Myths and Magic

There’s no such thing as an original story. We’ve told them all so many times, we’ve developed archetypal arcs and structural beats. We know when a story isn’t right. And everyone and their mother has a modern retelling of some ancient myth they just have to share. But are we prioritising this rightness of a […]

We all know of how Camelot fell from grace when Lancelot accepted the queen’s invitation to her bed. Can you ignore such a thing from a queen in the first place? But being the person I am, I stumbled upon Galehaut, a figure in the Arthurian legends while Wiki-hopping one day and haven’t looked back

In this article, we’re looking at one of the most well-known motifs in Arthurian legends: the Holy Grail. I have a love-hate relationship with the Grail, mostly because of the emphasis placed on it when compared to other aspects of the legends. As a literary device, it’s fantastic. When held against other parts of the

In this article, we’re looking at the legendary figure of Orpheus and what his myths can tell us about the world. The Ancient Greeks and Romans believed Orpheus was a real person. He had the ability to create music so beautiful it could make rocks cry. There’s one version where he plays his lyre and

This article is about a god. But not just any god “Hijacked by Jesus” and forced into the role of villain. Oh no. This god starred as the villain and/or antihero in another god’s heroic quest to prove his worth. I am, of course, talking about Loki. In the Norse tradition, they mostly associated Loki

We’ve all heard of the tale of Atlantis. It’s that city the gods sunk because the inhabitants thought themselves better than the gods. There are many stories about a sunken city, from the British Lyonesse to the Hindi Dvārakā, the French Ys to the Baltic Vineta. There’s something fascinating about hearing tales of an underwater

I feel the first thing I should mention is that the Middle Ages as a whole span a thousand years. It makes it confusing when someone mentions one thing and assumes it was true for the entire duration of the era. This is particularly true when it comes to Arthurian myths and legends. There are