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Category Archives: Myth & Legend
The Weird of the Worm
Reading Snorri’s account of Ragnarǫkr this noon over blunch, and I was struck by this poetic phrase in Snorri’s prose: Þórr berr banaorð af Miðgarðsormi “Thor bears the baneword from Midgard’s Serpent”. Old Norse orð is cognate with English word, … Continue reading
Posted in art, books, fantasy, fantasy art, Morlock, Myth & Legend, words
Tagged Old Norse, Snorri
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Swords in the Mistletoe
I was reading Snorri’s Edda today, trying to sort out the story-differences between Snorri’s version and the poems in the Elder Edda. For instance, the famous story where Thor goes fishing and catches Jormungandir, Midgard’s Serpent, plays out differently in … Continue reading
Posted in books, language, Myth & Legend, words
Tagged Edda, Fritz Leiber, Latin, Old Norse, Snorri
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Goa, Going, Gone
I was scrolling through an electronic edition of a venerable Latin dictionary, which is a totally normal thing to do, and I was brought up short by the entry for superstitio: “excessive fear of the goas; unreasonable religious belief.” I … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, language, Morlock, Myth & Legend, Rome, sword-and-sorcery, Typo of the Day, words
Tagged Latin
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The Strife of Camlann
Mordred vs. Arthur (by Arthur Rackham).
Posted in Adventures in the Public Domain, art, fantasy, fantasy art, Myth & Legend
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Get the Hnakkr!
I’m rereading Snorri’s Edda and Tacitus’ Historiae in tandem, and it’s an interesting experience. With Snorri, this involves a lot of adventures in the dictionary, as the vocabulary of Old Icelandic is definitely less familiar to me than the vocabulary … Continue reading
Posted in fantasy, Myth & Legend, sff, words
Tagged C.S. Lewis, Latin, Old Norse, Snorri, The Daulaires
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Forever Blowing Bubbles
Frank Kelly Freas, “The Piper”–a WEIRD TALES cover in 1950 and 1990. (See Deuce Richardson’s writeup at the DMR Books site.)
Posted in art, fantasy, fantasy art, Myth & Legend
Tagged Frank Kelly Freas
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“Look Up, Not Down!”
Κύκλοψ: βλέπετ᾽ ἄνω καὶ μὴ κάτω. Χορός: ἰδού: πρὸς αὐτὸν τὸν Δί᾽ ἀνακεκύφαμεντά τ᾽ ἄστρα, καὶ τὸν Ὠρίωνα δέρκομαι. —Euripides, Cyclops Cyclops: Look up, not down. Chorus: I am looking up! I’m looking ‘way up!
Posted in ancient art, art, fantasy, fantasy art, Myth & Legend
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Coca þola
I was looking up þola in Cleasby & Vigfusson this afternoon even though I was pretty sure I knew what it meant, which is a totally normal thing to do. They said it meant “endure”, as I expected, and connected … Continue reading
Posted in ancient art, Myth & Legend, words
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Looking Forward
Gearing up to teach one of my favorite courses, “Medieval Legends”.