Where did the name of Mr. Tumnus, the helpful faun of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, come from? Gallic chieftains, of course! Where -umnus and -umnos were frequent components, as in names Togodumnos and Dumnorix. Of course, these were also latinised; the only way we know these names today is through Roman …
Aslan, the lion deity of The Chronicles of Narnia, shows his importance by having A as the first letter of his name. In the English language, it’s the first letter of the alphabet. One language theory posits that modern humans, when they read written characters, use the same parts of the brain once used for …
x Yes, it’s going to be another Summer of Narnia here on my blog! I’ll be tying up some loose ends from last year’s Summer of Narnia, as well as introducing new topics and insights I’ve found since then. Keep visiting!
One of the subjects I love randomgenning most are mythical creatures – demons, monsters, legendary beings, animals. These names are culled from my Twitter feed, from the years 2017 – 2020. Mythical Beings Satatareth, the Angel of Good Hygiene Gembilath, the Angel of Decay Hestothy, the Demon Queen of Depravity Levibed: A demon that …
Any woman of a certain age will recall Straw berry Shortcake and her friends, scent- and color-themed dolls that reigned over the girl-toy world of the early 1980s. But the titular character actually had her start years earlier, in the 1970s. In that granola-crunch world, she began as an illustration on a greeting card. Like …
The Fab Four in their Western cartoon version (above) from the 1965 Saturday morning cartoon, and an Eastern version of them as Japanese manga figures, below. One thing about the Beatles is that their song titles evolved over time. Here’s a listing from A Hard Day’s Night, released in 1964: And then Abby Road (1969): …
As prevalent as druids are in fantasy literature and gaming, very little is known of them from the historical record. What we do know comes from the accounts of the Romans who colonized Europe and Britain. They were famously derisive of the native tribes, seeing them as little more than uncouth barbarians, and also had …
I have to admit this old poster is pretty creepy, not because of the flying brain with its two beady eyes, but the Satanic face of the child with its filed, oddly spaced teeth. At least, I think it’s a child. Old, schlocky, crowd-pleasing, over-the-top movies are a special interest of mine, which is why …
How merchandising has changed. The top view from the 1960s shows inefficient reach-in freezers that wasted energy and pink, pastel signage. Thirty years later, food display centered around kiosks, from which customers selected fresh-prepared offerings for dinner. (The pic is from the now-gone Seattle chain Larry’s Market.) With COVID-19, intimacies such as these are …
Sometimes when you DM or write fantasy, you need to list books in a character’s library. Books that sound obscure, magical, historical, singular. Tolkien has his imaginary Book of Redmarch, Lovecraft his Necronomicon and Pnakotic Manuscripts. Here’s a randomgenned list of some more. Library Books, Fantasy Style A Man’s Tome of Migford Four Books …