The aim of this book is to explore the characteristics of the
medieval dragon and discuss the sometimes differing views found in
the relevant medieval text types. Based on an intimate knowledge of
...the primary texts, the study presents new interpretations of
well-known literary works, and also takes into consideration
paintings and other depictions of these beasts. Dragons were
designed not only to frighten but also to fire the imagination, and
provide a suitably huge and evil creature for the hero to overcome
- yet there is far more to them than reptilian adversaries. This
book introduces the medieval dragon via brief, accurate and clear
chapters on its natural history, religion, literature and folklore,
and concludes with how the dragon - from Beowulf to Tolkien, Disney
and Potter - is constantly revived.
Dangerous games Laycock, Joseph P
2015., 20150212, 2015, 2015-02-12
eBook
The 1980s saw the peak of a moral panic over fantasy role-playing games such asDungeons and Dragons.A coalition of moral entrepreneurs that included representatives from the Christian Right, the ...field of psychology, and law enforcement claimed that these games were not only psychologically dangerous but an occult religion masquerading as a game.Dangerous Gamesexplores both the history and the sociological significance of this panic.Fantasy role-playing games do share several functions in common with religion. However, religion-as a socially constructed world of shared meaning-can also be compared to a fantasy role-playing game. In fact, the claims of the moral entrepreneurs, in which they presented themselves as heroes battling a dark conspiracy, often resembled the very games of imagination they condemned as evil. By attacking the imagination, they preserved the taken-for-granted status of their own socially constructed reality. Interpreted in this way, the panic over fantasy-role playing games yields new insights about how humans play and together construct and maintain meaningful worlds.Laycock's clear and accessible writing ensures thatDangerous Gameswill be required reading for those with an interest in religion, popular culture, and social behavior, both in the classroom and beyond.
Where be dragons? Andrade, Miguel
Medievalista on line,
02/2024
Journal Article
Odprti dostop
Dragons are frequent presences in Old Norse-Icelandic sagas, composed between the 13th and 15th centuries. The locations where dragons appear have been so far observed mainly under the lens of their ...relation to centre/periphery dynamics and regarding the borders of the otherworldly. Less focus has been devoted to the physical environments that dragons occupy, whether the ones they habitually inhabit or the ones they turn uninhabitable. The habitat of dragons encompasses a variety of natural environments throughout Old Norse-Icelandic literature. In this article, we will focus on the literary landscapes (sometimes informed by real geographies familiar to the authors, depending on setting), which surround dragons in the sagas, namely topographical features, weather phenomena, times of day and seasons. The main goal will be to define which landscapes saga dragons are mainly found in, and reflect on how dragons interact with their surroundings, altering their landscapes, most often through destructive means and making spaces into non-shared zones. As descriptions of dragon surroundings are often scarce in detail, this study intends to take a broad-scope approach to the available corpus of sagas with dragons in them, combing 55 dragon occurrences across 38 sagas and þættir (“tales, episodes”) for landscape-oriented vocabulary. It will focus on “legendary sagas” and "chivalric sagas" due to prevalence of the material, but also include episodes from "sagas of Icelanders", "kings’ sagas" and other texts adjacent to those genres.
This article introduces the concept of the ludic bestiary, a game mechanic that the authors argue produces abject bodies. Using the “hag” in Dungeons & Dragons as a case study, the authors ...demonstrate how the game’s bestiary, the Monster Manual, functions as a tool of patriarchal control by defining, categorizing, and classifying the body of the female other as evil, abject, and monstrous. Importantly, the ludic bestiary not only exists as a core rulebook in Dungeons & Dragons but has also been remediated as a narrative-heavy submenu in several digital games. The authors find that the figure of the monstrous woman persists in games because of the widespread distribution of the Monster Manual to young men in hobby communities, the cultural influence of Dungeons & Dragons, depictions of monstrosity that blend the erotic with the maternal, and the discursive categorization and objectification of the female body by ludic systems.
We identified 2 cases of Salmonella enterica serovar Vitkin infection linked by whole-genome sequencing in infants in Ontario, Canada, during 2022. Both households of the infants reported having ...bearded dragons as pets. The outbreak strain was also isolated from an environmental sample collected from a patient's bearded dragon enclosure. Twelve cases were detected in the United States, and onset dates occurred during March 2021-September 2022 (isolates related to isolates from Canada within 0-9 allele differences by core-genome multilocus sequence typing). Most US patients (66.7%) were <1 year of age, and most (72.7%) had reported bearded dragon exposure. Hospitalization was reported for 5 (38.5%) of 13 patients. Traceback of bearded dragons identified at least 1 potential common supplier in Southeast Asia. Sharing rare serovar information and whole-genome sequencing data between Canada and the United States can assist in timely identification of outbreaks, including those that might not be detected through routine surveillance.
The urgency of the current climate crisis emphasizes the need for university graduates equipped with relevant knowledge and skills to tackle environmental and social problems such as material ...consumption, environmental degradation and inequality at all spatial scales. Geographic and spatially sensitive concepts and approaches to sustainability and greening are particularly relevant as best practices and success models are not easily transferable across different contexts. But how can students learn the necessary skills to connect theory with practice? Based on a third-year geography module at a British university that teaches green economy concepts, this paper presents insights from a problem- and project-based group learning exercise designed to help students translate conceptual approaches into practice highlighting the strength of geographic thinking. As part of the exercise, students work in groups to develop a green project that they present in a green dragons' den-style ideas pitch to an expert panel for evaluation. Students are tasked to develop innovative, feasible and applicable proposals that address specific sustainability challenges. Findings from five consecutive years of teaching illustrate the value of project- and problem-based learning to students through the diversity of practical applications, the need for critical thinking and context-dependent assessments and enhanced transferable skills.
