Mythic Humanoids – Serpent People and Dragons – Part 3 (Survey of Dragons and dragon literature)

Here's Part 3 (Survey of Dragons and dragon literature) of my blog on serpent people and dragons. For Part 1 (Research Deluge) and Part 2 (Symbolism)

There are many ways to organize the numerous varieties of dragons.

Categorizing dragons by :

1. Color [like shoes in a closet or crayons in a box, not based on mythological research.]
2. Sea serpent v flier
3. Old v New
4. North v South
5. East vs West [Does respect for dragons affect the interpretation of their myths?]

Mythic Humanoids – Serpent People and Dragon Shape Shifters – Part 2 (Symbolism)

Like fire that later came to be associated with serpent people's spin off dragons, depending on the people group the myths came from, serpent people could be good and helpful or cunning and evil. In some cultures they were both. For example, in ancient Egypt, Apepi, a giant serpent demon attacked Ra, the sun, while Mehen, another giant serpent coiled around the sun at night to protect him. Regardless of whether they are good  or evil, both serpents and dragons are usually associated with underwater or underground worlds, often with the roots of cosmic trees. (Niddhogg - Norse, Mictlan - Aztec, Veles – Slavic)

Mythic Humanoids – Serpent People and Dragon Shape Shifters – Part 1(Research Deluge)

I have been doing a lot of research on dragons to discover what dragons are like in my fantasy world. I've been amazed at the wealth of fiction books written about dragons. Clearly, dragons captivate and spur the imagination of many. More than I ever realized.

Mother Nature – Mythic Persons #1

My Lady Yggdrasil

Until now I've been focusing on mythological species of humanoids or mythic peoples. This is my first mythic persons post. The myth or personification of Mother Nature has been on my mind lately as I continue to try to define this blog and my brand as an author. Also, depending on whether you look at nature goddesses/ personifications as separate entities or conflate them into different names for the same entity, they are so prevalent that they are practically a population of their own. 

Native American Fairies

There are a number of names for small fairy folk in the Native American mythologies. They have similarities with the small folk of other countries, actually a remarkable number of similarities. But they are not a homogeneous group by any stretch of the imagination.

 They can have personalities anywhere from brownie types to cannibals. And the appearances are not the same either. Sizes can be from four feet

Mythological Species #29 – Ghosts

One of the most popular Halloween ghouls are ghosts. Ghost stories are so abundant around camp fires, at sleep overs, in the movies and on TV, that I expected to claim that they had a universal presence among the cultures of the world, to find an abundance of information about them and then move right on to the different presentations they made. [WRONG!]

My first go-to reference book, The Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (MacKillop, Oxford, ISBN 0-19-869157-2), stated that the word "ghost" is a foreign word to the Celtic language, borrowed from another

Book Review - Education - How To Tell The Difference by Beverly Slapin, etc. and Writing about Native Americans

I wish to have Native American characters in my SylFaen Tree Saga, so I was delighted to find and read this book. How To Tell The Difference: A Checklist for Evaluating Children's Books for Anti-Indian Bias, by Beverly Slapin, Doris Seale and Rosemary Gonzalez. Slapin and company demonstrate misrepresentations of Native Americans in Children's Literature and compare them to appropriate representations.

It explains how many books use stereotypes and pejorative language when talking about Native Americans. I realized how much this book is needed when three seconds after describing the purpose of this book to my teenage son to recommend he read it, I came across a misrepresentation.