1754 – La Belle Sauvage (2017 novel)

timespace coordinates: Oxford > London, parallel ~Edwardian era Britain (or Brytain) // “The Trout”  inn, the Priory of St. Rosamund, Jordan College

The setting is a world dominated by the Magisterium (commonly called “the Church”) an international theocracy which actively suppresses heresy. In this world, humans’ souls naturally exist outside of their bodies in the form of sentient “dæmons” in animal form which accompany, aid, and comfort their humans.

La Belle Sauvage is a fantasy novel by Philip Pullman published in 2017. It is the first volume of a planned trilogy entitled The Book of Dust and is set twelve years before Pullman’s His Dark Materials. It presents events prior to the arrival of the six-month-old Lyra Belacqua at Jordan College, Oxford.

The story follows 11-year-old Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon Asta, and a village girl named Alice and her dæmon Ben, who become the protectors of the infant Lyra Belacqua and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, in Malcolm’s canoe, La Belle Sauvage, during a flood. Malcolm forms a friendship with alethiometer specialist Hannah Relf, allied with the secret freedom-seeking organisation Oakley Street, and is drawn into their fight against the growing strength of the Magisterium, which has learned of a prophecy concerning Lyra. Malcolm and Alice are pursued by the maniacal villain Gerard Bonneville, an ally of the Consistorial Court of Discipline (CCD), as they struggle to reach London and Lyra’s father Lord Asriel, in order to gain the protection of Jordan College for the baby. (wiki)

goodreads   /   The Golden Compass (2007)

1749 – Human Animals (2012 EBook)

The Project Gutenberg EBook of

Human Animals, by Frank Hamel

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(originally published in 1915)

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This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

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1748 – WolfWalkers (2020)

timespace coordinates: Kilkenny, Ireland 1650

Wolfwalkers is a 2020 animated fantasy adventure film directed by Tomm Moore and Ross Stewart. The film is the third installment in Moore’s “Irish Folklore Trilogy”, following his previous films The Secret of Kells (2009) and Song of the Sea (2014). The film is an international co-production led by Cartoon Saloon and Mélusine Productions,

The Art of Wolfwalkers CR: Abram Books

released digitally on Apple TV+ on December 11 (wiki)

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

1742 – WW84 (2020)

timespace coordinates: Washington, D.C. 1984 (during the Cold War)

Wonder Woman 1984 (stylized as WW84) is a 2020 American superhero film based on the DC Comics character Wonder Woman. It is the sequel to 2017’s Wonder Woman and the ninth installment in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU).

The film is directed by Patty Jenkins from a script she wrote with Geoff Johns and David Callaham. Gal Gadot stars as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman, alongside Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Pedro Pascal, Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen and Lilly Aspell.

The film follows Diana and her past love Steve Trevor as they face off against Max Lord and Cheetah. (wiki)

imdb   /   Sequel   /   Spin-off

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In Greek mythology, the Amazon Asteria was one of those slain by Hercules when he came to Themyscira to take Hippolyta’s girdle as one of his famous Labors.   Asteria is also the name of the Greek goddess of stars.

1725 – His House (2020)

timespace coordinates: 2010’s  South Sudan > outskirts of London

His House is a 2020 horror thriller film written and directed by Remi Weekes from a story by Felicity Evans and Toby Venables. It stars Wunmi Mosaku, Sope Dirisu and Matt Smith. The film tells the story of a refugee couple from South Sudan, struggling to adjust to their new life in an English town that has an evil lurking beneath the surface. (wiki)

imdb   /   rottentomatoes

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“The main source of information on witchcraft of the Dinka people comes from British anthropologist Godfrey Lienhardt, who devoted his studies to the Dinka religion. His article written in 1951 for the International African Institute, “Some Notions of Witchcraft Among the Dinka”, sheds light on the apeth and helps to enrich the folkloric vocabulary of His House. According to Lienhardt, night witches work their supernatural misfortunes in the darkness, an element incorporated in the film when Bol turns on the lights to make the ghosts go away. They can also make their presence known through footprints and place curses on their victims through the staring “evil eye,” a concept that says as much about Bol and Rial’s suspiciously xenophobic neighbors as it does their haunting.

Night witches are the most malicious wielders of magic since their main intentions are always to harm others without receiving anything as a trade-off. Thieves like the one in Rial’s story may be creating hardship for those they steal from, but their deeds are motivated by the goal of gaining benefits for themselves. The apeth, on the other hand, lives only to “eat,” a distinction made to describe the fact that the witch consumes the good fortune of its victims, leaving nothing but misery in its wake. Lienhardt talks about this idea in the context of the community or family unit, a thematic connection to His House.” (read more: His House: Dinka Mythology Explained by andrew housman / His House: The Ending, Monster & Final Scene Explained by hannah shaw-williams)

1523 – Chulyen, histoire de Corbeau de Cerise Lopez et Agnès Patron (2016)

A fantastic 2016 animation about a demiurge that does not fit with our images of the supreme being or the kreator. It is plays the trickster being role in many cultures, especially from the circumpafic (the Pacific Rim cultures), in the North from Siberia to the North Californian Native peoples. It’s also found in the Bible as the first being to fly from the ark. There’s also Huginn and Muninn devine data gathers in Scandinavian sagas. Since childhood I was enthralled by his escapist abilities, his shapeshifting ways, his dirty creationist energies and by his cunning, his unpredictable, greedy and curious nature.

Chulyen is the Dena’ina Athabascan word for RAVEN

I especially remember(cannot remember where I read it?!) one such creation story of the Pacific NW. The raven eats some especially juicy red berries that cause him to have a mid-air diarrhea, out of this he feels sick for eatint too much, and mid air he starts a shitting session. That shit thrown from heaven onto earth is the first matter that gives rise to the first crawly creepy humans, that ones opening their eyes they understand and see the difficulties of the raven creator and understand his shitting himself mid-air and they laugh, and then the raven laughs in return, looking down, amazed at his creation, ridiculing the creatures that have sprung unwittingly from his uncontrollable urge for excretion. What an incredible Genesis of humanity! What a mind-blowing scatological myth of creation, one that does not stand easy with our usual more serious cosmic written creation stories.

This French animation captures it all in a sense, as well as the weirdo, troubling, the unsettling and cannibalistic aspects of cosmogony.

Some raven resources for you curious birds out there:

Native First Nation Raven Stories

Conspiracy of Ravens

1497 – Ragnarok (TV Series 2020–)

timespace coordinates: 2020’s fictional Norwegian town of Edda in Western Norway

Ragnarok is a Norwegian-language fantasy drama from Netflix that premiered on 31 January 2020. The series is produced by the Danish production company SAM Productions. The show has been renewed for a second season. 

The show takes place in the fictional town of Edda which is plagued by climate change and the industrial pollution caused by the factories owned by the local Jutul family, the fifth-richest family in Norway. The Jutuls are actually four Jötunn, frost giants and giantesses posing as a family in Edda. They are challenged by Magne, a teenage boy who is surprised to learn that he is the embodiment of Thor and begins the fight against those that are destroying the planet.

The story draws inspiration from Norse mythology. (wiki)

imdb