Metafiction, Myth and Language: A World in Words (and Pictures)

  As depicted above - this afternoon's exercise in trying to pin down the family tree and inter-familial relationship of the gods and the various progenitors. Some progress from my initial sketches of last year but still a fair few gaps remain: where does Ullek, the Rockcats' father (in truth, parent - since, according to Womba, Ullek can be 'both man and wife', much like Hretha) fit in? Nithmund, the rat-god, is still very vague (as perhaps such a grim character ought to be) and I have wondered if his role as guardian of decay, plague-bringer, gallows-friend and general king of corruption is not partly served also by Smorian, his step-daughter, who is queen of the dead and the underworld. But then, the roles of, say, Hekate and Hades are quite distinct and separate in Greek mythology and it occurs to me that Nithmund's function is one still rooted in the living world, with an effect upon those he touches: Smorian, on the other hand, is simply a harvester of souls,

    New addition to the ever-growing library arrived yesterday: The Cambridge Companion to Old English Literature , primarily for J. D. Niles' often-cited essay Pagan Survivals and Popular Belief, which covers many areas of folklore in the Anglo-Saxon period, although the other contents look to be invaluable in terms of background research, also. One of the most exciting aspects of writing this epic poetic work - and developing its background and narrative themes - is its sheer dynamism and fluidity, where new research, interests and readings have been able to feed directly into its development and suggest new directions, stories, parallels, and reference points, especially those gathered through the Old English Texts  Semster 2 Humanities module. For example: The Ruin directly influenced the ubi sunt nature of the heroes' arrival in the land of the Ylfu, (the elf-like race who have lived in voluntary exile beneath the earth for countless generations), and exposed the illusor