Tag Archives: orcs

Rift of the Magi

Posted on May 17, 2026 by Nathan

Ronan the Barbarian, by James Bibby – The joke in the title is perhaps a little too obvious, but this is a good comic fantasy overall. Ronan is the son of a blacksmith who makes flimsy weapons, and is killed … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Arthurian Legend, Authors, Book Reviews, British, Greek Mythology, Humor, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Names, Roman, seanan mcguire, Wayward Children | Tagged cheesers, donkeys, dragons, drendon, dryads, elves, fauns, it's magic you dope, james bibby, kelewan, kwistians, magician apprentice, magician master, merlin, nymphs, orcs, rabbits, raymond e. feist, riftwar, riftwar saga, ronan the barbarian, thrangs, through gates of garnet and gold, witches, wizards, wumbls | Leave a comment

The Academic Abyss

Posted on April 16, 2026 by Nathan

Katabasis, by R.F. Kuang – The title is an ancient Greek term for a journey to the underworld, and that is what happens in this book. It’s set in a world where magic is a respected academic discipline, and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Book Reviews, Chinese, Christianity, Education, Greek Mythology, Hinduism, Humor, Magic, Maps, Monsters, Mythology, Relationships, Religion, Roman, Technology | Tagged a closed and common orbit, artificial intelligence, bards, becky chambers, brigands and breadknives, carson lowmiller, computers, dante alighieri, divine comedy, dwarves, elves, goblins, hell, inferno, katabasis, meng po, orcs, r.f. kuang, rattkins, s.e. davidson, swords, the long way to a small angry planet, travis baldree, underworld, wayfarers, weapons, yama | 1 Comment

Too Many Books

Posted on November 26, 2025 by Nathan

I seem to be finishing a lot of books as of late, which means this post is going to be pretty long, even if the individual reviews aren’t. Bear with me, I guess. The Way Home, by Peter S. Beagle … Continue reading →

Posted in Animal Crossing, Animals, Art, Authors, barsoom, Book Reviews, Brentford Trilogy, Comics, Crusades, edgar rice burroughs, elvis presley, Fairy Tales, Food, Greek Mythology, History, Humor, Judaism, Magic, Mario, Middle East, Monsters, Music, Mythology, Names, Percy Jackson, Relationships, Religion, Rick Riordan, Robert Rankin, Roman, Video Games | Tagged a fate worse than dragons, abraham, adam and eve, alexander the great, amazons, animal crossing new horizons, babylon, barry the time sprout, bible, blathers, boos, caleb cook, camp jupiter, cats, daniel, dejah thoris, demons, deserted island diary, dionysus, django wexler, dogs, dragons, esther, fairies, frogs, genesis, geoffrey de bouillon, gertrude landa, ghosts, giants, griffins, gulliver, how to become the dark lord and die trying, idols, jerusalem, jewish fairy tales and legends, john carter, john moore, king alexander's adventures, king david, king for three days, king hiram of tyre, kokonasu rumba, laverna, manga, mark oshiro, mars, minotaur, moses, nico di angelo, nimrod, noah, noah's ark, normanghast, og of bashan, orcs, paradise, peter s. beagle, phobos, pirithous, queen mary tudor, rape, rashi, sambation river, schmendrick, semele, sinbad of the talmud, sinbad the sailor, sol aronson, sooz, super mario adventures, swords of mars, talmud, tantalus, the court of the dead, the fairy frog, the giant of the flood, the higgedly-piggedly palace, the last unicorn, the paradise in the sea, the princess bride, the quarrel of the cat and dog, the sleep of one hundred years, the star-child, the story of bostanai, the water-babe, the way home, theseus, time loops, timmy and tommy nookling, tom nook, two hearts, underworld, will solace, wisp, ziz | 1 Comment

Big Secrets

Posted on November 4, 2025 by Nathan

This article, which I saw linked on Slacktivist, connects the recent attempts by Donald Trump and his supporters to censor the Smithsonian with the Nephilim, a topic that has long fascinated me. When I did a Google Image search for … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Authors, Characters, Christianity, Conspiracy Theories, Current Events, Etymology, Evolution, Fundamentalism, Greek Mythology, Islam, J.R.R. Tolkien, Judaism, Language, Monsters, Music, Mythology, Names, Oz, Oz Authors, Politics, Prejudice, Rasputina, Religion, Roman, Ruth Plumly Thompson, Science, Semitic, Video Games | Tagged 1 enoch, angels, bible, book of enoch, cain, cardiff giant, creationism, donald trump, genesis, giants, hekatonkheires, hoaxes, moses, nephilim, noah's ark, numbers, numenor, og of bashan, ogres, orcs, orcus, pirates in oz, seth, slacktivist, smithsonian, talmud, tomb raider, unicorns | 1 Comment

Rakevat’s Rules of Chaos

Posted on November 20, 2024 by Nathan

Pahua and the Dragon’s Secret, by Lori M. Lee – In the second book of this series, Pahua Moua, the reincarnation of the great Hmong warrior Shee Yee, wants to enroll in a school for shamans. In order to do … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, Book Reviews, Catherynne M. Valente, Discworld, Douglas Adams, Food, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Hmong, Humor, Magic, Monsters, Music, Mythology, Names, Philosophy, Relationships, Rick Riordan, Technology, Terry Pratchett, Video Games | Tagged aliens, ankh-morpork, arthur rackham, bad prince charlie, bookshops and bonedust, coffee, dragons, dwarves, elves, eurovision, gnomes, goblins, homunculus, john moore, legends and lattes, lori m. lee, metagalactic grand prix, necromancers, nine goblins, octopath traveler, orcs, pahua and the dragon's secret, rattkins, rick riordan presents, skeletons, space oddity, space opera, succubus, t. kingfisher, tapenti, travis baldree, trolls, unicorns, ursula vernon, wizards | 1 Comment

Roland in the Deep

Posted on January 24, 2023 by Nathan

I think I first heard of Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso in a blurb about C.S. Lewis comparing J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings to it. Well, they do both have a magic ring that makes people invisible, and a monster … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Arthurian Legend, Authors, Book Reviews, British, C.S. Lewis, Characters, Christianity, French, Greek Mythology, Islam, J.R.R. Tolkien, L. Frank Baum, Magic, Magic Items, Monsters, Music, Mythology, Names, Oz, Oz Authors, Poetry, Relationships, Religion, Ruth Plumly Thompson, Video Games, William Shakespeare | Tagged amazons, andromeda, arimaspoi, astolfo, atlante, avalon, basil of caesarea, battle of roncevaux pass, beowulf, chanson de roland, charlemagne, childe roland to the dark tower came, cortana, durendal, elijah, fairies, faleero, falerina, ferragut, giants, griffins, halo, hector, hell, hippogriffs, holga danske, horses, hugh capet of france, huon of bordeaux, jesus, john the apostle, king lear, lethe river, lord of the rings, ludovico ariosto, matteo maria boiardo, merlin, moon, morgan le fay, ogier the dane, orcas, orcs, orlando furioso, orlando innamorato, paladin, penthesileia, pliny the elder, prester john, rinaldo, robert browning, roland, roland the headless thompson gunner, ruggiero, st. denis, st. peter, stephen king, swords, tristan and isolde, virgin mary, warren zevon, water of oblivion, weapons | 8 Comments

Babes in the Woods

Posted on November 13, 2022 by Nathan

I remember, back in high school, reading about Scandinavian tales of women living in the forest who looked beautiful and human from the front, but were hollow in the back. I think the book just called them elves, and they … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Authors, British, Fairy Tales, German, Greek Mythology, J.R.R. Tolkien, Language, Mythology, Names, Norse, Piers Anthony, Roman, Xanth | Tagged buschgrossmutter, druedain, dwarves, elves, enkidu, epic of gilgamesh, fauns, folklore, hulders, huldras, jacob grimm, kaiti hylands, lord of the rings, ludmila zeman, moss people, mother holle, orcs, satyrs, shrub grandmother, skogsra, tails, thale, trees, trolls, wild hunt, woodwives, woodwoses | 1 Comment

All in How You Spell ‘Em

Posted on October 14, 2021 by Nathan

I saw something recently about the difference between the words “fairy” and “faerie.” Really, there’s no difference; the latter is just an archaic spelling. The word comes from the French for “fate,” and therefore “enchantment”; and was applied to many different … Continue reading →

Posted in Authors, British, Celtic, Discworld, Etymology, Greek Mythology, J.R.R. Tolkien, L. Frank Baum, Language, Magic, Mythology, Norse, Oz, Oz Authors, Ruth Plumly Thompson, Terry Pratchett | Tagged aleister crowley, dennis wilson wise, dwarves, elves, fairies, fairyland, gnomes, goblins, immortals, john william polidori, lee speth, lord of the rings, noldor, nomes, nymphs, orcs, ozma of oz, spelling, the baum bugle, the hobbit, the hungry tiger of oz, vampires, words | 2 Comments

Orc My World

Posted on May 1, 2020 by Nathan

This past weekend, Orcs were trending on Twitter, based on a tweet about how a description of them in Dungeons & Dragons was pretty racist. (Full disclosure: I haven’t played D&D, although I’ve come across it quite a bit in … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Authors, Biology, Christianity, Ethnicity, Fairy Tales, Focus on the Foes, Games, History, J.R.R. Tolkien, Language, Magic, Monsters, Mythology, Norse, Prejudice, Religion, Science, Star Trek | Tagged beowulf, dungeons and dragons, dwarves, elves, fantasy, gnolls, goblins, klingons, morality, ogres, orcs, racism, scientific racism, trolls | 1 Comment

Worm Your Way

Posted on May 23, 2018 by Nathan

Looking into mythology and fiction involving giant worms is a little tricky because it seems like a lot of early societies thought worms and snakes were variations on the same thing. I guess they didn’t want to investigate all that … Continue reading →

Posted in Animals, Authors, Cartoons, Etymology, Final Fantasy, Futurama, Greek Mythology, J.R.R. Tolkien, Language, Monsters, Mythology, Science, Television, Video Games, Zelda | Tagged a link to the past, al gore, alien, annelids, arrakis, asclepius, beetlejuice, beowulf, carl linnaeus, dragons, dune, earthworms, final fantasy v, final fantasy vi, final fantasy X, frank herbert, glurmo, gobi desert, gogo, graboids, indus river, indus worm, john schoenherr, lambton worm, link, moldorms, mongolian death worm, moon worms, neitherworld, olgoi-khorkhoi, orcs, philip j. fry, professor hubert farnsworth, sandworms, saturn, skolex, slurm, slurm queen, sockburn worm, the battle of the five armies, the hobbit, tim burton, tremors, turanga leela, were-worms, worms, wormulon, wyrms, xenomorphs, zone eater | 2 Comments

Tag Archives: orcs

Rift of the Magi

The Academic Abyss

Too Many Books

Big Secrets

Rakevat’s Rules of Chaos

Roland in the Deep

Babes in the Woods

All in How You Spell ‘Em

Orc My World

Worm Your Way

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