Feb 14, 2021 | Fun Historical Facts
It’s Valentine’s Day today and we celebrate love. But why, exactly, do we do that? What are the origins of Valentine’s Day? History.com has some interesting theories to offer. One theory is that Valentine was a priest who served during the third...
Feb 11, 2021 | Fun Historical Facts
The ninth plague of Egypt was complete darkness that lasted for three days. But in 536 A.D., much of the world went dark for a full 18 months, as a mysterious fog rolled over Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia. The fog blocked the sun during the day, causing...
Feb 1, 2021 | Fun Historical Facts
When NASA’s $1 billion Juno spacecraft completed its 11th high-speed trip around Jupiter, it sent back amazing new pictures of the planet. As Physics-Astronomy reports, the amazing spacecraft gets relatively close to the biggest gas giant planet of our solar system...
Jan 25, 2021 | Fun Historical Facts, Writing
Any of you writing fantasy will appreciate Toni Šušnjar’s post on heraldry, shared on Mythic Scribes. The History of Heraldry As Toni explains, distinctive personal insignia on shields had been used to identify warriors in battle since 9th-century BC Phrygia....
Jan 23, 2021 | Fun Historical Facts
Pages from one of the first books ever printed in England were recently found by librarians at the University of Reading. The pages, which were hidden away for decades in the pages of a different text, were meant to tell priests how to plan feasts. Sarum Ordinal...
Jan 21, 2021 | Fun Historical Facts, Quora
I recently wrote about what ancient Greeks and Romans used to eat. But how about earlier people? If your fantasy takes place in a neolithic or even paleolithic setting, then you can spice it up (pun intended) with these early wheat recipes, courtesy of Alice Twain of...
Jan 17, 2021 | Fun Historical Facts
If you’re looking to enrich your fantasy or Medieval fiction, why not mention Cistercian numbers — the forgotten ciphers of Medieval monks? As Tibi Puiu reports on ZME Science, people have employed all sorts of systems throughout history, most of which are now...
Jan 15, 2021 | Fun Historical Facts, Quora
Everyone has heard of Robinson Crusoe. But how many know the real-life inspiration behind the character? As Alex Turner explains on Quora, this would be Alexander Selkirk: Selkirk was a Scottish sailor, born in 1676. He was a rather hotheaded man, who tended to look...
Jan 3, 2021 | Fun Historical Facts
I kick off the new year with a matter close to anyone who’s ever flirted with fantasy writing: witches. I mean, what’s fantasy without witchcraft? Probably a rather boring Medieval existence, that’s what. Of course, there’s a big difference...
Dec 19, 2020 | Fun Historical Facts, Quora
Have you ever wondered where the pointy wizard hat stereotype stems from? Someone on Quora did and Wendy Carolan had the answer. Where Does the Idea of the Wizard’s Hat Come from? As you can well imagine, the question here refers to the stereotypical pointy blue...
