{"id":38704,"date":"2020-12-14T06:30:58","date_gmt":"2020-12-13T17:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=38704"},"modified":"2022-11-11T13:50:47","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11T00:50:47","slug":"having-fun-with-epic-fantasy-14-fantastic-creatures-animal-companions-but-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2020\/12\/14\/having-fun-with-epic-fantasy-14-fantastic-creatures-animal-companions-but-wait\/","title":{"rendered":"Having Fun With Epic Fantasy #14: Fantastic Creatures & Animal Companions — But Wait…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Faithful ‘droid companions…<\/p><\/div>\n

This year I’ve been revisiting this post series, honing in on “the sidekick”<\/a> and “the lovable rogue”<\/a>, 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).<\/p>\n

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.”<\/em><\/p>\n

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Balisan the Red<\/p><\/div>\n

The post, as alluded to above, is titled:<\/p>\n

Fantastic Creatures & Animal Companions — Don’t Ya Love ‘Em!”\u00a0<\/a><\/h3>\n

It begins as follows:<\/p>\n

“Recently I posted here on Here Be Dragons<\/a>. And also on\u00a0Re-Discovering\u00a0Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone<\/b><\/a>. Meanwhile, over on my own blog, I’ve been\u00a0Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes<\/a>. 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.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Returning to dragons, for example, Kim Falconer recently mentioned Menolly, from Anne MacCaffrey’s,\u00a0Dragonsong<\/b>, in her post on\u00a0Music As Character<\/a>.\u00a0 In addition to Menolly’s music, however, I was always entranced by her companion fire-lizards \u2014 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. …”<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"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<\/em> (Sven, the Reindeer) and the How To Train Your Dragon<\/em> series. And then<\/em> there’s the whole Harry Potter ‘verse, with owls like Hedwig, and all the fantastic beasts so beloved of Hagrid and Newt Scamander…<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

Having Fun With Epic Fantasy # 14: Fantastic Creatures and Animal Companions<\/a><\/h3>\n

Just to end, though, one of my favourite faithful companions is the flying unicorn, Imraith-Nimphais, from Guy Gavriel Kay\u2019s Fionavar Trilogy <\/strong>(The Summer Tree; The Wandering Future; The Longest Road.)\u00a0 <\/em>I wrote a bit about her in Six Non Human Heroes of SFF, Part 2<\/a> — and about Iorek Byrnison from The Golden Compass \/ Northern Lights<\/em><\/strong> in Six Non Human Heroes of SFF.<\/a> 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…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Fantail; credit, B Miller<\/p><\/div>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Previous Entries In The \u2018Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes\u201d Series:<\/h4>\n

Introduction:\u00a0Having Fun With Epic Fantasy\u2014Meet the Tropes<\/a><\/p>\n

Instalment 1:\u00a0Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes: A Farm Boy\/Gal Goes On A Journey\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Instalment\u00a0\u00a02:\u00a0A Prince\/Princess Finds A Destiny<\/a><\/p>\n

Instalment 3:\u00a0Dreams and Portents, Prophecy and Destiny<\/a><\/p>\n

Instalment 4:\u00a0\u201cApocalypse Now\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Instalment 5:\u00a0Meet The Big Bad<\/a><\/p>\n

Instalment 6:\u00a0The Sweep Of Time & Its Twin, War Without End<\/a><\/p>\n

Instalment 7:\u00a0Fortunately There was A Portal<\/a><\/p>\n

Instalment 8:\u00a0We\u2019re All Going On A MacGuffin Hunt<\/a><\/p>\n

Instalment 9:\u00a0Artefacts of Power\u2014And Doom\u2014And Where To Find Them<\/a><\/p>\n

Instalment 10:\u00a0The Alchemy Of Numbers<\/a><\/p>\n

Instalment 11: The Mentor<\/a><\/p>\n

Instalment 12: Tried, Trusty, & True — The Sidekick<\/a><\/p>\n

Instalment 13: We All Love To Love — The Lovable Rogue!<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/p>\n

On SF Signal: The\u00a0\u201cHaving Fun With Epic Fantasy\u201d Series<\/strong><\/h4>\n

1. \u201cMaking the Grand Tour<\/a>\u201d (aka the Road Journey);<\/p>\n

2. .\u201dThe \u201cBand of Brothers<\/a>\u201d; and\u00a0the<\/p>\n

3. . \u201cSoul-Sucking Sword<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

---<\/pre>\n
\u00a9 Helen Lowe<\/em><\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-epicfantasy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38704"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40648,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38704\/revisions\/40648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}