International Harry Potter day takes place on May 2 this particular date was chosen as it was the day that the great Battle of Hogwarts was fought. Harry Potter is a young fictional wizard who is the main protagonist in a series of seven fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young wizard, Harry Potter, and his friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasley, all of whom are students at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The main story arc concerns Harry’s conflict with Lord Voldemort, a dark wizard who killed Harry’s parents and intends to become immortal, overthrow the wizard governing body known as the Ministry of Magic and subjugate all wizards and Muggles(non-magical people). The world of Harry Potter includes many genres, including fantasy, drama, coming-of-age fiction, and the British school story and includes elements of mystery, thriller, adventure, horror, and romance) and deals with many cultural meanings and subjects such as death, prejudice, corruption, and madness.
The original seven books were adapted into a highly successful eight film series – the Philosopher’s stone, Chamber of secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of fire, order of the phoenix, Half-blood prince, and deathly Hallows parts 1 and 2.
In the Philosophers stone, young orphan named Harry Potter learns that he is actually a wizard and is enrolled at Hogwarts school of Magic and witchcraft. While there he makes friends with Hermione Granger and Ronald Weasley. He then learns that the evil lord Voldemort killed his parents and is looking for the Philosophers stone so that he may become immortal, and set out to stop him. in the second book, chamber of secrets, Harry Ron and Hermione discover something important about Voldemort and have to find an important artefact and destroy it before Voldemort can use it. In Prisoner of Azkaban Harry learns that his evil uncle Sirius Black, who was a crazed follower of Voldemort, has escaped from the wizard prison of Azkaban and intends to clobber Harry. In Goblet of fire Harry’s name is put forward to compete in the annual Tri-wizard tournament against rival wizarding schools Durmstrang and Beauxbatons. He discovers that Voldemort is closer than everyone thinks but nobody including the Ministry of Magic, believes him. In the fifth book Order of the Phoenix Harry clashes with the new headmistress of Hogwarts over the existence of Voldemort, but convinces the students that the threat from Voldemort is very real and sets up a secret organisation help them defeat him. In Half Blood Prince Voldemort has indeed become a real threat, Hogwarts is now under Professor Snape and has become more like a Military academy. Harry discovers that Professor Snape cannot be trusted. In Deathly Hallows, Voldemort tightens his grip on the non magical world. So Harry, Ron and Hermione leave School and set off to find a number of objects which will help them in the final battle against Voldemort…
As of 2016, the total value of the Harry Potter franchise was estimated at $25 billion. making Harry Potter one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time The success of the books and films has allowed the Harry Potter franchise to expand further with numerous derivative works, time. Including a play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child based on a story co-written by Rowling, a travelling exhibition that premiered in Chicago in 2009, a studio tour in London that opened in 2012, a digital platform on which J. K. Rowling updates the series with new information and insight, and a number of spin-off films including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Crimes of Grindelwald and Secret of Dumbledor. Many Themed attractions, collectively known as The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, have opened around the world. A new film adaptation based on the play “Harry potter and the Cursed child” is also in the works.
Best known for the Dragonriders of Pern science fiction series the American Born Irish Novellist Anne Inez McCaffrey was Born 1 April 1926 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She attended Stuart Hall (a girls’ boarding school in Staunton, Virginia), and graduated from Montclair High School in New Jersey. In 1947 she graduated cum laude from Radcliffe Collegewith a degree in Slavonic Languages and Literature.In 1950 she married Horace Wright Johnson who shared her interests in music, opera and ballet. They had three children: Alec Anthony, born 1952; Todd, born 1956 and Georgeanne (“Gigi”, Georgeanne Kennedy), born 1959. the family lived for most of a decade in Wilmington, Delaware And also Spent a short time in Düsseldorf.
They moved to Sea Cliff, Long Island in 1965, and McCaffrey became a full-time writer.McCaffrey served a term as secretary-treasurer of the Science Fiction Writers of America from 1968 to 1970. In addition to handcrafting the Nebula Award trophies, her responsibilities included production of two monthly newsletters and their distriution by mail to the membership. McCaffrey emigrated to Ireland with her two younger children in 1970, weeks after filing for divorce. Ireland had recently exempted resident artists from income taxes, an opportunity that fellow science-fiction author Harry Harrison had promptly taken and helped to promote. McCaffrey’s mother soon joined the family in Dublin. the following spring, McCaffrey was guest of honor at her first British science-fiction convention. There she met British reproductive biologist Jack Cohen, who would be a consultant on the science of Pern.
McCaffrey had had two short stories published during the 1950s. “Freedom of the Race”, about women impregnated by aliens) was written in 1952 and the second story, “The Lady in the Tower”, was published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. She was also lnvited to the Milford Writer’s Workshop, where participants each brought a story to be critiqued. In 1959 she wrote “The Ship Who Sang”, the story which began the Brain & Brawn Ship series, which she considered her best story and her favorite. McCaffrey then wrote two more “Ship” stories and began her first novel , Restoree (1967), which featured an intelligent, survivor-type woman as the protagonist”. Her next novel Decision at Doona opens on “an overcrowded planet where just talking too loud made you a social outcast”. McCaffrey also competed for the 1971 publication Dragonquest and two Gothic novels for Dell, The Mark of Merlin and The Ring of Fear.With a contract for The White Dragon (which would complete the “original trilogy” with Ballantine), The young-adult book market provided a crucial opportunity. and McCaffrey started the Pern story of Menolly. Starting with “The Smallest Dragonboy” , the Crystal Singer and Dragonsong and The tales of Menolly are continued in Dragonsinger: Harper of Pern, and Dragondrums as the “Harper Hall Trilogy”.
Whilst brainstorming about dragons she devised a “technologically regressed survival planet” whose people were united against a threat from space .The dragons became the biologically renewable air force, and their riders ‘the few’ who, like the RAF pilots in World War Two, fought against incredible odds day in, day out.”The first Pern story, “Weyr Search”, was published in 1967 It won the 1968 Hugo Award for best novella, voted by participants in the annual World Science Fiction Convention The second Pern story, “Dragonrider”, won the 1969 Nebula Award for best novella, voted annually by the Science Fiction Writers of America. McCaffrey was the first woman to win a Hugo for fiction and the first to win a Nebula.” Weyr Search” covers the recruitment of a young woman, Lessa, to establish a telepathic bond with a queen dragon at its hatching, thus becoming a dragonrider and the leader of a Weyr community
The next novel. “Dragonrider” explores the growth of the queen dragon Ramoth, and the training of Lessa and Ramoth. . The third story, “Crack Dust, Black Dust”, was not published until 1974–1975. She wrote A Time When, which would become the first part of The White Dragon which was released with new editions of the first two Pern books, with cover art illustrated by Michael Whelan. It was the first science-fiction book by a woman on the New York Times bestseller list.in 2005 the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America named McCaffrey its 22nd Grand Master, an annual award to living writers of fantasy and science fiction. She was inducted by the Science Fiction Hall of Fame on 17 June 2006. Sadly though McCaffrey died at age 85 on 21 November 2011 at her home in Ireland, following a stroke, however her novels remain popular and i think Michael Whelan’s illustrations are also fantastic.
The Classic 1986 musical fantasy Labyrinth is being re released in Cinemas on March 6 & 10 2024. The film stars David Bowie as Jareth, the Goblin King and Jennifer Connelly as Sarah. Based on conceptual designs by Brian Froud, It was directed by Jim Henson written by Terry Jones, with George Lucas as executive producer with many characters produced by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. It concerns 16-year-old Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) who is currently reading a book entitled The Labyrinth. She is asked to babysit her infant half-brother Toby. Frustrated by Toby’s constant crying, Sarah rashly wishes that Toby be taken away by goblins. She gets a bit of a shock when Toby actually disappears and the Goblin King Jareth (David Bowie) appears, offering Sarah her dreams in exchange for the baby. She refuses, instantly regretting her wish. So Jareth reluctantly gives Sarah 13 hours to reach the centre of an enormous, otherworldly labyrinth and rescue her infant half-brother Toby before he is turned into a goblin forever.
Along the way Sarah meets an untrustworthy dwarf named Hoggle who suddenly runs off and she ends up in an oubliette where she reunites with Hoggle. The two manage to escape another of Jareth’s traps, before they encounter a large trapped beast named Ludo who is being taunted by Jareth’s Goblin guards. Sarah frees Ludo but loses him in a forest. Meanwhile Jareth, coerces Hoggle into hindering Sarah’s quest. Elsewhere Sarah finds herself being harassed by a group of irritating creatures called The Fire Gang, and while trying to escape she ends up in the “Bog of Eternal Stench” and is reunited with Ludo and Hoggle. The trio are confronted by the guard of the swamp, Sir Didymus and his Faithful Bearded Collie “steed” Ambrosius who tries to prevent them crossing the bridge.
Jareth, with Hoggles help, then tries to make Sarah fall asleep, and forget her quest. While sleeping She dreams of dancing with Jareth at a masquerade ball, where Jareth makes her a tempting offer, luckily she comes to her senses, rebuffs him and escapes. She then finds herself in a junkyard outside the Goblin City near Jareth’s castle where she is distracted by An old Junk Lady, luckily she remembers her quest when Ludo and Sir Didymus appear. However they are then confronted by the humongous robotic gate guard, combined with Jareth’ goblin army who have been sent to prevent Sarah from entering the castle, and retrieving Toby.
I am currently rewatching the epic fantasy Wheel of Time television series, which is based on the novels by Robert Jordan. It is set in an unnamed world which, due to the cyclical nature of time as depicted in the series, is simultaneously the distant past and the distant future Earth. It takes place three thousand years after, a global cataclysm called “The Breaking of the World” which ended a highly advanced era called the “Age of Legends”.
The main setting for the series is the western region called “The Westlands” which contains multiple kingdoms and city-states. To the east is a mountain range and a desert, the Aiel Waste, inhabited by the Aiel warrior people. Further east is the large and predominantly insular nation of Shara, this is separated from the Waste by large mountain ranges and other impassable terrain. North of all three regions is the Great Blight, a hostile wilderness inhabited by evil beings. Across an ocean west of the Westlands is Seanchan While far to the south of the Westlands and the Aiel Waste is a small continent in the southern hemisphere called The Land of Madmen”.
The series revolves around Moiraine Damodred, a member of the secretive and all powerful Aes Sedai organization who channel the One Power in order to keep the peace. She is accompanied by her Warder Al’Lan Mandragoran, and gleeman Thom Merrilin. They sense that the evil Dark One is stirring and begin looking for the Dragon Reborn, who is the only person who can defeat the evil Dark One. Her search takes her to a village called Two Rivers. However soon after her arrival it is unexpectedly attacked by an evil band of vicious Trollocs (monsters only thought to be a legend) led by Myrddraal. They are also searching for the Dragon Reborn. Moraine rescues the characters Rand al’Thor, Matrim (Mat) Cauthon, Perrin Aybara, Egwene al’Vere, and Nynaeve al’Meara from the carnage, Believing that one of them could be the Dragon Reborn.
She leads them On a perilous journey to find and protect the Eye of the World, from which the One Power is derived, in order to prevent the evil Dark One from destroying it and taking over the world. Along the way they face many hazards Including the evil abandoned city of Shadar Logoth, and the polluted Blight. They also encounter many people, some good some bad, including Elayne Trakand, heir apparent to the throne of Andor, her brothers Gawyn Trakand and Galad Damodred, Queen Morgase, The Green Man, the sinister Children of the Light and the Dark ones evil followers Aginor, Balthamel, and Ba’alzamon plus legions of evil vicious Trollocs.
best Known for his part inwriting Grimm’s Fairy Tales, German philologist and folklorist Wilhelm Grimm was born 24th February 1786. He was the younger brother of Jakob. Grimm’s Fairy Tales (German: Grimms Märchen) was first published in 1812 and The first volume contained 86 stories; the second volume of 70 stories followed in 1814. For the second edition, two volumes were issued in 1819 and a third in 1822, totalling 170 tales. The third edition appeared in 1837; fourth edition, 1840; fifth edition, 1843; sixth edition, 1850; seventh edition, 1857. Stories were added, and also subtracted, from one edition to the next, until the seventh held 211 tales. All editions were extensively illustrated, first by Philipp Grot Johann and, after his death in 1892, by Robert Leinweber. The first volumes were much criticized because, although they were called “Children’s Tales”, they were not regarded as suitable for children, both for the scholarly information included and the subject matter. Many changes through the editions – such as turning the wicked mother of the first edition in Snow White and Hansel and Gretel (shown in original Grimm stories as Hansel and Grethel) to a stepmother, were probably made with an eye to such suitability. They removed sexual references—such as Rapunzel’s innocently asking why her dress was getting tight around her belly, and thus naïvely revealing her pregnancy and the prince’s visits to her stepmother—but, in many respects, violence, particularly when punishing villains, was increased.
The influence of these books was widespread. W. H. Auden praised the collection, during World War II, as one of the founding works of Western culture. The tales themselves have been put to many uses. The Nazis praised them as folkish tales showing children with sound racial instincts seeking racially pure marriage partners, and so strongly that the Allied forces warned against them; for instance, Cinderella with the heroine as racially pure, the stepmother as an alien, and the prince with an unspoiled instinct being able to distinguish. Writers who have written about the Holocaust have combined the tales with their memoirs, as Jane Yolen in her Briar Rose.The work of the Brothers Grimm influenced other collectors, both inspiring them to collect tales and leading them to similarly believe, in a spirit of romantic nationalism, that the fairy tales of a country were particularly representative of it, to the neglect of cross-cultural influence.
Grimms tales were partly influenced by the Russian Alexander Afanasyev, the Norwegians Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, the English Joseph Jacobs, and Jeremiah Curtin, an American who collected Irish tales.There was not always a pleased reaction to their collection. Joseph Jacobs was in part inspired by his complaint that English children did not read English fairy tales; in his own words, “What Perrault began, the Grimms completed”. Three individual works of Wilhelm Grimm include Altdänische Heldenlieder, Balladen und Märchen (‘Old Danish Heroic Lays, Ballads, and Folktales’) in 1811, Über deutsche Runen (‘On German Runes’) in 1821, and Die deutsche Heldensage (‘The German Heroic Legend’) in 1829. Sadly Wilhelm Grimm, passed away on 16th December 1859. However Google celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales on December 20th 2012 with an interactive Google Doodle.
Among the best known of Grimm’s Fairy Tales are: Snow White, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, Little Red Riding Hood, The Riddle, Mother Hulda, The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich, Cat and Mouse in Partnership, Mary’s Child, The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids, Trusty John or Faithful John,The Good Bargain,The Wonderful Musician or The Strange Musician,The Twelve Brothers, The Pack of Ragamuffins, The Three Little Men in the Wood, The Three Snake-Leaves, The Fisherman and His Wife, The Seven Ravens, Clever Elsie, The White Snake, The Valiant Little Tailor, The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage, Town Musicians of Bremen, The Singing Bone, The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs,The Louse and the Flea,Thumbling (Tom Thumb), Thumbling’s Travels and The Elves and the Shoemaker. Many of these stories have also been turned into films too.
The Talon’s Fury is Book one in the The War Gryphon Saga, the next epic fantasy series from Author Robert H. Fleming. It is followed by the novels Empire’s folly, legions trial, the Shadows glare, and the traitors realm.
It takes place in an ancient mythical realm featuring mythical creatures such as war gryphons. Who are ridden by heroic warriors called The Legions of the Belgadan Empire who are currently Fighting the barbarians. The novel concerns Martius who dreams of one day joining the legendary legions of the Belgadan Empire. He seeks to enlist as only a simple foot soldier, but the twists of war have another path for him. he’s thrown into the army’s air cavalry and becomes a member of the famous gryphon riders, meanwhile the empire’s fearsome enemies mass on its borders.
Martius’s one chance at glory is here. With the help of veteran generals and his bond with a war gryphon, it is up to Martius to find his place in the legion and claim greatness by helping to stop the barbarians, charging towards the gates of the empire, from overrunning and destroying all he holds dear.
Author, mathematician, Logician, Anglican Deacon and Photographer Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) was born 27 January 1832, his most famous writings are Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, as well asthe poems “The Hunting of the Snark” and “Jabberwocky”, all examples of the genre of literary nonsense. He is noted for his facility at word play, logic, and fantasy, and there are societies in many parts of the world (including the United Kingdom, Japan, the United States, and New Zealand) dedicated to the enjoyment and promotion of his works and the investigation of his life. From a young age, Dodgson wrote poetry and short stories, both contributing heavily to the family magazine Mischmasch and later sending them to various magazines, enjoying moderate success. Between 1854 and 1856, his work appeared in he national publications, The Comic Times and The Train, as well as smaller magazines like the Whitby Gazette and the Oxford Critic. Most of this output was humorous, sometimes satirical, but his standards and ambitions were exacting. sometime after 1850, he did write puppet plays for his siblings’ entertainment, of which one has survived, La Guida di Bragia.
In 1856 he published his first piece of work under the name that would make him famous. A romantic poem called “Solitude” appeared in The Train under the authorship of “Lewis Carroll”. This pseudonym was a play on his real name; Lewis was the anglicised form of Ludovicus, which was the Latin for Lutwidge, and Carroll an Irish surname similar to the Latin name Carolus, from which comes the name Charles. The transition went as follows: “Charles Lutwidge” translated into Latin as “Carolus Ludovicus”. This was then translated back into English as “Carroll Lewis” and then reversed to make “Lewis Carroll”. In, 1856, a new dean, Henry Liddell, arrived at Christ Church, bringing with him his young family, all of whom would figure largely in Dodgson’s life and, over the following years, greatly influence his writing career. Dodgson became close friends with Liddell’s wife, Lorina, and their children, particularly the three sisters: Lorina, Edith and Alice Liddell. He was for many years widely assumed to have derived his own “Alice” from Alice Liddell. This was given some apparent substance by the fact the acrostic poem at the end of Through the Looking Glass spells out her name and also that there are many superficial references to her hidden in the text of both books. It has been noted that Dodgson himself repeatedly denied in later life that his “little heroine” was based on any real child, and frequently dedicated his works to girls of his acquaintance, adding their names in acrostic poems at the beginning of the text. Gertrude Chataway’s name appears in this form at the beginning of The Hunting of the Snark and it is not suggested that this means any of the characters in the narrative are based on her.
Carroll’s friendship with the Liddell family was an important part of his life in the late 1850s and he took the children on rowing trips accompanied by an adult friend.to nearby Nuneham Courtenay or Godstow.it was on one such expedition, on 4 July 1862, that Dodgson invented the outline for Alice in Wonderland after Alice Liddell persuaded him to write it down, Dodgson presented her with a handwritten, illustrated manuscript entitled Alice’s Adventures Under Ground in November 1864 Before this, the family of friend and mentor George MacDonald read Dodgson’s incomplete manuscript, and the enthusiasm of the MacDonald children encouraged Dodgson to seek publication. In 1863, he had taken the unfinished manuscript to Macmillan the publisher, who liked it immediately. After the possible alternative titles Alice Among the Fairies and Alice’s Golden Hour were rejected, the work was finally published as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 1865 under the Lewis Carroll pen-name, which Dodgson had first used some nine years earlier. The illustrations this time were by Sir John Tenniel; Dodgson evidently thought that a published book would need the skills of a professional artist.
The overwhelming commercial success of the first Alice book changed Dodgson’s life in many ways. The fame of his alter ego “Lewis Carroll” soon spread around the world. He was inundated with fan mail and with sometimes unwanted attention. Indeed, according to one popular story, Queen Victoria herself enjoyed Alice In Wonderland so much that she suggested he dedicate his next book to her, and was accordingly presented with his next work, a scholarly mathematical volume entitled An Elementary Treatise on Determinants. Dodgson himself vehemently denied this story, commenting “…It is utterly false in every particular: nothing even resembling it has occurred”; and it is unlikely for other reasons: as T.B. Strong comments in a Times newspaper article, “It would have been clean contrary to all his practice to identify [the] author of Alice with the author of his mathematical works”. He also began earning quite substantial sums of money but continued with his seemingly disliked post at Christ Church. Late in 1871, a sequel – Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There – was published. It is somewhat darker and the mood possibly reflects the changes in Dodgson’s life. His father had recently died (1868), plunging him into a depression that lasted some years. In 1876, Dodgson produced his last great work, The Hunting of the Snark, a fantastical “nonsense” poem, exploring the adventures of a bizarre crew of tradesmen, and one beaver, who set off to find the eponymous creature. The painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti reputedly became convinced the poem was about him. In 1895, 30 years after publication of his masterpieces, Carroll attempted a comeback, producing a two-volume tale of the eponymous fairy siblings. Carroll entwines two plots, set in two alternate worlds, one the fairytale kingdom of Elfland, the other a realm called Outland, which satirizes English society, and more specifically, the world of academia. It came out in two volumes, and is considered a lesser work, although it has remained in print for over a century.
In 1856, Dodgson took up the new art form of photography, first under the influence of his uncleSkeffington Lutwidge, and later his Oxford friend Reginald Southey. He soon excelled at the art and became a well-known gentleman-photographer, and he seems even to have toyed with the idea of making a living out of it in his very early years. Dodgson also made many studies of men, women, male children and landscapes; his subjects also include skeletons, dolls, dogs, statues and paintings, and trees. His pictures of children were taken with a parent in attendance and many of the pictures were taken in the Liddell garden, because natural sunlight was required for good exposures.He also found photography to be a useful entrée into higher social circles. During the most productive part of his career, he made portraits of notable sitters such as John Everett Millais, Ellen Terry, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Julia Margaret Cameron, Michael Faraday, Lord Salisbury, andAlfred, Lord Tennyson. Dodgson abruptly ceased photography in 1880. Over 24 years, he had completely mastered the medium, set up his own studio on the roof of Tom Quad, and created around 3,000 images. Fewer than 1,000 have survived time and deliberate destruction. He reported that he stopped taking photographs because keeping his studio working was difficult (he used the wet collodion process) and commercial photographers (who started using the dry-plate process in the 1870s) took pictures more quickly.
Dodgson also worked in mathematics, in the fields of geometry, linear and matrix algebra,mathematical logic and recreational mathematics, producing nearly a dozen books under his real name. Dodgson also developed new ideas in linear algebra (e.g. the first printed proof of the Kronecker-Capelli theorem), probability, and the study of elections (e.g.,Dodgson’s method) and committees; some of this work was not published until well after his death. He worked as the Mathematical Lecturer at Christ Church, an occupation that gave him some financial security. His mathematical work attracted renewed interest in the late 20th century. Martin Gardner’s book on logic machines and diagrams, and William Warren Bartley’s posthumous publication of the second part of Carroll’s symbolic logic book have sparked a reevaluation of Carroll’s contributions to symbolic logic. Robbins’ and Rumsey’s investigation of Dodgson condensation, a method of evaluating determinants, led them to the Alternating Sign Matrix conjecture, now a theorem. The discovery in the 1990s of additional ciphers that Carroll had constructed, in addition to his “Memoria Technica”, showed that he had employed sophisticated mathematical ideas to their creation
Dodgson invented many things including the Wonderland Postage-Stamp Case in 1889. This was a cloth-backed folder with twelve slots, two marked for inserting the then most commonly used penny stamp, and one each for the other current denominations to one shilling. The folder was then put into a slip case decorated with a picture of Alice on the front and the Cheshire Cat on the back. All could be conveniently carried in a pocket or purse. When issued it also included a copy of Carroll’s pamphletted lecture, Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter-Writing. Another invention is a writing tablet called the nyctograph for use at night that allowed for note-taking in the dark; thus eliminating the trouble of getting out of bed and striking a light when one wakes with an idea. The device consisted of a gridded card with sixteen squares and system of symbols representing an alphabet of Dodgson’s design, using letter shapes similar to the Graffiti writing system on a Palm device.
He also devised a number of word games, including an early version of what today is known as Scrabble. He also appears to have invented, or at least certainly popularised, the “doublet” a form of brain-teaser that is still popular today: the game of changing one word into another by altering one letter at a time, each successive change always resulting in a genuine word. For instance, CAT is transformed into DOG by the following steps: CAT, COT, DOT, DOG Other items include a rule for finding the day of the week for any date; a means for justifying right margins on a typewriter; a steering device for a velociam (a type of tricycle); new systems of parliamentary representation;more nearly fair elimination rules for tennis tournaments; a new sort of postal money order; rules for reckoning postage; rules for a win in betting; rules for dividing a number by various divisors; a cardboard scale for the college common room he worked in later in life, which, held next to a glass, ensured the right amount of liqueur for the price paid; a double-sided adhesive strip for things like the fastening of envelopes or mounting things in books; a device for helping a bedridden person to read from a book placed sideways; and at least two ciphers for cryptography.
During the remaining twenty years of his life He continued to teach at Christ Church until 1881, and remained in residence there until his death. The two volumes of his last novel, Sylvie and Bruno, were published in 1889 and 1893, but the intricacy of this work was apparently not appreciated by contemporary readers; it achieved nothing like the success of the Alice books, with disappointing reviews and sales of only 13,000 copies. The only known occasion on which he travelled abroad was a trip to Russia in 1867 as an ecclesiastical together with the Reverend Henry Liddon. He recounts the travel in his “Russian Journal”, which was first commercially published in 1935. On his way to Russia and back he also saw different cities in Belgium, Germany, the partitioned Poland, and France. He sadly died on 14 January 1898 at his sisters’ home, “The Chestnuts” in Guildford, of pneumonia following influenza. He was two weeks away from turning 66 years old. He is buried in Guildford at the Mount Cemetery.
Best Known for writing Grimm’s Fairy Tales, German philologist and folklorist Jakob Grimm was born 4th January 1785. First published in 1812 by the Grimm brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm. The collection is commonly known today as Grimm’s Fairy Tales (German: Grimms Märchen).The first volume of the first edition was published, containing 86 stories; the second volume of 70 stories followed in 1814. For the second edition, two volumes were issued in 1819 and a third in 1822, totalling 170 tales. The third edition appeared in 1837; fourth edition, 1840; fifth edition, 1843; sixth edition, 1850; seventh edition, 1857. Stories were added, and also subtracted, from one edition to the next, until the seventh held 211 tales. All editions were extensively illustrated, first by Philipp Grot Johann and, after his death in 1892, by Robert Leinweber.
the first volumes were much criticized because, although they were called “Children’s Tales”, they were not regarded as suitable for children, both for the scholarly information included and the subject matter. Many changes through the editions – such as turning the wicked mother of the first edition in Snow White and Hansel and Gretel (shown in original Grimm stories as Hansel and Grethel) to a stepmother, were probably made with an eye to such suitability. They removed sexual references—such as Rapunzel’s innocently asking why her dress was getting tight around her belly, and thus naïvely revealing her pregnancy and the prince’s visits to her stepmother—but, in many respects, violence, particularly when punishing villains, was increased.
The influence of these books was widespread. W. H. Auden praised the collection, during World War II, as one of the founding works of Western culture. The tales themselves have been put to many uses. The Nazis praised them as folkish tales showing children with sound racial instincts seeking racially pure marriage partners, and so strongly that the Allied forces warned against them; for instance, Cinderella with the heroine as racially pure, the stepmother as an alien, and the prince with an unspoiled instinct being able to distinguish. Writers who have written about the Holocaust have combined the tales with their memoirs, as Jane Yolen in her Briar Rose.
The work of the Brothers Grimm influenced other collectors, both inspiring them to collect tales and leading them to similarly believe, in a spirit of romantic nationalism, that the fairy tales of a country were particularly representative of it, to the neglect of cross-cultural influence. Among those influenced were the Russian Alexander Afanasyev, the Norwegians Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, the English Joseph Jacobs, and Jeremiah Curtin, an American who collected Irish tales.There was not always a pleased reaction to their collection. Joseph Jacobs was in part inspired by his complaint that English children did not read English fairy tales; in his own words, “What Perrault began, the Grimms completed”. Three individual works of Wilhelm Grimm include Altdänische Heldenlieder, Balladen und Märchen (‘Old Danish Heroic Lays, Ballads, and Folktales’) in 1811, Über deutsche Runen (‘On German Runes’) in 1821, and Die deutsche Heldensage (‘The German Heroic Legend’) in 1829.
Among the best known of Grimm’s Fairy Tales are: Snow White, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, Little Red Riding Hood, The Riddle, Mother Hulda, The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich, Cat and Mouse in Partnership, Mary’s Child, The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids, Trusty John or Faithful John,The Good Bargain,The Wonderful Musician or The Strange Musician,The Twelve Brothers, The Pack of Ragamuffins, The Three Little Men in the Wood, The Three Snake-Leaves, The Fisherman and His Wife, The Seven Ravens, Clever Elsie, The White Snake, The Valiant Little Tailor, The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage, Town Musicians of Bremen, The Singing Bone, The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs,The Louse and the Flea,Thumbling (Tom Thumb), Thumbling’s Travels and The Elves and the Shoemaker. Many of Grimm’s stories have also been adapted for film and television.
Best Known for writing Grimm’s Fairy Tales, German philologist and folklorist Wilhelm Grimm sadly died 16 December 1859. He was born 24th February 1786 and was the younger brother of Jakob. Grimm’s Fairy Tales (German: Grimms Märchen) was first published in 1812 and The first volume contained 86 stories; the second volume of 70 stories followed in 1814. For the second edition, two volumes were issued in 1819 and a third in 1822, totalling 170 tales. The third edition appeared in 1837; fourth edition, 1840; fifth edition, 1843; sixth edition, 1850; seventh edition, 1857. Stories were added, and also subtracted, from one edition to the next, until the seventh held 211 tales. All editions were extensively illustrated, first by Philipp Grot Johann and, after his death in 1892, by Robert Leinweber.
The first volumes were much criticized because, although they were called “Children’s Tales”, they were not regarded as suitable for children, both for the scholarly information included and the subject matter. Many changes through the editions – such as turning the wicked mother of the first edition in Snow White and Hansel and Gretel (shown in original Grimm stories as Hansel and Grethel) to a stepmother, were probably made with an eye to such suitability. They removed sexual references—such as Rapunzel’s innocently asking why her dress was getting tight around her belly, and thus naïvely revealing her pregnancy and the prince’s visits to her stepmother—but, in many respects, violence, particularly when punishing villains, was increased.
The influence of these books was widespread. W. H. Auden praised the collection, during World War II, as one of the founding works of Western culture. The tales themselves have been put to many uses. The Nazis praised them as folkish tales showing children with sound racial instincts seeking racially pure marriage partners, and so strongly that the Allied forces warned against them; for instance, Cinderella with the heroine as racially pure, the stepmother as an alien, and the prince with an unspoiled instinct being able to distinguish. Writers who have written about the Holocaust have combined the tales with their memoirs, as Jane Yolen in her Briar Rose.
The work of the Brothers Grimm influenced other collectors, both inspiring them to collect tales and leading them to similarly believe, in a spirit of romantic nationalism, that the fairy tales of a country were particularly representative of it, to the neglect of cross-cultural influence. Among those influenced were the Russian Alexander Afanasyev, the Norwegians Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, the English Joseph Jacobs, and Jeremiah Curtin, an American who collected Irish tales.There was not always a pleased reaction to their collection. Joseph Jacobs was in part inspired by his complaint that English children did not read English fairy tales; in his own words, “What Perrault began, the Grimms completed”. Three individual works of Wilhelm Grimm include Altdänische Heldenlieder, Balladen und Märchen (‘Old Danish Heroic Lays, Ballads, and Folktales’) in 1811, Über deutsche Runen (‘On German Runes’) in 1821, and Die deutsche Heldensage (‘The German Heroic Legend’) in 1829.
Among the best known of Grimm’s Fairy Tales are: Snow White, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, Little Red Riding Hood, The Riddle, Mother Hulda, The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich, Cat and Mouse in Partnership, Mary’s Child, The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids, Trusty John or Faithful John, The Good Bargain, The Wonderful Musician or The Strange Musician,The Twelve Brothers, The Pack of Ragamuffins, The Three Little Men in the Wood, The Three Snake-Leaves, The Fisherman and His Wife, The Seven Ravens, Clever Elsie, The White Snake, The Valiant Little Tailor, The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage, Town Musicians of Bremen, The Singing Bone, The Devil With the Three Golden Hairs, The Louse and the Flea, Thumbling (Tom Thumb), Thumbling’s Travels and The Elves and the Shoemaker. Many of these stories have also been turned into films too.
Having read the original Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini years ago, I would like to read Murtagh the new epic fantasy novel from Christopher Paolini, set in the mythical realm of Alagaesia. The original Inheritance Cycle featured Eragon a poor farm boy living in the mythical realm of Alagaesia who finds his life is turned upside down when he obtains what he thinks is a polished blue stone in the range of mountains known as The Spine. Eragon takes the stone to the farm where he lives with his uncle and cousin but gets the shock of his life when a dragon named Saphira hatches out of the blue stone. A dragon rider named Murtagh informs Eragon that he must go and live with the Elves in order to train in the ways of the Legendary Dragon riders, and join the Varden in order to fight against the evil despotic king Galabatorix and his legions of Orcs and free the people of Alagaesia from his tyranny.
Murtagh is set a year after the events of the Inheritance Cycle (Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, Inheritance) and features Dragon Rider Murtagh and his dragon, Thorn, who both played a reluctant role in the reign of terror of the evil king Galbatorix and are left to face the consequences. Now they are hated and alone, exiled to the outskirts of society. However, hushed voices whisper of brittle ground and a faint scent of brimstone in the air – and Murtagh senses that once again something wicked lurks in the shadows of Alagaësia. So Murtagh and Thorn decide to investigate and redeem themselves and undertake an epic journey into lands both familiar and untravelled, in order to locate a mysterious witch who is much more than she seems…
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