Robert
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Commented on From the hemline index to the vampire/zombie ratio: SF/F by the numbers
That sounds like a plausible account for the origin of elves in Irish folklore, but I didn't mention Ireland. I, and the thesis I mentioned, was talking about elves in English folklore, and more broadly, in Germanic folklore. It's possible...
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Commented on From the hemline index to the vampire/zombie ratio: SF/F by the numbers
On the origins of elves, I came across a thesis on-line a while back (link lost) which looked at the original Anglo-Saxon stories, and argued from them that elves are basically a mythologised version of that village nearby which is...
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Commented on In defence of Traditional (Eurocentric Quasi-Medieval) Fantasy: #3 It's the Archetypes, silly!
How often are zombies shown as intelligent, particularly in traditional high fantasy? Tolkien did have some intelligent undead, but they all had souls. The Nazgul still had their original souls, thanks to their rings, and the barrow-wights were animated by...
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Commented on In defence of Traditional (Eurocentric Quasi-Medieval) Fantasy: #3 It's the Archetypes, silly!
I don't have the exact reference handy, but Tolkien said that during WWI he and his colleagues in the trenches were orcs. In context, this was a swipe at modern mechanised warfare, and the brutalising effect it had on the...
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Commented on The Scottish Political Singularity, Act Two
UKIP are taking votes off Labour too. I live in one of Labour's safest seats, somewhere in Sheffield, so have a good idea what a lot of their traditional voters are like, and it isn't pretty. Quite simply a substantial...