An Introduction

It's only natural to come across references to ancient mythology in modern day fantasy novels but when I started researching for this website, even I was a little surprised by just how many there really are. For now, the website is merely a compilation of names, places, creatures, or objects which are directly borrowed from ancient or medieval myths, wherever their origin may be. In the future, it might dig into theories of plot elements and deeper character relations.

It is organized entirely alphabetically, first by book (see navigation links above), then outlined by mythology type, reference name in question followed by a brief explanation of how the item occurs in the modern day novel versus it's ancient origins. Some are obvious (like Elves or Goblins although I've left out wizards and witches) but some are not so much. The General Folklore/Mythology sections are for items which do not originate from any particular religion or have origins in multiple religions and sources. These items are crossed referenced and will soon have more elaborate descriptions within their individual sections as well as the current shortened summaries of each in the General Folklore section.

By no means is the information complete so if you have anything to contribute (be it another book/series or a reference that was missed in one of the already featured books), please do (see the Contribute link above).

By the way, sorry about the strange bullet symbols that show up in Firefox, I'll have to work on that. Yes, the web design is pretty static but the research takes enough effort as it is, if you'd like to contribute by redesigning it, please contact me.