top will have grooves for blood, and the whole will be covered
with _dry brown stains of a troubling kind_ from former
Sacrifices.
- [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
+ [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
To every man upon this earth
Death cometh soon or late;
the apes have the forelimbs much better developed than
the hind limbs. Tail entirely absent. Growth is slow
and sexual maturity reached at quite an advanced age.
- [ A Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of Africa by Dorst ]
+ [ A Field Guide to the Larger Mammals of Africa by Dorst ]
Aldo the gorilla had a plan. It was a good plan. It was
right. He knew it. He smacked his lips in anticipation as
he thought of it. Yes. Apes should be strong. Apes should
be masters. Apes should be proud. Apes should make the
Earth shake when they walked. Apes should _rule_ the Earth.
- [ Battle for the Planet of the Apes,
- by David Gerrold ]
+ [ Battle for the Planet of the Apes, by David Gerrold ]
apple
NEWTONIAN, adj. Pertaining to a philosophy of the universe
invented by Newton, who discovered that an apple will fall
I found the arrow still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.
- [ The Arrow and the Song,
- by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]
+ [ The Arrow and the Song, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]
ashikaga takauji
Ashikaga Takauji was a daimyo of the Minamoto clan who
joined forces with the Go-Daigo to defeat the Hojo armies.
Go-Daigo eventually escaped and established another
government in the town of Yoshino. This period of dual
governments was known as the Nambokucho.
- [ Samurai - The Story of a Warrior Tradition, by Cook ]
+ [ Samurai - The Story of a Warrior Tradition, by Cook ]
asmodeus
It is said that Asmodeus is the overlord over all of hell.
His appearance, unlike many other demons and devils, is
(Enter all the Friars to sing the dirge)
[ Doctor Faustus and Other Plays, by Christopher Marlowe ]
boomerang
+#: this one is commented out because two from the same source feels a
+#: bit excessive; if uncommented, it should be first since the punchline
+#: is about coming back while the other one is disdainful about that, so
+#: if this one came second, its joke would be weakened
+# "It's a boomerang," said Vimes. "You find something like this
+# all over the world. You have to wave it carefully and suddenly
+# your opponent gets it in the back. I've heard that there's a lad
+# in Fourecks who can throw a boomerang with such precision that it
+# can get the morning paper and come back with it."
+# [ Raising Steam, by Terry Pratchett ]
+#
Rincewind pulled himself up and thought about reaching for his
stick. And then he thought again. The man had a couple of spears
stuck in the ground, and people here were good at spears, because
the formula for making this splendid footwear is a closely
guarded secret, possibly derived from nonhumans (see Dwarfs,
Elves, and Gnomes).
- [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
+ [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
*booze
potion of sleeping
On waking, he found himself on the green knoll whence he had
do so. He became the heavenly controller of the rain, and
lived with other celestial beings in their paradise on Mount
Kunlun.
- [ The Illustrated Who's Who In Mythology, by Michael Senior ]
+ [ The Illustrated Who's Who In Mythology, by Michael Senior ]
chromatic dragon
tiamat
Tiamat is said to be the mother of evil dragonkind. She is
with trees_ or _swords_, or needing to be _pulled close
around her/his shivering body_. This seems to suggest they
are less than practical for anyone on an arduous Tour.
- [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
+ [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
cloud*
I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
But even a dead basilisk is dangerous, for it is said that
merely touching its lifeless body can cause a person to
sicken and die.
- [ Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library)
- and other sources ]
+ [ Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library)
+ and other sources ]
*coin
~creeping coins
*coins
his weapon, and mutters under his breath:
"By Crom, there will be blood spilt today."
- [ Conan the Avenger by Robert E. Howard, Bjorn Nyberg, and
- L. Sprague de Camp ]
+ [ Conan the Avenger by Robert E. Howard, Bjorn Nyberg,
+ and L. Sprague de Camp ]
crossbow*
"God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus! -
Why look'st thou so?" - With my cross-bow
I shot the Albatross.
- [ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor
- Coleridge ]
+ [ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge ]
crystal ball
You look into one of these and see _vapours swirling like
clouds_. These shortly clear away to show a sort of video
without sound of something that is going to happen to you
soon. It is seldom good news.
- [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
+ [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
curse*
Curses are longstanding ill-wishings which, in Fantasyland,
often manifest as semisentient. They have to be broken or
want to do this. Swords usually resist all attempts to
raise their Curses. Your best source is to hide the Sword
or give it to someone you dislike.
- [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
+ [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
cwn*n
A pack of snow-white, red-eared spectral hounds which
sometimes took part in the kidnappings and raids the
through a keyhole yet not be pierced with a Sword. This makes
them difficult to deal with, even on the rare occasions when
they are friendly.
- [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
+ [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
diamond
The hardest known mineral (with a hardness of 10 on Mohs' scale).
It is an allotropic form of pure carbon that has crystallized in
A wolflike wild dog, Canis dingo, of Australia, having a
reddish- or yellowish-brown coat, believed to have been
introduced by the aborigines.
- [Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language]
+ [ Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary
+ of the English Language ]
disenchanter
Ask not, what your magic can do to it. Ask what it can do
to your magic.
not only with clouds of sulphurous fumes pouring from its fire
breathing nostrils, but also with the thrashings of its tail,
the most deadly part of its serpent-like body.
- [ Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library) ]
+ [ Mythical Beasts by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library) ]
"One whom the dragons will speak with," he said, "that is a
dragonlord, or at least that is the center of the matter. It's
imagination. In this year, with Man's thoughts turned toward
the many ills he has brought among himself, Man has forgotten
his most ancient adversary, the gargoyles.
- [ Excerpt from the opening narration to the movie
- _Gargoyles_, written by Stephen and Elinor Karpf ]
+ [ Excerpt from the opening narration to the movie
+ _Gargoyles_, written by Stephen and Elinor Karpf ]
*garlic
1 November - All day long we have travelled, and at a good
speed. The horses seem to know that they are being kindly
by narrowing down your available choices of what to do next:
if a deity is pushing you, things will go miserably badly until
there is only one choice left to you.
- [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
+ [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
gold
gold piece
A metal of characteristic yellow colour, the most precious
Its strings break only in very rare instances, usually
because the Harper is sulking or crossed in love. This is
just as well as no one seems to make or sell spare strings.
- [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
+ [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
After breakfast was over, the ogre called out: "Wife, wife,
bring me my golden harp." So she brought it and put it on
savage, more appalling, more hellish be conceived than that
dark form and savage face which broke upon us out of the wall
of fog.
- [ The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. ]
+ [ The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. ]
hermes
Messenger and herald of the Olympians. Being required to do
a great deal of travelling and speaking in public, he became
and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over
the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with
hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
- [ Revelations of John, 6:1-8 ]
+ [ Revelations of John, 6:1-8 ]
huan*ti
The first of five mythical Chinese emperors, Huan Ti is known
as the yellow emperor. He rules the _moving_ heavens, as
Large, flesh-eating animal of the cat family, of Central and
South America. This feline predator (_Panthera onca_) is
sometimes incorrectly called a panther.
- [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
+ [ Van Dale's Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse Taal ]
jellyfish
I do not care to share the seas
With jellyfishes such as these;
Particularly Portuguese.
- [ Lines on Meeting a Portuguese Man-o'-war while
- Bathing, by Michael Flanders ]
+ [ Lines on Meeting a Portuguese Man-o'-war while Bathing,
+ by Michael Flanders ]
juiblex
jubilex
Little is known about the Faceless Lord, even the correct
And was a bugbear in men's eyes;
But had the fortune in his age
To live a fool and die a sage.
- [ Don Quixote of La Mancha, by Miquel de
- Cervantes Saavedra ]
+ [ Don Quixote of La Mancha, by Miquel de Cervantes Saavedra ]
~kobold ??m*
*kobold*
The race of kobolds are reputed to be an artificial creation
his lance into shivers, carrying him and his horse after it,
and finally tumbled him a good way off from it on the field in
evil plight.
- [ Don Quixote of La Mancha, by Miquel de
- Cervantes Saavedra ]
+ [ Don Quixote of La Mancha, by Miquel de Cervantes Saavedra ]
land mine
Your heart is intact, your brain is not badly damaged, but the rest
of your injuries are comparable to stepping on a land mine. You'd
way to divert his captor's attention and vanishes in the
twinkling of an eye.
[ A Field Guide to the Little People
- by Nancy Arrowsmith & George Moorse ]
+ by Nancy Arrowsmith & George Moorse ]
*lich
But on its heels ere the sunset faded, there came a second
apparition, striding with incredible strides and halting when
that?"
Jack shrugged [...]. "Bad grace, I suppose. Just because I
shot off his ear and made him jump into a pit full of spikes."
- [ the hollow chocolate bunnies of
- the apocalypse, by Robert Rankin ]
-# [no relation... both cover and title page list
-# this book's title in all lower case]
+ [ the hollow chocolate bunnies of the apocalypse,
+ by Robert Rankin ]
+# [no relation... both cover and title page list this
+# book's title in all lower case; however, its sequel,
+# "the toyminator", refers to it using conventional
+# capitalization in a couple of early footnotes]
lug*
Lugh, or Lug, was the sun god of the Irish Celts. One of his
weapons was a rod-sling which worshippers sometimes saw in
unwanted emeralds, etc., still embedded in the rock of the
walls. Metal will also be present, but only when made up into
armor and weapons (_wondrous_).
- [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
+ [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
minotaur
The Minotaur was a monster, half bull, half human, the
offspring of Minos' wife Pasiphae and a wonderfully beautiful
and contracts. He is attributed with the creation of both
plants and animals. His chief adversary is Ahriman, the
power of darkness.
- [ The Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends of All
- Nations, by Herbert Spencer Robinson and
- Knox Wilson ]
+ [ The Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends of All Nations,
+ by Herbert Spencer Robinson and Knox Wilson ]
*mithril*
_Mithril_! All folk desired it. It could be beaten like
copper, and polished like glass; and the Dwarves could make
good condition by placing fresh earth around it daily. In her
fury, Skuld often spoiled the work of her sisters by tearing
the web to shreds.
- [ The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends of All
- Nations by Herbert Spencer Robinson and Knox
- Wilson ]
+ [ The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends of All Nations
+ by Herbert Spencer Robinson and Knox Wilson ]
nunchaku
A nunchaku is two sections of wood (or metal in modern
incarnations) connected by a cord or chain. There is much
Nay, rather did impede so much my way,
That many times I to return had turned.
[ Dante's Inferno, as translated
- by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]
+ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ]
*paper
Some players, who unconsciously perceive Paper as weak or a
sign of surrender, will shy away from using it entirely or
You will travel through them both to distant parts of the
continent and to and from our own world. The precise manner
of their working is a Management secret.
- [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
+ [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
poseido*n
Poseido(o)n, lord of the seas and father of rivers and
fountains, was the son of Chronos and Rhea, brother of Zeus,
shake the earth, a power which makes him the god of
earthquakes as well. Physically, he is shown as a strong and
powerful ruler, every inch a king.
- [ The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends of All
- Nations, by Herbert Robinson and Knox Wilson ]
+ [ The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends of All Nations,
+ by Herbert Robinson and Knox Wilson ]
~*sleeping
~*booze
*potion*
why not? By then you will have had a lot of practice in
that sort of thing and, besides, the Quest Object is usually
designed to help you do it.
- [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
+ [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
quetzalcoatl
One of the principal Aztec-Toltec gods was the great and wise
Quetzalcoatl, who was called Kukumatz in Guatemala, and
are dealing with.
2. For Kings. The OMT here is _falling in stately folds_.
3. As the garb of Desert Nomads. [...]
- [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
+ [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
rock
Bilbo saw that the moment had come when he must do something.
He could not get up at the brutes and he had nothing to shoot
of Rome in Nero's time, for instance? Why, it would merely
say 'Town burned down; no insurance; boy brast a window,
fireman brake his neck!' Why, that ain't a picture!
- [ A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Mark
- Twain ]
+ [ A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,
+ by Mark Twain ]
*spellbook*
The Book of Three lay closed on the table. Taran had never
been allowed to read the volume for himself; now he was sure
feuds and prolonging enmity between families. Indeed, the
belligerent tengu were supposed to have been man's first
instructors in the use of arms.
- [ Mythical Beasts, by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library) ]
+ [ Mythical Beasts, by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library) ]
thoth
The Egyptian god of the moon and wisdom, Thoth is the patron
deity of scribes and of knowledge, including scientific,
wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of
course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean
enough.
- [ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
- by Douglas Adams ]
+ [ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams ]
*tower
*tower of darkness
Towers (_brooding_, _dark_) stand alone in Waste Areas and
blocks of masonry that make them very hard to climb. [...]
You will have to go to a Tower and then break into it at some
point towards the end of your Tour.
- [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
+ [ The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones ]
trap*door
I knew my Erik too well to feel at all comfortable on jumping
into his house. I knew what he had made of a certain palace at
tamed and captured by a maiden. Made gentle by the sight of a
virgin, the unicorn can be lured to lay its head in her lap, and
in this docile mood, the maiden may secure it with a golden rope.
- [ Mythical Beasts, by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library) ]
+ [ Mythical Beasts, by Deirdre Headon (The Leprechaun Library) ]
Martin took a small sip of beer. "Almost ready," he said.
"You hold your beer awfully well."
without restraint and fighting over again the battles in
which they died and in which they had won their deathless
fame.
- [ The Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends of All
- Nations, by Herbert Robinson and Knox
- Wilson ]
+ [ The Encyclopaedia of Myths and Legends of All Nations,
+ by Herbert Robinson and Knox Wilson ]
vampire
~vampire bat
vampire lord
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere
Nor any drop to drink.
- [ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor
- Coleridge ]
+ [ The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, by Samuel Taylor Coleridge ]
water demon
[ The monkey king ] walked along the bank, around the pond.
He examined the footprints of the animals that had gone into
some of these plants, which yield a poisonous alkaloid that
was formerly used medicinally. In both senses also called
monkshood.
- [ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language,
- Fourth Edition. ]
+ [ The American Heritage Dictionary of
+ the English Language, Fourth Edition. ]
wood golem
Come, old broomstick, you are needed,
Take these rags and wrap them round you!
How the water spills,
How the water basins
Brimming full he fills!
- [ The Sorcerer's Apprentice, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
- translation by Edwin Zeydel ]
+ [ The Sorcerer's Apprentice, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,
+ translation by Edwin Zeydel ]
woodchuck
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