Category: historical value
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The macabre lure and folklore of graveyards
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The wind was blowing heavily, pelting me with rain from darkened skies as I made my way up a narrow path to find the Hill of Tara in Ireland. My hubby elected to remain in the parking lot, safe and dry in our rental car, but I was determined to…
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Faeries in history: cute / dangerous / erotic
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If you lived in medieval times, you were constantly trying to ward off all the evil that fairies, magical beings who lurked in the woods, could foist upon you. Legends portrayed them as looking human, with a decided bent for trickery. They might be any size from tiny to our…
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A forbidden shortcut for medieval scholars
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Did anyone use Coles Notes, or CliffsNotes in the U.S.? Here in Canada, they’re still available through Indigo. When I was in high school, if you were of the mind to skip reading a required book, you could try to get away with basing your book report on the plot…
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Fae-ry Tales, Not so nice
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But the old woman had only pretended to be friendly. She was a wicked witch who was lying in wait there for children. She had built her house of bread only in order to lure them to her, and if she captured one, she would kill him, cook him, and…
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The lure of Lost World adventures
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“Who was this extraordinary woman, Queen over a people apparently as extraordinary as herself, and reigning amidst the vestiges of a lost civilisation? And what was the meaning of this story of the Fire that gave unending life?” She, by H. Rider Haggard There was a moment at Machu Picchu…
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Tea, beyond the cup and saucer
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Did you know that every kind of true tea that you drink, from white to green to oolong to black to pu’erh, all comes from the same plant, in fact the top three leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant? The look and taste of the tea in your cup depends…
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Are mirrors dangerous?
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I busted a mirror and got seven years bad luck, but my lawyer thinks he can get me five. Steven Wright Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody… How do you feel about mirrors? Are they annoying…weird…creepy? We’re in the final week of Halfoween. It’s also Folk Horror Week, something celebrated on…
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Characters from books to screen: good, bad, misguided
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About 30 minutes into the first Lord of the Rings movie, I was ticked off, and spent the next three hours fuming. Now, for that movie my problem wasn’t with the casting – except for the ridiculous choice of actress to play Lady Arwen – but with the many, many…
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When life mirrors my books!
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My hubby, along with a number of people I know, isn’t a particular fan of vegetables. He’ll eat them under sufferance because he knows they’re good for him, and because I won’t let him eat just meat, potatoes and gravy all the time. So I can only imagine his reaction…
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The Lost Ark, a real-life treasure hunt
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If you were going to bring back the early adventure epics to the big screen, what better story than a roguish professor and archeologist searching for the greatest lost treasure in history? The Ark of the Covenant was the most important artifact of biblical times – the repository of God’s…