Roleplaying games from historical research
Although it is disguised a little with variants, the creature called Eala in the Magonomia Bestiary is the haunted harp found in one of the most popular folksongs of the British Isles. To keep things English, which was the remit of the book, I deliberately used a variant from Berwickshire, but we can look at…
Read MoreIt’s the basic question everyone asks, so here are my answers for this project. Afanc egg seller songAside from “Who will buy?” from the musical Oliver! which owes a bit to Cherry Ripe by Robert Herrick, this ditty goes back to the histories of London street cries. The earliest one recorded is in a poem called The London Lickpenny by John…
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Kenidjack, the demon who oversees the wrestling in Cornwall, has been briefly mentioned on the blog before, as a minor character in some Ars Magica material, but here’s his complete story from Hunt’s “Popular Romances of the West of England”. It starts with a quotation from an older work, where our fellow is mentioned, in…
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This is a short piece, compared to some of the others for the Bestiary series. My goals for the wisps were straightforward, so I got there without a lot of surplus material. When I wrote the urban wisps for the Magonomia Bestiary I wanted to introduce the Royal Exchange and suggest that the creatures were…
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Malkins appear in a variety of books in the period. I took the name from the cat familiar in a play called “The Witch” by Thomas Middleton. “Malkin” is a period diminutive of the name “Maud” or “Matilda”, popular for cats. Middleton notes the play was “ill-fated” and that was thought for some time to…
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In the Magonomia bestiary I’ve introduced you to Grim, the Ghost King, so in this episode I’d like to give you the source documents and illustrations which led to his inclusion. I’m not a singer myself, so here are three versions of the song he appears in. I’d note each varies the title a little.…
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Now that Andrew has mentioned the Laidly Toad, and shared some art from the forthcoming bestiary, I can talk about the folklore used to design it. The Laidly Toad is the villain from “The Laidly Worm of Spindlestone Heugh” which is a story from the English Borders. I’ve also mixed in a little from a…
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A brief one for this week. See you next week, when things get way too intense for Magonomia Bestiary. *** Being then refreshed in strength and spirits, I attacked the great statue of Mars, which I had set up solidly upon a frame of well-connected woodwork. Over this there lay a crust of plaster, about…
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Madame d’Etampes is mentioned several times in Cellini’s stories, but I’ve cut all of them but this one out. This is Anne de Pisseleu d’Heilly, Duchess of D’etampes and the chief mistress of King Francis I. She loathes Cellini, because he isn’t sufficiently humble in her presence. He’s a misogynist, so he dislikes her for…
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An extra episode from my COVID period. First: a ruin a monster and a tresure in eight minutes. Thanks to the Librivox recorders. DOBB PARK LODGE On the southern slope of a picturesque valley, through which the Washburn pours its waters, stands the ruins of Dobb Park Lodge ; a lofty, four-storied mansion of the…
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Games From Folktales 