Japanese legends, Davis retelling
Celestial River
The heavenly river separating Tanabata and Hikoboshi in Davis's star-lovers legend.
Loading Lumitheca…
Explore a subject
Stories give ideas characters, places and events. These entries open particular episodes in folklore, sacred narrative and visionary literature, connecting each explanation to its source passage.
331 entries · A–Z
Japanese legends, Davis retelling
The heavenly river separating Tanabata and Hikoboshi in Davis's star-lovers legend.
Dante, Inferno
The three-throated guardian among the gluttonous souls beneath ceaseless cold rain.
Buddhist traditions, Nivedita and Coomaraswamy
The charioteer who explains the prince’s first encounters with suffering and accompanies his departure.
John Milton, Paradise Lost
The ruler of the unformed abyss who welcomes ruin as a recovery of lost territory.
Dante, Inferno
The fiery-eyed boatman who gathers the dead at Acheron and objects to Dante’s living presence.
Dante, Inferno
The centaur who notices the physical evidence that Dante is alive.
Dante, Inferno
The Florentine soul who answers Dante’s questions about the city’s approaching strife.
Dante, Purgatorio
Virgil uses fresh dew to remove the traces of the underworld from Dante's face.
Dante, Inferno
The lake of immobilising cold at the bottom of Dante’s Inferno.
Celtic fairy traditions
Prince invited into a deathless land by a fairy woman.
Dante, Purgatorio
A nobleman's reputation becomes a prediction of the traveller's future experience.
Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
A fairy stronghold and, in another legend, the hidden resting place of Arthur’s warriors.
Dante, Inferno
Virgil’s reversal while climbing Lucifer explains the change from descent to ascent.
Welsh folklore, Wirt Sikes
A lake whose submerged town becomes the foundation of fairy palaces.
Celtic fairy traditions
Ulster hero drawn into the conflicts and affections of the Sidhe.
Welsh customs as described by Wirt Sikes
Sikes’s term for a broader form of Welsh mutual assistance, including wedding bidding and assistance meetings.
Dante, Inferno
The forest where the traveller discovers that he has left the direct path.
Dante, Purgatory and Paradise
The fragrant forest at the mountain’s summit where memory is renewed.
Dante, Purgatorio
The traveller's interruption of sunlight distinguishes him from the surrounding shades.
Dante, Purgatory and Paradise
The mountain where purified desire makes ascent possible.
Indian traditions, Nivedita and Coomaraswamy
Ayodhya’s king, caught between his love for Rama and promises already made.
John Milton, Paradise Lost
The crowned shadow guarding Hell, whose appetite turns towards the human world.
Japanese legends, Davis retelling
The haunted stone on Nasu moor that contains a fox spirit in Davis's retelling.
Buddhist traditions, Nivedita and Coomaraswamy
The rival whose acquired powers fail to overcome hostility towards the Buddha.