Clement Moore’s version of Santa’s reindeer team was not the only one. Children’s author L. Frank Baum, known for his Oz series, offered a competing version: A team of ten (!) named Flossie and Glossie, Racer and Pacer, Reckless and Speckless, Fearless and Peerless, and Ready and Steady. The names used a rhyming, alliterative style …
Tag: Mythical creatures
Robot Reindeer
Since I’ve been posting about reindeer, let’s see Santa’s flesh and blood creatures changed into sleek, tireless robot servants. It makes sense that Santa would eventually move in this direction. Such a compassionate soul as he would want to avoid stress and strain on the mortal creatures. They would be semi-retired and serve only as …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 11/26/25: Monstrous Mounts
Haven’t been posting much on this blog lately because I’ve been working on a novel… one aspect of which I will share here. Figuring strongly in the novel is a decadent nation where magic-using warriors ride dragons into battle. Dragons are, in fact, bred by the island’s royal family for that purpose. So it stands …
Dungies and Dragons
I saw someone wearing a tshirt with this design and thought it was hilarious! The “dungie” refers to the Dungeness crab at the lower left, which are renowned as a delicacy in the Pacific Northwest. The artist’s name is Ray Troll. He’s a native Alaskan known for his unique style and scientific accuracy of the …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 4/30/25: In Praise of Dwarven Women
One of the elements that got fans so excited about The Rings of Power was its focus on Dwarves and their society, including their wives and female children. Aha! We might finally see what bearded Dwarven women looked like! Well, no, they turned out to be facial-hair free. Though in one episode from Season 2, …
Apex Predators of Middle-earth
Though Tolkien described the landscapes of Middle-earth in great detail, he didn’t go much into its animal life, and when he did it was similar to what you’d encounter on a walk in the English countryside. With the addition of various fell creatures, of course. But these were met only if you wandered far and …
Beren and Luthien, Egyptian Style
One of the First Age tales in The Silmarillion is how Luthien, an elf, falls in love with Beren, who is human, and aids him in his quest to recover the three Silmaril jewels from Morgoth. This part of The Sil has a more fairy tale flavor than the rest of the book, involving overt …
Smaug the not so great and often terrible.
Today comes one the crueler parts of Tolkien March/April — mocking Smaug! Of The Hobbit fame. He’s been depicted many times over the years, and in my judgement most of the artwork has been appropriate for the story and, in many cases, superlative. But many renditions fall short in depicting the giant reptile’s majesty and …







