This is to talk about the myths and legends that existed around the Victorians.

In a Victorian game there could be an old myth brought back. So it could be useful to understand them.

Hopefully we won't have too many of these...

To continue the elves remarks:

The elves of Tolkien, which inspired the D+D elves, were a small concept of the Noldor elves (IIRC). The main elves of British (thus of Victorian fable interest) were actually nasty folks.

Some the things British/European elves/fae did:

- Steal babies from cribs
So folks would hang iron on the crib to protect the child. Real life likely the fae were an expression of the high child mortality rates of the dark ages. By Victorian times they were starting to understand the causes and cures of many of them. However you could use it in a story.

- Elf knights would steal ladies, as in the tale of Orpheus
Tolkien did a translation. The elves right out of their barrow (mound/tomb) to capture a lady to entertain them with singing. Orpheus then masters playing the lyre to also become of interest to the elves. While there he works to bring back his wife. I forget whether he succeeds or fails.


- Redcaps
Fae/elven/other warriors whose hat is red because they soak them in the blood of their victims. High melee type nasty.



I find a lot of the more original presentation of British myths can be found in the Pendragon RPG and in Ars Magica.

*Capers about with glee and jubilation*

I LOVE talking about mythology and the origins and evolution of it. It makes me giggle to hear about it and share what I know.

BUT, in interest I will keep my commentary about mythology specifically to as it pertains to the Victorian era. While talking about elves and where they originate, what they did, all that fun stuff is very interesting, it pertains more to standard fantasy...NOT Steampunk or Victoriana.

(Side note: the British Isle Elf in many instances were basically a catch-all category where any fae creature could be described as an Elf, and while some "Elves" were more classically elvish than others, the term is used for a vast variety of faerie creatures in various myths. The Classical version is more akin to what you see in Harry Potter with Dobby. The Tolkien Elf is based on Norse mythology elves...and interestingly there is some confusion within the myths themselves itself about whether Elves were Elves, or whether they were Drow, or Duegar, or Dwarves. It depended really on whether the elves came from Niflheimr or Alfheimr. D&D and Tolkien Myth pull heavily from Norse myth...)

BUT, one myth that does pertain to the Victorian Era is Vampires. Popular in many genre's, and I have seen more than one instance in which Vampires were inserted into a Steampunk story/game/concept. In a more important sense, Vampirism wasn't really popularized until Bram Stoker, which happened near abouts to our wonderful period (1897). Before then Vampires were just more or less glorified zombies (As we envision zombies today...with so much language available and mixing of mythologies, undead classification can get confusing) who would rise from the dead with a ruddy flush (from drinking the blood of loved ones), were soft and squishy, and the folk-method of getting rid of them was to lay a brick on it's chest in the grave, or drive a stake through it's chest to pin it to the ground.

Then Bram Stoker decided to take the myth, make Vlad the Impaler a romantic, gothic figure whose bloody habits were akin to a demonic pact, and you have this really fantastic story (Written in a *beautiful* format that was unique at the time and very dynamic). And that stuck around for a long time.

Then Anne Rice came along and changed things up a little (Not alot) and made things contemporary and sexy and so on. And that's the kind of Vampire most of us envision today, but When Bram Stoker added on to the original tale, he really did reinvent the vampire, and Anne Rice has been the closest we have come to a good re-envisioning of the vampire.

BUT, if you want to be true to the mythology of vampires before Bram Stoker (Who came late to the Victorian Era), you have yourself some walking dead with only some very minor unique qualities. No superior strength, no flying. No turning into wolves or bats or anything like that. Not that anything is wrong with it, just that when we think of vampires today, we think of Dracula or Anne Rice, not the old myth.

...Those of you who are wondering about the Twilight vampire, all I have to say is: Replace the word Vampire in those books with Faerie (Or elf if you prefer) and the book is fixed. No offense (And if you feel offended, chock up this statement to a matter of opinion).

So...enough rambling...

Exactly the sort of things I hoped to move this into.

What were the myths and monsters as they were in the Victorian era?

Something interesting to look at is Hindu mythology (which is still functional today as existing religion). The British haf a vested interest in India where those beliefs were held, and so some of those "exotic" and uncivilised or "savage" traditions were a bit of a novelty to the people of the victorian age. The Jungle Book was written again in this time, showing the fascination. One of Verne's characters also fell in love with an Indian Woman. So examination of that very very peculiar mythology set is worth while.

I once read some boooks about norse non-divine mythology.  And one term Alf struck me as a lead in to the Elfs.  I suspect the Normandies where the Northmen settled, ended up affecting the locals own vision of the local spirits.
   The Northman tradition that required the new owner of land to prove ownwership of land by naming the people "living" in the assorted "Howe" Hill tombs.  The new Northmen owners would be somewhat nervous at their inability to traditionally name the old rulers/owners of the land. Fear that the dead would be annoyed with so many strangers owning ground could cause them to be unquiet and to play evil tricks on the invaders.

A lot of the modern idea of Elves and Noldor came from Tolkien. He did translations on old works, including Norse, where he borrowed a lot of the Norse style ideas.

If you look into English version of elves they were sinister creatures. Iron was left over baby cribs so elves wouldn't steal your child's life in the night. The IIRC Lyre of Orpheus describes who Elves and an Elven knight kidnapped Orpheus love/wife, basically for rape and slavery. Orpheus learned to play his lyre so good the evil elves also kidnapped him. Once in the land of the elves he rescued his love.

As to naming the barrows that is new to me.

The Norse of course had a lot of influence creating Normandy. Though there was cultural mixing with what would become France the Normans (From Norse taking land to be called Normandy). Normans are an intersting medieval study. As well as becoming the leadership of England over the Angle-Saxons (who previously had invaded the Britons) the Normans also did things in Sicily and other parts of the world.