The Crusades in the Middle East are very well known in our culture, as they have been featured in video games such as Assassin's Creed and movies such as the Kingdom of Heaven. However, the Reconquista in Spain is less known, although it took place for far longer, exactly 781 years from 711 to 1492... Continue Reading →
This is a poem about a young prehistoric hunter. Inside the towering forest of redwood, the young fur-clad hunter keenly scours the trees and grass like a fox, cradling his wooden spear with one hand, his long dark hair flowing down his shoulders and chest. A swish turns his attention towards some bushes. Camouflaged behind... Continue Reading →
This is a scene, written in play form, of the part when Theodogan meets Fadan on his way out of his city-state of Nelandros. It involves an extended conversation between the two characters not present in the Short Story due to word constraints. The young farmboy Theodogan hurries down the road, panting and carrying a... Continue Reading →
Eighteen-year-old Theodogan watched the one hundred Morgalian soldiers marching towards his city-state of Nelandros from the door of his farmhouse. He sweated in his sleeveless white chiton from the afternoon heat. Curious, he left his house and walked through the open green fields to follow the small army. From a distance he could see the... Continue Reading →
The ancient flood myth is common in many cultures due to the memorability of floods. When floods occur, the destruction and loss suggest a cosmic conspiracy of some sort and the hope for a new beginning. The flood destroys the old and gives birth to new life. Thus, the flood myth takes on the archetype... Continue Reading →
Cu Chulainn fulfills both the physical and moral requirements of a traditional hero and is the true equivalent to other heroes such as Hercules in the Greek pantheon. One of the qualities that makes Cu Chulainn a hero is his extreme strength. This is seen many times in his myth, beginning before his fifth year... Continue Reading →
Zeus is the primordial god in Greek mythology and likely the most interesting one as a result. The god Zeus was created as the Greek version of the Indo-European sky god, related to other patriarchal sky gods such as Thor and Odin in the Norse Pantheon. The religion of Zeus very likely came about as... Continue Reading →
One of the most important Norse myths is Ragnarok, which tells of a terrible battle at the end of the world. In this myth, the gods Odin, Thor, Freyr, Tyr, and Heimdalr battle against Loki and Fenrir the Wolf, who have burst free, aided by Jormungand the Serpent, Hrim the Giant and Surt in the... Continue Reading →
The creation myths from China and India show strong similarities, including the cosmic egg, the primordial beings, and the principle of opposites and chaos. Firstly, the cosmic egg is present in both. In the Indian Shatapatha Brahmana, the creator Prajapati broke out of a cosmic egg. In another Indian text, the Chandoyga Upanishad, a cosmic... Continue Reading →
Generally, Charlemagne’s campaigns against the Saracens in the Iberian Peninsula have been understood as secular due to the general lack of evidence showing their religiosity as opposed to Charlemagne’s other religious wars. However, the author argues against this using primary and secondary sources from the Carolingian period. His thesis is that the observers of Charlemagne’s... Continue Reading →
diegodelaparra 