The Lost World of Dragons Exhibit

The Lost World of Dragons is an interactive exhibit currently running at the Reading Public Museum

The Red Dragoan. These specimens move and roar.

The White Dragon. Did dragons actually exsist? Some believe they actually did.

"But it is one thing to read about dragons and another to meet them."
― Ursula K. Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea

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"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten." ― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

The Dragon in Ancient China

I desired dragons with a profound desire. Of course, I in my timid body did not wish to have them in the neighborhood. But the world that contained even the imagination of Fáfnir was richer and more beautiful, at whatever the cost of peril."― J.R.R. Tolkien

Karhidish Days of the Month

Where as the Karhidish calendar year is fourteen months long, a month consists of twenty-six days. Usually for clarity, the name of the day is given followed by the month. For an example- Eps in the month of Moth. Local dialects may pronounce these differently.

Number of the month	Name of day	Number of the month	Name of day
1	Getheny	14	Odgeheny
2	Sordny	15	Odsordny
3	Eps	16	Odeps
4	Arhad	17	Odarhad
5	Netherhad	18	Onnetherhad
6	Streth	19	Odstrath
7	Berny	20	Obberny
8	Orny	21	Odorny
9	Harhahad	22	Odharhahar
10	Guyny	23	Odguyrny
11	Yrny	24	Odyrny
12	Posthe	25	Opposthe
13	Tormenbod	26	Ottormenbod

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin

The Karhidish Calendar

The planet named Winter has 14 a month year. “The solar and lunar calendars concur so closely that adjustment is required only once in 200 years.” The 14 months coincide with four seasons and are named as follows:

Winter:

1. Thern
2. Thanero
3. Nimmer
4. Anner

Spring:

5. Irrem
6. Moth
7. Tuwa

Summer:

8. Osme
9. Ockre
10. Kus
11. Hakanna

Autumn:

12. Gor
13. Susmy
14. Grende

Although you would suspect winter like weather to start in the month of Thern, however snow usually start to fall in the month of Grenda. With up to five months of winter, the planet Winter revieves between twenty and thirty feet of snow.

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin

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The Karhidish names for the twenty-six days of the month

Meshe is the Center of Time

"Meshe is the center of Time...And in the center there is no time past and no time to come. In all time past it is. In all time to come it is. It has not been nor yet, will it be. It is. It is all."

On Time and Darkness, The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin

Ekumenical School Saying

“As they say in Ekumenical School, when action grows unprofitable, gather information; when information grows unprofitable sleep.”

The Mad King, The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin

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<--The Left Hand of Darkness

The Left Hand of Darkness

"Our entire pattern of soco-sexual interaction is non-exsistant here. The Gethenians do not see one another as men or woman. This is almost impossible for our imaginations to accept. After all, what is the first question we ask about a newborn baby.

Yet you cannot think of a Gethenian as "it". They are not neuters. They are potentials during each sexual cycle - they may develope in either direction for the duration of that cycle. No physiological habit is established, and the mother of several children may be the father of several more."

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. LeGuin, (c) 1969, Ace Books

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My other LeGuin posts

Armageddon

“Men were gathered on the square platform over the smoke hold of the House of Absence. They made way for him when he hoisted himself up the ladder. He was wheezing and trembling so that at first, he could see nothing. Then his saw. For awhile he forgot everything in the unbelievable sight.

The valley that wound from north to south along the base of the Tevar Hill to the river-valley east of the forest was full-full as the river in flood-time, swarming, over-running with Gaal¹. They were moving southward, a sluggish, contracting; always moving-moving southward, the Southing.

But in all the time past there had never been a Southing like this. As far as the eye could follow up the widening valley northward there were more coming and behind them more, and behind them more.

Besides that, slow torrent of people, the Winter City of Tevar was nothing-a pebble on the edge of the river in flood.”

Planet of Exile, Ursula K. LeGuin, Ace Books, © 1966.

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^{1: "The Gaal were a nomadic native tribe who migrated to the south during the harsh Winter."}

Title changed on 6/22/22. Formally titled the Great Gaal Southing.

The Lathe of Heaven

“Those whom heaven helps we call the sons of heaven. They do not learn this by learning. They do not work it by working. They do not reason it by using reason. To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven.”

Chuang Tae: XXIII

The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula K. Leguin, 1971

Maps of Fictional Places

I have always fancied maps and charts, especially old maps. I have studied cartography, have a couple books in my library about maps and have a small collection of maps and charts.

By viewing old maps you see how people envisioned their world back then. Some of the oldest maps indicate sea monsters and ships actually falling off the side of the earth. They actually believed the world to be flat.

Viewing the maps that accompany a novel has always fascinated me, maybe even more than the story itself. I believe a map makes the story even more believable. Over the years I have encountered several maps of fictional places. Here is a short list of maps I have encountered through my readings.

Earthsea

I read what, was then a trilogy, of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea fantasy novels during my late teens. The location for the novel takes place on a vast archipelago of hundreds of islands surrounded by uncharted ocean. The islands are peopled by a few different cultures that use weapons created out of wood and iron. There are dragons, peoples, cultures, and wizards with their magic spells.

The Hobbit

Middle Earth

Middle-earth is the fictional universe created by the author J. R. R. Tolkien for his fantasy writings of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Jurassic Park

Isla Nublar

Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction action film directed by Steven Spielberg. The movie is based on the 1990 novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. Jurassic Park was the much publicized theme park that never was. You must watch those disgruntled hackers.

The Lost World

Isla Sorna

The Lost World is another novel written by Michael Crichton. The Lost World is a sequel to his Jurassic Park. Isla Sorna is an island that is purported as being the location for the manufacture of the beasts found in Jurassic Park. Jurassic Park has been abandoned and something has went terribly wrong.

The Land that Time Forgot

Caprona (Caspak) Island

Caspak Island is a fictional island used in Edgar Rice Burroughs's Caspak trilogy, including The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forgot, and Out of Time's Abyss. Caspak is described as a land mass near Antarctica that through its unique geology is much like a tropical island.