Her Majesties the Queens

by nateduke

The Queen of the Amahagger may have expired in the temple of truth, but her significance as archetype of the undying evil empress lived on.  From Haggard’s plain of Kôr to C. S.… Continue reading →

Pale Queen of a Dark Continent

by nateduke

In order to make one’s fantasy kingdom believable, it helps if it is located in an unexplored part of the globe.  The romantic mystery of the distant unknown land of Kôr with its… Continue reading →

Dr. Jekyll and Mr Gray

by nateduke

The concept of the duality of human nature has been a pivotal idea in western culture since the days of Plato.  In 1866, Robert Louis Stevenson created a story in which the evil… Continue reading →

Mariners and Monsters

by nateduke

The frame narrative that opens Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein bears several suggestions of Coleridge’s The Rime of The Ancient Mariner, both through the setting and via some direct allusions to the poem.  The references… Continue reading →

Augusta as Astarte, Byron as Byronic hero

by nateduke

The guilt-ridden hero invented in Lord Byron’s Manfred was not mere fiction with vague undertones of an incestuous relationship, but rather an extension of Lord Byron himself.  Byron’s allusion to a pagan goddess… Continue reading →

Ancient Mariners and Pirates, a Legacy

by nateduke

From the opening scene of the Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the allusions to Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner are rampant.  The movie contains several gothic themes… Continue reading →