Ben Hellman
Fright Club: On the Equality of Monsterkind
“It’s no use, dear boy. The shadmocks aren’t going away. We have to learn to live with them.” My impression of how the fictional world of...
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Ben Hellman
- Sep 6, 2021
Timely Lessons from the Land of the Coming of the Light
Just before dawn, Rockport, Maine August 26 (photo by author). The Native tribes of New England formed the Wabanaki Confederacy....
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Ben Hellman
- Jun 28, 2021
Into the Mouth of American Kitsch: Wisconsin’s House on the Rock
The author contemplating another round of phantasmagorical excess at the House on the Rock, Spring Green, Wisconsin. Photo by Rachel...
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Ben Hellman
- May 9, 2021
Too Much of a Good Thing; Epic Burnout in the Jangar Cycle
Too much of a good thing isn't always fabulous. A hero of Jangar drinks a bowl of wine it would take sixty men to lift, a common...
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Ben Hellman
- Apr 24, 2021
Beyond Beowulf: Curses, Shapechangers, and Doomed Love
The Saga of King Hrólf Kraki features two warriors, man and son, who fight as bears. The father is cursed to roam as a bear by day. The...
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Ben Hellman
- Mar 29, 2021
Stealing Fire: John Colarusso and the Tales of the Narts
A fountain in Vladikavkaz, Russia with the Nart Sosruquo, dancing on the edge of a magic bowl. (Image courtesy Lhiten Hatko.) A range of...
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Ben Hellman
- Dec 8, 2020
Seldom Told Tales; Unraveling Viktor Rydberg’s Norse Mythos
Freya and Svipdag, by the illustrator John Bauer. This is one of several stories I had never read about before reading Viktor Rydberg's...
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Ben Hellman
- Oct 1, 2020
Into Adulthood's Dark Forest with Bynum's 'Likes'
Likes, and author Sarah Shun-lien Bynum. Folktales are said to help us deal with the most terrible of human fears, that of the unknown,...
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Ben Hellman
- Sep 17, 2020
"This Little Book;" Marjory Wardrop and the Tales of the Georgians
Statues dedicated to Marjory Wardrop and her brother Oliver in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2015, for the siblings' dedication to the nation and...
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Ben Hellman
- Sep 6, 2020
Kathleen Herbert and the Lost Gods of the Harvest
(Left to right) Kathleen Herbert’s Looking for the Lost Gods of England; an epitaph for John Barleycorn in my wife's family cabin, dated...
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Ben Hellman
- Aug 24, 2020
The Mahabharata for the Intimidated
An Illustration to the Mahabharata: The Pandava and Kaurava armies face each other, circa 1700, Mewar, India; courtesy of Wikimedia. To...
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Ben Hellman
- Jul 19, 2020
A Review of P. Lal's Mahabharata
A warning that Lal's Mahabharata, in English, does not seem to be in print or easily obtained. I purchased one of two available used...
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