This year I’ve been revisiting this post series, honing in on “the sidekick” and “the lovable rogue”, the two archetypes not being entirely divorced from each other. The third prong to this grouping is, I believe, the “faithful animal companion” — or ‘droid, of course: why hello, Artoo-Detoo (R2-D2) and See-Threepio (C3PO).

So I was gearing myself up to write the post when I realized, “Oh, right, I’ve done it already—over on Supernatural Underground on September 1, 2018.”

The post, as alluded to above, is titled:

Fantastic Creatures & Animal Companions — Don’t Ya Love ‘Em!” 

It begins as follows:

“Recently I posted here on Here Be Dragons. And also on Re-Discovering Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone. Meanwhile, over on my own blog, I’ve been Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes. Between these three distinct trains of blogging thought, I got to thinking about the importance of companion creatures in myth and folklore, an importance which has flowed through into Fantasy fiction.

Returning to dragons, for example, Kim Falconer recently mentioned Menolly, from Anne MacCaffrey’s, Dragonsong, in her post on Music As Character.  In addition to Menolly’s music, however, I was always entranced by her companion fire-lizards — essentially miniature dragons. How cool is that? And, of course, the adult dragons, such as Ramoth and Mnementh, with their telepathic bond to their human riders, are both fantastic creatures and the ultimate in cool companions. …”

I could probably expand on the SU post, with further reference to ‘droids and also to animated films absolutely owning the “faithful animal (or ‘fantastic creature’) companion” in a raft of films, such as Frozen (Sven, the Reindeer) and the How To Train Your Dragon series. And then there’s the whole Harry Potter ‘verse, with owls like Hedwig, and all the fantastic beasts so beloved of Hagrid and Newt Scamander…

By and large, though, the bases are pretty much covered, so for today, I’m going to call it done — and refer you to the Supernatural Underground for the full post:

Having Fun With Epic Fantasy # 14: Fantastic Creatures and Animal Companions

Just to end, though, one of my favourite faithful companions is the flying unicorn, Imraith-Nimphais, from Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar Trilogy (The Summer Tree; The Wandering Future; The Longest Road.)  I wrote a bit about her in Six Non Human Heroes of SFF, Part 2 — and about Iorek Byrnison from The Golden Compass / Northern Lights in Six Non Human Heroes of SFF. And I’ve always had considerable fondness for the seven fantastic creatures that are companion to the wizard, Sybel, in Patricia McKillip’s The Forgotten Beasts of Eld…

 

 

 

 

 

They have their forbears in myth, fairytale, and folklore, of course: from Puss-In-Boots to Pegasus, Argos to Cavall—and from Odin’s ravens, Huginn and Muninn, to the small birds, including piwakawaka, the fantail, that accompany the demigod Maui on his adventures.

Previous Entries In The ‘Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes” Series:

Introduction: Having Fun With Epic Fantasy—Meet the Tropes

Instalment 1: Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes: A Farm Boy/Gal Goes On A Journey…

Instalment  2: A Prince/Princess Finds A Destiny

Instalment 3: Dreams and Portents, Prophecy and Destiny

Instalment 4: “Apocalypse Now”

Instalment 5: Meet The Big Bad

Instalment 6: The Sweep Of Time & Its Twin, War Without End

Instalment 7: Fortunately There was A Portal

Instalment 8: We’re All Going On A MacGuffin Hunt

Instalment 9: Artefacts of Power—And Doom—And Where To Find Them

Instalment 10: The Alchemy Of Numbers

Instalment 11: The Mentor

Instalment 12: Tried, Trusty, & True — The Sidekick

Instalment 13: We All Love To Love — The Lovable Rogue!

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On SF Signal: The “Having Fun With Epic Fantasy” Series

1. “Making the Grand Tour” (aka the Road Journey);

2. .”The “Band of Brothers”; and the

3. . “Soul-Sucking Sword.”

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© Helen Lowe