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Project Brainstorm

  1. Dragon Myths
    2. (Red European Dragon from dragonwisdom.wikia.com)

    (Chinese Dragon by Dongjun Lu)
    • I have loved dragons since I was very young. It probably stems from the fact that I also love fantasy stories and novels. I am a writer that specializes in genre fiction, specifically sci-fi and fantasy writing. I have actually been researching dragon lore on my own before I started this class because I am using different types of dragons in several of my stories and novels-in-progress. My previous knowledge of dragons is mostly from works of fiction and a mythology class I took as a freshman in high school a million years ago. I know a bit about the European and Chinese variations of the dragon but I would like to see where else dragons appear in mythology around the world if they do at all. I would like to learn more about dragon mythologies so that I may portray them accurately or flip the typical dragon story on its ear and make it new and unique. If I choose to focus on dragons as my project I would like to explore how different types of dragon appear in mythologies around the world. 
    • I browsed the book Dragon and Dragon Lore by Ernest Ingersoll and poked around Wikipedia articles for awhile. I liked Ingersoll's book, it is chock full of great information I can use for this class as well as for my personal writing projects.
  2. Legendary Creatures
    3. (Sasquatch from Jack Link's Beef Jerky Commercial)
    • Like dragons, I have been interested in legendary creatures such as basilisks and Griffins since childhood. Also like dragons, I use legendary creatures in my writing - sometimes I draw inspiration from creatures that already exist, sometimes I make my own. Most of my knowledge base regarding legendary creatures comes from pop-culture. Again, as mentioned above I have taken a previous mythology class in high school where one of the areas of focus was legendary creatures. My NeeNee (grandmother) and I really enjoy Bigfoot legends (Bigfoot lives in Antlers, OK if anyone was wondering) and I would like to explore the origins of myths such as Bigfoot. 
    • I have actually come across The Mythological Zoo by Oliver Herford before in previous research for a story I was writing and it is a great resource.
  3. Russian Folklore
    4. (A Leshen from The Witcher III: Wild Hunt found on Rock, Paper, Shotgun)
    • My interest in Russian folklore stems from my love of The Witcher video game series based on a book series by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. Sapowski uses creatures from the folktales of his native Poland as inspiration for the creatures found in his novels and video games. From inquiries I have made on the subject apparently there are not many sources available in English of the Polish folk-tales but they are closely related to the Russian folk-tales. I have no prior knowledge of the subject except what I have read in Sapkowski's novels and other works of fiction - Neil Gaiman uses some eastern European inspired "gods" in his Novel American Gods. I want to learn more about the subject so, as usual, I may use the knowledge to aid in my own writing. 
    • Source: Russian Fairy Tales by W.R.S. Ralston
  4. African Traditions 
    5. (Orlando Jones as Anansi or Mr. Nancy a West African trickster god from Neil Gaiman's American Gods found on americangods.wikia.com)

    1. This is another topic in which I am very interested but know nothing about. The class I took in high school focused mostly on Classical and European mythologies so I have no knowledge base on this subject. I am interested to learn more. I got a small taste of the richness of African traditions through Neil Gaiman's American Gods but I am eager to learn more. 
Source: Jamaican Anansi Stories by Martha Warren Beckwith 
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