Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
The grand old structure of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardly. The school is a place of magic, of learning and a place of mystery. It is a place where the staircases mysteriouly move and change up. You may end up somewhere other then where you had intended.
The forest was filled with spirits.
Screenshots are from Seventh Son a magical fantasy story
As I have reported previously the Raven King wasn’t without his rivals. No one makes it to the place of prominence without making a few enemies. But to a king there is no greater crime than the crime of betrayal. And the Raven King suspected one of his subjects of duplicity. The subject was Robert Barbatus, the Earl of Wharfdale. One known for his cunning and his manipulations; the one known as the Fox.
The Earl had a son who had recently died of the fever. The Raven King had him dug up and brought to him. He invoked a spell over him which brought him back. He wanted find out what he knew of the Earls intrigues.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke
Vinculus, the street magician of London, delivered these remarks to Jonathan Strange while he was traveling through the country.
“Two magicians shall appear in England.Are these the ravings of lunatic or a prophecy of what is to come?
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke, 2004
Image from The Hobbit an Unexpected Journey, Thorin’s Orcrist sword
The Dwarfs and company came upon the Trolls cave and found that it was full of plunder including several swords that had been fashioned in Gondolin and used in the last goblin wars. These swords were ancient and were made skillfully. Thorin, Gandalf, and Bilbo had each acquired one of these swords. They glow blue when anywhere near a goblin.
Two of three swords were given names, once by the maker and again by the goblins. Thorin’s sword was named Orcrist or Goblin cleaver which the goblins called Biter. They hated this sword and anyone who carried it.
Gandolf’s was named Glamdring the Foe-hammer. This sword was adeptly named Beater by the goblins. If it were possible, the goblins hatred for Beater was worse than for that of Biter.
Lovecraft is known for his dreadful creatures, exotic spaces, and his ancient texts of mythologies. Here are some excerpts from one of his short stories, the Book. The book remains title-less.
" I seem to have suffered a great shock perhaps from some utterly monstrous outgrowth of my cycles of unique, incredible experience.
These cycles of experience, of course, all stem from that worm-riddled book. I remember when I found it in a dimly lighted place near the black, oily river where the mists always swirl. That place was very old, and the ceiling-high shelves full of rotting volumes reached back endlessly through windowless inner rooms and alcoves. There were, besides, great formless heaps of books on the floor and in crude bins; and it was in one of these heaps that I found the thing. I never learned its title, for the early pages were missing; but it fell open toward the end and gave me a glimpse of something which sent my senses reeling.
There was a formula sort of list of things to say and do which I recognized as something black and forbidden; something which I had read of before in furtive paragraphs of mixed abhorrence and fascination penned by those strange ancient delvers into the universe’s guarded secrets whose decaying texts I loved to absorb. It was a key a guide to certain gateways and transitions of which mystics have dreamed and whispered since the race was young, and which lead to freedoms and discoveries beyond the three dimensions and realms of life and matter that we know. Not for centuries had any man recalled its vital substance or known where to find it, but this book was very old indeed. No printing-press, but the hand of some half-crazed monk, had traced these ominous Latin phrases in uncials of awesome antiquity.
...For he who passes the gateways always wins a shadow, and never again can he be alone. I had evoked, and the book was indeed all I had suspected. That night I passed the gateway to a vortex of twisted time and vision, and when morning found me in the attic room I saw in the walls and shelves and fittings that which I had never seen before.
...I remember the night I made the five concentric circles of fire on the floor and stood in the innermost one chanting that monstrous litany the messenger from Tartary had brought. The walls melted away, and I was swept by a black wind through gulfs of fathomless grey with the needle-like pinnacles of unknown mountains miles below me. After a while there was utter blackness, and then the light of myriad stars forming strange, alien constellations. Finally, I saw a green-litten plain far below me and discerned on it the twisted towers of a city built in no fashion I had ever known or read of or dreamed of. As I floated closer to that city I saw a great square building of stone in an open space, and felt a hideous fear clutching at me."
The Book, H. P. Lovecraft
"I have visited lairs, burrows and nests across five continents, observed the curious habits of magical beasts in a hundred countries, witnessed their powers, gained their trust and, on occasion, beaten them off with my travelling kettle." —Newton Scamander
Newt Scamander is a character from the Harry Potter series and is purported to be the author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. The Newt Scamander miniature is cast from metal by Jada Toys and stands approximately two and half inches tall.
“There are customarily three elements of a traditional summoning spell:
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
“Who was it that said a magician needs the subtlety of a Jesuit, the daring of a soldier and the wits of a thief?”
Jonathan Strange
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel, Susanna Clarke
Items listed in red are currently being read.
“The Raven King resigned over his domains for over three hundred years, his kingdom being part of Faerie, Northern England, and lands beyond (a land on the far side of Hell). At the age of fourteen he had already created the system of magic that we employ today. Or rather, that we would employ, if it had not been lost. His was a perfect blending of fairy magic and human organization-their powers were webbed to his own terrifying purposefulness.”
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrel, Susanna Clarke
“The Belasis’s Scopus Spell is a spell to detect magic which appeared in Jacques Belasis’s The Instructions.”
Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrel, Susanna Clarke
"When King Henry ask the boy his name the boy’s response was that he did not have one1.
1When John d’ Uskglass was a child in Faerie, the Sidhe (those who adopted him as their own), called him a word in their own language which means “Starling”. John d’ Uskglass was a name the boy took from his father, but in the early part of his life he was known by many titles his friends and enemies gave him: the King; the Raven King; the Black King; the King of the North."
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke
As I slowly transition to the plans I have for the New Year I am pulling together another reading list, this will be my early and mid-winters reading list. I have wanted to get back the character of Allan Quatermain and will add these three novels to this list.
These three novels-Marie, Child of Storm, and Finished-form the Zulu Trilogy in which the Zulu wizard, Zikali, gains his revenge on the Zulu nation and its king, Cetawayo.
P.S. I realize that images have been rather scarce in this month posts and I do have some that could be posted, but then I must first write a corresponding post. It has lately been a bit difficult to get this done.
I have slowed down on the reading lately and have finally gotten to the third volume of Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I am now about two thirds through this thick and fascinating novel.
Volume III, John Uskglass
“It is the contention of Mr. Norrell of Hanover-square, that everything belonging to John Uskglass (The Raven King) must be shaken out of modern magic, as one would shake moths and dust out of an old coat. What does he imagine he will have left? If you get rid of John Uskglass you will be left holding the empty air.’
Johnathan Strange, prologue to The History and Practice of English Magic, pub., John Murray, London, 1816”
'"Here it is," he said, and took down and opened the book on the table. "This passage may interest you." He laid his finger upon it.
His son bent over the book and read the following:—
"Hai, the evil man, was a shepherd. He had said: 'O, that I might have a book of spells that would give me resistless power!' He obtained a book of the Formulas.... By the divine powers of these he enchanted men. He obtained a deep vault furnished with implements. He made waxen images of men, and love-charms.[22] And then he perpetrated all the horrors that his heart conceived."
"Flinders Petrie," said Dr. Cairn, "mentions the Book of Thoth as another magical work conferring similar powers."
"But surely, sir—after all, it's the twentieth century—this is mere superstition!"
"I thought so—once!" replied Dr. Cairn. "But I have lived to know that Egyptian magic was a real and a potent force. A great part of it was no more than a kind of hypnotism, but there were other branches. Our most learned modern works are as children's nursery rhymes beside such a writing as the Egyptian Ritual of the Dead! God forgive me! What have I done!"'
Chapter III: The Ring Of Thoth, Brood Of The Witch-Queen, Sax Rohmer
“'I'd like to see what you look like,' muttered Conan, working his ax free, 'you who leave a track like a bird, who burn like a flame and yet speak with a human voice.'
'You shall see,' answered the voice from the flame, 'see, and carry the knowledge with you into the Dark Land.'
The flames leaped and sank, dwindling and dimming. A face began to take shadowy form. At first Conan thought it was Zogar Sag 1 himself who stood wrapped in green fire. But the face was higher than his own and there was a demoniac aspect about it—Conan had noted various abnormalities about Zogar Sag's features—an obliqueness of the eyes, a sharpness of the ears, a wolfish thinness of the lips; these peculiarities were exaggerated in the apparition which swayed before him. The eyes were red as coals of living fire.
More details came into view: a slender torso, covered with snaky scales, which was yet man-like in shape, with man-like arms, from the waist upward; below, long crane-like legs ended in splay, three-toed feet like those of some huge bird. Along the monstrous limbs the blue fire fluttered and ran. He saw it as through a glistening mist.”
Chapter 7 The Devil in the Fire, Beyond the Black River, Robert E. Howard
1 "'Did you ever hear of a Pictish wizard called Zogar Sag?'
Balthus shook his head uneasily.
'He dwells in Gwawela, the nearest village across the river. Three months ago he hid beside this road and stole a string of pack-mules from a pack-train bound for the fort—drugged their drivers, somehow. The mules belonged to this man'—Conan casually indicated the corpse with his foot—'Tiberias, a merchant of Velitrium. They were loaded with ale-kegs, and old Zogar stopped to guzzle before he got across the river. A woodsman named Soractus trailed him, and led Valannus and three soldiers to where he lay dead drunk in a thicket. At the importunities of Tiberias, Valannus threw Zogar Sag into a cell, which is the worst insult you can give a Pict. "
Chapter 1 Conan Loses His Ax, Beyond the Black River, Robert E. Howard
“The Faire Withering, published in 1444, is a remarkable book that features a detailed account on how English magic declined after John Uskglass left England. Although the text contains many precise accounts of spells, many reviewers consider this text to be an angry book, but not so as Watershippe’s two other books:
A Defense of my Deeds while Wrongfully Imprisoned by my Enemies in Newark, 1459-60
Crimes of the Faire King, 1461?"
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke
Interesting Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell entry on Board Game Geek
I cannot say I know what to make of the "The History and Practice of English Magic" page other than it is some sort of game based off Susanna Clarke's novel; an interesting find, at any rate...seems to be a complete list of all the texts mentioned within the Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell novel.
“Strange took a clean sheet of paper and began rapidly scribbling notes upon it. ‘Oak trees can be befriended and will aid you against your enemies if they think your cause is just, Birch woods are well known for providing doors into Faerie. Ash-trees will never cease to mourn until, the Raven King comes home again.1’
Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susana Clarke
1'The ivy promises to bind England’s enemies; Briars and thorns promised to whip them; The Hawthorn said he would answer any questions; The Birch said he would make doors to other countries; The yew brought us weapons; The raven punished our enemies; The oak watched the distant hills; The rain washed away all sorrow.’
This traditional English saying supposedly, lists the various contracts which the Raven King made on England’s behalf with the forests.”
