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Mooncalf
A mooncalf (or moon-calf) is a monstrous birth, the abortive fetus of a cow or other farm animal. The term was occasionally applied to an abortive human fetus. The term derives from the once widespread superstition, present in many European folk traditions, that such malformed creatures were the product of the sinister influence of the Moon on fetal development. The earliest recorded use of the term was in 1565, referring to a human false pregnancy. Modern usage The term came to also refer to any monstrous or grotesque thing. Shakespeare, for instance, used the term to describe Caliban, the deformed servant of Prospero, in ''The Tempest''. In H. G. Wells's 1901 novel ''The first Men in the Moon'', large creatures domesticated by the Selenites are referred to as "mooncalves". Mooncalf is used as a derogatory term indicating someone is a dullard, fool, or otherwise not particularly bright or sharp. For example, W. C. Fields in '' The Bank Dick'' (1940) advises his prospective s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monstrous Birth
A monstrous birth is a birth in which a defect renders the animal or human child so malformed that it is considered a "monstrous". Historically, such births were often interpreted as omens, signs of God, or moral warnings, and used by society as a tool for manipulation. The development of obstetrics helped to dispel spurious associations with evil, but the historical significance of these fetuses remains noteworthy. In early and medieval Christianity, monstrous births were presented as posing difficult theological problems about humanity and salvation. Overview An early reference to monstrous birth is in the apocryphal biblical text 2 Esdras, where it is linked to menstruation: "women in their uncleanness will bear monsters." Often placed in a religious context, monstrous births are frequently interpreted as signs and symbols, as evidenced in the 1493 ''Nuremberg Chronicle''. According to David Hume's "The Natural History of Religion", they are among the first signs that arous ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them (book)
''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'' (often referred to as simply ''Fantastic Beasts'') is a 2001 guide book written by British author J. K. Rowling (under the pen name of the fictitious author Newt Scamander) about the magical creatures in the ''Harry Potter'' universe. The original version, illustrated by the author herself, purports to be Harry Potter's copy of the textbook of the same name mentioned in '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' (or ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' in the US), the first novel of the ''Harry Potter'' series. It includes several notes inside it supposedly handwritten by Harry, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger, detailing their own experiences with some of the beasts described, and including inside jokes relating to the original series. In a 2001 interview with publisher Scholastic, Rowling stated that she chose the subject of magical creatures because it was a fun topic for which she had already developed much informa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moonchild (other)
Moonchild or Moon child may refer to: Film * ''Moonchild'' (1974 film), an American horror film * ''Moon Child'' (1989 film), a Spanish film * ''Moon Child'' (2003 film), a Japanese film starring Gackt and Hyde Music Artists * MC the Max, also known as Moon Child, K-pop band * Moonchild (band), an alternative R&B band * Moonchild Sanelly, South African electronic artist and pioneer of future ghetto punk Albums * '' Moonchild: Songs Without Words'', by John Zorn * ''Moon Child'' (Johnny Lytle album) * ''Moon Child'' (Pharoah Sanders album) * ''Moonchild'' (Celtus album) (1997) * ''Moonchild'' (Charlene Soraia album) * ''Moonchild'' (NIKI album) (2020) * '' Moonchild Mixes'' (2022), album by Selena Songs * "Moonchild", a song by Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band (1966) * "Moonchild" (King Crimson song) (1969) * "Moonchild", a song by blues songwriter Rory Gallagher from the album '' Calling Card'' (1976) * "Moonchild", a song by Rick James from the album '' Glow'' (198 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caliban
Caliban ( ), the subhuman son of the sea witch Sycorax, is an important character in William Shakespeare's play ''The Tempest''. His character is one of the few Shakespearean figures to take on a life of its own "outside" Shakespeare's own work: as Russell Hoban put it, "Caliban is one of the hungry ideas, he's always looking for someone to word him into being . . . Caliban is a necessary idea". Character Caliban is half human, half monster. After his island becomes occupied by Prospero and his daughter Miranda, Caliban is forced into slavery. While he is referred to as a calvaluna or mooncalf, a freckled monster, he is the only human inhabitant of the island that is otherwise "not honour'd with a human shape" (Prospero, I.2.283). In some traditions, he is depicted as a wild man, or a deformed man, or a beast man, or sometimes a mix of fish and man, a dwarf or even a tortoise. Banished from Algiers, Sycorax was left on the isle, pregnant with Caliban, and died before Pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cambion
In European mythology and literature, a cambion () is the offspring produced from a human–demon sexual union, typically involving an incubus or a succubus. In the word's earliest known uses, it was interchangeable with changeling. Changelings Cambion comes from the Late Latin 'to exchange', and ultimately from the Celtic root "kamb", meaning crooked or exchange. In its earliest known uses, the word is used for a changeling, the child of fairies or demons who has been substituted for a human baby. William of Auvergne, in his 13th-century work , wrote of ", from , that is 'having been exchanged: the "sons of incubi demons". These false infants constantly wail for milk and cannot be satisfied even by four nurses. Richard Firth Green notes that this "was to become the standard scholastic explanation for changelings throughout the Middle Ages." The earliest evidenced appearance of the word "cambion" in the sense of an offspring of two demons is in the 1818 French-language '' Dic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homunculus
A homunculus ( , , ; "little person", : homunculi , , ) is a small human being. Popularized in 16th-century alchemy and 19th-century fiction, it has historically referred to the creation of a miniature, fully formed human. The concept has roots in preformationism as well as earlier folklore and alchemic traditions. The term lends its name to the cortical homunculus, an image of a person with the size of the body parts distorted to represent how much area of the cerebral cortex of the brain is devoted to it. History Alchemy file:Paracelsus219.jpg, upParacelsus is credited with the first mention of the homunculus in ''De homunculis'' (c. 1529–1532), and ''De natura rerum'' (1537). During medieval and early modern times, it was thought that homunculus, an artificial humanlike being, could be created through alchemy. The homunculus first appears by name in alchemical writings attributed to Paracelsus (1493–1541). ''De natura rerum'' (1537) outlines his method for c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Embassytown
''Embassytown'' is a science fiction novel by British author China Miéville. It was published in the UK by Pan Macmillan on 6 May 2011, and in the US by Del Rey Books on 17 May 2011. A limited edition was released by Subterranean Press. The novel's plot involves the town of Embassytown, the native alien residents known as Ariekei, their Language, and humans' interaction with them. The novel was well reviewed and won the 2012 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. Plot ''Embassytown'' takes place mostly in the city of the title, on the planet Arieka. Embassytown is a colony of a state called Bremen; and its trade goods (precious metal and alien-influenced biotech), along with Embassytown's unique position at the edge of the known universe, make it a notable colony. Avice Benner Cho, an "Immerser" (a traveller on the Immer, see § Style below for the meaning of Miéville's neologisms), has returned to her childhood home from her adventures in the "Out". On the planet of Ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Galgenlieder
''Galgenlieder'' () is a collection of poems by Christian Morgenstern. Following ten years of writing work, it was first published in March 1905 by Bruno Cassirer. And illustrations in a different edition were done by the famous Switzerland Cuban and surrealist artist, Paul Klee in 1914. Basically, in these poems are weird and half macabre sensorying around gallows which it was quite known for gallows humor. Some of them would actually feature a certain item, furniture, a tool, an animal, an insect, or even a lost limb. Some parts of the poems even has the telling of characters. Palmstroem who is some type of person wandering around, expecting something to happen to him, but it doesn't, because he's lonely. The Gallows child who's a child of gallows hill has a trouble of thinking, but mostly he is to be a representation of a child who has depression. The Raven Ralph is a normal raven who ends up eating gallows food, and in the poem, he lays dead at the end. The moonsheep who ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christian Morgenstern
Christian Otto Josef Wolfgang Morgenstern (6 May 1871 – 31 March 1914) was a German writer and poet from Munich. Morgenstern married Margareta Gosebruch von Liechtenstern on 7 March 1910. He worked for a while as a journalist in Berlin, but spent much of his life traveling through Germany, Switzerland, and Italy, primarily in a vain attempt to recover his health. His travels, though they failed to restore him to health, allowed him to meet many of the foremost literary and philosophical figures of his time in central Europe. Morgenstern's poetry, much of which was inspired by English literary nonsense, is immensely popular, even though he enjoyed very little success during his lifetime. He made fun of scholasticism, e.g. literary criticism in "Drei Hasen", grammar in "Der Werwolf", narrow-mindedness in "Der Gaul", and symbolism in "Der Wasseresel". In "Scholastikerprobleme" he discussed how many angels could sit on a needle. Still many Germans know some of his poem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sea Priestess
''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of the archaic pronoun ''thee'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dion Fortune
Dion Fortune (born Violet Mary Firth, 6 December 1890 – 6 or 8 January 1946) was a British occultist, ceremonial magician, and writer. She was a co-founder of the Fraternity of the Inner Light, an occult organisation that promoted philosophies which she claimed had been taught to her by spiritual entities known as the Ascended master, Ascended Masters. A prolific writer, she produced a large number of articles and books on her occult ideas and also authored seven novels, several of which expound occult themes. Fortune was born in Llandudno, Caernarfonshire, North Wales, to a wealthy upper middle-class English family, although little is known of her early life. By her teenage years she was living in England's West Country, where she wrote two books of poetry. After time spent at a horticultural college she began studying psychology and psychoanalysis at the University of London before working as a counsellor in a psychotherapy clinic. During the First World War she joined t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Occult
The occult () is a category of esoteric or supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of organized religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving a 'hidden' or 'secret' agency, such as magic and mysticism. It can also refer to paranormal ideas such as extra-sensory perception and parapsychology. The term occult sciences was used in 16th-century Europe to refer to astrology, alchemy, and natural magic. The term occultism emerged in 19th-century France, among figures such as Antoine Court de Gébelin. It came to be associated with various French esoteric groups connected to Éliphas Lévi and Papus, and in 1875 was introduced into the English language by the esotericist Helena Blavatsky. Throughout the 20th century, the term 'occult' was used idiosyncratically by a range of different authors. By the 21st century the term 'occultism' was commonly employed –including by academic scholars in the field of Western esotericism ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
