Cute raccoons - a watercolor.

Inspired by the fluffly goblins roaming my neighborhood in Montreal. The next painting will include that tailless blonde raccoon I met in the spring. He's no Jimothy but he's still super special.

There’s a theory that early Europeans started saying “brown one” or “honey-eater” instead of “bear” to avoid summoning them, and similarly my friend has started calling Alexa “the faceless woman” because saying her true name awakens her from her slumber

English has an avoidance register used in the presence of certain respected animals, which sounds fancy until you realize it’s spelling out w-a-l-k and t-r-e-a-t in front of the dog.

All evil whales are, well, evil. So evil that if you speak their name at sea, they will hear it and home in on you. So instead you use all sorts of euphemisms for their names. Also if you try to cook their meat it literally disappears from the pot. That’s right, they’re so evil, you can’t even eat them.

They include such types as the hrosshvalur (horsewhale), with big eyes and a red mane and tail. This is probably the best known and most feared of the lot.

The raudkembingur (redcomb) is especially cruel and bloodthirsty even by illhveli standards. If you manage to escape it, it will die of frustration.

Good luck escaping the mushveli (mousewhale) though, it has legs! And will clamber onto the beach in pursuit!

Or what about death from above? The stökkull (jumper) leaps high into the air and pile-drives boats to pieces.

Meanwhile the skeljungur (shellwhale) sits in the path of boats and lets them get wrecked on its shelly hide…

… while the sverdhvalur (swordwhale) slices through boats with its dorsal fin.

The katthveli (catwhale) is relatively harmless though. It meows.

The same can’t be said of the lyngbakur (heatherback), a classic island fish that lets sailors get on its back and then dives, taking them to a watery grave.

The nauthveli (oxwhale) on the other hand specially targets cattle, attracting them into the sea with its bellow before tearing them apart.

How can you avoid all these murderous whales, like the taumafiskur (bridlefish) here? Any of a number of ways, including getting a steypireydur to help. There are substances, ranging from angelica to sheep dung and chopped fox testicles, that they find abhorrent. And you can distract them with loud noises and barrels.

For more, I assure you this link will answer all your questions.

https://abookofcreatures.com/category/illhveli/

Incidentally, this is why we no longer know exactly how the Name was pronounced, because it took a few hundred years for vowels to be invented in Hebrew (and they’re still not used in everyday writing), and so the vowels in the Name were never written down. We have a pretty decent guess because part of the Name can be reconstructed from other words, but that’s really all it is–a guess.

(Please keep in mind I’m not qualified)

So where do we start? Proto-Indo-European, of course. Proto-Indo-European is the reconstructed language of the Proto-Indo-Europeans, which eventually spread across almost all of Europe and a good swath of Asia before developing into languages like Latin, German, Turkish, and Hindi. The PIE word for bear was something like “h₂ŕ̥tḱos”.

No wonder they were afraid of bears. I’d be afraid of bears too.

You know.

I decided to pop it into Wikipedia, and apparently Tolkien explained exactly where he got it. It’s lifted from Old English orcneas, a word that seems to be giving linguists hell and a half in translation to modern English, but one prominent suggestion is “demon-corpse.”

Demon -> feared and evil thing that can do a great deal of harm -> that lives in the woods and looks somewhat, but not fully, human? -> bear?

Day 8 : Red Warbler

Day 9 : Lilac Breasted Roller

Day 10 : Blue-naped chlorophonia

https://wheelofnames.com/ry4-3s4

The wheel is completed but if you the mod want to change it at all feel free and I couldn't figure out how to get the link to work properly even un-anoned.

Thanks, have a nice day and drink some water

You have just lost use of this random kitchen item/implement!

ich bin immer ein falsches wort davon entfernt von all den leuten erschossen zu werden die mich erträglich finden

Notes:

The time period of this version is the late medieval or Renaissance era.

Let's start with Cinderella's dresses before she's reduced to servitude.

Her usual costume in the film's early scenes is a simple, light-colored, innocent-looking dress. But she wears a black mourning dress in the months following her mother's death, and and a more ornate, apparently multicolored dress at her father's wedding.

Now for her rags...

The designers are strictly faithful to the Grimms’ description of their heroine’s clothes as “an old gray smock and wooden shoes.” This is the only screen adaptation I know that has Cinderella's rags be a long robe, much like in Thomas Sully's 1843 painting Cinderella at the Kitchen Fire, and with it she wears heavy wooden clogs.

Now for her ballgowns...

As in the Grimms' tale, there are three balls, and Cinderella wears a different gown to each one, though they're all similar in style. The first one has darker and bolder embroidery, the second has a lighter and softer design, and the third has an interesting netlike overskirt and sleeves studded with pearls.

As for the slipper....

It's neither glass nor pure gold, but a uniquely pretty design with an embroidered pattern.

As for her hair, her knee-length blonde locks are usually worn in long twin braids, but at the three balls, her hair is worn up in an intricate braided style that reaches the nape of her neck, with an elegant circlet.

When Helen was of age to be married, all the Lords of Greece came to seek her hand. This was an issue for her stepfather the King of Sparta who could only pick one husband and then would have to deal with the far greater number of angry rejected suitors.

One suitor was Odysseus, then a younger man. He quickly ascertained that he had no chance of marrying Helen. Ithaca was too poor for him to even bring any proper gifts, let alone a dowry. But he did catch the eye of the King's niece, one Penelope.

Now Penelope was still a bit out of Odysseus' league, but not so much as Helen was. So he makes a deal with the King of Sparta. Support my bid to marry Penelope, and I'll give you a solution to this suitors problem. The King agrees, so Odysseus suggests all the suitors swear an oath to defend Helen's marriage from anyone who might strike against it. They all, including Odysseus, so swear, and Helen is married to Menelaus. The King proves as good as his word, and Penelope is wed to Odysseus.

Of course this means that Odysseus has now bound himself to fight for Helen and Menelaus. After an attempt to feign madness he is forced to fulfill his duty.

Bird #18: Lilac-breasted Roller

Bird #16: Painted Bunting

I’m sorry but that’s thinking way too small, hear me out:

We need to have Miss Piggy as Odysseus, and Kermit as Penelope.

Think about it… who’s the more fickle, prideful, warlike one in that relationship? Who is absolutely ready to go ham, at a moment’s notice?

Also important:

Just to clarify my vision on a couple of these:

* by chickens I mean Muppet-chickens à la Camilla (Gonzo naturally would have some reaction to this)