CTHULHU CALLING
This last summer, I was delighted to receive a request to do a foreword for a new illustrated Lovecraft book. (This is always mixed with mild dismay at my own enthusiasm, as the more sensible part of...
View ArticleEPIDAURUS: THE VIEW FROM THE CHEAP SEATS
The tour guide is expostulating with equal measures of enthusiasm and malleable exactitude on the Golden Mean. We listeners are scattered in a loose, meditative but fidgety herd of participants of all...
View ArticleHERMENAUTICA: TRAVELLING WITH THE TRICKSTER
Hermes is a tricky fellow, the ancient Greek equivalent of Raven, Coyote or Loki. He is a mediator, a guide between worlds, principally the worlds of life and death, a messenger between gods and...
View ArticleIN DEFENCE OF MEDEA
BUT, knowing now that they would have her speak, She threw her wet hair backward from her brow, Her hand close to her mouth touching her cheek, Opening lines of The Defence of Guenevere, from The...
View ArticleTHE SILVER APPLES OF THE MOON, THE GOLDEN APPLES OF THE SUN
‘Within the sanctuary at Nemi grew a certain tree of which no branch might be broken. Only a runaway slave was allowed to break off, if he could, one of its boughs. Success in the attempt entitled him...
View ArticleSTRANGE BOUGHS
THE UPAS AND OTHER UNUSUAL TREES OF DEATH AND EVIL At the annual British Institution exhibition of 1820, a singular tableau by an unheralded artist was on display. Entitled “The Upas, or Poison Tree of...
View ArticleTHE ONES THAT GOT AWAY
FORGOTTEN BOOKS… A few years ago, I acquired a couple of books. I know what you are thinking, and you are right, I have indubitably bought more than that – a healthy amount of books pass though my...
View ArticleEVERYTHING THAT IS NOT US
“Everything you are not stares back at what you are.” Adam Nicolson, from The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters “In the very earliest time When both people and animals lived on earth A person could...
View ArticleWANDERING BUT NOT LOST
“When your Daemon is in charge, do not try to think consciously. Drift, wait, and obey.” — Rudyard Kipling[1] Late last year, I was asked if I would consider doing a preface for a book on Tolkien. I...
View ArticleON RAVEN WINGS: THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE MARVELOUS
ON RAVEN WINGS: THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE MARVELOUS Jul 24, 2023 | Chroniclesread more WANDERING BUT NOT LOST Aug 5, 2021 | Chronicles“When your Daemon is in charge, do not try to think consciously....
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