Dunsany: The fortress unvanquishable save for Sacnoth
This story is what started our lengthy quest through Lord Dunsany. I wrote up the demon crocodile Tharagavverug and Sacnoth for Sub Rosa magazine issue #18, and that gave me the impetus to do the rest of his works. I don’t believe he was well received when written up – there aren’t a lot of…
Read More
The Angels With Leaden Feathers: A Verditus Mystery Cult
Why do so many Verditus magi make submersibles? We have focused, in the published books, on magical submarines, but let’s think about something else. Let’s think about bathyspheres. Imagine a sphere that is lowered into the dark. It must be a perfect sphere. if it has a flaw, it will collapse and you will be…
Read More
Dunsany short stories: Time and the tradesman
What would the embodiment of Time be in Ars Magica? Mechanically it could be of any Realm. What could its embodiment be? Any story can be a faerie, an a demon can claim to be anything, but Time, in various mythologies is the thing that comes before the Magical powers of creation, which come before…
Read More
Dunsany short stories : Two stories of Fame
A pair of short stories about Fame from Lord Dunsany. THE ASSIGNATION Fame singing in the highways, and trifling as she sang, with sordid adventurers, passed the poet by. And still the poet made for her little chaplets of song, to deck her forehead in the courts of Time: and still she wore instead the…
Read More
Dunsany: Secret of the Sea
Another Dunsany episode: plot hooks at the end! In an ill-lit ancient tavern that I know, are many tales of the sea; but not without the wine of Gorgondy, that I had of a private bargain from the gnomes, was the tale laid bare for which I had waited of an evening for the greater…
Read More
Dunsany short stories : The Exhausted World
This episode went live early, so here’s a bonus transcript for the week. *** I’ve discussed previously the idea that there may be worlds, in deep Arcadia, where the Faerie Aura is a negative number. To come up to speed on that discussion see the previous episode about Miss Cubbidge and the Dragon of Romance.…
Read More
The gold more valuable than gold: saffron in Mythic Europe
The transcript for this week went live early. This little bonus episode is to fill the gap. Saffron is the most expensive agricultural product, weight for weight, in Mythic Europe. There’s some question as to how hardy it is: people at the time claimed it grows best in arid climates, but in the 16th century, the…
Read More
The demon in Chaucer’s “The friar’s tale”
I was listening to a somewhat modernised version of The Cantebury Tales and was struck by a description of a demon given there. This is from The Friar’s Tale. It uses the word “sompnour” which is a “summoner”, a sort of bailiff that calls people to the ecclesiastical court. The friar hates, and is hated…
Read More
Games From Folktales 