Roleplaying games from historical research
Thanks again to Thomas Copeland and his Librivox team. The editor of the version which Copeland is reading for us has a footnote here which is of value to us: In part it reads: “The account of each day’s hunting contains a number of obsolete terms and details of woodcraft, not given in full. The…
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This week a fragment of Irish folklore from Lady Jane Francesca Wilde. It comes from her book Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland. Her name, if slightly familiar, may be eclipsed a little by her more famous son, Oscar Wilde, whose writing took a rather different direction. Her book contains a lot of…
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A brief one here: a demon from Herrick that takes the form of a pagan god. It aids people who want to harm themselves by destroying their own capacity for love. Love, in medieval theology, being one of the forms of God, and that humans should love being one of the commands of God, this…
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This has a certain American feel, but can be easily transposed into feudal times. Statistics for the monsters eventually. Thanks to Tennishoes and his Librivox production team. *** Towards mid-day the three pursuers came abruptly round a bend in the torrent bed upon the sight of a very broad and spacious valley. The difficult and…
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This second part of the the story starts with a lengthy piece that sets the tone. This beginning of adventures had Arthur at the New Year; for he yearned to hear gallant tales, though his words were few when he sat at the feast. But now had they stern work on hand. Gawain was glad…
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Robert Herrick provides us with an Infernal aura in this poem. It may not be clear on an initial read, but the saints mentioned are from classical myths, and are suicides. The narrator is deludedly seeking his own death, which in medieval theology is a damnable offence. That he thinks it creates a sort of…
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In our collection of potential mystery cults from Cheshire folklore, we have one potential mystagogue that I did not know was local. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, one of the best known Arthurian stories, is set on the Wirral, a coastal area in the northwest of Cheshire. The name of the poet who wrote…
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MummeryPickford suggests the characters in the Alice stories are based on a guising group (mummers) who are active in Cheshire. The characters are the Letter-In (who is in a tophat and is arguably the rabbit/portal guardian), Good King George (feels later than Ars period, swap with saint?), the Black prince, Mary (played by a man),…
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When not writing children’s fiction, Edith Nesbit also wrote ghost stories. This one has a vampire that, at the beginning, appears relatively gentle. It drains the health of its victim without the penetration and violence of Stoker’s vampires. Note, however, that it permanently damages the man. He never has a romantic relationship again, and never…
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Genius loci are an idea which turned up in Ars Magica with several of us finding them all of a sudden. I used one in a fiction competition, and I believe the authors of The Mysteries First Edition had already written others up. In my case I saw an odd bit of Latin in a…
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Games From Folktales 