Category Archives: sword-and-sorcery

Nerves in a bundle? Fall into a morðcrundel!

Posted on February 22, 2025 by JE

I’m rereading Beowulf, preparatory to teaching it in a couple weeks to my Norse Myth class. This kind of thing always involves falling into the dictionary and getting swept away by a tide of weird words. This afternoon’s discovery is … Continue reading →

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No Maps of Hell

Posted on February 19, 2025 by JE

Saw the article below on Bluesky and felt the irritation that almost always accrues when scrolling through social media. But this irritation was really specific. Demanding a historically accurate version of a myth is like trying to find the zip … Continue reading →

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What Are the Óðs?

Posted on February 19, 2025 by JE

I was thinking the other day about Hengist and Horsa, the two Saxon chieftains/gangsters who show up to assist and then overpower the usurper Vortigern in the run-up to King Arthur’s origin story. Horsa (Horsus in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Latin) … Continue reading →

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Worlds on Worlds Are Rolling Ever…

Posted on February 18, 2025 by JE

I realized this weekend that one of the pleasures of inventing a Martian language was coining new names for all the planets. (Including ones that don’t really exist, like Vulcan, Antichthon, and the Lost Planet that was once supposed to … Continue reading →

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I’m Going to Mars

Posted on February 13, 2025 by JE

I was posting on a corporate social media site this AM and I blithely wrote something like, “My New Year’s resolution this year is to blog more and post on corporate social media less.” This was kind of a lie, … Continue reading →

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Mail Call

Posted on January 27, 2025 by JE

Looking forward to (re)reading the vintage paperbacks. The history book is more for figuring out how teaching will work in the future, now that everything old is new again. I already have a copy of Van Vogt’s The Book of … Continue reading →

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Longish, Re Dilvish

Posted on January 23, 2025 by JE

Roger Zelazny was unquestionably one of the great American fantasists of the 20th century. That’s not to say he was perfect. His woman characters were often 2-dimensional, and he paired an unwillingness to work with an outline (“Trust your demon” … Continue reading →

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Garum + Chili = ?

Posted on January 11, 2025 by JE

I was trying to figure out why you couldn’t say this in Latin, then thought, “Well, it could only improve garum”, and finally realized: oh, they mean cocina latina. Some of these keywords for Bluesky feeds are deeply ambiguous. (“Conan” … Continue reading →

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Outlaws, Were-Bears, and Skunks

Posted on September 28, 2024 by JE

I’ve been reading the Gesta Herwardi (“The Deeds of Herward” a.k.a. “Hereward the Wake”), one of the original outlaw stories from England (although it’s written not in English, but in Latin—because, no doubt, Everything Is Better With Latin!™). The Robin … Continue reading →

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Some Typos are Typoier Than Others

Posted on September 25, 2024 by JE

Typo of the day, possibly of the decade, is Ratlick, for an intended Tatlock (the author of an old myth textbook). If a character named Ratlick doesn’t appear in an upcoming Morlock story, my name isn’t James Enge. (Um. So … Continue reading →

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