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Cyclops
Cyclops
(in Greek Mythology), or Kyklops, is a member of the Greco-mythical race
of giants with a single eye in the middle of their forehead. The word is from
the Greek word Κυκλωψ, meaning round eye.
The plural is Cyclopes (pronounced SIE klo peez). The
plural can also be spelled as Kyklopês. These Cyclopes were the children of Uranus
and Gaia. They were giants with a single eye in the middle of their forehead and
a foul disposition. According to Hesiod, they were strong, stubborn, and "abrupt
of emotion". Their names eventually became synonyms for strength and power,
and were used to signify especially well crafted weapons. Dragon
The
Dragons of Pern are a fictional race created by Anne McCaffrey as an integral
part of her science fiction-turned-fantasy world depicted in her Dragonriders
of Pern novels. In
modern fantasy fiction, dragons are often depicted as having many different races,
each usually based on a particular color of their scales or an affinity with an
element; much of this originated in the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game
and similar sources. A
dragon is any one of the extinct species of the large reptiles in the family Draconidae.
This family was a member of the order Crocodylia. Known around the globe, dragons
were the last surviving species of dinosaurs. The engravings, drawings, and sculptures
that survived history are records, first hand accounts of people that lived along
side dragons and fought them, A dragon is a mighty champion is often able to fly.
Many dragons are also able to cast spells or use other cards which are normally
only usable by a special kind of champion. There are special unarmed combat cards
which can be only used by dragons. Since the first edition of Spellfire there
were some dragons, but the really mighty dragons and powerful add-ons came with
the Draconomicon booster set. Elves
An
elf is a mythical creature of Germanic mythology which survived in northern European
folklore. Originally a race of minor gods of nature and fertility, elves are often
pictured as youthful-seeming men and women of great beauty living in forests and
other natural places, underground, or in wells and springs. They have been portrayed
to be long-lived or immortal and they have magical powers attributed to them.
Following the success of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic The Lord of the Rings—wherein a
wise, angelic people named elves play a significant role—they have become staple
characters of modern fantasy. Fairy
A
fairy is a spirit (supernatural being) found in the legends, folklore,
and mythology of many cultures. They are generally humanoid in form, though of
a higher, spiritual nature and so possessed of preternatural abilities, along
with such mystical qualities as otherworldly beauty and grace, an ethereal glow,
wings, or the like. They are also regarded as aloof, ephemeral, mercurial, and
whimsical, among other qualities that place them outside of a human scope and
have a tendency to make them associated or confused with other mythological creatures. Gargoyle
Gargoyles
are designed to throw rainwater well away from the building of the church. In
ancient churches they took on a secondary function that of guarding the church
against evil and the devil. With this in mind most gargoyles are grotesquely carved
in forms of weird beasts, dragons or devils probably on the basis that it takes
a devil to catch a devil. So it is always worth looking up or taking along a pair
of binoculars in order to better appreciate this unusual form of architecture.
Gargoyles
as a distinct race have featured in several works of fantasy fiction, such as
Terry Pratchett's Discworld series and the Dungeons & Dragons and Rifts role-playing
games. One of the Gargoyles that lives on the Discworld has taken up a position
in the Ankh-Morpork City Watch where he is known as Constable Downspout., They
were also prominently featured in a Disney animated series, Gargoyles, and played
a role in that company's adaptation of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Actress Adrienne Barbeau played a violent gargoyle in the TV series Monsters.
Gargoyles are also mentioned many times in the Harry Potter series. In
fiction, Gargoyles are typically depicted as a winged humanoid race with demonic
features (generally horns, a tail, talons, and may or may not have a beak). Gargoyles
can generally use their wings to fly or glide, and are often depicted as having
a rocky hide, or being capable of turning into stone in one way or another, a
reference to their structural roots. Gnome
A
gnome is a mythical creature characterized by its small stature and subterranean
lifestyle. According to Paracelsus, gnomes are the most important of the elemental
spirits of the earth element, and they move as easily through the earth as humans
walk upon it. The sun's rays turn them into stone. In other traditions, they are
simply small, mischievous sprites or goblins. Some sources claim they spend the
daytime as toads instead of in stone. Individual
gnomes are not very often detailed or featured as characters in stories, but in
Germanic folklore, Rubezahl, lord over the underworld, was sometimes referred
to as a mountain gnome. According to some traditions, the gnome king is called
Gob. Rudolf
Steiner, and other theosophists before him, lectured at length on gnomes, and
especially their supportive role in the development of plant life (and biodynamic
agriculture). Rupert Sheldrake has written a good deal about morphogenic fields,
an idea Terry Pratchett used in his Discworld books many times. King
Arthur of Camelot
Arthur
is the son of King Uther Pendragon and the lady Ygraine (who was married to Gorlois,
the duke of Cornwall, when Arthur was conceived).
After Arthur is born, the magician Merlin
gives him to a man named Hector (also called Antor) to be raised with Hector’s
son, Kay. Arthur grows up as a commoner, but then he alone succeeds at a test
devised to choose Uther's successor: Arthur draws a sword from a stone (or, in
some versions of the story, from an anvil). Because
of his humble origins, Arthur must overcome strong opposition from the British
nobles to his royal claim, but eventually he is crowned. To help him in his task
of leading Britain, he receives
a great sword, Excalibur, offered by a hand that rises mysteriously from a lake.
To defeat Britain's enemies, Arthur
undertakes a series of wars, conquests, and invasions. After Arthur completes
these, Britain has a long period
of peace and security. Arthur sets up the Round Table as a meeting place for his
knights. The shape of the table ensures that all who sit around it are equal in
status. Arthur
meets and marries the lady Guinevere,
but she and Lancelot, one of Arthur's
favored knights, eventually fall in love, and their relationship divides Camelot.
The ruin of the kingdom is hastened by the quest for the Holy
Grail, the sacred cup used by Jesus Christ at the Last Supper. However
worthy an enterprise the quest may be, it takes Arthur's best knights away from
court and leads many of them to their deaths. Once Arthur discovers Lancelot and
Guinevere's love affair, his own system of justice requires that he condemn his
wife to death. Lancelot rescues her, however, initiating a war between his forces
and those of Arthur and the knight Gawain. Ghost
Ghosts
are often depicted of a human size and shape (although some accounts also mention
animal ghosts), but typically described as "silvery", "shadowy",
"semitransparent", or "fog-like." Parapsychologists refer
to the "substance" of which ghosts and other spirits are made of as
"ectoplasm". Ghosts do not have a physical body like human beings, but
only a subtle astral body. Sometimes they do not manifest themselves visually
but in terms of other phenomena, such as the movements of an object, spontaneous
throwing of a light switch, noises, etc., which supposedly have no natural explanation.
HarryPotter
Harry
Potter is the name of a series of fantasy novels by British writer J. K. Rowling.
Six of seven planned books have been published to date. The books depict a society
of witches and wizards, the main character being a young wizard named Harry Potter.
The first novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (retitled Harry Potter
and the Sorcerer's Stone in the United States), was released in 1997. The first
four books have been made into films, and the fifth book has started being filmed.
The Harry
Potter books have achieved a profile unparalleled by any other series of books,
with worldwide sales exceeding 300 million copies. They have been praised for
encouraging children and indeed even adults to read, while also drawing criticism
from some quarters. The books are published by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, Scholastic
Press and Raincoast Books. Hercules
In
Greek mythology, hero noted for his strength and courage and for his many legendary
exploits. Hercules is the Roman name for the Greek hero Heracles. He was the son
of the god Zeus and Alcmene, wife of the Theban general Amphitryon. Hera, the
jealous wife of Zeus, was determined to kill her unfaithful husband’s offspring,
and shortly after Hercules’ birth she sent two great serpents to destroy him.
Hercules, although still a baby, strangled the snakes. As a young man Hercules
killed a lion with his bare hands. As a trophy of his adventure, he wore the skin
of the lion as a cloak and its head as a helmet. The
hero next conquered a tribe that had been exacting tribute from Thebes.
As a reward, he was given the hand of the Theban princess Megara,
by whom he had three children. Hera, still relentless in her hatred of Hercules,
sent a fit of madness upon him during which he killed his wife and children. In
horror and remorse at his deed Hercules would have slain himself, but he was told
by the oracle at Delphi that he should purge himself by becoming
the servant of his cousin Eurystheus, king of Mycenae.
Eurystheus, urged on by Hera, devised as a penance the 12 difficult tasks, the
“Labors of Hercules.” Mermaid
A
mermaid is a legendary creature with a female human head and torso and the tail
of a fish, which inhabits the water. The male version of a mermaid is called a
merman. One
freshwater mermaid-like creature (sometimes having two fish tails, other times
having the body of a dragon or serpent) is the character Melusine. Sirens of Greek
mythology are sometimes portrayed in later folklore and art as being physically
similar to mermaids. Other related types of mythical or legendary creature are
water fairies (e.g., various water nymphs) and selkies. Mermaids
are present in many books and films, becoming one of the most popular creatures
of pop culture. The first time a mermaid was envisioned within her own culture
was apparently the one in The Little Mermaid of Hans Christian Andersen. This
mermaid was embodied in a bronze sculpture in Copenhagen
harbour and much later was turned into a Disney movie of the same name. The Anderson
tale was also portrayed in the Faerie Tale Theatre series and other (less well
known) movies. Minotaur
Minotaur,
in Greek mythology, is a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man.
It was the offspring of Pasiphaë, queen of Crete, and a snow-white
bull the god Poseidon had sent to Pasiphaë's husband, King Minos. When Minos refused
to sacrifice the beast, Poseidon made Pasiphaë fall in love with it. After she
gave birth to the Minotaur, Minos ordered the architect and inventor Daedalus
to build a labyrinth so intricate that escape from it without assistance would
be impossible. Here the Minotaur was confined and fed with young human victims
Minos forced Athens to send him as tribute. The Greek
hero Theseus was determined to end the useless sacrifice and offered himself as
one of the victims. When Theseus reached Crete (Kríti), Minos's
daughter Ariadne fell in love with him. She helped him escape by giving him a
ball of thread, which he fastened to the door of the maze and unwound as he made
his way through it. When he came upon the sleeping Minotaur, he beat the monster
to death and then led the other sacrificial youths and maidens to safety by following
the thread back to the entrance. Nymph
In
Greek mythology, a nymph is any member of a large class of female
nature entities, sometimes bound to a particular location or landform. Nymphs
often accompanied various gods and goddesses, and were the frequent target of
lusty satyrs. They
are personifications of the creative and fostering activities of nature. The Greek
word νύμφη has "bride" and "veiled"
among its meanings: hence, a married woman, and, in general, one of marriageable
age. Others refer the word (and also Latin nubere and German Knospe)
to a root expressing the idea of "swelling" (according to Hesychius,
one of the meanings of νύμφη is "rose-bud").
The home of the nymphs is on mountains and in groves, by springs and rivers, in
valleys and cool grottoes. They are frequently associated with the superior divinities,
the huntress Artemis, the prophetic Apollo, the reveller and god of trees Dionysus,
and with rustic gods such as Pan and Hermes (as the god of shepherds). Medusa In
Greek mythology, Medusa (Greek: Μέδουσα),
was a monstrous female character whose gaze could turn people to stone.Some classical
references describe her as one of three Gorgon sisters. Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale
were monsters with brass hands, sharp fangs and hair of living, venomous serpents.
The Gorgons and their other sisters the Graeae (and possibly the Hesperides) were
daughters of Phorcys and Ceto. In
the most well known version of the myth, Medusa originally started out as a beautiful
human. She was raped by Poseidon in Athena's temple. Poseidon was an arch-rival
of Athena's since at one time he vied for patronage of Athens; the soon-to-become
Athenians chose Athena's offering of the olive tree over Poseidon's offering of
horses or a spring of water. Pegasus
In
Greek mythology, Pegasus (Pegasos) was a winged horse that was the foal of Poseidon,
in his role as horse-god, and the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus
aided the hero Bellerophon, who is a double in some way for Perseus, in his fight
against both the Chimera and the Amazons. There are varying tales as to how Bellerophon
found Pegasus, some say that the hero found him drinking at the Pierian spring
and that Polyidus told Bellerophon how to find and tame him, others that either
Athena or Poseidon brought him to Bellerophon. Prior
to aiding Bellerophon, Pegasus brought thunderbolts to Zeus, and following Bellerophon's
death he returned to Mount Olympus
to aid the gods. In his later life, Pegasus took a wife, Euippe (or Ocyrrhoe),
by whom he had a child, Celeris. This family is the origin of the winged horses. PeterPan
Peter
Pan is a
fictional character created by Scottish author J. M. Barrie, and the name of a
stage play, a children's book, and various adaptations of them. The character
is a little boy who refuses to grow up, and spends his time having magical adventures.
In both
the play and the novel, Peter invites the girl Wendy Darling to the Neverland
to be a mother for his gang of Lost Boys. Her brothers John and Michael come along.
Many adventures ensue, including the near-death of the fairy Tinker Bell, and
a climactic confrontation with Peter's nemesis, the pirate Captain Hook of the
pirate ship the Jolly Roger. In the end, Wendy decides that her place is at home,
and brings all the boys back to London. Peter remains in the Neverland, and Wendy
grows up. Pixies
Pixies
are Green faeries who often take the form of hedgehogs. They are also known as
urchins, pisgies, piskies, and pigseys. They originated in Cornwall.
They like to dance in the shadows of stones. Their bells are often heard on the
moor. They like to steal horses and torture them to get them to run faster. They
delight in throwing pots and pans at kitchen girls. They usually mean no harm,
however. Beware of doing pixies favors, for they have a tendency to backfire. Unicorn
The
unicorn is a legendary creature embodied like a horse, but slender and with a
single — usually spiral — horn growing out of its forehead. Though the popular
image of the unicorn is that of a white horse differing only in the horn, the
traditional unicorn has a billy-goat beard, a lion's tail, and cloven hoofs, which
distinguish him from a horse. Interestingly, these modifications make the horned
ungulate more realistic, since only cloven-hoofed animals have horns. Marianna
Mayer has observed (The Unicorn and the Lake), "The unicorn
is the only fabulous beast that does not seem to have been conceived out of human
fears. In even the earliest references he is fierce yet good, selfless yet solitary,
but always mysteriously beautiful. He could be captured only by unfair means,
and his single horn was said to neutralize poison. "In
medieval lore, the alicorn is the spiraled horn of the unicorn and is said to
be able to heal and neutralize poisons. This is derived from Ctesias's reports
on the unicorn in India, where
it was used by the rulers of that place for anti-toxin purposes so as to avoid
assassination. Wizard
A
wizard is a practitioner of magic, especially in folklore, fantasy fiction, and
fantasy role-playing games. In popular use during 16th century England,
"wizard' was used to denote a helpful male folk magican, a cunning man as
they were usually called. The word does not generally apply to Neopagans, or to
stage magicians (properly termed illusionists) like David Copperfield, Paul Daniels,
or James Randi. In
most cases there is little to differentiate a wizard from similar fictional and
folkloric practitioners of magic such as an enchanter, a magician, a sorcerer,
a necromancer, or a thaumaturgist, but specific authors and works use the names
with narrower meanings. When such distinctions are made, sorcerers are more often
practitioners of evocations or black magic, and there may be variations on level
and type of power associated with each name. The
ever-shifting chaos of fantasy writing has, of course, muddled the meaning of
each term, but they should never be stuck with a single meaning, for they change
depending upon where they're found. Goblin
Goblins
are grotesque faeries of about dwarf height. Various (sometimes conflicting) abilities
and attributes have been given to them:They can appear as animals. They are sometimes
said to be mostly invisible to human eye. They are said to count the dead among
their companions. They can weave nightmares out of gossamer and insert them into
the ear of a sleeping human. They steal human women and children and hide them
away underground. Goblin women steal human babies, replacing them with ugly goblin
babies (changelings). They have a somewhat bestial appearance, and their brow
is fully covered with thick hair and their mouth is filled with yellowed, crooked
teeth. They have some traits of old men, which can include shortsightedness, but
they are described as wiser than humans. They sometimes eat humans. They are sometimes
described as being an entirely male race. Goblins can grow up to be anywhere from
30 cm to 6 feet tall. According to some traditions, goblin comes from Gob or Ghob,
the king of the gnomes, whose inferiors were obviously called Ghob-lings. However,
according to "The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English" the
name is probably derived from the Anglo-French gobelin (medieval Latin gobelinus),
which is probably a diminutive of Gobel, a name related to the word kobold. Goblin
is also related to the French lubin. Final
Fantasy
Final Fantasy has been remade several times for several
different platforms. While all of these remakes retain the same basic story and
battle mechanics, various tweaks have been made in a variety of different areas,
including graphics, sound, and specific gameplay elements. What follows is a brief
description of certain characteristics unique to each remake. Pirate
A
pirate is one who robs, pillages, or plunders at sea, or sometimes the shore,
without a commission from a recognized sovereign nation. While piracy in popular
conception conjures up the romantic imagery of fictionalized tales of Caribbean
pirates in the 17th century, piracy continues to be a threat in the world today.
Seaborne piracy against transport vessels remains a significant problem (with
estimated worldwide losses of $13 to $16 billion USD per year), particularly in
the waters between the Pacific and Indian oceans, and specifically in the straits
of Malacca and Singapore, which are used by over 50,000 commercial ships a year.
While boats off the coasts of South America and the Mediterranean Sea are still
molested by pirates. The advent of the United States Coast Guard has nearly eradicated
piracy in American waters, and reduced it in the Caribbean Sea. Dwarf
A
dwarf (plural dwarfs or, more recently, dwarves -- see under Tolkien below) is
a short humanoid creature in Norse mythology, fairy tales, fantasy fiction and
role-playing games. Dwarves are much like humans, but generally living underground
or in mountainous areas. Here they have heaped up countless treasures of gold,
silver, and precious stones, and pass their time in fabricating costly armor.
They are famed miners and smiths although, like humans, they specialize in any
number of trades. Generally shorter than humans, they are on average stockier
and hairier, usually sporting full beards. Dwarvish smiths created some of the
greatest and most powerful items of power in Norse mythology, such as the magic
ribbon which bound the Fenris wolf. Zues
As
the ruler of the Olympian gods, Zeus wielded enormous power and almost absolute
authority. He appears in Homer's Iliad in the role of imperious leader, a grandiose
father figure to a pantheon of bickering deities. And although he is often portrayed
as an omniscient, omnipotent being, even the mighty Zeus could be tricked (or,
to put it more gently, distracted). This is indeed the case in the Iliad, in that
wonderful scene where he is seduced by his wife Hera and consequently led to ignore
the events taking place on the battlefield of Troy. There are certainly other
instances where Zeus is deceived (the incident with Prometheus being but one more
good example). These examples only demonstrate that although he was the god who
ruled Olympus and its divine denizens, he was subject to the laws of Fate and
was not in fact all-powerful. And just as the other deities had their own personal
foibles, Zeus too had a weakness - he was passionately fond of female charms.
Many stories about Zeus recount his insatiable lust and notorious wandering eye,
an eye that fell upon goddess and mortal woman alike Athena
Much
has been written about the goddess Athena. As the patron deity of the city of
Athens, she played an enormous role in the lives of not only the residents of
that illustrious polis (Greek for city), but in many respects all of the Greek
speaking world. Our oldest sources of Greek literature - the works of Homer and
Hesiod - discuss Athena. The goddess appears in several significant passages of
Homer's Iliad, and she is one of the most influential deities in the Odyssey in
her role as Odysseus's patron and ally. Therefore, Athena's attributes were codified
early in the epics and poetry of Greece: she was the divine sponsor of warriors
and heroes, she introduced several of the arts and crafts necessary for civilization,
and she represented wisdom. Obviously, the goddess played a prominent role in
Greek mythology. Ares
Ares
was the Greek god of war, and according to mythology, war, battles, and bloodshed
were his major preoccupations. In certain respects, there is not too much more
to Ares than this connection to war, as he is portrayed as being somewhat one-dimensional.
Or at least limited in his pleasures. However, there is one other area in which
Ares was interested, and that is indeed pleasure - with the goddess Aphrodite,
that is. He engaged in an ongoing tryst with Aphrodite which is the stuff of legend
(and myth), in defiance of that fact that the lovely goddess was already married
(to the god Hephaistos). There is a wonderfully charming tale in the Odyssey of
Homer about how this couple's romantic rendezvous came to an abrupt, and comic,
end. Artemis
She
was goddess of chastity, virginity, the hunt, the moon, and the natural environment.
Artemis is the daughter of Zeus and Leto. Her twin brother is Apollo. She is the
lady of the wild things. She is the huntsman of the gods. She is the protector
of the young. Like Apollo she hunts with silver arrows. She became associated
with the moon. She is a virgin goddess, and the goddess of chastity. She also
presides over childbirth, which may seem odd for a virgin, but goes back to causing
Leto no pain when she was born. She became associated with Hecate. The cypress
is her tree. All wild animals are scared to her, especially the deer. Hades
Hades is the brother of Zeus. After the overthow of their Father
Cronus he drew lots with Zeus and Poseidon, another brother, for shares of the
world. He had the worst draw and was made lord of the underworld, ruling over
the dead. He is a greedy god who is greatly concerned with increasing his subjects.
Those whose calling increase the number of dead are seen favorably. The Erinnyes
are welcomed guests. He is exceedingly disinclined to allow any of his subjects
leave. He is also the god of wealth, due to the precious metals mined from the
earth. He has a helmet that makes him invisable. He rarely leaves the underworld.
He is unpitying and terrible, but not capricious. His wife is Persephone whom
Hades abducted. He is the King of the dead but, death itself is another god, Thanatos.
Apollo
Apollo
is the son of Zeus and Leto. His twin sister is Artemis. He is the god of music,
playing a golden lyre. The Archer, far shooting with a silver bow. The god of
healing who taught man medicine. The god of light. The god of truth, who can not
speak a lie. One of Apollo's more importaint daily tasks is to harness his chariot
with four horses an drive the Sun across the sky. He is famous for his oracle
at Delphi. People travled to it from all over the greek world to devine the future.
His tree was the laurel. The crow his bird. The dolphin his animal. Aphrodite
Aphrodite is the goddess of love, desire and beauty. In addition to her
natural gifts she has a magical girdle that compels anyone she wishes to desire
her. There are two accounts of her birth. One says she is the daughter of Zeus
and Dione. The other goes back to when Cronus castrated Uranus and tossed his
severed genitles into the sea. Aphrodite then arose from the sea foam on a giant
scallop and walked to shore in Cyprus. She is the wife of Hephaestus. The myrtle
is her tree. The dove, the swann, and the sparrow her birds. Her favorite lover
is the god of war, Ares. She represented sex, affection, and the attraction that
binds people together. Hermes
He was the cleverest of the Olympian gods, and messenger to all
the other gods. Hermes is the son of Zeus and Maia. He is Zeus messenger. He is
the fastest of the gods. He wears winged sandals, a winged hat, and carries a
magic wand. He is the god of thieves and god of commerce. He is the guide for
the dead to go to the underworld. He invented the lyre, the pipes, the musical
scale, astronomy , weights and measures, boxing, gymnastics, and the care of olive
trees. Poseidon
God of the sea, protector of all waters. Poseidon is the brother
of Zeus. After the overthow of their Father Cronus he drew lots with Zeus and
Hades, another brother, for shares of the world. His prize was to become lord
of the sea. He was widely worshiped by seamen. He married Amphitrite, a granddaughter
of the Titan Oceanus. At one point he desired Demeter. To put him off Demeter
asked him to make the most beautiful animal that the world had ever seen. So to
impress her Poseidon created the first horse. In some accounts his first attempts
were unsucessful and created a varity of other animals in his quest. By the time
the horse was created his passion for Demeter had cooled. His weapon is a trident,
which can shake the earth, and shatter any object. He is second only to Zeus in
power amongst the gods. He has a difficult quarrelsome personality. He was greedy.
He had a series of disputes with other gods when he tried to take over their cities. Hestia
Hestia is Zeus sister. She is a virgin goddess. She does not have a distinct
personality. She plays no part in myths. She is the Goddess of the Hearth, the
symbol of the house around which a new born child is carried before it is received
into the family. Each city had a public hearth sacred to Hestia, where the fire
was never allowed to go out. Of all the Olympians, she is the mildest, most upright
and most charitable. Witch
"Thou
shalt not suffer a witch to live," it says in the book of Exodus (xxii, 18).
This and other Biblical admonitions and commands both defined the witch and prescribed
his or her fate. A witch is someone in consort with Satan, the Evil One, the spirit
who rebelled against God but whom God suffered to live. Today, the typical witch
is generally portrayed as an old hag in a black robe, wearing a pointed black
cap and flying on a broomstick across a full moon. Children dress up as witches
on Halloween, much to the dismay of certain pious Christians. Hollywood, on the
other hand, conjures up images of sexy women with paranormal powers such as psychokinesis,
mind-control, hexing, and an array of other occult talents. "Pagan"
or anti-Christian New Age religions are sometimes identified with witches because
some pious Christians think they practice witchcraft or because those in the religions
claim to practice "magick" or "the craft." Some of the members
of these groups refer to themselves as "witches" and their groups as
"covens." (Some male witches are very touchy about being called "warlocks".)
Some of the members of these groups call themselves "sorcerers" and
worship Satan, i.e., they believe in Satan and perform rituals which they think
will get them a share of Satan's supernatural occult powers. (Some are very touchy
about being called "sorcerers".) Most New Age witches do not worship
Satan, however, and are very touchy about the subject. They would rather be associated
either with the occult and magick or with attempts to re-establish a kind of nature
religion which their members associate with ancient, pagan religions, such as
the ancient Greek or the Celtic, especially Druidism. The neo-pagans also refer
to both men and women witches as witches. One of the largest and most widespread
of these nature religions is Wicca. The witches of Christian mythology were known
for their having sex with Satan and using their magical powers to do evil of all
sorts. The culmination of the mythology of witchcraft came about from the 15th
to the 18th centuries in the depiction of the witches' Sabbath. The Sabbath was
a ritual mockery of the Mass. Witches were depicted as flying up chimneys at night
on broomsticks or goats, heading for the Sabbath where the Devil (in the form
of a feathered toad, a crow or raven, a black cat, or a he-goat) would perform
a blasphemous version of the Mass. There would also be obscene dancing, a banquet
and the brewing of potions in a huge cauldron. The banquet might include some
tasty children, carrion, and other delicacies. The witches' brew was apparently
to be used to hurt or kill people or to mutilate cattle (de Givry, 83). Those
initiated into the satanic mysteries were all given some sort of physical mark,
such as a claw mark under the left eye. The Devil was depicted as a goat or satyr
or some sort of mythical beast with horns, claws, tail, and/or strange wings:
a mockery of angel, man, and beast. One special feature of the Sabbath included
the ritual kiss of the devil's ass (de Givry, 87), apparently a mockery of the
traditional Christian act of submission of kneeling and kissing the hand or ring
of a holy cleric. Numerous testimonials to having witnessed the witches' Sabbath
are recorded.
Troll
A troll is a fearsome member
of a mythical anthropomorph race from Scandinavian folklore. Their role ranges
from fiendish giants – similar to the ogres of English fairy tales – to a devious,
more human-like folk of the wilderness, living underground in hills or mounds,
inclined to thieving and the abduction of humans which, in the case of infant
abductees, was substituted with a changeling. They could also be known as hill-folk
or mound-folk. In Shetland and Orkney tales, trolls are called trowe. Tororu is
the Japanese word for troll. Nordic literature, art and music from the romantic
era and onwards has adapted trolls in various manners – often in the form of an
aboriginal race, endowed with oversized ears and noses. From here, as well as
from Scandinavian fairy tales such as Three Billy Goats Gruff, trolls have achieved
international recognition, and in modern fantasy literature and role-playing games,
trolls are featured to the extent of being stock characters. Fantasy trolls, however,
are highly stereotyped versions of their Scandinavian predecessors. The
Hobbit
The Hobbit is a children's story written by J. R. R. Tolkien
in the tradition of the fairy tale. It was first published on September 21, 1937.
Whilst it also stands in its own right, it is often seen as a prelude to Tolkien's
more monumental fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings (published in 1954 and 1955).
The story, subtitled "There and Back Again", follows the adventures
of the hobbit Bilbo Baggins as he travels across the lands of Middle-earth with
a band of Dwarves and a wizard named Gandalf on a quest to restore a dwarven kingdom
and a great treasure stolen by the dragon, Smaug. Giant
The
Giants were huge, violent creatures with long hair and beards. There were 24 of
them birthed to Gaea on Thracian Phlegra. The Giants later attacked the Olympian
gods after Gaea was upset at the punishment to the Titans. The Giants were defeated
and also imprisoned under the earth. It is said that wherever a volcanoe errupts
is where a giant is hidden. Eros
Eros
is the son of Aphrodite. Eros is the god of love. In particular erotic, romantic,
love. He is often represented blindfolded because, love is often blind. His "weapon"
is darts or arrows. In either case the tips have been magically treated to produce
either uncontrolable love or unsurmountable disintrested in the first person seen
be Eros's victim after wounding.
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