Like to have all 236 pages of 2021 GFF in one place? Follow the link! Sorry there’s no art this year. It’s been…well, you know.
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Cellini shoots a man in the head by pure accident on his way to France
We return to the biography of goldsmith and adventurer Benevenuto Cellini, for him to, once again, randomly murder some guy and get away with it. Then again, knowing Cellini if he’d actually wanted to shoot the guy he would have told us that it was a great shot, using his rifle which is better than…
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The Huldrefish by Jonas Lie
Jonas Lie was a Norwegian folklorist who collected stories, somewhat in the tradition of the Grimm brothers. His work was translated into English early in the Twentieth Century. Eating the Huldrefish seems to give access to a regio, and it has many creatures from Faerie in it. The one I find most interesting is the…
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Cellini: The murder, the familiar and the flood
In the section which follows, note that everyone is embarrassed to have captured a murderer. They live in an honour culture, rather than a legal culture, and so it seems to them that they are acting unjustly, at least according to the biased narrator. LI I WENT on applying myself with the utmost diligence upon…
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Pentamerone – The Garlic Patch and Rosella
Let’s lead out with Burton’s summary:Belluccia, daughter of Ambruoso de Ia Varra, being obedient to her father, and acting prudently in his commands, becometh the wife of a rich youth. Narduccio hight, the first-born of Biasillo Guallecchia. Her sisters, being poor, are dowered by Biasillo, and given in marriage to his other sons. There was…
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Pentamerone – Sapia / Five Sons
Sapia Sapia, to me, seems like an early version of the The Taming of the Shrew story, but it ends with a stronger reconciliation. Then again, the Taming of the Shrew has an unofficial sequel (The Woman’s Prize by John Fletcher). Let’s start with Burton’s faux-Jacobean synopsis: “Sapia, daughter of a baroness, teacheth Cenzullo. the…
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Clothing and spycraft for Magonomia
I started to write an article on trick gadgets for Magonomia, but I need to step back a little and give some basic information. Much as I’d need to explain what a cummerbund was if writing up James Bond’s gear, I need to define some terms as we go through, so the potential of clothing…
Read MoreThe transcripts for final quarter of 2021 are available. Once again, they lack graphics. Sorry about that. It’s been a heck of a year.
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Pentamerone – Three Faeries / Two Brothers
Let us start with Burton’s faux-Jacobean summary of this story: Cecelia. ill-treated by her stepmother, is well entreated by three fairies. Her envious stepmother sendeth her own daughter to them, and she is scorned by them, for which reason she sendeth her stepdaughter to watch pigs. A great lord falleth in love with her, but…
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An Apology for the Bottle Volcanic by Vachel Lindsay
A quick poem to start festive week in 2021. Thanks to the Librivox production team. Sometimes I dip my pen and find the bottle full of fire,The salamanders flying forth I cannot but admire.It’s Etna, or Vesuvius, if those big things were small,And then ’tis but itself again, and does not smoke at all.And so…
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Games From Folktales 