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121-660: The 1991 and 1992 editions of the book contain seven short stories in addition to the novella The Bone Forest. , after which the volume takes its name. The additional stories in The Bone Forest bear little relation with either time or events in the Mythago Wood cycle, yet the short stories are largely influenced by the fantasy realm created as part of the Mythago Wood cycle. The Bone Forest has both won and been nominated for fantasy literature awards. The short stories in The Bone Forest previously appeared in

242-671: A grimoire , which gives the names and abilities of demons as well as detailed instructions for conjuring and controlling them. Grimoires are not limited to demons – some give instructions for the invocation of deity, a process called theurgy . The use of ceremonial magic to call demons is also known as goetia , a word derived from the Greek word " goes ", which originally denoted diviners , magicians , healers, and seers . The Age of Enlightenment conceptualizes humans as autonomous individuals , mostly independent from outer invisible forces, such as demons or gods ruling over human fate. While in

363-825: A bad smell in the air or sudden change in temperature would announce their presence. Similar to the Quranic prophet Solomon enslaving the jinn and devils, the Persian hero Jamshid is attributed with subjugating the Dīv . However, a general negative association remains during the Islamic period. Due to their reluctant nature, even enslaved, they do always the opposite of what has been commanded. In some tales, supernatural powers are attributed to them, such as causing sickness, mental illnesses, or even turn humans to stone. Demons are believed to be vanquished by sacred symbols. The content of

484-461: A city in the clouds with the birds and challenges Zeus 's authority. Ovid 's Metamorphoses and Apuleius 's The Golden Ass are both works that influenced the development of the fantasy genre by taking mythic elements and weaving them into personal accounts. Both works involve complex narratives in which humans beings are transformed into animals or inanimate objects. Platonic teachings and early Christian theology are major influences on

605-403: A cluster of supernatural beings, such as daimons, spirits, and devils, affecting the mind. While some people fear demons, or attempt to exorcise them, others willfully attempt to summon them for knowledge, assistance, or power. William of Conches ( c.  1090/1091  – c.  1155/1170s ) understands 'demon' closer to the Greek 'daimon', reserving the concept of the "devil" only for

726-601: A consequence of the rise of influence of the Babylonian Talmud over that of the Jerusalem Talmud, late rabbis, in general, took as fact the existence of shedim , nor did most of the medieval thinkers question their reality. However, rationalists like Maimonides and Saadia Gaon and others explicitly denied their existence, and completely rejected concepts of demons, evil spirits, negative spiritual influences, attaching and possessing spirits. They thought

847-460: A demon is believed to be a spiritual entity that may be conjured and controlled. Belief in demons remains an important part of many modern religions and occult traditions. Demons are still feared largely due to their alleged power to possess living creatures. In contemporary Western esoteric traditions, demons may be used as metaphors for inner psychological processes ("inner demons"). The Ancient Greek word δαίμων ( daimōn ) denotes

968-690: A feudal society hindering the modernization of China. Stories of the supernatural continued to be denounced once the Communists rose to power, and mainland China experienced a revival in fantasy only after the Cultural Revolution had ended. Fantasy became a genre of pulp magazines published in the West. In 1923, the first all-fantasy fiction magazine, Weird Tales , was published. Many other similar magazines eventually followed, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction ; when it

1089-624: A growing conflict between Thomas’ conscience and the god Thorn. The story was inspired by William Golding 's novel The Spire . The story was also included in The Oxford Book of Fantasy , edited by Tom Shippey . This story takes place in England, AD 731 at a Saxon village adjacent to the Dancing Hill, which holds the ruins of an ancient shrine (the setting of the previous short story, Thorn.) The two main characters are Wolfhead,

1210-437: A horn-helmet and long black robes that flow and billow. He bears a child's spear, that of Rianna, a girl of honor among his people who was brutally murdered by a mercenary. While Caylen makes friends with a 9-year-old boy named Fergus and avoids the bullying abuses of another boy Domnorix, both from his village, the warrior builds a small wooden shrine to honor Rianna in a glade, Old Stone Hollow. On Caswallon's orders, Glamach,

1331-564: A large audience. Lord Dunsany established the genre's popularity in both the novel and the short story form. H. Rider Haggard , Rudyard Kipling , and Edgar Rice Burroughs began to write fantasy at this time. These authors, along with Abraham Merritt , established what was known as the "lost world" subgenre, which was the most popular form of fantasy in the early decades of the 20th century, although several classic children's fantasies, such as Peter Pan and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz , were also published around this time. Juvenile fantasy

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1452-592: A later form of Zoroastrianism , and was transferred to Judaism during the Persian era . Demons may or may not also be considered to be devils: minions of the Devil . In many traditions, demons are independent operators, with different demons causing different types of evils (destructive natural phenomena, specific diseases, etc.). In religions featuring a principal Devil (e.g. Satan) locked in an eternal struggle with God, demons are often also thought to be subordinates of

1573-471: A main plot element, theme , or setting . Magic, magic practitioners ( sorcerers , witches and so on) and magical creatures are common in many of these worlds. An identifying trait of fantasy is the author's use of narrative elements that do not have to rely on history or nature to be coherent. This differs from realistic fiction in that realistic fiction has to attend to the history and natural laws of reality, where fantasy does not. In writing fantasy

1694-503: A metaphorical symbol for life-threatening animals, such as hyenas , ostrichs , and jackals . The shedim , however, are not pagan demigods, but the foreign gods themselves. They are evil insofar that they are not affiliated with the Jewish deity. These entities appear in a scriptural context of animal or child sacrifice to non-existent false gods . Various diseases and ailments were ascribed to demons, particularly those affecting

1815-412: A new style of "fuzzy" supernatural texts. The fantastic is on the dividing line between supernatural and not supernatural, Just as during this time period the women were not respecting the boundary of inequality that had always been set for them. At the time, women's roles in society were very uncertain, just as the rules of the fantastic are never straightforward. This climate allowed for a genre similar to

1936-426: A sheer cliff wall known as Wolfback, and the other a river which appears as rapids, but is actually calm and placid. This river marks the geographical boundary of Caswallon's lands. North of the river is a changing landscape with ancient stone buildings and a tall metal totem, both constructions beyond the skill of Caswallon's people. One day a red haired warrior of Nordic origin visits the village. The warrior wears

2057-613: A single source. The Welsh tradition has been particularly influential, due to its connection to King Arthur and its collection in a single work, the epic Mabinogion . There are many works where the boundary between fantasy and other works is not clear; the question of whether the writers believed in the possibilities of the marvels in A Midsummer Night's Dream or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight makes it difficult to distinguish when fantasy, in its modern sense, first began. Although pre-dated by John Ruskin 's The King of

2178-558: A specific place; their demonic activity is topographically defined and their function can be benevolent towards those who have the secret knowledge to face them. Demons protecting the underworld may prevent human souls from entering paradise. Only by knowing the right charms is the deceased able to enter the Halls of Osiris . Here, the aggressive nature of the guardian demons is motivated by the need to protect their abodes and not by their evil essence. Accordingly, demons guarded sacred places or

2299-495: A spirit or divine power, much like the Latin genius or numen . Daimōn most likely came from the Greek verb daiesthai ("to divide" or "distribute"). The Greek conception of a daimōn notably appears in the philosophical works of Plato , where it describes the divine inspiration of Socrates . The original Greek word daimōn does not carry the negative connotation initially understood by implementation of

2420-455: A torch but could not be seen". Chinese folktale, legend and literature are replete with malevolent supernatural creatures who are often rendered "demons" in English translations. These include categories of beings such as the yao 妖 - shapeshifters with the power to cause insanity, to inflict poison, and to bring about disease, and the mo 魔 - derived from Indian mythology and entering through

2541-488: A variety of publications between 1976 and 1989. The novella The Bone Forest was published as part of the 2009 Gollanz edition of Merlin's Wood along with the tales Scarrowfell, Thorn and Earth and Stone. The main narrative expands the back story of tensions in the Huxley family taking place in time before the events in Mythago Wood . In this novella George Huxley must contend with a Doppelgänger mythago of himself, who

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2662-674: A wide audience, with the success of Robert E. Howard 's Conan the Barbarian and Fritz Leiber 's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories. However, it was the advent of high fantasy , and most of all J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings , which reached new heights of popularity in the late 1960s, that allowed fantasy to truly enter the mainstream . Several other series, such as C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia and Ursula K. Le Guin 's Earthsea books, helped cement

2783-420: A wild shaman, and Inkmarker, an orphaned child of 10, who subsequently escapes from a monastery and joins Wolfhead. Wolfhead is summoned by Gilla, the chief of the nearby village, to help rid the village of a demon whose power emanates from a stone-lined well in the center of the village. A weakened stone god at the ruins of the ancient shrine warns Wolfhead and Inkmarker of this outsider demon Mabathagus, god of

2904-624: Is One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) , which is a compilation of many ancient and medieval folk tales. Various characters from this epic have become cultural icons in Western culture, such as Aladdin , Sinbad and Ali Baba . Hindu mythology was an evolution of the earlier Vedic mythology and had many more fantastical stories and characters, particularly in the Indian epics . The Panchatantra ( Fables of Bidpai ), for example, used various animal fables and magical tales to illustrate

3025-532: Is a gypsy . The Snow Woman leaves a talisman , a necklet of bone and wood, which Steven keeps. In the Spring, George Huxley and Edward Wynne-Jones undertake explorations in Ryhope wood, become separated and encounter dangerous mythagos spawned by Steven's imagination. In a dramatic encounter taking place at an ancient Horse Shrine, George Huxley physically collides with a mythago stallion ; this collision results in

3146-726: Is also often used to refer to this genre by the Anglophone literary critics. An archaic spelling for the term is phantasy . Fantasy is distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the absence of scientific or macabre themes, although these can occur in fantasy. In popular culture , the fantasy genre predominantly features settings that emulate Earth, but with a sense of otherness. In its broadest sense, however, fantasy consists of works by many writers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians from ancient myths and legends to many recent and popular works. Many works of fantasy use magic or other supernatural elements as

3267-478: Is being constructed on Dancing Hill, a site of both pagan and Christian religious significance. His project is to carve a semi-animated stone block depicting Thorn, lord of the wood, also known as the Green Man . Completing the project before similar carvings of the twelve apostles are finished will imbue Thorn with power over the church. This story simultaneously explores tension between Christian and pagan and

3388-525: Is not clear from his work, if he considered these images of se'irim as manifestations of actual spirits or merely delusions. Despite academic consensus, Rabbis disputed that Maimonides denied the existence of demons entirely. He would only dispute the existence of demons in his own life time, but not that demons had existed once. Occasionally an angel is called satan in the Babylon Talmud. But satans do not refer to demons as they remain at

3509-462: Is physically threatening and interacting with his family in undesirable ways. In particular the relationship between George Huxley and his sons is explored. The story takes place between January 1935 and the late Summer of 1935. The Huxleys reside in Oak Lodge, on the outskirts of Ryhope Wood. One Winter night they are visited by the "Snow Woman". She is a mythago, but the Huxley boys believe she

3630-465: Is the Bunyip , which was originally a term applied to malevolent spirits in general. Tasmanian mythology in particular has many beings translated as "devils"; these include malicious spirits like Rageowrapper as well as spirits summoned in magic. Tasmanian Aboriginal people would describe these entities as "devils" and related that these spiritual beings as walking alongside Aboriginal people "carrying

3751-632: The Epic of Gilgamesh . The ancient Babylonian creation epic, the Enûma Eliš , in which the god Marduk slays the goddess Tiamat , contains the theme of a cosmic battle between good and evil, which is characteristic of the modern fantasy genre. Genres of romantic and fantasy literature existed in ancient Egypt. The Tales of the Court of King Khufu , which is preserved in the Westcar Papyrus and

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3872-521: The Elder Edda and the Younger Edda , includes such figures as Odin and his fellow Aesir , and dwarves , elves , dragons , and giants . These elements have been directly imported into various fantasy works. The separate folklore of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland has sometimes been used indiscriminately for "Celtic" fantasy, sometimes with great effect; other writers have specified the use of

3993-573: The Koine δαιμόνιον ( daimonion ), and later ascribed to any cognate words sharing the root. The Greek terms do not have any connotations of evil or malevolence. By the early centuries of the Roman Empire , cult statues were seen, by Pagans and their Christian neighbors alike, as inhabited by the numinous presence of the Greco-Roman gods : "Like pagans, Christians still sensed and saw

4114-571: The Paleolithic age , stemming from humanity's fear of the unknown, the strange and the horrific. In ancient Near Eastern religions and in the Abrahamic religions , including early Judaism and ancient-medieval Christian demonology , a demon is considered a harmful spiritual entity that may cause demonic possession , calling for an exorcism . Large portions of Jewish demonology , a key influence on Christianity and Islam , originated from

4235-632: The Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, which drew on the mythology of ancient Semitic religions . This was then inherited by the Koine text of the New Testament . The English use of demon as synonym for devils goes back at least as far as about 825. The German word ( Dämon ), however, is different from devil ( Teufel ) and demons as evil spirits, and akin to

4356-684: The Watchers or Nephilim , who are first mentioned in Genesis 6 and are the focus of 1 Enoch Chapters 1–16, and also in Jubilees 10. The Nephilim were seen as the source of the sin and evil on Earth because they are referenced in Genesis 6:4 before the story of the Flood . In Genesis 6:5, God sees evil in the hearts of men. Ethiopic Enoch refers to Genesis 6:4–5, and provides further description of

4477-445: The galla dragging the god Dumuzid into the underworld. Like other demons, however, galla could also be benevolent and, in a hymn from King Gudea of Lagash ( c. 2144 – 2124 BCE), a minor god named Ig-alima is described as "the great galla of Girsu ". Lamashtu was a demonic goddess with the "head of a lion, the teeth of a donkey, naked breasts, a hairy body, hands stained (with blood?), long fingers and fingernails, and

4598-507: The underworld was home to many demonic beings, which are sometimes referred to as "offspring of arali ". These demons could sometimes leave the underworld and terrorize mortals on earth. One class of demons that were believed to reside in the underworld were known as galla ; their primary purpose appears to have been to drag unfortunate mortals back to Kur. They are frequently referenced in magical texts, and some texts describe them as being seven in number. Several extant poems describe

4719-437: The "demons of the lower regions": You think, as I infer from your words, that a demon is the same as a devil, which is not the case. For a demon is said to be any invisible being using reason, as if knowing. Of these the two high orders are called calodemons, that is, 'good knowing ones', the lower order is called cacodemon, that is, 'evil knowing one', for calos means 'good', cacos 'bad'. The ceremonial magician usually consults

4840-428: The "demons that bring famine" and "such as cause storm and earthquake". According to some aggadic stories, demons were under the dominion of a king or chief, usually Asmodai . In Kabbalah , demons are regarded as a necessary part of the divine emanation in the material world and a byproduct of human sin ( Qlippoth ). After they are created, they assume an existence on their own. Demons would attach themselves to

4961-600: The Golden River (1841), the history of modern fantasy literature is usually said to begin with George MacDonald , the Scottish author of such novels as Phantastes (1858) and The Princess and the Goblin (1872); the former is widely considered to be the first fantasy novel ever written for adults. MacDonald was a major influence on both J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis . The other major fantasy author of this era

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5082-505: The Greens. Non-recurring mythagos include "Crow Ghost" (a fast, aggressive male with a painted face), three half-man/half-wolf creatures, and a monkey-faced man (perhaps a Cro-Magnon ). The Twigling mythago is mentioned in passing, but plays no part in the narrative. Thomas, a mason, is the protagonist of this short story. He is compelled to work at night to finish a secret carving on his village's first Christian stone church. The church

5203-461: The Muling 木灵 lit. "tree spirit" (also muzhong 木肿 lit. "tree swelling") - demons forming over time in trees of immense age, capable of inflicting disease and killing human passers-by and birds flying overhead. Examples include the penghou 彭侯 (lit. "drumbeat marquis"), a demon associated with camphor trees in mountain forests, and which takes the form of a human-headed dog, and in the southern provinces,

5324-475: The Mythago cycle works were written/published does not necessarily correspond to the order of events within the realm of the Mythago Wood cycle. For example, Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn and the novella The Bone Forest are prequels to Mythago Wood even though they were published at a later date. The novel Merlin's Wood (1994) and short stories in The Bone Forest and Merlin's Wood have little bearing on

5445-592: The RPG products sold in 2005. The science fantasy role-playing game series Final Fantasy has been an icon of the role-playing video game genre (as of 2012 it was still among the top ten best-selling video game franchises ). The first collectible card game , Magic: The Gathering , has a fantasy theme and is similarly dominant in the industry. Fantasy encompasses numerous subgenres characterized by particular themes or settings, or by an overlap with other literary genres or forms of speculative fiction. They include

5566-689: The Rings film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson , and the Harry Potter films, two of the highest-grossing film series in cinematic history. Fantasy role-playing games cross several different media. Dungeons & Dragons was the first tabletop role-playing game and remains the most successful and influential. According to a 1999 survey in the United States , 6% of 12- to 35-year-olds have played role-playing games. Of those who play regularly, two thirds play D&D . Products branded Dungeons & Dragons made up over fifty percent of

5687-476: The Supernatural in the 1890s and 1920s , Lizzie Harris McCormick, Jennifer Mitchell, and Rebecca Soares describe how the social climate in the 1890s and 1920s allowed for a new era of "fantastic" literature to grow. Women were finally exploring the new freedoms given to them and were quickly becoming equals in society. The fear of the new women in society, paired with their growing roles, allowed them to create

5808-536: The United States. The rejection of demons as the cause of natural events also contributed to the association of demons with delusions and merely mental phenomena. For example, the notion that demons could possess an individual, stripped the individual away from their personhood and was at odds with modern Western philosophy. The most prominent ones, such as the American Dream and capitalism , imply

5929-505: The air of uncertainty in its narratives as described by Todorov. Jackson also introduces the idea of reading the fantastic through a psychoanalytical lens, referring primarily to Freud's theory of the unconscious, which she believes is integral to understanding the fantastic's connection to the human psyche. There are however additional ways to view the fantastic, and often these differing perspectives come from differing social climates. In their introduction to The Female Fantastic: Gender and

6050-436: The arrival of the festival. The climax of the story involves a magical pagan ritual inside a ring of elm trees. This is a science fiction short story describing a scientific experiment in which two subjects’ rate of aging is increased in an environment that is devoid of all disease. The subjects live for the equivalent of centuries and evolve into exaggerated archetypes of male and female. Eventually they die, but not before

6171-438: The author uses worldbuilding to create characters, situations, and settings that may not be possible in reality. Many fantasy authors use real-world folklore and mythology as inspiration; and although another defining characteristic of the fantasy genre is the inclusion of supernatural elements, such as magic, this does not have to be the case. Fantasy has often been compared to science fiction and horror because they are

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6292-647: The banana-leaf spirits. From the Tang dynasty onwards, belief in shapeshifting foxes, tigers and wolves, amongst other creatures, also featured in Chinese folk belief, partly due to the existence of outlawed fox-spirit cults. Fox Demons (狐妖) are described as cunning and lustful, capable of clairvoyance, and of inflicting disease and poisoning at will. They are sometimes seen as beings requiring worship to be appeased or placated. Tiger Demons (虎妖) and Wolf Demons (狼妖) are ravening beings roaming large territories for prey, taking

6413-507: The belief that everyone is responsible for their own fate and not at the mercy of external forces, thus has no room left for demons or demonic possessions. The concept of demons has nevertheless not disappeared from the public, permeating media, arts, and psychology. Others assert that the Age of Enlightenment did not compete with beliefs in subjugation of demons, but derived from them. In the 16th - early 17th century, conjuration of demonic forces

6534-415: The brain and those of internal nature. Examples include catalepsy , headache, epilepsy and nightmares. There also existed a demon of blindness, "Shabriri" (lit. "dazzling glare") who rested on uncovered water at night and blinded those who drank from it. Demons supposedly entered the body and caused the disease while overwhelming or "seizing" the victim. To cure such diseases, it was necessary to draw out

6655-536: The central Indian principles of political science . Chinese traditions have been particularly influential in the vein of fantasy known as Chinoiserie , including such writers as Ernest Bramah and Barry Hughart . Beowulf is among the best known of the Old English tales in the English speaking world, and has had deep influence on the fantasy genre; several fantasy works have retold the tale, such as John Gardner 's Grendel . Norse mythology , as found in

6776-644: The circular effect that all fantasy works, even the later The Lord of the Rings , were therefore classified as children's literature . Political and social trends can affect a society's reception towards fantasy. In the early 20th century, the New Culture Movement 's enthusiasm for Westernization and science in China compelled them to condemn the fantastical shenmo genre of traditional Chinese literature. The spells and magical creatures of these novels were viewed as superstitious and backward, products of

6897-576: The collision with the wild stallion, which results in the Gray-Green mythago being banished to the woods and Wynne-Jones reappearing. The story ends back at Oak Lodge with George realizing that many of the intervening events, but not all, seem to have never happened. Many mythagos appear in The Bone Forest. The major mythagos are listed below in detail. Minor mythagos appearing include the recurring Robin Hood or Merry Man, and Green Jacks or Jack o'

7018-646: The convention. The first WFC was held in 1975 and it has occurred every year since. The convention is held at a different city each year. Additionally, many science fiction conventions, such as Florida's FX Show and MegaCon , cater to fantasy and horror fans. Anime conventions, such as Ohayocon or Anime Expo frequently feature showings of fantasy, science fantasy, and dark fantasy series and films, such as Majutsushi Orphen (fantasy), Sailor Moon (urban fantasy), Berserk (dark fantasy), and Spirited Away (fantasy). Many science fiction/fantasy and anime conventions also strongly feature or cater to one or more of

7139-572: The creation of the Gray-Green mythago, an alter ego of George Huxley. When George Huxley returns to Oak Lodge, he discovers the Gray-Green man is writing in his journal, upsetting his children, and having intimate relations with his wife. Both forms agree they must try to recombine, but disagree on the method. This leads to a climactic final scene in which they race to the Horse Shrine (and back in time). The Gray-Green mythago tries to destroy Ash and hang George Huxley, but fails. George relives

7260-535: The demonic powers of impurity have become correspondingly weak, too. The Hebrew Bible mentions two classes of demonic spirits, the se'irim and the shedim . The word shedim (sing shed or sheyd ) appears in two places in the Hebrew Bible. The se'irim (sing. sa'ir , "male goat") are mentioned once in Leviticus 17 :7, probably a recollection of Assyrian demons in the shape of goats. They might be

7381-591: The demons of mountains and forests (the seductive Chimei 魑魅), demons of trees and rocks (a necrophagous fever-demon, the Wangliang 魍魎), subterranean demons of the earth and of decay (the goat-like and necrophagous Fenyang 墳羊 (lit. "grave-goat"), who caused disease and miscarriage) and fever demons born from water ( Wangxiang 罔象 , a child-like being with red eyes). These demons were said to be born of aberrant qi (breath or energy), known to accost and kill travellers, and held responsible for sickness. People also feared

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7502-469: The difference of critical traditions of each country have led to controversies such as the one led by Stanislaw Lem . Rosemary Jackson builds onto and challenges as well Todorov's definition of the fantastic in her 1981 nonfiction book Fantasy: The Literature of Subversion . Jackson rejects the notion of the fantastic genre as a simple vessel for wish fulfillment that transcends human reality in worlds presented as superior to our own, instead positing that

7623-474: The divine inspiration of Socrates . In Christianity, morally ambivalent daimōn were replaced by demons, forces of evil only striving for corruption. Such demons are not the Greek intermediary spirits, but hostile entities, already known in Iranian beliefs. In Western esotericism and Renaissance magic , which grew out of an amalgamation of Greco-Roman magic , Jewish Aggadah , and Christian demonology,

7744-403: The divine will. The existence of demons can be related to the realm of chaos, beyond the created world. But even this negative connotation cannot be denied in light of the magical texts. The role of demons in relation to the human world remains ambivalent and largely depends on context. Ancient Egyptian demons can be divided into two classes: "guardians" and "wanderers". "Guardians" are tied to

7865-403: The earth, and father of Hecate . Inkmarker undertakes ritualistic coming-of-age tasks, but becomes hopelessly entangled with the demon as he confronts it. This is the story of Caylen, an adolescent boy and member of a forest community in mainland Europe. Caylen is the son of Caswallon, his village's chieftain. Caylen is considered possessed because he is able to see through two illusions, one

7986-417: The essential teaching about shedim and similar spirits is, that they should not be an object of worship, not a reality to be acknowledged or feared. Their point of view eventually became mainstream Jewish understanding. The opinion of some authors is not clear. Abraham ibn Ezra states that insane people can see the image of se'irim , when they go astray and ascribe to them powers independent from God. It

8107-549: The events in the Ryhope wood. See the table below for a chronology of events within Ryhope wood. Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction which involves themes of the supernatural , magic , and imaginary worlds and creatures . Its roots are in oral traditions, which became fantasy literature and drama. From the twentieth century, it has expanded further into various media, including film , television , graphic novels , manga , animations , and video games . The expression fantastic literature

8228-602: The evil demons by certain incantations and talismanic performances, at which the Essenes excelled. Josephus , who spoke of demons as "spirits of the wicked which enter into men that are alive and kill them", but which could be driven out by a certain root , witnessed such a performance in the presence of the Emperor Vespasian and ascribed its origin to King Solomon . In mythology, there were few defences against Babylonian demons . The mythical mace Sharur had

8349-514: The fantastic is a liminal space , characterized by the intrusion of supernatural elements into the realistic framework of a story, accompanied by uncertainty about their existence. However, this precise definition is not the predominant one in English critical literature, and the French term fantastique is used to differentiate the French concept from the broader English term of fantastic, synonym of fantasy. The restrictive definition of Todorov and

8470-429: The fantastic represents the unspoken desire for greater societal change. Jackson criticizes Todorov's theory as being too limited in scope, examining only the literary function of the fantastic, and expands his structuralist theory to fit a more cultural study of the genre—which, incidentally, she proposes is not a genre at all, but a mode that draws upon literary elements of both realistic and supernatural fiction to create

8591-511: The fantasy genre, and especially in entertainment aimed at children and young adults. Belief in wilderness demons haunted China from the very earliest periods and persisted throughout the late imperial era. In the Xia dynasty, nine bronze cauldrons with their forms were cast to help the common people to identify and to avoid them. Classical texts in the Zhou and Warring-States period distinguish between

8712-554: The fantasy publisher Tor Books , men outnumber women by 67% to 33% among writers of historical, epic or high fantasy. But among writers of urban fantasy or paranormal romance, 57% are women and 43% are men. Fantasy is studied in a number of disciplines including English and other language studies, cultural studies , comparative literature , history and medieval studies . Some works make political, historical and literary connections between medievalism and popular culture. French literature theorists as Tzvetan Todorov argues that

8833-453: The feet of Anzû ". She was believed to feed on the blood of human infants and was widely blamed as the cause of miscarriages and cot deaths . Although Lamashtu has traditionally been identified as a demoness, the fact that she could cause evil on her own without the permission of other deities strongly indicates that she was seen as a goddess in her own right. Mesopotamian peoples protected against her using amulets and talismans . She

8954-686: The first time, women started to possess more masculine or queer qualities without it becoming as much of an issue. The fantastic during this time period reflects these new ideas by breaking parallel boundaries in the supernatural. The fantastic breaks this boundary by having the readers never truly know whether or not the story is supernatural. Demon A demon is a malevolent supernatural entity. Historically, belief in demons, or stories about demons, occurs in folklore , mythology , religion , and literature ; these beliefs are reflected in media including comics , fiction , film , television , and video games . Belief in demons probably goes back to

9075-536: The following: In her 2008 book Rhetorics of Fantasy , Farah Mendlesohn proposes the following taxonomy of fantasy, as "determined by the means by which the fantastic enters the narrated world", while noting that there are fantasies that fit none of the patterns: Publishers, editors, authors, artists, and scholars with interest in the fantasy genre get together yearly at the World Fantasy Convention . The World Fantasy Awards are presented at

9196-512: The form of humans to conveniently insert themselves into communities and settlements. Tiger demons are described as being enslave the souls of humans they have killed, turning them into minions. In the superstitious climate of the previous centuries, people mistaken as tigers and wolves in human disguise were often put to death or starved in their cells by magistrates. Fish (鱼妖) and snake demons (蛇妖) are said to have attempted to assault Confucius. Even insects are capable of being demonic. In one tale,

9317-520: The gates to the netherworld. During the Ptolemaic and Roman period , the guardians shifted towards the role of genius loci and they were the focus of local and private cults. The "wanderers" are associated with possession, mental illness, death and plagues. Many of them serve as executioners for the major deities, such as Ra or Osiris , when ordered to punish humans on earth or in the netherworld. Wanderers can also be agents of chaos, arising from

9438-528: The genre is inseparable from real life, particularly the social and cultural contexts within which each work of the fantastic is produced. She writes that the "unreal" elements of fantastic literature are created only in direct contrast to the boundaries set by its time period's "cultural order", acting to illuminate the unseen limitations of said boundaries by undoing and recompiling the very structures which define society into something "strange" and "apparently new". In subverting these societal norms, Jackson claims,

9559-633: The genre's popularity. The popularity of the fantasy genre has continued to increase in the 21st century, as evidenced by the best-selling status of J. K. Rowling 's Harry Potter series, Robert Jordan 's The Wheel of Time series, George R. R. Martin 's Song of Ice and Fire series, Steven Erikson 's Malazan Book of the Fallen sweeping epic, Brandon Sanderson 's The Stormlight Archive series and Mistborn series, and A. Sapkowski 's The Witcher saga. Several fantasy film adaptations have achieved blockbuster status, most notably The Lord of

9680-479: The gods and their power, and as something, they had to assume, lay behind it, by an easy traditional shift of opinion they turned these pagan daimones into malevolent 'demons', the troupe of Satan . Far into the Byzantine period , Christians eyed their cities' old pagan statuary as a seat of the demons' presence. It was no longer beautiful, it was infested." The term had first acquired its negative connotations in

9801-521: The imperial era, they also appear as antagonists, and sometimes protagonists, in multiple genres of Chinese literature. These include mythic literature ( Shen Mo Xiaoshuo (lit. "Gods and demons novels") ), in records about paranormal or occult activity ( Zhi Guai ("lit. Records of the Strange") ), and in tales about cultivators of supernatural power and immortality ( Xian Xia (lit. "Immortal Hero") ) fiction. These demons are often examples or close variants of

9922-739: The indigenous Yao (妖) and the Indian-influenced Mo (魔) feature prominently in Chinese legends and folktales about the supernatural and the uncanny, and these days are staples of popular culture and fantasy fiction in games, movies and books. There are differing opinions in Judaism about the existence or non-existence of demons ( shedim or se'irim ). Some Rabbinic scholars assert that demons have existed in Talmudic times, but do not exist regularly in present. When prophecy, divine presence , and divine inspiration gradually decreased,

10043-524: The influence of Buddhism. In folk belief, these beings are responsible for misfortune, insanity, and illness, and any number of strange phenomena that could not easily be accounted for. Epilepsy and stroke, which led to either temporary or permanent contortions, were generally seen as the results of demonic possession and attacks (中邪). In the imperial era, anxiety over unexplained serial murders, missing persons, accidents or diseases sometimes led to instances of mass panic requiring imperial intervention. Exorcism

10164-467: The land's surface, or skin. The episodes along with brief summaries are: This short story takes place in the North American plains and explores the magical power of ocher cave painting . The story involves a group of Native American tribal hunters living off bison, deer and reindeer. The main character is One Eye, an elderly village shaman/painter who resides in a shrine-cave which overlooks

10285-415: The major categories of speculative fiction . Fantasy is distinguished from science fiction by the plausibility of the narrative elements. A science fiction narrative is unlikely, though seemingly possible through logical scientific or technological extrapolation, where fantasy narratives do not need to be scientifically possible. Authors have to rely on the readers' suspension of disbelief , an acceptance of

10406-461: The modern English "demon". Both deities and demons can act as intermediaries to deliver messages to humans. By that, they share some resemblance to the Greek daimon. However, magical writings indicate that ancient Egyptians acknowledged the existence of malevolent demons by highlighting the demon names with red ink. Demons in this culture appeared to be subordinative and related to a specific deity, yet they may have occasionally acted independently of

10527-510: The modern fantasy genre. Plato used allegories to convey many of his teachings, and early Christian writers interpreted both the Old and New Testaments as employing parables to relay spiritual truths. This ability to find meaning in a story that is not literally true became the foundation that allowed the modern fantasy genre to develop. The most well known fiction from the Islamic world

10648-517: The original meaning of daimon . The Western Modern era conception of a demon , as in the Ars Goetia , derives seamlessly from the ambient popular culture of Late Antiquity . The exact definition of "demon" in Egyptology posed a major problem for modern scholarship, since the borders between a deity and a demon are sometimes blurred and the ancient Egyptian language lacks a term for

10769-418: The perpetrator of the experiment self-administers the life-altering treatment. Critiquing the tale Scarrowfell in the anthology Other Edens, John Clute remarks that " Scarrowfell ...floods the frail tale it ostensibly relates with a jumble of moods, too many characters, too much music, and expiation/initiation too complex to be explained in the pages it takes, and bevies of mummers ..." The order in which

10890-620: The power to slay demons such as Asag , a legendary gallu or edimmu of hideous strength. In the Jerusalem Talmud , notions of shedim ("demons" or "spirits") are almost unknown or occur only very rarely, whereas in the Babylonian Talmud there are many references to shedim and magical incantations. The existence of shedim in general was not questioned by most of the Babylonian Talmudists . As

11011-511: The pre-modern period, spirits and demons were assigned to various natural phenomena, the rationalistic school of thought , increasingly rejected the attribution of demons to unknown causes. Many considered demons to be non-existent and alleged visions of demons and ghosts were explained as results of superstition. By that local religious customs were also oppressed in favor of nationwide (religious) ideas or deities. Wilkinson Duran states that people who believe in demons are often marginalized in

11132-437: The principal Devil. As lesser spirits doing the Devil's work, they have additional duties— causing humans to have sinful thoughts and tempting humans to commit sinful actions. The original Ancient Greek word daimōn ( δαίμων ) did not carry negative connotations, as it denotes a spirit or divine power. The Greek conception of a daimōn notably appears in the philosophical works of Plato , where it describes

11253-401: The religious sense are known as Mo (魔) and are generally derived from Indian lore through Buddhism. These include the man-eating, night-flying luocha 罗刹 (raksasha) and the yecha 夜叉 (yaksha). These have also entered Chinese folk religion and Taoism. Another closely related term, highlighting their spiritual deviance and moral corruption, is Xie (邪). Aside from recurring in Chinese superstition of

11374-409: The service of God: "Stand not in the way of an ox when coming from the pasture, for Satan dances between his horns". Aggadic tales from the Persian tradition describe the shedim , the mazziḳim ("harmers"), and the ruḥin ("spirits"). There were also lilin ("night spirits"), ṭelane ("shade", or "evening spirits"), ṭiharire ("midday spirits"), and ẓafrire ("morning spirits"), as well as

11495-463: The seven evil deities were known as shedu , storm-demons, represented in ox-like form." They were represented as winged bulls , derived from the colossal bulls used as protective jinn of royal palaces. Magical rites, charms, and beliefs in spiritual entities were prominent in pre-Christian Europe. While the Church offically declared such beliefs as false , the persistance of such beliefs among

11616-458: The several subcultures within the main subcultures, including the cosplay subculture (in which people make or wear costumes based on existing or self-created characters, sometimes also acting out skits or plays as well), the fan fiction subculture, and the fan video or AMV subculture, as well as the large internet subculture devoted to reading and writing prose fiction or doujinshi in or related to those genres. According to 2013 statistics by

11737-587: The sighting of a Centipede Demon (蜈蚣妖) in the form of an old woman without eyes is said to have led to the sickness and death of an entire household. One notable demon not in the above categories includes the Heisheng or Heiqi 黑气 ("Black Calamity" or "Black Air"), a kind of roving vapour demon that inflicts damage to persons and property wherever it roams, sometimes killing where it goes. Another are undefined Poltergeists, sometimes afflicting monasteries, causing serious nuisances, and unable to be exorcised. Demons in

11858-553: The sinner and start to multiply as an act of self-preservation. Medieval Kabbalists characterize such demons as punishing angels of destruction . They are subject to the divine will, and do not act independently. Other demonic entities, such as the shedim , might be considered benevolent. The Zohar classifies them as those who are like humans and submit to the Torah, and those who have no fear of God and are like animals. The sources of demonic influence were thought to originate from

11979-465: The social structure to emerge. The fantastic is never purely supernatural, nor can the supernatural be ruled out. Just as women were not equal yet, but they were not completely oppressed. The Female Fantastic seeks to enforce this idea that nothing is certain in the fantastic nor the gender roles of the 1920s. Many women in this time period began to blur the lines between the genders, removing the binary out of gender and allowing for many interpretations. For

12100-517: The story connecting the Nephilim to the corruption of humans. According to the Book of Enoch , sin originates when angels descend from heaven and fornicate with women, birthing giants. The Book of Enoch shows that these fallen angels can lead humans to sin through direct interaction or through providing forbidden knowledge. Most scholars understand the text, that demons originate from the evil spirits of

12221-547: The symbol depends on the prevailing religion of the culture. Among Turks, the basmalah ("invocation of the name of Allah") is used to ward off demons, while among Armenians, the symbol of the cross is utilized. Common features of these Middle Eastern demons are their immortality and pernicious nature, they can turn invisible, and can be enslaved when pierced by a silver needle. Due to the Islamic belief-system prevailing in Middle Eastern and Central Asian culture at

12342-442: The time between the parī and the angels, from the fires of the stars and smoke. Under influence of Islamic Philosophy , Medieval occult traditions and Renaissance magic , demons are often seen as beneficial and useful, lacking an inherent negative connotation. In the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Renaissance magic, the terms 'demon' and 'devil' have two different, although not exclusive, meanings. The term demons refers to

12463-519: The time, authors emphasized that demons only exist by God's will and not as an independent or even accidental part of the world. The origin of the demons is explained by Abu Ali Bal'ami 's interpretation of Tarikh al-Tabari as the possibly first creation of God ( Allah ). Similarly, the Süleymanname , written during the time of Suleiman the Magnificent , demons were created by God in

12584-436: The tribal leader, the son discovers the power of his own cave paintings. This short story focuses on Ginny, a young girl, and the part she plays in a ritualistic dancing festival. This festival proceeds from one small English town to the next, finally ending at Scarrowfell on Lord's Eve day. Ginny, who is an orphaned child with an adoptive mother and a small group of friends, has nightmares and long bouts of sleep leading up to

12705-523: The type and kind that exist in folk belief. They also appear in entertainment designed for children and young adults, especially in comics (manhua), cartoons (anime), and computer games. The terms Yao (妖) , Mo (魔), Gui (鬼), Guai (怪) and Xie (邪) are their various two-character combinations often used to refer to these creatures, but of these terms, only Mo (魔) denotes demons in the religious sense. China has two classes of beings that might be regarded as demons, and which are generally translated as such: Both

12826-494: The unbelievable or impossible for the sake of enjoyment, in order to write effective fantasies. Despite both genres' heavy reliance on the supernatural, fantasy and horror are distinguishable from one another. Horror primarily evokes fear through the protagonists' weaknesses or inability to deal with the antagonists. While some elements of the supernatural and the fantastic were a part of literature from its beginning, fantasy elements occur throughout ancient religious texts such as

12947-450: The village druid , ritualistically abuses Caylen to cleanse him of his evil. Caylen flees the village to avoid this abuse just as five warriors from the north appear to hunt and execute the warrior. As Caylen flees, he is faced with a decision to between saving the warrior's sacred spear or his friend Fergus. This is an episodic short story told from the viewpoint of an anthropomorphic land. Each episode chronicles events taking place on

13068-437: The village and grasslands beyond. “He Who Carries a Red Spear” is the tribal leader whose son frequents One Eye's cave. The tribal leader persistently pressures One Eye to use magical paintings to improve his hunting success, not just those of the overall village. The tribal leader's son has innate cave painting abilities and an interest in bears, one of the few animals that will hunt humans. As tensions mount between One Eye and

13189-415: The wider populations led Christian monks to assimilate Christian with non-Christian rites. In order to do so, non-Christian symbols and as pagan deities have been substituted by Jesus Christ . To sanction the invocation of non-Christian supernatural powers, Christian missionaries, such as John Cassian in the fifth century, declared the pagan gods to be demons, servants of Lucifer , who bring disorder to

13310-436: The world beyond creation to bring about misfortune and suffering without any divine instructions, led only by evil motivations. The influences of the wanderers can be warded off and kept at the borders of the human world by the use of magic, but they can never be destroyed. A sub-category of "wanderers" are nightmare demons, which were believed to cause nightmares by entering a human body. The ancient Mesopotamians believed that

13431-630: The world. Ideas of demons (often called Dīv/Dēw or mārid or šayāṭīn in Arabic ) in Armenia , Turkic countries , and Albania derive from Arabic and Persian imagery . Unlike the original Persian daeva , the at the Islamic period are more anthropomorphized and morally complex, through assimialtion with the Arabic jinn and devils. Like the jinn from Islamic traditions, they can enter sexual relationships with humans and sire offspring. Demons are believed to be mostly active at night and

13552-603: Was William Morris , an English poet who wrote several novels in the latter part of the century, including The Wood Beyond the World (1894) and The Well at the World's End (1896). Despite MacDonald's future influence with At the Back of the North Wind (1871), Morris's popularity with his contemporaries, and H. G. Wells 's The Wonderful Visit (1895), it was not until the 20th century that fantasy fiction began to reach

13673-438: Was a court function during the Zhou dynasty, led by ritual specialists known as fangshi . In later dynasties, roving Taoist sorcerers, Buddhist monks, as well as eccentric folk magicians, plied their services in warding off, exorcising, countering or defeating these demons through the use of amulets, charms, spells, and chants. In mainland China, belief in demons is very rare. Today, these beings appear primarily as antagonists in

13794-488: Was believed to be the son of the god Hanbi . He was usually regarded as evil, but he could also sometimes be a beneficent entity who protected against winds bearing pestilence and he was thought to be able to force Lamashtu back to the underworld. Amulets bearing his image were positioned in dwellings to protect infants from Lamashtu and pregnant women frequently wore amulets with his head on them as protection from her. Šul-pa-e 's name means "youthful brilliance", but he

13915-476: Was believed to ride in her boat on the river of the underworld and she was associated with donkeys. She was believed to be the daughter of An . Pazuzu is a demonic god who was well known to the Babylonians and Assyrians throughout the first millennium BCE. He is shown with "a rather canine face with abnormally bulging eyes, a scaly body, a snake-headed penis, the talons of a bird and usually wings". He

14036-483: Was considered more acceptable than fantasy intended for adults, with the effect that writers who wished to write fantasy had to fit their work into forms aimed at children. Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote fantasy in A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys , intended for children, although his works for adults only verged on fantasy. For many years, this and successes such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) created

14157-401: Was founded in 1949, the pulp magazine format was at the height of its popularity, and the magazine was instrumental in bringing fantasy fiction to a wide audience in both the U.S. and Britain. Such magazines were also instrumental in the rise of science fiction, and it was at this time the two genres began to be associated with each other. By 1950, " sword and sorcery " fiction had begun to find

14278-442: Was more respected than legitimate authority, resulting in amorality and excessive personal independence. The declaration of demons as mere superstition was also welcomed as a "removal" of pagan beliefs. According to Wouter Hanegraaff , what the demons the Age of Enlightenment attempted to remove are pagan beliefs. Aboriginal Australian cultures have various beings translated into English as "demons" or "devils". The most notable

14399-442: Was not envisioned as youthful god. According to one tradition, he was the consort of Ninhursag, a tradition which contradicts the usual portrayal of Enki as Ninhursag's consort. In one Sumerian poem, offerings made to Šhul-pa-e in the underworld and, in later mythology, he was one of the demons of the underworld. According to The Jewish Encyclopedia , originally published in 12 volumes from 1901 to 1906, "In Chaldean mythology

14520-548: Was probably written in the middle of the second half of the eighteenth century BC, preserves a mixture of stories with elements of historical fiction, fantasy, and satire. Egyptian funerary texts preserve mythological tales, the most significant of which are the myths of Osiris and his son Horus . Myth with fantastic elements intended for adults were a major genre of ancient Greek literature . The comedies of Aristophanes are filled with fantastic elements, particularly his play The Birds , in which an Athenian man builds

14641-497: Was seen as potential for humans to overcome their social and natural environment. Hermetic and Kabbalist philosophy allowed humans to exercise control over nature. As such, occult practises may have paved the way for the development of modern sciences. Individualism was met with certain ambiguity. Although the Renaissance "freed" humans from superstition and allowed them to control nature, it created an environment in which power

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