on November 13, 2022 by Nathan

I remember, back in high school, reading about Scandinavian tales of women living in the forest who looked beautiful and human from the front, but were hollow in the back. I think the book just called them elves, and they … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Authors, British, Fairy Tales, German, Greek Mythology, J.R.R. Tolkien, Language, Mythology, Names, Norse, Piers Anthony, Roman, Xanth | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Human Alchemy

Posted on October 19, 2022 by Nathan

The Hero’s Guide to Saving Your Kingdom, by Christopher Healy – This is an amusing take on well-known fairy tales focuses on what happens after the stories, and that it isn’t always just living happily ever after. The princes from Cinderella, … Continue reading →

Posted in Alchemy, Authors, Book Reviews, Fairy Tales, History, Humor, L. Frank Baum, Language, Magic, Maps, Mathematics, Middle Ages, Monsters, Mythology, Nursery Rhymes, Oz, Oz Authors, Philosophy, Relationships, Religion, Russian, seanan mcguire, Theosophy | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Serge Worked

Posted on June 4, 2022 by Nathan

SPOILERS FOR CHRONO CROSS! So, I finished Chrono Cross…sort of. There’s more than one way to beat the final boss, and the way to get the good ending involves using elements in a certain order. It’s a clever idea, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Chrono Trigger, Families, Magic, Monsters, Technology, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Follow the Feline

Posted on March 8, 2022 by Nathan

Inherent Vice – I can’t say this movie really held my attention, and Beth said it didn’t for her either. It’s a Paul Thomas Anderson film based on a book by Thomas Pynchon, apparently following it pretty closely, and I’ve … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Camper Van Beethoven, Cartoons, Dreams, Drugs, Fairy Tales, Humor, Magic, Music, Television, The Simpsons, VoVat Goes to the Movies | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a 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 , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Ecosystem of Yggdrasil

Posted on May 10, 2021 by Nathan

A comment on my post about video game squirrels mentioned Ratatosk (or Ratatoskr, probably a more accurate transliteration, but not how I originally knew it), the squirrel from Norse mythology. He’s a red squirrel who runs up and down the … Continue reading →

Posted in algonquin, Animals, Comics, Final Fantasy, Monsters, Mythology, Names, Native American, Norse, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Whether Nero to Me or Far

Posted on March 1, 2021 by Nathan

An Excess of Enchantments, by Craig Shaw Gardner – The second book in the Ballad of Wuntvor trilogy, there just wasn’t as much to this one as to earlier volumes. Pretty much the whole thing was based around Mother Duck’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Art, Authors, Book Reviews, Characters, craig shaw gardner, Fairy Tales, Greek Mythology, History, Humor, Magic, Mana/Seiken Densetsu, Monsters, Mythology, Oz, Oz Authors, Rick Riordan, Roman, Roman Empire, Ruth Plumly Thompson, seanan mcguire, Trials of Apollo, Video Games, Wayward Children | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

The Offbeat Officials of Oz

Posted on November 26, 2020 by Nathan

The Oz books have a lot of small royal courts with unusually-titled officials. This is something we see much more often in Ruth Plumly Thompson, but L. Frank Baum did have a few examples. In John Dough and the Cherub, … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, C.S. Lewis, Characters, Chronicles of Narnia, Humor, L. Frank Baum, Magic Items, Names, Oz, Oz Authors, Places, Ruth Plumly Thompson | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Elements and Alignments

Posted on August 2, 2020 by Nathan

Magical Starsign is a Nintendo DS game from some years back that I thought I might want to check out, but didn’t until fairly recently. It’s a turn-based role-playing game that makes heavy use of the stylus, which is a … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Final Fantasy, Food, Humor, Magic, Mana/Seiken Densetsu, Names, Technology, Video Games, Zelda | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment