"All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered."

The Magician and Other Folktales

Last week I got another rejection and I wanted to give my Patrons one of the classical Gothic books I’m annotating but it isn’t ready yet, so we’ll settle for another bunch of folktales collected by Grazia Deledda and translated by yours truly. Whom, as we’ve established on threads, is Gothic enough.

The first tale, “The Magician”, tells of a couple who’s cursed by a local magician not to have any children. The husband accepts to perform a rite to lift the curse and… it doesn’t go well.

The second one is titled “More Magic Spells,” but we might retitle it “The Holy Oil.” It tells the story of how a beautiful maiden requests a young sexton to aid her in stealing some holy oil from a church so that… well, that’s a spoiler. You’ll have to read it.

The third tale features a shepherd who’s visited by a ghostly lady in his dreams. A murder in Church, a buried treasure and the devil are involved.

Enjoy!

architecture, engineering and construction

KPIs and Gaming the Metrics

Earlier this week I wrote about KPIs and how we’re using them wrong, l but I fear I left something out, which is how KPIs are used in education. Nowhere is the distortion of goals by poorly chosen KPIs more visible than in the classroom.

Read More »
books and literature

Anna Kavan – Ice

Oh. My. God.How come this novel isn’t up there alongside Ph. K. Dick, Asimov, and the rest of the greatest sci-fi works of our time? Oh, yeah, it might be because it talks about violence over a woman. This anxious, delicate masterpiece follows an unreliable,

Read More »
books and literature

Werewolves Wednesday: The Wolf-Leader (13)

A werewolf story by Alexandre Dumas père. Chapter XIII: Where it is demonstrated that a Woman never speaks more eloquently than when she holds her tongue As Thibault was talking to himself he did not catch the few hurried words which Suzanne whispered to the Baron;

Read More »
Share on LinkedIn
Throw on Reddit
Roll on Tumblr
Mail it
No Comments

Post A Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

RELATED POSTS

KPIs and Gaming the Metrics

Earlier this week I wrote about KPIs and how we’re using them wrong, l but I fear I left something out, which is how KPIs are used in education. Nowhere is the distortion of goals by poorly chosen KPIs more visible than in the classroom.

Read More

Anna Kavan – Ice

Oh. My. God.How come this novel isn’t up there alongside Ph. K. Dick, Asimov, and the rest of the greatest sci-fi works of our time? Oh, yeah, it might be because it talks about violence over a woman. This anxious, delicate masterpiece follows an unreliable,

Read More

Werewolves Wednesday: The Wolf-Leader (13)

A werewolf story by Alexandre Dumas père. Chapter XIII: Where it is demonstrated that a Woman never speaks more eloquently than when she holds her tongue As Thibault was talking to himself he did not catch the few hurried words which Suzanne whispered to the Baron;

Read More