Dwarfs (The Enchanted World)

 

by Tim Appenzeller & Editors of Time\Life Books

Publisher : Time Life Education; 2nd print., rev. 1986 edition (September 1, 1985)

Hardcover, 141 pages

Amazon Listing

“Those were the days when dwarfs dwelled throughout Northern Europe, wherever men and women lived close to the land. Inhabiting rocks, caves, mounds, and even forgotten crannies in farmhouses and barns, they passed their lives in ways as earthy and arduous as their peasant neighbors. They were an elfin countryfolk, and their powers were those of a supernatural peasantry. They were uncannily adept at crafts, preternaturally wise in matters of the seasons and the soil.

“Their names varied from land to land and region to region. The British Isles had their goblins, knackers, and leprechauns. Germany its Erdleute and Stillevolk, and Scandinavia its trolls and bergfolk an hurdlefolk. But their kinship to the earth, their matchless skills and their stunted stature were universal.”

You’ll notice the author and Time-Life books have chosen to use the traditional version of plural of dwarf - Dwarfs. In fact it was Tolkein who popularized the now accepted plural spelling - dwarves. I find it fitting here, as the tales of old dwarfs here come from well beyond Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, and the sort of solidification that Tolkein’s version gave the race - ie. he popularized the stereotype. Eventually though the Dwarfs books are similar to Fairies and Elves at least in behavior. It’s just another collection of similar stories, swapping one title for another.

Chapter One - “Stern Sons of the Earth” - It opens with Norse dwarfs and tells how the race began soon after Odin Ymir, using his flesh to make the earth. The maggots that crawled from the flesh became dwarfs. Corpse grey and subterranean troglodytes, the gods look down on them but needed weapons that the dwarfs by their magical craftsmanship alone could provide.

Chapter Two - “The Diminutive Nobility” - in time the dwarfs lost the capacity to treat with the Gods to the gods and walked among mortals. With the pagan gods dead and the Christian Church dominant, a new world had dawned. Even so, a few dwarf kings were not afraid and outshone their cave-dwelling ancestors in splendor. The dwarfs adapted well to Christian Europe, befriending mortals for a time, until they became tricksters.

Chapter 3 - “An Ancient Race in Retreat” - and Chapter 4 - “Haunters of Hearth and Hayloft” - discuss the further decline of the dwarfish race into thieves and tricksters. As civilization grew and men moved away from a more naturalistic state with the Earth, Dwarfen attitudes towards human changes. As humans took on a surpassed Dwarf arts, they became jealous and obstructed -  ie. Gremlins, Tommyknockers. The last remaining few lived in fear of mortal enslavement.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

The Visitor: How and Why He Stayed (Horror)

 

by Mike Mignola (Author), Chris Roberson (Author), Paul Grist (Illustrator),

        Publisher: Dark Horse Books; Illustrated edition (October 17, 2017)

Softcover, 144 pages

Amazon Listing

This character goes way back in the Hellboy universe, to a bit part in The Conqueror Worm. It was so long ago, that I forgot this character’s existence. The place of aliens in the Hellboy universe - that is alien life with inanimate technology similar to humans, rather than eldritch cosmic beings of yore - has been a sticky point and only mentioned in that one comic for a total of two pages. Hellboy gets a warning from the alien, the creature dies, and Hellboy remarks, “Roger look. A dead alien.” I remember being fascinated at the time, figuring the series was about to go in a weirder direction, but it was never mentioned again and I sort of forgot about it.

Finally this old image is dusted off and given life. The Visitor’s initial mission was to destroy Hellboy upon his first manifesting on Earth, but cannot bring himself to destroy the child, seeing the potential for good in him as well as evil. Thus we follow the Visitor through the decades, watching him watching Hellboy, in addition to him creating his own family on this planet. Like The Man Who Fell to Earth, the alien loses sight of his mission and becomes wrapped up in the problems of this planet.

For those who know Hellboy’s long history, a lot of ground is retread, albeit from a different perspective. It was nice to revisit several old menaces from past stories, with some clever additions, until the alien meets his doom with Herman von Klempt - the head in the jar. Not the most important Hellboy story, but it neatly wraps up a mystery which I has assumed the creators had forgotten all about.

Some people have a problem with Paul Grist’s art. They claim it’s childish, or bigfoot lines, and that most of the characters look the same, but that’s all nonsense. He had his own unique style and if you think it's cheap and easy, try replicating it on your own sometime and see just how intricate it can be. Looking at some of his earlier works, Kane and Jack Staff, his ability to capture fast paced motion and violence in page after page lends itself well to a Hellboy tale.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

Rasputin: The Voice of the Dragon (Horror)

 

by Mike Mignola (Author), Chris Roberson (Author), Christopher Mitten (Illustrator)

Publisher: Dark Horse Books (August 7, 2018)

Paperback, 136 pages

AmazonListing

This is for those who are Hellboy junkies. I expected this to be similar in scope to Koshchei the Deathless which is a review of the character’s background before being beaten to death or crushed under stones in a dark chamber by the titular Hellboy. That is not the case here. I guess most of Rasputin’s history has been filled in over the years, including his being saved from death by the Ogdru Jahad - the seven dragons outside of time. This acts as a prequel adventure prior to Hellboy issue one.

It begins with Rasputin being recruited into the Third Reich and gaining his three associates - Karl Kroenen, Kurtz, and Ilsa Hauptman who follow him even after the end of World War II. The hero of the piece is a young Trevor Bruttenholm, who is working for the SIS during the war and stumbles across some disturbing information regarding the occult activities of the Nazi’s and something called Project Geist. The Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra becomes involved, along with a number of other lesser known groups from the Hellboy universe. All of this of course, leads them up to discovering the ritual to summon the destroyer, “Hellboy” into the world.

As Hellboy stories go, it’s all right. Not exactly a necessary story, but standard fare for the course. It subtly wraps in a lot of material from the Witchfinder series and the Black Flame. The main problem is tension - or a lack thereof. If you’re a Hellboy fan, then you already know the ultimate fates of each character. You know they’re not going to get killed, or maimed, or fail in their task. This is why the best prequels are told with a new protagonist, to add a new element to the universe, rather than one which is essentially paint-by-numbers. Characters start the series at Point C, therefore they can only go through Point A and then B. Which is why this story is a little flat.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

Magical Beasts (The Enchanted World)

 

                            by Ellen Galford & the Editors of Time/Life Books

Publisher : Time Life Education; First Edition (September 1, 1985)

Hardcover, 143 pages

Amazon Listing

"In the wilderness, and even in the settled lands, more beasts than man lived. The beasts existed in bewildering and changeable variety, as if nature itself were confused or had not yet finished the work of creation. Among earth-bound creatures of that time were some with real men's bodies and goat's feet, or with men's torso and horses' bodies. Lambs could be grown on special trees. Among the creatures of the air were winged horses, birds that cast human shadows, and birds that hatched from barnacles rather than from eggs. And in that era, though rarely seen, lived unicorns -graceful horses adorned with a single spiraling horn and blessed with the powers of purification and healing."

Magical Beasts opens with telling of how early in humanity's existence the world was locked in an Ice Age. Humans feared the animals and worshipped the cave bear, but as time passed man eventually conquered the cave bear and drove it away. Which is what most of these stories represent, mankind’s conquering of the land. Each evil beast whether it be the Minotaur, Manticore, Chimera, or what have you, represents this theme. That even in the unsteady world of nature, and the constant evolving weird mix of animals, man has the power to conquer and dominate. At least that was the theme of the first chapter – “Vestiges of the Elder Days”

With chapter two – “Riders of the Wind” – the exploration shifts to the portentous use of birds – mostly ravens and crows – and what they signify. Birds were often respected, and the bringers of portents for the average person. It also recounts that many flying animals, both mundane and magical, commanded respect for reasons that they were able to escape the mundane world by flight. Pegasus, the roc, firebirds, the phoenix.

Chapter three - Paragon of Purity- focuses on that most respected of magical beasts, the unicorn and his ilk. It comments on the appearance of the horned beast, or a near equivalent, in almost every culture. It symbolized beauty and purity but courage as well because it would never be taken alive. Its cousins included China's ki-lin and the Persian karkadann which personified only gentility or ferocity. All, however, could be tamed by maidens.

For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

Water Spirits (The Enchanted World)

 

                                        By Editors of Time-Life Books

Publisher: Time Life Education; First Printing edition (June 1, 1985)

Hardcover, 143 pages

Amazon Listing

“And so the end was a bed on the cold ocean floor, far from the sunlight, where the body rolled and swayed in underwater breezes, where fish nibbled on the sailor’s eyes, lobsters plucked on the flesh of his feet and branching coral rooted in his bones. Seafarers called this grave Davy Jones's Locker. Some thought that ‘Davy’ was a corruption of the word ‘duffy’ African slave’s patios for ‘ghost’ - and that ‘Jones’ derived from the Biblical Jonah, who was sacrificed to the sea by sailors anxious to escape a storm. Others speculated the term descended from the name of the Hindu goddess of Death - Deva Lokka. But no one knew for certain.”

Water Spirits opens with the story of a man who saved the life of a mermaid who blessed him with the power to heal and to break witchcraft and cursed him so that every generation one man from his family would drown. This was done to illustrate people's fear of the sea as a mysterious and fickle place that could from one moment give life and in the other death. Water was hailed as the source of life; the Hindus worshiped the Ganges under the name of Ganga, Mimir's well gave Odin his wisdom, the Nile and the Jordan River built civilizations, and everywhere people sought the Fountain of Youth. Many culture’s creation myths relate the universe forming out of the chaotic watery deep. In addition, nearly every culture here has a Great Flood myth. The one presented in this volume is that of Gilgamesh, who is told the tale by the immortal survivor Utnapishtim.

Heroes began enterprising in sea quests. Jason and his Argonauts, for example, paid the correct homage to the gods and led a crew of heroes across the Seas. While Odysseus, whose men forgot to or openly stole from the Gods, was punished with ten years of wandering and danger. Regardless of his initial faithfulness to the gods however, those same gods destroyed Jason and turned the Argo into a constellation. That was a testimony to how fickle the gods could be, because sea gods were viewed in relation to their seas. Poseidon, for example, was as arbitrary as the enchanted seas and magic islands he ruled.

In later days, sailors no longer worshiped the sea gods but still lived in fear of the sea's power. For example, ships were still launched on Woden's Day and not on Thor's Day for fear of storms and thunder. Figureheads replaced the eyes, of Greek ships, but the function remained the same - keeping a lookout for evil. Anointing a ship with wine replaced the pagan custom on smearing ships with human blood.

 For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

Night Creatures (The Enchanted World)

 

                                   By Editors of Time Life

Publisher: Time Life Education; Second Printing Revised edition (June 1, 1985)

Hardcover, 143 pages

Amazon Listing

“These beings were vestiges of chaos, remnants of a formless time older than human reckoning. They survived many centuries into the era of humankind, preying on the late-coming race in a variety of ways. Some, like Grendel, seethed with hatred for the intruders and assaulted them in a frenzy of destructiveness. Some were unable to cross human thresholds, and had to wait for unwary victims who ventured abroad at night. Some invaded human bodies and turned their hosts into nightstalking animals, these were called werebeasts. Some invaded the bodies of the dead and transformed the corpses into terrible beings that gnawed human flesh and drank human blood.”

In this particular case the topic of this volume, Night Creatures, is upon reflection a fairly broad brush. Here they take it to contain any old tale about a creature which lurks by night. In fact the first chapter, “Perilous Paths through the Dark” seems as if it were being used for all the stories left out, for space reasons, from the previous volume Legends of Valor. It opens with the tale of Beowulf - much more entertaining than the original Beowulf text - and fills the pages with brave heroes who were forced to face and destroy some random spawn of chaos.

Chapter 2 - “Visitations from the Realms of Shadow” - on the other hand, seems to be formed from leftover tales from volume 4 Ghosts. It focuses on nightly ghost visitations of specters, demon imps, and various other bogarts determined to spellbind men, and either steal their souls or semen. Of the monsters which feed on fear and bring nightmares into the world.

It isn’t until Chapters 3 and 4 -  “Blood Feasts of the Damned” & “The Way of the Werebeast” - that the books takes on an identity of its own. The last pair of chapters discuss tales of vampires and lycanthropes respectively. Unlike the other volumes, this one at least brings in tales from outside of Europe, so it isn’t a retelling of Dracula and other well-known vampire and werewolf tropes. Instead, the other explores those vampire legends outside the norm, what Eastern and Eastern European cultures considered a vampire and how they dealt with them. The werebeast sections, while paying homage to the popular werewolf, looks at the phenomenon from the perspective of any tale involving man turning into beast. From the Berserker stories of Viking fame, to the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood, to the Beast from Beauty and the Beast, to the seven-tailed fox woman tale of ancient Japan.

 For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst

Legends of Valor (The Enchanted World)

 

                    by Brendan Lehane & The Editors of Time Life Books

Publisher : Time-Life Books; 1st Edition (December 1, 1984)

Hardcover, 143 pages

Amazon Listing 

“In that uncertain age, it mattered that the question of the champion’s precedence have an answer. It was not only for the honor of the thing that the Ulsterman named champions. So long as the question of valor remained open, there was division and quarrelling in the king’s hall, and Ulster stayed weak from squabbling with itself. No one disputed the king’s authority -kings were born with that - but standing alongside the king there had to be his champion, his hero. If the king symbolized the land itself and all of its people, his heroic champion stood for their warrior spirit and fought for them in battle. The hierarchy of bravery had to be established and acknowledged as well as the hierarchy of state. A tribe without a hero was a piteous and vulnerable thing.”

While legends of old had no end of stories from every culture, obviously a decent sampling of them all would require more pages than this series allows, and often would be quite repetitive - as one story pops up in another culture with a similar theme but a different protagonist. To prevent that the authors of this book decided to limit it to tales of the Ulster Cycle, which take up the first two chapters. While chapters three and four take on the Matter of Britain and the legends of King Arthur.

Chapter 1 - “Lords of the Chariot and the Spear” - While this chapter sounds as if it limits itself to Greek and Roman heroes, we must remember that the chariot was almost a universal travel device in the ancient world - until the development of the saddle.  Here we learn of Cuchulain and the Red Branch Knights out of Ireland. Many stories of his bravery and skill are presented here, which inevitably leads to Chapter 2 - “The Cruel Demands of Honor” which tells of his death and the betrayal of all the Red Branch Knights and their eventual fading from the world. For every good collection of stories needs a tragic ending - or perhaps any ending in and of itself is by nature tragic.

Chapter 3 - “Brotherhood of the Round Table” begins the Matter of Britain and the foundation of the Knights of the Round Table. It discusses, mostly in general terms the beginnings of Arthur’s reign and the reformation of what makes a knight, especially the chivalric ideas prevalent in Camelot. The knight is meant to be fair and true, help those in distress, and always offer mercy when it is requested.

Chapter 4 - “The Noblest Quest of All” - deals exclusively with the story of the Grail. Described as the “last of the great quests”. It deftly weaves together all the various tales about the Grail, finished and half-finished, into one near-definitive tale. From beginning to end, the only difference is that the story refuses to state exactly what the Grail is. While the narrative mentions the Christian interpretation of it containing the cup of Christ - which is probably not what Chrétien de Troyes, the man who invented the story of the Grail, had in mind. The story states that the device of an ever-flowing container which could heal and feed the world was not knew in mythology, nor was the idea of a deadly spear as is seen in the tale of the Fisher King. Whatever view the reader might take, the conclusion of the Quest for the Holy Grail marks the end of the high point of life in Camelot.

This inevitably leads into the fifteenth book of the series The Fall of Camelot. Though Arthur's death, like Cuchulain's was in Chapter two, is told at the end of this book. So we will see what The Fall of Camelot has to offer.

 For more readings, try books by Rex Hurst