1.
Neck (water spirit)
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The neck, nicor, nixie or nokken are shapeshifting water spirits in Germanic mythology and folklore who usually appeared in forms of other creatures. Under a variety of names, they were common to the stories of all Germanic peoples, the related English knucker was generally depicted as a wyrm or dragon, although more recent versions depict the spirits in other forms. Their sex, bynames, and various transformations vary geographically, the German Nix and his Scandinavian counterparts were males. The German Nixe was a female river mermaid, the names are held to derive from Common Germanic *nikwus or *nikwis, derived from PIE *neigw. They are related to Sanskrit nḗnēkti, Greek νίζω nízō and νίπτω níptō, the form neck appears in English and Swedish. The Swedish form is derived from Old Swedish neker, which corresponds to Old Icelandic nykr, in Finnish, the word is näkki. In Old Danish, the form was nikke and in modern Danish, the Icelandic nykur is a horselike creature. In Middle Low German, it was called necker and in Middle Dutch nicker, the Old High German form nihhus also meant crocodile, while the Old English nicor could mean both a water monster like those encountered by Beowulf, and a hippopotamus. The Norwegian Fossegrim and Swedish Strömkarlen are related figures sometimes seen as by-names for the same creature, the Scandinavian version can transform himself into a horse-like kelpie, and is called a Bäckahästen, whilst the Welsh version is called the Ceffyl Dŵr. In the English county of Sussex, there are said to dwell water-wyrms called knuckers, the Word knucker is derived from the Old English nicor. English folklore contains many creatures with similarities to the Nix or Näck and these Necks include Jenny Greenteeth, the Shellycoat, Peg Powler, the Bäckahästen-like Brag, and the Grindylow. The Scandinavian näcken, näkki, nøkk were male water spirits who played enchanted songs on the violin, nøkker are said to grow despondent if they do not have free, regular contact with a water source. The Norwegian Fossegrim or Grim, Swedish strömkarl, is a figure who, if properly approached, will teach a musician to play so adeptly that the trees dance. It is difficult to describe the appearance of the nix. Perhaps he did not have any true shape and he could show himself as a man playing the violin in brooks and waterfalls but also could appear to be treasure or various floating objects or as an animal—most commonly in the form of a brook horse. The modern Scandinavian names are derived from an Old Norse nykr, thus, likely the brook horse preceded the personification of the nix as the man in the rapids. Fossegrim and derivatives were almost always portrayed as beautiful young men. The enthralling music of the nøkk was most dangerous to women and children, especially pregnant women and he was thought to be most active during Midsummers Night, on Christmas Eve and on Thursdays
2.
Theodor Kittelsen
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Theodor Severin Kittelsen was a Norwegian artist. He is one of the most popular artists in Norway, Kittelsen became famous for his nature paintings, as well as for his illustrations of fairy tales and legends, especially of trolls. Kittelsen was born in the town of Kragerø in Telemark county. His father died when he was young, leaving a wife, Theodor was only 11 years old when he was apprenticed to a watchmaker. When at the age of 17 his talent was discovered by Diderich Maria Aall, because of generous financial support by Aall he later studied in Munich. However, in 1879 Diderich Aall could no longer manage to support him, so Kittelsen had to earn his money as a draftsman for German newspapers, in 1882 Kittelsen was granted a state scholarship to study in Paris. In 1887 he returned to Norway for good, when back in Norway, he found nature to be a great inspiration. He spent the two years in Lofoten where he lived with his sister and brother-in-law at Skomvær Lighthouse. Kittelsen also started to write texts to his drawings there, Theodor Kittelsen and his family settled in a home and artist studio which he called Lauvlia near Prestfoss during 1899. Kittelsen spent his best artistic years here, during this period, Kittelsen was hired to illustrate Norwegian Folktales by the Norwegian folklore collector Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. In 1908 he was made Knight of the The Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav, however, he was forced to sell and leave Lauvlia in 1910 due to failing health. He was granted a stipend in 1911 but died in poverty in 1914. Kittelsens style could be classified between Neo-Romantic and naive painting, Lauvlia, his home from 1899-1910, is located north of Prestfoss along Route 287, with scenic view of Lake Soneren. The surrounding area, in particular Mount Andersnatten which overlooks the lake a few kilometres north, today Lauvlia is a private museum featuring an exhibition of Kittelsen’s original work. Lauvlia is decorated with Kittelsens own woodcarvings and murals, a new exhibition of original Kittelsen works is opened each year with painting and drawing activities arranged for children. The paintings exhibited are rotated each year, the national Theodor Kittelsen Museum at Blaafarveværket is at the Skuterudhøyden ridge by the Cobalt Mines. Kittelsen’s poetical interpretations of nature, the forest, the mountains and trolls are presented in the form of carved furniture, oil paintings, watercolours, in 2014 are Blaafarveværket in charge of arranging the biggest exhibition held ever in modern times. The house were the artist grew up in Kragerø is also currently a museum devoted to his legacy, black metal and folk metal bands such as Burzum, Empyrium, Otyg and Satyricon have used some of his pictures as album art, notably illustrations taken from Kittelsens book Svartedauen
3.
Fantasy
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Fantasy is a fiction genre set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Most fantasy uses magic or other elements as a main plot element, theme. Magic and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds, in popular culture, the fantasy genre is predominantly of the medievalist form. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy works by many writers, artists, filmmakers. Fantasy is studied in a number of disciplines including English and other studies, cultural studies, comparative literature, history. The identifying trait of fantasy is the reliance on imagination to create narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent. This differs from realistic fiction in that whereas realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, an author applies his or her imagination to come up with characters, plots, and settings that are impossible in reality. Fantasy has often compared with science fiction and horror because they are the major categories of speculative fiction. Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements, a science fiction narrative is unlikely, though seeming possible through logical scientific and/or technological extrapolation, whereas fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. The imagined elements of fantasy do not need an explanation to be narratively functional. Authors have to rely on the suspension of disbelief, an acceptance of the unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment. Despite both genres heavy reliance on the supernatural, fantasy and horror are distinguishable, horror primarily evokes fear through the protagonists weaknesses or inability to deal with the antagonists. Beginning perhaps with the earliest written documents, mythic and other elements that would come to define fantasy. MacDonald was an influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis. The other major fantasy author of this era was William Morris, lord Dunsany established the genres popularity in both the novel and the short story form. Many popular mainstream authors also began to write fantasy at this time, including H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Indeed, juvenile fantasy was considered more acceptable than fantasy intended for adults, nathaniel Hawthorne wrote fantasy in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys, intended for children, though works for adults only verged on fantasy. Political and social trends can affect a societys reception towards fantasy, in the early 20th century, the New Culture Movements enthusiasm for Westernization and science in China compelled them to condemn the fantastical shenmo genre of traditional Chinese literature
4.
Fantastic art
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Fantastic art is a broad and loosely defined art genre. It is not restricted to a school of artists, geographical location or historical period. Fantasy has been a part of art since its beginnings. In French, the genre is called le fantastique, in English it is referred to as visionary art. It has had a deep and circular interaction with fantasy literature, the subject matter of Fantastic Art may resemble the product of hallucinations, and Fantastic artist Richard Dadd spent much of his life in mental institutions. Salvador Dalí famously said, the difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad. Some recent Fantastic Art draws on the experience, or purported experience. The term Fantasy Art is closely related, and is applied primarily to recent art inspired by, or illustrating, the term has acquired some pejorative overtones. Fantastic art has traditionally been confined to painting and illustration. Fantastic art explores fantasy, imagination, the state, the grotesque, visions. Genres which may also be considered as Fantastic Art include the Symbolism of the Victorian era, religious art also depicts supernatural or miraculous subjects in a naturalistic way, but is not generally regarded as Fantastic Art. Many artists have produced works which fit the definition of fantastic art, others again such as René Magritte are usually classed as Surrealists but use fantastic elements in their work. It is therefore impossible to give an exhaustive list of fantastic artists and this led to a movement of science fiction and fantasy artists prior to and during the Great Depression, as anthologised by Vincent Di Fate, himself a prolific SF and space artist. In the United States in the 1930s, a group of Wisconsin artists inspired by the Surrealist movement of Europe created their own brand of fantastic art. They included Madison, Wisconsin-based artists Marshall Glasier, Dudley Huppler and John Wilde, Karl Priebe of Milwaukee and their art combined macabre humor, mystery and irony which was in direct and pointed contradiction to the American Regionalism then in vogue. Major imagists include Roger Brown, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, Ed Paschke, non-European art may contain fantastic elements, although it is not necessarily easy to separate them from religious elements involving supernatural beings and miraculous events. Sculptor Bunleua Sulilat is a notable contemporary Asian Fantastic artist, dream art Outsider art Society for the Art of Imagination Surrealism Vienna School of Fantastic Realism Gruyères Castle Coleman, A. D. Fantastic illustration and design in Britain, 1850-1930, day, Holliday T. & Sturges, Hollister
5.
Fantasy comics
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Fantasy comics have been around as long as the medium itself. Fredric Werthams book Seduction of the Innocent which directly led to a Senate hearing of the influence of comics on juvenile violence, though fantasy comics were able to survive in this new atmosphere though in a diminished capacity compared to its much stronger output in these early years. In the 1970s, Conan the Barbarian, created by Robert E. Howard, after some changes of publishers, it continued to be published in the 2010s. In the 1990s, The Sandman, created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth, the Seven Deadly Sins, Trinity Seven and Akatsuki no Yona
6.
Fantasy film
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Fantasy films are films that belong to the fantasy genre with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, mythology, folklore, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered a form of speculative fiction alongside science fiction films and horror films, Fantasy films often have an element of magic, myth, wonder, escapism, and the extraordinary. Several sub-categories of fantasy films can be identified, although the delineations between these subgenres, much as in literature, are somewhat fluid. The most common fantasy subgenres depicted in movies are High Fantasy and Sword, both categories typically employ quasi-medieval settings, wizards, magical creatures and other elements commonly associated with fantasy stories. High Fantasy films tend to feature a more richly developed fantasy world, often, they feature a hero of humble origins and a clear distinction between good and evil set against each other in an epic struggle. Many scholars cite J. R. R, to some, the term Sword and Sandal has pejorative connotations, designating a film with a low-quality script, bad acting and poor production values. Another important subgenre of films that has become more popular in recent years is contemporary fantasy. Such films feature magical effects or supernatural occurrences happening in the world of today. Fantasy films set in the afterlife, called Bangsian Fantasy, are less common, other uncommon subgenres include Historical Fantasy and Romantic Fantasy, although 2003s Pirates of the Caribbean, The Curse of the Black Pearl successfully incorporated elements of both. As noted above, superhero movies and fairy tale films might each be considered subgenres of fantasy films, as a cinematic genre, fantasy has traditionally not been regarded as highly as the related genre of science fiction film. Since the late 1990s, however, the genre has gained new respectability in a way, tolkiens The Lord of the Rings and J. K. Jacksons The Lord of the Rings trilogy is due to its ambitious scope, serious tone. These pictures achieved phenomenal commercial and critical success, and the installment of the trilogy became the first fantasy film ever to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Harry Potter series has been a financial success, has achieved critical acclaim. Following the success of ventures, Hollywood studios have greenlighted additional big-budget productions in the genre. These have included adaptations of the first, second, and third books in C. S and this is in contrast to science fiction films, which are often released during the northern hemisphere summer. The huge commercial success of these pictures may indicate a change in Hollywoods approach to fantasy film releases. Fantasy films have a history almost as old as the medium itself, however, fantasy films were relatively few and far between until the 1980s, when high-tech filmmaking techniques and increased audience interest caused the genre to flourish
7.
Fantasy literature
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Fantasy literature is the body of written works that employ the motifs, themes, and stylistic approaches expected in the fantasy genre. Historically, most works of fantasy were written pieces of literature, since the 1960s, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music and painting. Stories involving paranormal magic and terrible monsters have existed in spoken forms before the advent of printed literature, homers Odyssey satisfies the definition of the fantasy genre with its magic, gods, heroes, adventures and monsters. Fantasy literature as a distinct type emerged in Victorian times, with the works of such as Mary Shelley, William Morris. J. R. R. Tolkien played a role in the popularization and accessibility of the fantasy genre with his highly successful publications The Hobbit. Rarely does one consider modern fantasy without conjuring the memory and image of Tolkien, Tolkien was largely influenced by an ancient body of Anglo-Saxon myths, particularly Beowulf, as well as modern works such as The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison. Tolkiens close friend C. S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, the tradition established by these predecessors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries has continued to thrive and be adapted by new authors. Tolkiens fiction has—particularly over the genre of high fantasy—prompted backlash, at the turn of the millennium, the Harry Potter novels of J. K. Rowling achieved widespread popularity. R. Martin in 2005, and 2011, Neil Gaiman in 2005, authors often engage in worldbuilding, constructing a framework or entire world against which the narrative plays out. Symbolism often plays a significant role in literature, often through the use of archetypal figures inspired by earlier texts or folklore. Some argue that fantasy literature and its archetypes fulfill a function for individuals and society, le Guin, in her essay From Elfland to Poughkeepsie, presented the idea that language is the most crucial element of high fantasy, because it creates a sense of place. She analyzed the misuse of a formal, olden-day style, saying that it was a trap for fantasy writers because it was ridiculous when done wrong. Brian Peters writes that in various forms of fantasy, even the villains language might be inappropriate if vulgar. The fantastical details of the series fade away by the installment, revealing that the wizarding community of the Harry Potter books is just as bad, if not worse. Farah Mendlesohn argues the world of literature is broken up into four categories, the portal quest, the immersive, the intrusive. How the fantastic enters the world is what determines how a story fits into these categories. In a portal quest such as C. S. Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch, in the intrusion fantasies like Bram Stokers Dracula, the fantastic invades the fictional world. With liminal fantasy, for example Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, The Subtle Knife, tolkiens The Hobbit for example, allows the reader no escape from the fantastic
8.
Fantasy fiction magazine
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A fantasy fiction magazine or fantasy magazine is a magazine which publishes primarily fantasy fiction. Not generally included in the category are magazines for children with stories about characters as Santa Claus. Also not included are adult magazines about sexual fantasy, many fantasy magazines, in addition to fiction, have other features such as art, cartoons, reviews, or letters from readers. Some fantasy magazines also publish fiction and horror fiction, so that here is not always a clear distinction between a fantasy magazine and a science fiction magazine. For example, Fantastic magazine published almost exclusively science fiction for much of its run
9.
Fantasy television
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Fantasy television is a genre of television programming featuring elements of the fantastic, often including magic, supernatural forces, or exotic fantasy worlds. Fantasy television programs are based on tales from mythology and folklore. The boundaries of fantasy television overlap with Science Fiction and Horror, similar to the difficulty faced by scholars of fantasy film, classifying a television program as fantasy can be somewhat problematic given the fluid boundaries of the genre. Not all programs with fantastic elements may qualify as fantasy, childrens programs in particular often feature fantastic elements that do not qualify the program as fantasy, such as the giant talking avian Big Bird of the popular PBS series Sesame Street. Nevertheless, some critics classify certain childrens programs that feature traditional fantasy elements such as characters, wizards. See, for example, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, programs for general audiences may also be difficult to classify. The program The Twilight Zone presented a series of unrelated stories, some of which were works of science fiction, the more generic term speculative fiction might be appropriate for such shows. Other series blend the fantasy and horror genres, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and still other programs feature dream sequences or other surreal elements, yet would not be considered fantasy shows by most fans or critics. In the United Kingdom, the term telefantasy is used as a term to collectively describe all types of programs that feature elements of the fantastic. Some critics consider Superhero programs to be works of fantasy, but others classify them as science fiction, see, for example Wonder Woman and Lois & Clark. Proper classification is ambiguous for the Tokusatsu superhero programs from Japan. A wide variety of subgenres have been represented on television
10.
Contemporary fantasy
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Contemporary fantasy, also known as modern fantasy or indigenous fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy, set in the present day or, more accurately, the time period of the maker. It is perhaps most popular for its subgenre, urban fantasy, novels in which modern characters travel into alternate worlds, and all the magical action takes place there, are not considered contemporary fantasy. In his preface to That Hideous Strength, one of the earlier works falling within this subgenre, but they were not remote at all to the men who first made and enjoyed the tales. When the story takes place in a city, the work is called urban fantasy. The contemporary fantasy and low fantasy genres can overlap as both are defined as being set in the real world, low fantasies are set in the real world but not necessarily in the modern age, in which case they would not be contemporary fantasy. Contemporary fantasies are set in the world but may also include distinct fantasy settings within it, such as the Harry Potter series. Robert Louis Stevenson, The Bottle Imp H. G. Cox, Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods Charles Williams, the Borrowers series by Mary Norton. Virtually the entire oeuvre of Charles de Lint Most of the novels of Tim Powers Various works by Mercedes Lackey, isaac Asimovs The Two-Centimeter Demon and other stories involving the tiny demon Azazel. Boris and Arkady Strugatskys Monday Begins on Saturday, where magic, rowlings Harry Potter series - set in the United Kingdom during the 1990s. Sergei Lukyanenkos Night Watch, set in Moscow and it has three sequels that form a tetralogy, Day Watch, Twilight Watch and Final Watch. Philip Pullmans His Dark Materials trilogy - The trilogy takes place across several universes including ours. I. T. C. H, a comic series by Elisabetta Gnone, Alessandro Barbucci, and Barbara Canepa. A number of works by Neil Gaiman, among them American Gods and Neverwhere, kelley Armstrongs Women of the Otherworld series Hazel Butlers Deathly Insanity series. Susan Coopers The Dark Is Rising Sequence Peter S. Beagles A Fine and Private Place, elrods Vampire Files series following Jack Fleming a vampire P. I. Freda Warringtons Aetherial Tales series Richelle Meads Georgina Kincaid series Derek Landys Skulduggery Pleasant Raymond E, examples include Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, The Antelope Wife by Louise Erdrich, and Mistress of Spices by Chitra Bannerjee Divakaruni. The Mighty Thor of Marvel Comics can also be considered to belong to this subgenre, the same can be said of Hellboy. The Longest Journey is a game in which the protagonist discovers that an alternate magical reality exists in parallel with her contemporary urban reality. Once Upon a Time is a series that are based on fairy tales. The teenage witch Sabrina Spellman, living in contemporary America, clearly belongs to genre, as do the characters of the sitcom Bewitched
11.
Legendary creature
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A legendary creature is an animal or part human described in non-historical stories that sometimes involve the supernatural. In the classical era, monstrous creatures such as the Cyclops, other creatures, such as the unicorn, were claimed in accounts of natural history by various scholars of antiquity. Some legendary creatures have their origin in traditional mythology and were believed to be creatures, for example dragons, griffins. Others were based on real encounters, originating in garbled accounts of travelers tales, such as the Vegetable Lamb of Tartary, a variety of mythical animals appear in the art and stories of the Classical era. For example in the Odyssey, monstrous creatures include the Cyclops, Scylla, in other tales there appear the Medusa to be defeated by Perseus, the Minotaur to be destroyed by Theseus, and the Hydra to be killed by Heracles, while Aeneas battles with the harpies. These monsters thus have the function of emphasising the greatness of the heroes involved. Some classical era creatures, such as the centaur, chimaera, Triton, similarly, sphinxes appear as winged lions in Indian art. In Medieval art, animals, both real and mythical, played important roles and these included decorative forms as in Medieval jewellery, sometimes with their limbs intricately interlaced. Animal forms were used to add humour or majesty to objects, in Christian art, animals carried symbolic meanings, where for example the lamb symbolised Christ, a dove indicated the Holy Spirit, and the classical griffin represented a guardian of the dead. Medieval bestiaries included animals regardless of reality, the basilisk represented the devil. One function of animals in the Middle Ages was allegory. Unicorns, for example, were described as swift and unable to be caught by traditional methods. It was believed that the way for one to catch this beast was to lead a virgin to its dwelling. Then, the unicorn was supposed to leap into her lap and go to sleep, in terms of symbolism, the unicorn was a metaphor for Christ. Unicorns represented the idea of innocence and purity, in the King James Bible, Psalm 92,10 states, My horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn. This is because the translators of the King James erroneously translated the Hebrew word reem as unicorn, later versions translate this as wild ox. The unicorn’s small size signifies the humility of Christ, another common legendary creature which served allegorical functions within the Middle Ages was the dragon. Dragons were identified with serpents, though their attributes were greatly intensified, the dragon was supposed to have been larger than all other animals
12.
Fantastic
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The fantastic is a subgenre of literary works characterized by the ambiguous presentation of seemingly supernatural forces. He also points out that the ending always drives the hesitation towards one of two decisions, The fantastic requires the fulfillment of three conditions. First, the text must oblige the reader to consider the world of the characters as a world of living persons, third, the reader must adopt a certain attitude with regard to the text, he will reject allegorical as well as poetic interpretations. The Fantastic can also represent dreams and wakefulness where the character or reader hesitates as to what is reality or what is a dream, again the Fantastic is found in this hesitation - once it is decided the Fantastic ends. There is no truly typical fantastic story, as the term encompasses both works of the horror and gothic genres. Edgar Allan Poes story The Black Cat, where a murderer is haunted by a black cat, there is no clear distinction between the fantastic and magic realism as neither privilege either realistic or supernatural elements. In Russian literature, the fantastic encompasses science fiction, fantasy, Fantastic Literature, A Critical Reader Siebers, Tobin, The Romantic Fantastic Traill, Nancy, Possible Worlds of the Fantastic, The Rise of the Paranormal in Fiction
13.
Fantastique
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Fantastique is a French term for a literary and cinematic genre that overlaps with science fiction, horror, and fantasy. The fantastique is a genre within French literature. What is distinctive about the fantastique is the intrusion of supernatural phenomena into an otherwise realist narrative and it evokes phenomena which are not only left unexplained but which are inexplicable from the readers point of view. Instead, characters in a work of fantastique are, just like the readers and this refusal may be mixed with doubt, disbelief, fear, or some combination of those reactions. Fantastique literature is considered close to science fiction. The Fantastique is often linked to a particular ambiance, a sort of tension in the face of the impossible, a good deal of fear is often involved, either because the characters are afraid or because the author wants to provoke fright in the reader. However, fear is not a component of fantastique. In that case, the fantastique is nothing more than an area on a spectrum from magic realism to fantasy. Fantastique is a term that has also used to describe many television series. The fantastique began to become defined in the Middle Ages, the old Celtic, Frankish and Germanic myths were translated from religion into popular folklore. The root of thought about and artistic depiction of many things which are today often termed supernatural has its beginnings in this period. Concepts and characters such as Melusine, Harlequin, Oberon, Morgan Le Fay, the Fabliaux, satirical fables which relied on the tradition established by Aesop of using anthropomorphic animals such as Le Roman de Renart, generally attributed to poet Pierre de Saint-Cloud. The 16th century was marked by the emergence of new ideas and literary trends, the Renaissance bloomed in France during the reign of King Francis I who created a favorable environment for the development of letters, arts and sciences. It was during the French Renaissance that proto-science fiction first split from the fantastique, then, at the peak of his literary fame, he devoted several of his more famous Hymnes to supernatural subjects such as Daimons and astrology. Famous playwright Pierre Corneilles lesser-known but classic tragedies, Médée and Circé, popularized warlocks, the Malleus Maleficarum spawned a number of French imitations, among which were Jean Bodins La Démonomanie des Sorciers and Le Fléau des Démons et ses Sorciers. The 18th century was known as the Siècle des Lumières, or Age of Enlightenment, baroque was the link between the Merveilleux of the Renaissance and the more formalized fairy tales of the Enlightenment period. The precursor in the genre was Madame dAulnoy who, in 1690, introduced in her rambling novel Histoire dHyppolite, Comte de Douglas, in it, Perrault had carefully collected a number of popular folk tales and legends, such as Cendrillon a. k. a. Cinderella, La Belle au Bois Dormant a. k. a, donkey Skin, Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, Barbe-Bleue, Le Chat Botté, etc
14.
History of fantasy
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Elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were an element of literature from its beginning. Such authors as George MacDonald created explicitly fantastic works, in addition, the rules, geography, history, etc. of this world tend to be defined, even if they are not described outright. Traditional fantastic tales take place in our world, often in the past or in far off and it seldom describes the place or the time with any precision, often saying simply that it happened long ago and far away. The second difference is that the supernatural in fantasy is by design fictitious, by one standard, no work created before the fantasy genre was defined can be considered to belong to it, no matter how many fantastic elements it includes. But even by the more limited definition a full examination of the history of the fantastic in literature is necessary to show the origins of the modern genre, traditional works contain significant elements which modern fantasy authors have drawn upon extensively for inspiration in their own works. The history of French fantastique literature is covered in detail under Fantastique. With increases in learning in the medieval European era, literary fiction joined earlier myths, among the first genres to appear was romance. This genre embraced fantasy, and not only simply followed traditional myths and fables, during the Renaissance, romance continued to be popular. The trend was to more fantastic fiction, the English Le Morte dArthur by Sir Thomas Malory, was written in prose, this work dominates the Arthurian literature, often being regarded as the canonical form of the legend. Arthurian motifs have appeared steadily in literature from its publication, though the works have been a mix of fantasy and non-fantasy works, ariostos tale, with its endlessly wandering characters, many marvels, and adventures, was a source text for many fantasies of adventure. With such works as Amadis of Gaul and Palmerin of England, one English romance is The Faerie Queene of Edmund Spenser. The poem is allegorical and allusive. Leaving allegory aside, however, the action is that of a knightly romance, involving knightly duels. That is probably the first work in which most of the characters are not men, there are mentioned also the wars between goblins and elf, which were destined to have a great future in fantastic fiction. The tale of Don Quixote deeply satirized the conventions of the romance, nevertheless, large subgenres of the field of fantasy have sprung from the romance genre, either directly or through their imitation by latter fantasy writer William Morris. Literary fairy tales, such as were written by Charles Perrault, many of Perraults tales became fairy tale staples, and influenced latter fantasy as such. Indeed, when Madame dAulnoy termed her works contes de fée, she invented the term that is now used for the genre. This would influence later writers, who took up the folk tales in the same manner
15.
Lovecraftian horror
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Lovecraftian horror is a subgenre of horror fiction that emphasizes the cosmic horror of the unknown more than gore or other elements of shock, though these may still be present. It is named after American author H. P. Lovecraft, Lovecraft refined this style of storytelling into his own mythos that involved a set of supernatural, pre-human, and extraterrestrial elements. His work was inspired by, and similar to previous authors such as Edgar Allan Poe, Algernon Blackwood, however, Lovecraftian horror is not restricted to the countryside, The Horror at Red Hook, for instance, is set in a crowded ethnic ghetto. Several themes found in Lovecrafts writings are considered to be components of a Lovecraftian work, Anti-anthropocentrism, the horror features of Lovecrafts stories tend to involve protean semi-gelatinous substances, such as slime, as opposed to standard horror elements such as blood, bones, or corpses. Even when dealing with technology, Lovecraft tended to use anachronisms as well as old-fashioned words when dealing with such things. For example, he used the term man of rather than the modern word, scientist and often spelled show as shew. Lovecraftian heroes tend to be isolated individuals, usually with an academic or scholarly intent, although Lovecraftian heroes may occasionally deal a setback to malignant forces, their victories are temporary, and they usually pay a price for it. Otherwise, subjects often find themselves unable to simply run away. Characters in Lovecrafts stories rarely if ever fully understand what is happening to them, characters in many of Lovecrafts stories are unable to cope mentally with the extraordinary and almost incomprehensible truths they witness or hear. The strain of trying to cope, as Lovecraft often illustrates, is impossible to bear, relatives of characters are typically depicted as paranormal or abnormal, whereas intimate relations in general are often represented as foreboding and sinister. Much of Lovecrafts influence is secondary, as he was a friend, inspiration, many of these writers also worked with Lovecraft on jointly-written stories. His more famous friends and collaborators include Robert Bloch, author of Psycho, Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian, and August Derleth, subsequent horror writers also heavily drew on Lovecrafts work. Some have said that Lovecraft, along with Edgar Allan Poe, is the most influential author on modern horror, by the late 20th century, Lovecraft had become something of a pop-culture icon, resulting in countless reinterpretations of and references to his work. Many of these fall outside the sphere of Lovecraftian horror, Lovecrafts work, mostly published in pulp magazines, never had the same sort of influence on literature as his high-modernist literary contemporaries such as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. However, his impact is still broadly and deeply felt in some of the most celebrated authors of contemporary fiction, the fantasias of Jorge Luis Borges display a marked resemblance to some of Lovecrafts more dream influenced work. Borges also dedicated his story, There Are More Things to Lovecraft, Lovecrafts penchant for dreamscapes and for the biologically macabre has also profoundly influenced visual artists such as Jean Moebius Giraud and H. R. Giger. Gigers book of paintings which led directly to many of the designs for the film Alien was named Necronomicon, Dan OBannon, the original writer of the Alien screenplay, has also mentioned Lovecraft as a major influence on the film. With Ronald Shusett, he would later write Dead & Buried and Hemoglobin, Lovecraft has cast a long shadow across the comic world
16.
Magic in fiction
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Magic in fiction is the endowing of characters or objects in works of fiction with powers unavailable in the real world. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, le Guin, Robert Jordan, Terry Brooks, J. K. Rowling, Mercedes Lackey and Derek Landy, within a work of fantasy, magics helps advance the plot, often providing power for the hero of the story and/or power for those who oppose him/her. The use of magic frequently manifests itself in a transformation of the character, in order to carry out its function, magic often comes at a price that is equal to its value. Contemporary authors tend to treat magic as an idea, opting to world-build with a blank slate where the laws of reality do not carry as much weight. Fictional magic may sometimes be inspired by beliefs and practices. Even when the writer uses non-fictional beliefs and practices, the effect, strength, in any given fantasy magical system, the magical ability of the character is limited. Limitations can add conflict to the story and prevent characters from becoming all-powerful with magic, authors introduce magic into their stories, and to their characters, in varying ways. Characters with talents that occur spontaneously usually require training in order to control their abilities, some works treat magic as a force that is acquired through studying books and tomes, aquired simply by learning an equation or memorizing a story. Works which feature this concept include a school where magic is taught as a main setting. Magic may also be gained by having it bestowed upon one character by another, such as a pact with a devil or with other spirits, a characteristic common in folklore. Sword and sorcery heroes are depicted as fighting against this type of wizard, in some works, such as fairy tales, magic items either endow the main characters with magical powers or have magical powers themselves. They are often used as plot devices or MacGuffins to drive the plot of a story, such items may be created by magicians or powerful beings, often in the distant past, but arent always possible to create at the present time of the story. Other fictional magical objects may have no explained past, wands and staves are often featured in fantasy works in the hands of wizards. Italian fairy tales put wands into the hands of the fairies by the late Middle Ages. In some works, types of magic are divided by color, as in folkloric and occult tradition, the white and black magic dichotomy may also exist in these works. Some works feature magic that is performed through using words to cast spells, while many works use this method without offering an explanation for it, others do offer an explanation, which differs from one work to another. Some works feature magic that is tied to a certain area, such places are usually the homes of powerful magical beings
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Magician (fantasy)
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A magician, mage, sorcerer, sorceress, warlock, witch, wizard, or wizardess is someone who uses or practices magic derived from supernatural or occult sources. Magicians are common figures in works of fantasy, such as literature and role-playing games, and enjoy a rich history in mythology, legends, fiction. In medieval chivalric romance, the wizard often appears as an old man and acts as a mentor. Other magicians, such as Saruman, from The Lord of the Rings series, villainous sorcerers were so crucial to pulp fantasy that the genre in which they appeared was dubbed sword and sorcery. Le Guins A Wizard of Earthsea explored the question of how wizards learned their art and this theme has been further developed in modern fantasy, often leading to wizards as heroes on their own quests. Such heroes may have their own mentor, a wizard as well, wizards can be cast similarly to the absent-minded professor, being foolish and prone to misconjuring. They can also be capable of magic, both good or evil. Even comical wizards are often capable of feats, such as those of Miracle Max in The Princess Bride, although he is a washed-up wizard fired by the villain. Wizards are often depicted as old, white-haired, and with white beards majestic enough to occasionally host lurking woodland creatures. This depiction predates the modern fantasy genre, being derived from the image of wizards such as Merlin. In the Dragonlance Dungeons and Dragons setting, wizards show their moral alignment by their robes, terry Pratchett described robes as a magicians way of establishing to those they meet that they are capable of practicing magic. To introduce conflict, writers of fiction often place limits on the magical abilities of wizards to prevent them from solving problems too easily. In Larry Nivens The Magic Goes Away, once an areas mana is exhausted, a common limit used in role-playing games is that a person can only cast a specific number of spells in a day. Magic can also require various sacrifices or the use of materials, such as gemstones, blood. Even if the magician lacks scruples, obtaining the material may be difficult, a. K. Moonfire combines these limits in his book The Aubrey Stalking Portal. The magician expends power to fuel his spells, but does not replenish that power naturally, therefore, the extent of a wizards knowledge is limited to which spells a wizard knows and can cast. Magic may also be limited by its danger, if a powerful spell can cause harm if miscast. Other forms of magic are limited by consequences that, while not inherently dangerous, are at least undesirable
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Fantasy tropes
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Fantasy tropes are a specific type of literary tropes that occur in fantasy fiction. Worldbuilding, in particular, has many common conventions, as do plot and characterization, to a lesser extent. Many works of fantasy operate using these tropes, while others use them in a revisionist manner, making the tropes over for reasons such as for comic effect. The conflict of good against evil is a theme in the popular forms of fantasy, normally, evil characters erupt from their lands to invade. In some works, mostly notably in sword and sorcery, evil is not opposed by the unambiguously good, heroic characters are a mainstay of fantasy, particularly high fantasy and sword and sorcery. Such characters are capable of more than ordinary behavior, physically, morally, sometimes they might have to grow into the role ordained for them. This may take the form of maturation, which is often through Coming of Age, many protagonists are, unknown to themselves, of royal blood. Even in so fanciful a tale as Through the Looking-Glass, Alice is made a queen in the end, commonly, these tales revolve around the maltreated hero coming into his or her own. This can reflect a wish-fulfillment dream, or symbolically embody a profound transformation, the forces of evil are often personified in a Dark Lord. Besides possessing vast magical abilities, a Dark Lord often controls great armies, the villain of the Demon Sword video game is also literally called Dark Lord. In the Lone Wolf gamebooks, the Dark Lords are a race of powerful evil beings. The protagonists of the Overlord video game franchise are classic Dark Lords in the vein of Sauron, the Dark Lord is usually seen as unmarried, though there has been occasion when one has attempted to claim a bride. Quests, a trope in literature, are common in fantasy. They can be anything from a quest to locate the MacGuffins necessary to save the world, in fantasy, magic often has an overwhelming presence, although its precise nature is delineated in the book in which it appears. It can appear in a world, or in a fantasy land that is part of reality but insulated from the mundane lands. A common trope is that the ability to work magic is innate, as a consequence the person who uses it, usually called a magician, wizard, sorcerer, warlock, mage, or magus, is a common figure in fantasy. Another feature is the item, which can endow characters with magical abilities that are not innate. Among the most common are magic swords and magic rings, self-fulfilling prophecies are amongst the most common forms of magic because they are an often used plot device
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Early history of fantasy
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Though the fantasy genre in its modern sense is less than two centuries old, its sources have a long and distinguished history. Elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were an element of literature from its beginning, in The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, John Clute and John Grant separated the concept of fantasy as such from that of taproot texts, works that are sources for fantasy, but not themselves fantasy. The Epic of Gilgamesh was written over generations following the reign of King Gilgamesh. This figure is sometimes an influence and, more rarely, a figure in modern fantasy, some scholars believe The Epic of Gilgamesh is a source used by the authors of the Bible, specifically the story of Noah and the flood. India has a tradition of fantastical stories and characters, dating back to Vedic mythology. Several modern fantasy works such as RG Veda draw on the Rig-Veda as a source, the Panchatantra was influential in Europe and the Middle East. It used various animal fables and magical tales to illustrate the central Indian principles of political science, talking animals endowed with human qualities have now become a staple of modern fantasy. The Baital Pachisi is a collection of fantasy tales set within a frame story about an encounter between King Vikramāditya and a Vetala, an early mythical creature resembling a vampire. Classical mythology is replete with stories and characters, the best known being the works of Homer. The philosophy of Plato has had influence on the fantasy genre. In the Christian Platonic tradition, the reality of other worlds, chinese traditions have been particularly influential in the vein of fantasy known as Chinoiserie, including such writers as Ernest Bramah and Barry Hughart. The most well known fiction from the Islamic world was The Book of One Thousand and One Nights, the epic took form in the tenth century and reached its final form by the fourteenth century, the number and type of tales have varied from one manuscript to another. This epic has been influential in the West since it was translated in the 18th century, many imitations were written, especially in France. Various characters from this epic have themselves become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin, Sinbad, a number of elements from Persian and Arabian mythology are now common in modern fantasy, such as genies, bahamuts, magic carpets, magic lamps, etc. When L. Frank Baum proposed writing a fairy tale that banished stereotypical elements, he included the genie as well as the dwarf. The Shahnameh, the epic of Iran, is a mythical. Amir Arsalan was also a popular mythical Persian story, which has influenced some modern works of fantasy fiction, medieval European sources of fantasy occurred primarily in epic poetry and in the Fornaldarsagas, Norse and Icelandic sagas, both of which are based on ancient oral tradition. The influence of works on the German Romantics, as well as William Morris
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Harry Potter fandom
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By the fourth Harry Potter book, the legions of fans had grown so large that considerable security measures were taken to ensure that no book was purchased before the official release date. Harry Potter is considered one of the few four-quadrant, multi-generation spanning franchises that exist today, pottermania is an informal term first used around 1999 describing the craze Harry Potter fans have had over the series. Fans held midnight parties to celebrate the release of the four books at bookstores which stayed open on the night leading into the date of the release. In 2005, Entertainment Weekly listed the release of Harry Potter. Diehard fans of the series are called Potterheads, some even theme their weddings around Harry Potter. A Bridal Guide featured two real weddings soon before the release of the movie, which quickly spread through the fandom via Facebook, Twitter. The craze over the series was referenced in Lauren Weisbergers 2003 novel The Devil Wears Prada as well as its 2006 film adaptation, there are many fan web sites about Harry Potter on the Internet, the oldest ones dating to about 1997 or 1998. J. K. Rowling has a relationship with her fan base. In 2004, after Immeritus, Rowling bestowed the honour upon four sites, the next site was the Harry Potter Lexicon, an online encyclopedia Rowling has admitted to visiting while writing away from home rather than buying a copy of her books in a store. She called it for the obsessive, my natural home. The third site of 2004 was MuggleNet, a web site featuring the latest news in the Potter world, among editorials, forums, and a podcast. The last site was HPANA, the first fan site Rowling ever visited, faster off the mark with Harry Potter news than any other site Rowling knows, in 2005, only The Leaky Cauldron was honored. On another occasion, Rowling has called the Leaky Cauldron her favourite fan site, in 2006, the Brazilian website Potterish was the only site honoured, in recognition of its style, Potter-expertise and responsible reporting. In May 2007, Harry Potter Fan Zone received the award, Rowling recognized the insightful editorials as well as praised the site for its young and dedicated staff. Rowling called the extraordinary and most inspirational, and paralleled its mission to the values for which Dumbledores Army fought in the books. In an article about her in Time, Rowling expressed her gratefulness at the successful work raising awareness. At one time, Warner Bros. which owns the rights to Harry Potter and its affiliates, tried to shut down the sites. The unsuccessful attempt led to their inviting the webmasters of the top sites to premieres of the films and tours of the film sets
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Tolkien fandom
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Fandom is a term used to describe a specific type of fan subculture. Tolkien fandom in this sense sprang up in the United States in the 1960s, in the context of the movement, to the dismay of the author. A Tolkienist is someone who studies the work of J. R. R. Tolkien, the term Ringer refers to a fan of The Lord of the Rings in general, and of Peter Jacksons live-action film trilogy in particular. Other terms describing Tolkien fans include Tolkienite or Tolkiendil, Tolkiens The Hobbit, a childrens book, was first published in 1937, and it proved popular. However, The Lord of the Rings, first published in 1954 through 1955, serious admirers and fans of Tolkien came into existence within science fiction fandom soon after the publication of The Fellowship of the Ring. Tolkien-inspired costumes were worn at Worldcons as early as 1958, some enthusiastic Los Angeles fans had been discussing creating a Tolkien-specific society as early as 1959. Those people who provided accepted research papers to the fanzine, I Palantir. Non-members could purchase the magazine, of which Ted Johnstone was elected editor, england’s first Tolkien fanzine was Nazgul’s Bane, produced by Cheslin. It was a newszine for those British members of The Fellowship, as Worldcon art shows started, The Fellowship Ring provided prizes for Tolkien-inspired artwork. Since most of the contributors to fanzines at the time out of science fiction fandom. Attempts to add a flavor of lofty writing style in many pieces resulted in stilted phrasing, major articles on Tolkien’s literary sources appeared through multiple issues of Xero. Lin Carter later used this as a basis for his 1969 book, Tolkien, a major defender and advocate of Tolkien in this era was Marion Zimmer Bradley, with such articles as her 1962 “Men, Halflings, and Hero Worship” in Astra’s Tower. She wrote two Tolkien pastiches and one story with Aragorn entering her own created world of Darkover. She published what would be an issue of her own Tolkien fanzine. Others had more meaningful Tolkien content, Ed Meskys’ apazine Niekas turned into a full-fledged fanzine during this era, with heavy Tolkien content as well as discussion of Gilbert & Sullivan, science fiction conventions and other topics. Pete Mansfield’s Sword & Sorcery fanzine, Eldritch Dream Quest, included many Tolkien items, science fiction fandom produced many high quality examples of Tolkien writing in their fanzines during these years. Even the nose of a very modest idol cannot remain entirely untickled by the smell of incense. Fan attention became so intense that Tolkien had to take his phone out of the public directory
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History
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History is the study of the past as it is described in written documents. Events occurring before written record are considered prehistory and it is an umbrella term that relates to past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of information about these events. Scholars who write about history are called historians and their works continue to be read today, and the gap between the culture-focused Herodotus and the military-focused Thucydides remains a point of contention or approach in modern historical writing. In Asia, a chronicle, the Spring and Autumn Annals was known to be compiled from as early as 722 BC although only 2nd-century BC texts survived. Ancient influences have helped spawn variant interpretations of the nature of history which have evolved over the centuries, the modern study of history is wide-ranging, and includes the study of specific regions and the study of certain topical or thematical elements of historical investigation. Often history is taught as part of primary and secondary education, the word history comes ultimately from Ancient Greek ἱστορία, meaning inquiry, knowledge from inquiry, or judge. It was in that sense that Aristotle used the word in his Περὶ Τὰ Ζῷα Ἱστορίαι, the ancestor word ἵστωρ is attested early on in Homeric Hymns, Heraclitus, the Athenian ephebes oath, and in Boiotic inscriptions. History was borrowed from Latin into Old English as stær, and it was from Anglo-Norman that history was borrowed into Middle English, and this time the loan stuck. In Middle English, the meaning of history was story in general, the restriction to the meaning the branch of knowledge that deals with past events, the formal record or study of past events, esp. human affairs arose in the mid-fifteenth century. With the Renaissance, older senses of the word were revived, and it was in the Greek sense that Francis Bacon used the term in the sixteenth century. For him, historia was the knowledge of objects determined by space and time, in an expression of the linguistic synthetic vs. analytic/isolating dichotomy, English like Chinese now designates separate words for human history and storytelling in general. In modern German, French, and most Germanic and Romance languages, which are synthetic and highly inflected. The adjective historical is attested from 1661, and historic from 1669, Historian in the sense of a researcher of history is attested from 1531. Historians write in the context of their own time, and with due regard to the current dominant ideas of how to interpret the past, in the words of Benedetto Croce, All history is contemporary history. History is facilitated by the formation of a discourse of past through the production of narrative. The modern discipline of history is dedicated to the production of this discourse. All events that are remembered and preserved in some authentic form constitute the historical record, the task of historical discourse is to identify the sources which can most usefully contribute to the production of accurate accounts of past. Therefore, the constitution of the archive is a result of circumscribing a more general archive by invalidating the usage of certain texts and documents
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Future
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The future is what will happen in the time after the present. Its arrival is considered due to the existence of time. The future and the concept of eternity have been subjects of philosophy, religion, and science. In the Occidental view, which uses a linear conception of time, in special relativity, the future is considered absolute future, or the future light cone. In the philosophy of time, presentism is the belief that only the present exists and the future and the past are unreal. Religions consider the future when they address such as karma, life after death, and eschatologies that study what the end of time. Religious figures such as prophets and diviners have claimed to see into the future, organized efforts to predict or forecast the future may have derived from observations by early man of heavenly objects. Future studies, or futurology, is the science, art, the concept of the future has been explored extensively in cultural production, including art movements and genres devoted entirely to its elucidation, such as the 20th century movement futurism. Forecasting is the process of estimating outcomes in uncontrolled situations, forecasting is applied in many areas, such as weather forecasting, earthquake prediction, transport planning, and labour market planning. Due to the element of the unknown, risk and uncertainty are central to forecasting, statistically based forecasting employs time series with cross-sectional or longitudinal data. Econometric forecasting methods use the assumption that it is possible to identify the factors that might influence the variable that is being forecast. If the causes are understood, projections of the variables can be made. Judgmental forecasting methods incorporate intuitive judgments, opinions and probability estimates, as in the case of the Delphi method, scenario building, prediction is similar to forecasting but is used more generally, for instance to also include baseless claims on the future. Organized efforts to predict the future began with practices like astrology, haruspicy and these are all considered to be pseudoscience today, evolving from the human desire to know the future in advance. Future studies or futurology is the science, art and practice of postulating possible, probable, and preferable futures, futures studies seeks to understand what is likely to continue, what is likely to change, and what is novel. Part of the discipline thus seeks a systematic and pattern-based understanding of past and present, a key part of this process is understanding the potential future impact of decisions made by individuals, organisations and governments. Leaders use results of work to assist in decision-making. Futures is a field, studying yesterdays and todays changes
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Parallel universe (fiction)
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A parallel universe is a hypothetical self-contained reality co-existing with ones own. A specific group of parallel universes are called a multiverse, although this term can also be used to describe the parallel universes that constitute reality. The term parallel universe is more general, without any connotations implying a relationship, or lack of relationship, the actual quantum-mechanical hypothesis of parallel universes is universes that are separated from each other by a single quantum event. Fantasy has long borrowed an idea of world from myth, legend. Heaven, Hell, Olympus, and Valhalla are all alternative universes different from the material realm. Plato reflected deeply on the realities, resulting in Platonism. The lower reality is similar but with flaws, modern fantasy often presents the concept as a series of planes of existence where the laws of nature differ, allowing magical phenomena of some sort on some planes. This concept was found in ancient Hindu mythology, in texts such as the Puranas. S. Lewis or even the beyond-the-reflection travel in the two works of Lewis Carroll. P. Lovecraft and the Doom computer game series, or Warhammer/40K miniature, in such stories, the nature of this other reality is often left mysterious, known only by its effect on our own world. One of the first Sci-Fi examples is Murray Leinsters Sidewise in Time, while this is a common treatment in Sci-Fi, it is by no means the only presentation of the idea, even in hard science fiction. One motif is that the way time flows in a parallel universe may be very different, picking a genre becomes less a matter of setting, and more a matter of theme and emphasis, the parts of the story the author wishes to explain and how they are explained. Narnia is clearly a fantasy, and the TV series Sliders is clearly science fiction, while technically incorrect, and looked down upon by hard science-fiction fans and authors, the idea of another dimension has become synonymous with the term parallel universe. The usage is common in movies, television and comic books. The idea of a world was first introduced in comic books with the publication of The Flash #123. In written science fiction, new dimensions more commonly – and more accurately – refer to coordinate axes. By proposing travel along these axes, which are not normally perceptible. Abbott wrote the seminal novel exploring this concept called Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions, isaac Asimov, in his foreword to the Signet Classics 1984 edition, described Flatland as The best introduction one can find into the manner of perceiving dimensions
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Earth
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Earth, otherwise known as the World, or the Globe, is the third planet from the Sun and the only object in the Universe known to harbor life. It is the densest planet in the Solar System and the largest of the four terrestrial planets, according to radiometric dating and other sources of evidence, Earth formed about 4.54 billion years ago. Earths gravity interacts with objects in space, especially the Sun. During one orbit around the Sun, Earth rotates about its axis over 365 times, thus, Earths axis of rotation is tilted, producing seasonal variations on the planets surface. The gravitational interaction between the Earth and Moon causes ocean tides, stabilizes the Earths orientation on its axis, Earths lithosphere is divided into several rigid tectonic plates that migrate across the surface over periods of many millions of years. About 71% of Earths surface is covered with water, mostly by its oceans, the remaining 29% is land consisting of continents and islands that together have many lakes, rivers and other sources of water that contribute to the hydrosphere. The majority of Earths polar regions are covered in ice, including the Antarctic ice sheet, Earths interior remains active with a solid iron inner core, a liquid outer core that generates the Earths magnetic field, and a convecting mantle that drives plate tectonics. Within the first billion years of Earths history, life appeared in the oceans and began to affect the Earths atmosphere and surface, some geological evidence indicates that life may have arisen as much as 4.1 billion years ago. Since then, the combination of Earths distance from the Sun, physical properties, in the history of the Earth, biodiversity has gone through long periods of expansion, occasionally punctuated by mass extinction events. Over 99% of all species that lived on Earth are extinct. Estimates of the number of species on Earth today vary widely, over 7.4 billion humans live on Earth and depend on its biosphere and minerals for their survival. Humans have developed diverse societies and cultures, politically, the world has about 200 sovereign states, the modern English word Earth developed from a wide variety of Middle English forms, which derived from an Old English noun most often spelled eorðe. It has cognates in every Germanic language, and their proto-Germanic root has been reconstructed as *erþō, originally, earth was written in lowercase, and from early Middle English, its definite sense as the globe was expressed as the earth. By early Modern English, many nouns were capitalized, and the became the Earth. More recently, the name is simply given as Earth. House styles now vary, Oxford spelling recognizes the lowercase form as the most common, another convention capitalizes Earth when appearing as a name but writes it in lowercase when preceded by the. It almost always appears in lowercase in colloquial expressions such as what on earth are you doing, the oldest material found in the Solar System is dated to 4. 5672±0.0006 billion years ago. By 4. 54±0.04 Gya the primordial Earth had formed, the formation and evolution of Solar System bodies occurred along with the Sun
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Land of Oz
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The fictional Land of Oz is a magical country first introduced in the classic childrens novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The US Library of Congress has considered it the best home grown fairytale and it is to the United States what Lewis Carrolls Wonderland and C. S. Lewis Narnia are to the United Kingdom. Oz consists of four vast quadrants, the North, South, East and West, each of which has its own ruler, however, the realm itself has always been ruled by one official dominant monarch, who represents the entire country as a whole. Due to Ozs worldwide success, Baum decided to return to it four years after his first Oz book was published. After his death in 1919, author Ruth Plumly Thompson, illustrator John R. Neill, there are over 50 novels based upon Baums original Oz saga. Baum originally intended for Oz to be a real, existing place, unlike MGMs 1939 musical movie adaptation and this is what makes it nearly impossible for anyone to deliberately visit or leave the realm of Oz, thus keeping the continent safe from global discovery and unwanted invasion. The canonical demonym for Oz is Ozite, the term appears in Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz, The Road to Oz, and The Emerald City of Oz. Elsewhere in the canon, Ozmie is also used, in the animated 1974 semi-sequel to the MGM film, Journey Back to Oz, Ozonian is used. The term Ozian appears in the script for the Royal Shakespeare Companys stage adaptation of the MGM movie, ozmite was used in Reilly & Lee marketing in the 1920s, which has suggested to some critics that Ozmie may have been a typographical error. Oz is, in the first book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, distinguished from Dorothys native Kansas by not being civilized, in the third book, Ozma of Oz, Oz is described as a fairy country, new terminology that remained to explain its wonders. In the center of Oz, where the cross, is the fabled Emerald City, capital of the land of Oz and seat to the monarch of Oz. The effect is consistent in later works. Baum, indeed, never used the color schema consistently, in books, he alluded to the colors to orient the characters and readers to their location. His most common technique was to depict the man-made articles and flowers as the color of the country, leaving leaves, grass, most of these regions are settled with prosperous and contented people. However, this naturally is lacking in scope for plot, numerous pockets throughout the land of Oz are cut off from the main culture, for geographic or cultural reasons. Many have never heard of Ozma, making it impossible for them to acknowledge her as their rightful queen and these regions are concentrated around the edges of the country, and constitute the main settings for books that are set entirely within Oz. The Lost Princess of Oz, for instance is set entirely in rough country in Winkie Country, in Glinda of Oz, Ozma speaks of her duty to discover all these stray corners of Oz. In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a brick road leads from the lands of the Munchkins to the Emerald City
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Renaissance
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The Renaissance was a period in European history, from the 14th to the 17th century, regarded as the cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history. It started as a movement in Italy in the Late Medieval period and later spread to the rest of Europe. This new thinking became manifest in art, architecture, politics, science, Early examples were the development of perspective in oil painting and the recycled knowledge of how to make concrete. Although the invention of movable type sped the dissemination of ideas from the later 15th century. In politics, the Renaissance contributed to the development of the customs and conventions of diplomacy, the Renaissance began in Florence, in the 14th century. Other major centres were northern Italian city-states such as Venice, Genoa, Milan, Bologna, the word Renaissance, literally meaning Rebirth in French, first appeared in English in the 1830s. The word also occurs in Jules Michelets 1855 work, Histoire de France, the word Renaissance has also been extended to other historical and cultural movements, such as the Carolingian Renaissance and the Renaissance of the 12th century. The Renaissance was a movement that profoundly affected European intellectual life in the early modern period. Renaissance scholars employed the humanist method in study, and searched for realism, however, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life. In addition, many Greek Christian works, including the Greek New Testament, were back from Byzantium to Western Europe. Political philosophers, most famously Niccolò Machiavelli, sought to describe life as it really was. Others see more competition between artists and polymaths such as Brunelleschi, Ghiberti, Donatello, and Masaccio for artistic commissions as sparking the creativity of the Renaissance. Yet it remains much debated why the Renaissance began in Italy, accordingly, several theories have been put forward to explain its origins. During the Renaissance, money and art went hand in hand, Artists depended entirely on patrons while the patrons needed money to foster artistic talent. Wealth was brought to Italy in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries by expanding trade into Asia, silver mining in Tyrol increased the flow of money. Luxuries from the Eastern world, brought home during the Crusades, increased the prosperity of Genoa, unlike with Latin texts, which had been preserved and studied in Western Europe since late antiquity, the study of ancient Greek texts was very limited in medieval Western Europe. One of the greatest achievements of Renaissance scholars was to bring this entire class of Greek cultural works back into Western Europe for the first time since late antiquity, Arab logicians had inherited Greek ideas after they had invaded and conquered Egypt and the Levant. Their translations and commentaries on these ideas worked their way through the Arab West into Spain and Sicily and this work of translation from Islamic culture, though largely unplanned and disorganized, constituted one of the greatest transmissions of ideas in history
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One Thousand and One Nights
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One Thousand and One Nights is a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales compiled in Arabic during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as the Arabian Nights, from the first English-language edition, the work was collected over many centuries by various authors, translators, and scholars across West, Central, and South Asia and North Africa. The tales themselves trace their roots back to ancient and medieval Arabic, Persian, Mesopotamian, Indian, Jewish, the stories proceed from this original tale, some are framed within other tales, while others begin and end of their own accord. Some editions contain only a few hundred nights, while others include 1,001 or more, the bulk of the text is in prose, although verse is occasionally used for songs and riddles and to express heightened emotion. Most of the poems are single couplets or quatrains, although some are longer, the main frame story concerns Shahryār, whom the narrator calls a Sasanian king ruling in India and China. Shahryār begins to marry a succession of only to execute each one the next morning. Eventually the vizier, whose duty it is to provide them, Scheherazade, the viziers daughter, offers herself as the next bride and her father reluctantly agrees. On the night of their marriage, Scheherazade begins to tell the king a tale, the king, curious about how the story ends, is thus forced to postpone her execution in order to hear the conclusion. The next night, as soon as she finishes the tale, she begins a new one, so it goes on for 1,001 nights. The tales vary widely, they include historical tales, love stories, tragedies, comedies, poems, burlesques, numerous stories depict jinns, ghouls, apes, sorcerers, magicians, and legendary places, which are often intermingled with real people and geography, not always rationally. The different versions have different individually detailed endings but they all end with the giving his wife a pardon. The narrators standards for what constitutes a cliffhanger seem broader than in modern literature, the history of the Nights is extremely complex and modern scholars have made many attempts to untangle the story of how the collection as it currently exists came about. Most scholars agreed that the Nights was a work and that the earliest tales in it came from India and Persia. At some time, probably in the early 8th century, these tales were translated into Arabic under the title Alf Layla and this collection then formed the basis of The Thousand and One Nights. The original core of stories was quite small, then, in Iraq in the 9th or 10th century, this original core had Arab stories added to it – among them some tales about the Caliph Harun al-Rashid. Devices found in Sanskrit literature such as stories and animal fables are seen by some scholars as lying at the root of the conception of the Nights. Indian folklore is represented in the Nights by certain animal stories, the influence of the Panchatantra and Baital Pachisi is particularly notable. The Jataka Tales are a collection of 547 Buddhist stories, which are for the most part moral stories with an ethical purpose
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Islandia (novel)
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Islandia is a classic novel of utopian fiction by Austin Tappan Wright, a U. C. Islandia is a fully realized world which has parallels to Tolkiens The Lord of the Rings. The original Islandia was conceived by Wright while he was yet a small boy, creating its civilization became his lifelong leisure occupation. The complete Islandia papers include a detailed history, complete with geography, genealogy, representations from its literature, language and culture. The complete and never published version of Islandia can be found in the Houghton Library at Harvard University, a 61-page Introduction to Islandia by Basil Davenport was published along with the original novel in 1942. The protagonist of the novel is an American named John Lang, the setting is Islandia, an imaginary country set in the real world of that time. This remote nation at the tip of the Karain semi-continent is near the unexplored wastes of Antarctica in the Southern Hemisphere, the citizens have imposed the Hundred Law, limiting access to Islandia to a bare one hundred visitors at a time. Wright may have had in both the self-imposed isolation of Siam, starting in 1688, and that of Japan, starting soon after the Battle of Sekigahara in 1603. In any case, for the country of Islandia, these two factors have shrouded this nation in mystery, islandias culture has many progressive features. For example, prostitutes are rehabilitated back into respectable society, another progressive feature is the citizens love of nature, and their rural lives. Everyone, including members of the classes, engages in some kind of useful work. The word for city in Islandian, elainry, literally place of many people. Like other writers of fiction, Wright decided to imagine a society that differs from ours in one or several key features. One of these is that, while Islandian civilization is technologically primitive, it is far in advance of Western culture in terms of understanding of human emotion, immersed in the Islandian culture, John Lang steadily grows in understanding of his emotions and his sexual feelings. He grows accustomed to the sexually permissive Islandian culture, Wrights portrayal may have been intended as a positive comment on the growing sexual permissiveness of American culture in the 1920s. Another difference between Islandian culture and the West is that Islandians determinedly reject the rush of modern Western life and it is a rural society with an arcadian worldview, which at one point Dorn humorously describes as enlightened Hedonism. Theyre not interested in building railroads for quick travel, but they do not blindly reject all Western technology, they use a few Western inventions that they judge to be worthwhile, such as modern rifles, and Singer sewing machines. Once he has graduated, his uncle, a prominent businessman, arranges his appointment as American consul to Islandia, gradually John Lang learns that his tacit mission as American consul is to do whatever is necessary to increase American trade opportunities in Islandia
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Arcadia (utopia)
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Arcadia refers to a vision of pastoralism and harmony with nature. Arcadia is a poetic shaped space associated with bountiful natural splendor, the Garden is often inhabited by shepherds. The concept also figures in Renaissance mythology, although commonly thought of as being in line with Utopian ideals, Arcadia differs from that tradition in that it is more often specifically regarded as unattainable. Furthermore, it is seen as a lost, Edenic form of life, the inhabitants were often regarded as having continued to live after the manner of the Golden Age, without the pride and avarice that corrupted other regions. It is also referred to in English poetry as Arcady. The inhabitants of this region bear a connection to the figure of the noble savage. According to Greek mythology, Arcadia of Peloponnesus was the domain of Pan and it was one version of paradise, though only in the sense of being the abode of supernatural entities, not an afterlife for deceased mortals. Greek mythology inspired the Roman poet Virgil to write his Eclogues, Arcadia has remained a popular artistic subject since antiquity, both in visual arts and literature. Images of beautiful nymphs frolicking in forests have been a frequent source of inspiration for painters and sculptors. As a result of the influence of Virgil in medieval European literature, European Renaissance writers often revisited the theme, and the name came to apply to any idyllic location or paradise. Unlike the word utopia, Arcadia does not carry the connotation of a civilization, Arcadia is presented as the spontaneous result of life lived naturally. Of particular note is Et in Arcadia ego by Nicholas Poussin, in 1502 Jacopo Sannazaro published his long poem Arcadia that fixed the Early Modern perception of Arcadia as a lost world of idyllic bliss, remembered in regretful dirges. The Spanish playwright and poet Lope de Vega also published in 1598 his Arcadia, Prose and Verse, does not the pleasantness of this place carry in itself sufficient reward for any time lost in it, or for any such danger that might ensue. Do you not see how everything conspires together to make this place a heavenly dwelling, do you not see the grass, how in color they excel the emeralds. Do not these stately trees seem to maintain their old age, with the only happiness of their seat being clothed with a continual spring. Doth not the air breathe health which the birds do daily solemnize with the consent of their voices. Is not every echo here a perfect music, though depicted as contemporary, this pastoral form is often connected with the Golden Age. Arcadia is now the name of cities and towns around the world
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Dream world (plot device)
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Dream world is a commonly used plot device in fictional works, most notably in science fiction and fantasy fiction. The use of a dream world creates a situation whereby a character is placed in a marvellous and unpredictable environment, when the character is reintroduced into the real world, the question arises as to what exactly constitutes reality due to the vivid recollection and experiences of the dream world. Tolkien, dream worlds contrast with fantasy worlds, in which the world has existence independent of the characters in it. However, other authors have used the process as a way of accessing a world which, within the context of the fiction, holds as much consistency. The use of frames to contain a fantasy world. A similar motif, Locus amoenus, is popular in medieval literature, a dream world is sometimes invoked in dream visions such as The Book of the Duchess and Piers Plowman. One of the dream worlds is Wonderland from Lewis Carrolls Alices Adventures in Wonderland, as well as Looking-Glass Land from its sequel. Unlike many dream worlds, Carrolls logic is like that of dreams, with transitions. James Branch Cabells Smirt and its two sequels taken together form a dream and most of their action takes place in a dream world. The action of The Bridge by Iain M. Banks and The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, dreamworlds, shared hallucinations and other alternate realities feature in a number of works by Philip K. Dick, such as The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and Ubik. Similar themes were explored by Jorge Luis Borges, for instance in The Circular Ruins, in The Wheel of Time book series, Telaranrhiod is a dream world that exists in close proximity to the real world. Objects and physical locations that do not frequently change in the world have parallels in Telaranrhiod. Ordinary people can occasionally slip into Telaranrhiod, and events occur within this dream world have physical consequences. A person that dies in Telaranrhiod will never wake up again, Telaranrhiod can be controlled similar to a lucid dream, and several characters in the series can enter and manipulate Telaranrhiod at will. Paprika by Yasutaka Tsutsui is a fiction novel that involves entering dream worlds using technology. In the book, dream monitoring and intervention as a means of treating mental disorders is a new form of psychotherapy in the near future. Unrest ensues when a new psychotherapy device is stolen, allowing the assailant to enter. In the feminist science fiction novel The Kin of Ata Are Waiting for You, in The Matrix, Neo and the rest of the humans live inside a dream world
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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
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The story chronicles the adventures of a young farm girl named Dorothy in the magical Land of Oz, after she and her pet dog Toto are swept away from their Kansas home by a cyclone. The novel is one of the stories in American literature and has been widely translated. The Library of Congress has declared it Americas greatest and best-loved homegrown fairytale and its groundbreaking success and the success of the Broadway musical adapted from the novel led Baum to write thirteen additional Oz books that serve as official sequels to the first story. Baum dedicated the book to my good friend & comrade, My Wife, in January 1901, George M. Hill Company completed printing the first edition, a total of 10,000 copies, which quickly sold out. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz sold three million copies by the time it entered the domain in 1956. The book was published by George M. Hill Company and its first edition had a printing of 10,000 copies and was sold in advance of the publication date of September 1,1900. On May 17,1900, the first copy of the book came off the press, Baum assembled it by hand, the public saw the book for the first time at a book fair at the Palmer House in Chicago, July 5–20. The books copyright was registered on August 1, full distribution followed in September, by October 1900, the first edition had already sold out and the second edition of 15,000 copies was nearly depleted. In a letter to his brother Harry, Baum wrote that the books publisher George M. Hill predicted a sale of about 250,000 copies, in spite of this favorable conjecture, Hill did not initially predict that the book would be phenomenally successful. He agreed to publish the book only when the manager of the Chicago Grand Opera House Fred R. Hamlin committed to making The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into a stage play to publicize the novel. The play The Wizard of Oz debuted on June 16,1902 and it was revised to suit adult preferences and was crafted as a musical extravaganza, with the costumes modeled after Denslows drawings. Hills publishing company became bankrupt in 1901, so Baum and Denslow agreed to have the Indianapolis-based Bobbs-Merrill Company resume publishing the novel, Baums son Harry Neal told the Chicago Tribune in 1944 that L. Frank told his children whimsical stories before they became material for his books. Harry called his father the swellest man I knew, a man who was able to give a decent reason as to why black birds cooked in a pie could afterwards get out, by 1938, more than one million copies of the book had been printed. Less than two decades later in 1956, the sales of his novel had grown to three million copies in print, Dorothy is a young girl who lives with her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry and her little dog Toto on a Kansas farm. One day, Dorothy and Toto are caught up in a cyclone that deposits her farmhouse into Munchkin Country in the magical Land of Oz, the falling house has killed the Wicked Witch of the East, the evil ruler of the Munchkins. The Good Witch of the North arrives with the grateful Munchkins, the Good Witch tells Dorothy that the only way she can return home is to go to the Emerald City and ask the great and powerful Wizard of Oz to help her. As Dorothy embarks on her journey, the Good Witch of the North kisses her on the forehead, on her way down the yellow brick road, Dorothy attends a banquet held by a Munchkin man named Boq. The next day, Dorothy frees the Scarecrow from the pole on which he is hanging, applies oil from a can to the connections of the Tin Woodman
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H. P. Lovecraft
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Howard Phillips Lovecraft was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. He was virtually unknown and published only in magazines before he died in poverty. Lovecraft was born in Providence, Rhode Island, where he spent most of his life, among his most celebrated tales are The Call of Cthulhu and The Shadow over Innsmouth, both canonical to the Cthulhu Mythos. Lovecraft was never able to support himself from earnings as author and editor and he saw commercial success increasingly elude him in this latter period, partly because he lacked the confidence and drive to promote himself. He subsisted in straitened circumstances in his last years, an inheritance was completely spent by the time that he died at age 46. Lovecraft was born on August 20,1890 in his home at 194 Angell Street in Providence. Both of his parents were of entirely English ancestry, and most of his ancestors had been in New England since the colonial period and his great-grandfather Joseph Lovecraft Jr. emigrated to Rochester, New York from Devon, England in 1831. Lovecraft maintained throughout his life that his father died in a condition of paralysis brought on by nervous exhaustion. It has been suggested that his fathers mental illness may have been caused by syphilis, all five resided together in the family home. Lovecraft was a prodigy, reciting poetry at the age of three and writing complete poems by six. His grandfather encouraged his reading, providing him with such as One Thousand and One Nights, Thomas Bulfinchs Age of Fable, and childrens versions of the Iliad. His grandfather also stirred the boys interest in the weird by telling him his own tales of gothic horror. Lovecraft was frequently ill as a child, and he attended school until he was eight years old because of his sickly condition. He read voraciously during this period and became enamored of chemistry. He produced several hectographed publications with a circulation, beginning in 1899 with The Scientific Gazette. Four years later, he returned to school at Hope High School. Beginning in his life, Lovecraft is believed to have suffered from sleep paralysis. Much of his work is thought to have been directly inspired by these terrors
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William Morris
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William Morris was an English textile designer, poet, novelist, translator, and socialist activist. Associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement, he was a contributor to the revival of traditional British textile arts. His literary contributions helped to establish the modern fantasy genre, while he played a significant role in propagating the early socialist movement in Britain. Born in Walthamstow, Essex, to a wealthy family, Morris came under the strong influence of medievalism while studying Classics at Oxford University. Webb and Morris designed a home, Red House, then in Kent. In 1861, Morris founded a decorative arts firm with Burne-Jones, Rossetti, Webb, and others, in 1875, Morris assumed total control of the company, which was renamed Morris & Co. Although retaining a main home in London, from 1871 Morris rented the rural retreat of Kelmscott Manor, greatly influenced by visits to Iceland, with Eiríkr Magnússon he produced a series of English-language translations of Icelandic Sagas. In 1877 he founded the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings to campaign against the damage caused by architectural restoration, in 1891 he founded the Kelmscott Press to publish limited-edition, illuminated-style print books, a cause to which he devoted his final years. Morris is recognised as one of the most significant cultural figures of Victorian Britain, though best known in his lifetime as a poet, founded in 1955, the William Morris Society is devoted to his legacy, while multiple biographies and studies of his work have seen publication. Many of the associated with his life are open to visitors, much of his work can be found in art galleries and museums. Morris was born at Elm House in Walthamstow, Essex, on 24 March 1834. Raised into a wealthy family, he was named after his father. His mother was Emma Morris, who came from Woodford Hall in Woodford, Essex and he also took rides through the Essex countryside on his pony, and visited the various churches and cathedrals throughout the country, marveling at their architecture. His father took him on visits outside of the county, for instance to Canterbury Cathedral, the Chiswick Horticultural Gardens, and to the Isle of Wight, where he adored Blackgang Chine. In February 1848 Morris began his studies at Marlborough College in Marlborough, Wiltshire and he despised his time there, being bullied, bored, and homesick. He did use the opportunity to many of the prehistoric sites of Wiltshire, such as Avebury and Silbury Hill. At Christmas 1851, Morris was removed from the school and returned to Water House, guy, Assistant Master at the nearby Forest School. In June 1852 Morris entered Oxford Universitys Exeter College, although since the college was full and he disliked the college and was bored by the manner in which they taught him Classics
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The Well at the World's End
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The Well at the Worlds End is a high fantasy novel by the British artist, poet, and author William Morris. It is also available in one volume along with a similar Morris tale, The Wood Beyond the World, in On the Lines of Morris Romances, Two Books that Inspired J. R. R. Tolkien. Using language with elements of the tales which were his models, Morris tells the story of Peter, King of Upmeads, and his four sons, Blaise, Hugh, Gregory. These four sons decide one day that they would like to explore the world, from that point on, the plot centers on the youngest son, Ralph. Ralphs explorations begin at Bourton Abbas, after which he goes through the Wood Perilous and he has various adventures there, including the slaying of two men who had entrapped a woman. That woman later turns out to be the Lady of Abundance, in one episode Ralph is staying at a castle and inquires about the Lady of the castle, whom he has not yet seen. Descriptions of her youth and beauty suggest to him that she has drunk from the well at the world’s end. And now in his heart waxed the desire of that Lady, once seen, as he deemed, in such strange wise, but he wondered within himself if the devil had not sown that longing within him…. A short time later, while still at the castle, Ralph contemplates images of the Lady and was filled with the sweetness of desire when he looked on them. Then he reads a book containing information about her, and his desire to meet the Lady of Abundance flames higher, when he goes to bed, he sleeps for the very weariness of his longing. He fears leaving the castle because she might come while he is gone, eventually he leaves the castle and meets the Lady of Abundance, who turns out to be the same lady he had rescued some weeks earlier from two men. When he meets her this time, the lady is being fought over by two knights, one of whom slays the other and that knight nearly kills Ralph, but the lady intervenes and promises to become the knight’s lover if he would spare Ralph. Eventually, she leads Ralph away during the night to save Ralph’s life from this knight, since Ralph had once saved hers. She tells Ralph of her trip to the Well at the World’s End, her drinking of the water, the tales of her life. Eventually, the knight catches up to them and kills her with his sword while Ralph is out hunting, upon Ralph’s return, the knight charges Ralph, and Ralph puts an arrow through his head. After Ralph buries both of them, he begins a journey that will take him to the Well at the World’s End, as he comes near the village of Whitwall, Ralph meets a group of men, which includes his brother Blaise and Blaise’s attendant, Richard. Ralph joins them, and Richard tells Ralph about having grown up in Swevenham, Richard had never learned what happened to those three. Richard promises to visit Swevenham and learn what he can about the Well at the World’s End, Ralph falls in with some merchants, led by a man named Clement, who travel to the East
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J. R. R. Tolkien
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He was at one time a close friend of C. S. Lewis—they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972, after Tolkiens death, his son Christopher published a series of works based on his fathers extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. Between 1951 and 1955, Tolkien applied the term legendarium to the part of these writings. While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien and this has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the father of modern fantasy literature—or, more precisely, of high fantasy. In 2008, The Times ranked him sixth on a list of The 50 greatest British writers since 1945, forbes ranked him the 5th top-earning dead celebrity in 2009. Tolkiens paternal ancestors were middle-class craftsmen who made and sold clocks, watches and pianos in London, the Tolkien family had emigrated from Germany in the 18th century but had become quickly intensely English. According to the tradition, the Tolkiens had arrived in England in 1756. Several families with the surname Tolkien or similar spelling live in northwestern Germany, mainly in Lower Saxony, however, this origin of the name has not been proven. A German writer has suggested that the name is likely to derive from the village of Tolkynen near Rastenburg. Although that village is far from Lower Saxony, its name is derived from the now-extinct Old Prussian language. John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State to Arthur Reuel Tolkien, an English bank manager, the couple had left England when Arthur was promoted to head the Bloemfontein office of the British bank for which he worked. Tolkien had one sibling, his brother, Hilary Arthur Reuel. In another incident, a family servant, who thought Tolkien a beautiful child, took the baby to his kraal to show him off. When he was three, he went to England with his mother and brother on what was intended to be a family visit. His father, however, died in South Africa of rheumatic fever before he could join them and this left the family without an income, so Tolkiens mother took him to live with her parents in Kings Heath, Birmingham. Soon after, in 1896, they moved to Sarehole, then a Worcestershire village, Mabel Tolkien taught her two children at home. Ronald, as he was known in the family, was a keen pupil and she taught him a great deal of botany and awakened in him the enjoyment of the look and feel of plants. Young Tolkien liked to draw landscapes and trees, but his lessons were those concerning languages
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The Lord of the Rings
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The Lord of the Rings is an epic high-fantasy novel written by English author J. R. R. Tolkien. The story began as a sequel to Tolkiens 1937 fantasy novel The Hobbit, written in stages between 1937 and 1949, The Lord of the Rings is one of the best-selling novels ever written, with over 150 million copies sold. The work was intended by Tolkien to be one volume of a two-volume set, the other to be The Silmarillion. For economic reasons The Lord of the Rings was published in three volumes over the course of a year from 29 July 1954 to 20 October 1955, the three volumes were titled The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King. Structurally, the novel is divided internally into six books, two per volume, with appendices of background material included at the end of the third volume. Some editions combine the work into a single volume. The Lord of the Rings has since been reprinted numerous times, Tolkiens work has been the subject of extensive analysis of its themes and origins. Although a major work in itself, the story was only the last movement of a larger epic Tolkien had worked on since 1917 and these inspirations and themes have often been denied by Tolkien himself. The Lord of the Rings has inspired, and continues to inspire, artwork, music, films and television, video games, award-winning adaptations of The Lord of the Rings have been made for radio, theatre, and film. In 2003, it was named Britains best-loved novel of all time in the BBCs The Big Read, Sauron was defeated by an alliance of Elves and Men led by Gil-galad and Elendil, respectively. Isildur, son of Elendil, cut the One Ring from Saurons finger, Isildur claimed the Ring as an heirloom for his line, but when he was later ambushed and killed by the Orcs, the Ring was lost in the River Anduin at Gladden Fields. Over two thousand years later, the Ring was found by one of the river-folk called Déagol and his friend Sméagol fell under the Rings influence and strangled Déagol to acquire it. Sméagol was banished and hid under the Misty Mountains, the Ring gave him long life and changed him over hundreds of years into a twisted, corrupted creature called Gollum. Gollum lost the Ring, his precious, and as told in The Hobbit, meanwhile, Sauron assumed a new form and took back his old realm of Mordor. When Gollum set out in search of the Ring, he was captured and tortured by Sauron, Sauron learned from Gollum that Baggins of the Shire had taken the Ring. Sauron, who needed the Ring to regain his power, sent forth his powerful servants. The story begins in the Shire, where the hobbit Frodo Baggins inherits the Ring from Bilbo Baggins, his cousin, neither hobbit is aware of the Rings nature, but Gandalf the Grey, a wizard and an old friend of Bilbo, suspects it to be Saurons Ring. After Gandalf confirms his suspicions, he tells Frodo the history of the Ring, Frodo leaves the Shire, in the company of his gardener and friend, Samwise Gamgee, and two cousins, Meriadoc Brandybuck, called Merry, and Peregrin Took, called Pippin
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Medievalism
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The words medievalism and Medieval are both first recorded in the nineteenth century. Medieval is derived from Latin medium aevum, scholars of the Renaissance believed that they lived in a new age that broke free of the decline described by Petrarch. Historians Leonardo Bruni and Flavio Biondo developed a three tier outline of history composed of Ancient, Medieval, and Modern, the Latin term media tempestas first appears in 1469. The term medium aevum is first recorded in 1604, Medieval first appears in the nineteenth century and is an Anglicised form of medium aevum. During the Reformations of the 16th and 17th centuries, Protestants generally followed the views expressed by Renaissance Humanists. They saw classical antiquity as a time, not only because of the Latin literature. Most Protestant historians did not date the beginnings of the era from the Renaissance. For them the Middle Ages was barbaric and priest-ridden and they referred to these dark times, the centuries of ignorance, and the uncouth centuries. The Protestant critique of the Medieval Church was taken into Enlightenment thinking by works including Edward Gibbons Decline and it was partly a revolt against the political norms of the Age of Enlightenment which rationalised nature, and was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music, and literature. The name Romanticism itself was derived from the medieval chivalric romance. The latters Waverley Novels, including Ivanhoe and Quentin Durward helped popularise, and shape views of, the name Nazarene was adopted by a group of early nineteenth-century German Romantic painters who reacted against Neoclassicism and hoped to return to art which embodied spiritual values. They sought inspiration in artists of the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the name Nazarene came from a term of derision used against them for their affectation of a biblical manner of clothing and hair style. The movement was formed in 1809 by six students at the Vienna Academy and called the Brotherhood of St. Luke or Lukasbund. They met up with Austrian romantic landscape artist Joseph Anton Koch who became a tutor to the group. In Rome the group lived an existence, as a way of re-creating the nature of the medieval artists workshop. However, by 1830 all except Overbeck had returned to Germany, many Nazareners became influential teachers in German art academies and were a major influence on the later English Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The Gothic Revival was a movement which began in the 1740s in England. He went on to produce important Gothic buildings such as Cathedrals at Birmingham and Southwark, large numbers of existing English churches had features such as crosses, screens and stained glass, restored or added, and most new Anglican and Catholic churches were built in the Gothic style
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Pastoral
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A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, a pastoral is a work of this genre, also known as bucolic, from the Greek βουκολικόν, from βουκόλος, meaning a cowherd. Pastoral is a mode of literature in which the author employs various techniques to place the life into a simple one. Thus, pastoral as a mode occurs in many types of literature as well as genres, terry Gifford, a prominent literary theorist, defines pastoral in three ways in his critical book Pastoral. The first way emphasizes the historical perspective of the pastoral in which authors recognize and discuss life in the country. This is summed up by Leo Marx with the phrase No shepherd, the second type of the pastoral is literature that describes the country with an implicit or explicit contrast to the urban. The third type of pastoral depicts the life with derogative classifications. Hesiods Works and Days presents a golden age when people lived together in harmony with nature and this Golden Age shows that even before Alexandria, ancient Greeks had sentiments of an ideal pastoral life that they had already lost. This is the first example of literature that has pastoral sentiments, ovids Metamorphoses is much like the Works and Days with the description of ages but with more ages to discuss and less emphasis on the gods and their punishments. In this artificially constructed world, nature acts as the main punisher, another example of this perfect relationship between man and nature is evident in the encounter of a shepherd and a goatherd who meet in the pastures in Theocritus poem Idylls 1. Traditionally, pastoral refers to the lives of herdsmen in a romanticized, exaggerated, the pastoral life is usually characterized as being closer to the Golden age than the rest of human life. The setting is a Locus Amoenus, or a place in nature. An example of the use of the genre is the poem by the 15th-century Scottish makar Robert Henryson Robene and Makyne which also contains the conflicted emotions often present in the genre. There will we sit upon the rocks And see the shepherds feed their flocks, By shallow rivers, the Passionate Shepherd to His Love exhibits the concept of Giffords second definition of pastoral. The speaker of the poem, who is the titled shepherd and this can be seen in the listed items, lined slippers, purest gold, silver dishes, and ivory table. The speaker takes on a point of view with his love. Pastoral shepherds and maidens usually have Greek names like Corydon or Philomela and this makes them available for embodying perpetual erotic fantasies. The shepherds spend their time chasing pretty girls — or, at least in the Greek and Roman versions, Pastoral literature continued after Hesiod with the poetry of the Hellenistic Greek Theocritus, several of whose Idylls are set in the countryside and involve dialogues between herdsmen
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Bridge of Birds
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Bridge of Birds is a fantasy novel by Barry Hughart, first published in 1984. It is the first of three novels in the The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox series. The original draft of Bridge of Birds is included in a special slipcased version of the collection, The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox. Hughart called the novel a modern version of a form of Chinese novel. Confucians liked to castrate people who fought the establishment, without mentioning names, the Taoists could use real emperors and real power structure in a fantasy form. The book is set in a version of imperial China. It draws on and reinvents the traditional tale of The Weaver Girl, the real story of the Cowherd and Weaver Girl is referenced at the end of the book. In the beginning of the novel, the village of Ku-fu is stricken by a plague which kills its silkworms, Number Ten Ox, the narrator, is dispatched to find a wise man who can cure the children. In order to cure the children, Ox and Master Li set out to find the Great Root of Power which can cure anything and they begin by seeking it in the palace of the feared Ancestress. As it turns out, however, the Ancestress possesses only the lesser Root of Power, after surviving the Duke of Ch’in’s deadly games that consisted of labyrinths and terrible monsters, they succeed in gathering different parts of the Ginseng. Still, these are all ineffective in curing the children, along with the Ginseng, they also find three handmaiden ghosts that repeated the same story, “The birds of China must fly. They also meet Key Rabbit, who is married to Lotus Cloud, like every other man with a pure heart, Ox worships Lotus Cloud and showers her with expensive gifts. The heroes visit the Old Man of the Mountain, there they learn that in order to become immortal one must obtain something from the gods, and to become invulnerable one’s heart must be removed. This information helps them out that somehow their quest to find the Ginseng is intertwined with the story of the Princess of Birds. They also conclude that the Duke of Ch’in knows the secrets of immortality and invulnerability, Master Li and Number Ten Ox are able to find the Duke’s heart. The Duke is killed, and Master Li bows to Lotus Cloud, Master Li and Number Ten Ox listen to a sound that turns out to be the sound of a trillion birds making a bridge to heaven. The Princess places the Great Root of Power in Ox’s hand, back at the village of Ku-Fu, the children are cured. Great glorious explosions of stars streak across the sky as Star Shepherd opens his arms to receive Lotus Cloud, among the books many characters, the major ones include, Number Ten Ox, As an orphaned child raised by his aunt and uncle, Ox becomes a strong man
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Lloyd Alexander
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Lloyd Chudley Alexander was an American author of more than forty books, primarily fantasy novels for children and young adults. He won U. S. National Book Awards in 1971 and 1982, Alexander was one creator of the childrens literary magazine Cricket. Alexander was born in Philadelphia in 1924 and grew up in Drexel Hill and his father was a stockbroker and the family was much affected by the Great Depression. His parents read only newspapers but they did buy books at the Salvation Army to fill up empty shelves, Lloyd was a reader of books, Shakespeare, Dickens, Mark Twain and so many other were my dearest friends and greatest teachers. I loved all the mythologies, King Arthur was one of my heroes. By fifteen he had determined to be a writer and his parents found him a practical job as bank messenger, which inspired a satire that would become his first book published fifteen years later, And Let the Credit Go. He graduated at age sixteen in 1940 from Upper Darby High School and his parents placed him at Haverford College just down the road from home. Years later he observed, My parents never read a book, I never in all my life saw them sit down and read a book. So it was always a mystery to them—where do these books come from, and our son wants to go into a business like that. He ignored their warnings and lived to regret not listening, acknowledging that he hadnt realized how hard a writing career would be. Alexander judged that adventure, not college, was the best school for a writer, the army shipped him to Texas where he played the cymbals in band and the organ in chapel. He received combat training in Maryland, then in Wales. He rose to be a sergeant in intelligence and counterintelligence. After the war Alexander attended the University of Paris, where he met Janine Denni and they were married in 1946 and soon moved back home to Philadelphia. Alexander died on May 17,2007, two weeks after the death of his wife of sixty-one years and he is buried at Arlington Cemetery in Drexel Hill. His daughter, Madeleine Khalil, died in 1990, for about fifteen years in Philadelphia, Alexander wrote primarily fiction, non-fiction, and translations for adults. He wrote novel after novel for seven years before his first book was published and that was the story of a young person going out into the world for the first time and finding the world a very difficult place indeed. Thats the story all of us have to tell
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The Chronicles of Prydain
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The Chronicles of Prydain is a pentalogy of childrens high fantasy Bildungsroman novels by Lloyd Alexander. Henry Holt published one annually from 1964 to 1968, the second earned a 1966 Newbery Honor, the five novels follow the protagonist Taran from youth to maturity, most overtly in the fourth book, Taran Wanderer. Taran has the title Assistant Pig-Keeper at Caer Dallben but initially dreams of being a grand hero. His most important companions in adventure are Princess Eilonwy, a girl his age, Fflewddur Fflam, a bard and minor king, Gurgi, a wild man-beast, and Doli. Thematically the novels draw upon Welsh mythology, particularly the Mabinogion, appropriately, the authors note also reveals the geography is ultimately derived from Wales, though Alexander notes that Prydain is separate from Wales both in physical geography and history. Always interested in mythology, Alexander received army combat intelligence training in Wales during World War II and that exposed him to its castles, scenery, and language, which became part of the raw material for the Prydain books. Originally he planned to one or two – three at the very most. At one point he planned a trilogy with titles The Battle of the Trees, The Lion with the Steady Hand, and Little Gwion. In Welsh mythology the former features the sons of Don led by Gwydion against the forces of Arawn, later, a four-volume series would conclude with The High King. The editor felt that something was missing between third and fourth volumes, so Taran Wanderer was written one month after The Castle of Llyr was published, making it a five-volume series. The stories that are now collected in The Foundling and Other Tales of Prydain actually were published in three different volumes, two books and one short story collection. Most of these act as backstories which fill in gaps for minor characters, prydains geography, culture, and names are based on ancient Wales, especially the tales of the Mabinogion. Prydain is a magical land engaged in a series of battles with its neighbor, Annuvin and it is the setting for four of the five books in the series. Once ruled over by the evil Queen Achren, Prydain was liberated by the Sons of Don, the High King rules over all the land, seconded by his war leader, with many subject kings ruling the various territories of Prydain, called cantrevs. Only the Free Commots, a land of craftsmen who answer only to the High King, are outside any subject kings jurisdiction, underneath and within Prydain is the kingdom of the Fair Folk, a diminutive supernatural race that mostly keeps to its own affairs. The Fair Folk have no love for the Death-Lord Arawn, however, in addition to the races of men and Fair Folk, Prydain is home to the Sons of Don and their descendants. Other varieties of such as the undead Cauldron-Born, the monstrous birdlike Gwythaints. Having garnered a Newbery Medal and a Newbery Honor, Prydain is widely recognized as a contribution to childrens literature
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Alternate history
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Alternate history or alternative history, sometimes abbreviated as AH, is a genre of fiction consisting of stories in which one or more historical events occur differently. These stories usually contain what if scenarios at crucial points in history, the stories are conjectural, but are sometimes based on scientific fact. Alternate history can be seen as a subgenre of fiction, science fiction, or historical fiction. Another term occasionally used for the genre is allohistory, cross-time, time-splitting, and alternate history themes have become so closely interwoven that it is impossible to discuss them fully apart from one another. In French, Italian, Spanish, Catalan and German, the genre of history is called uchronie / ucronia / ucronía / Uchronie. This neologism is based on the prefix ου- and the Greek χρόνος, a uchronia means literally no time. This term apparently also inspired the name of the history book list. Several genres of fiction have been misidentified as alternate history, Science fiction set in what was the future but is now the past, like Arthur C. Clarkes 2001, A Space Odyssey or George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four, is not alternate history because the author did not make the choice to change the past at the time of writing, Alternate history is related to, but distinct from, counterfactual history. The earliest example of history is found in Livys Ab Urbe Condita Libri. Livy concluded that the Romans would likely have defeated Alexander, another example is Joanot Martorells 1490 epic romance Tirant lo Blanch, which was written when the loss of Constantinople to the Turks was still a recent and traumatic memory for Christian Europe. It tells the story of the knight Tirant the White from Brittany who travels to the remnants of the Byzantine Empire. He becomes a Megaduke and commander of its armies and manages to fight off the invading Ottoman armies of Mehmet II and he saves the city from Islamic conquest, and even chases the Turks deeper into lands they had previously conquered. In the English language, the first known complete alternate history is Nathaniel Hawthornes short story P. s Correspondence, the first novel-length alternate history in English would seem to be Castello Holfords Aristopia. While not as nationalistic as Louis Geoffroys Napoléon et la conquête du monde, 1812–1823, in Aristopia, the earliest settlers in Virginia discover a reef made of solid gold and are able to build a Utopian society in North America. A number of alternate history stories and novels appeared in the late 19th, in 1931, British historian Sir John Squire collected a series of essays from some of the leading historians of the period for his anthology If It Had Happened Otherwise. In this work, scholars from major universities turned their attention to questions as If the Moors in Spain Had Won. The essays range from serious scholarly efforts to Hendrik Willem van Loons fanciful, among the authors included were Hilaire Belloc, André Maurois, and Winston Churchill
