Sometimes it is difficult to determine the fine line between myth, legend and history. One thing Jeremiah Willow-Bottom discovers is that it is not wise to tempt fate. Jeremiah Willow-Bottom and Dandelion Flamethrower are now at university. All their previous adventures were depicted on a huge and ancient tapestry that hung in her father’s palace in the Faerie dimension (Jeremiah Willow-Bottom and the Disenchanted Forest). Upon reflection Jeremiah realises that it had not been there before the king first showed it to him. Curious to know its origin he persuades Dandelion to take him back to the Dark Land so they can investigate further. Unfortunately, some powerful magic has been set in motion and Dandelion is drawn into the tapestry by an unknown force. Jeremiah, with his power to see reality, manages to open a gateway and embarks on a rescue. He is pulled through history, myth and legend until he is not entirely sure which is which. Along the way he meets many strange helpers, including a musical dinosaur. Now all he has to do is find Dandelion.
Does the truth always set you free? Jeremiah and Dandelion begin to doubt that as they venture upon yet another voyage of discovery. Jeremiah Willow-Bottom and Dandelion Flamethrower are now studying for their doctorates. Their previous adventures were supposed to calm Jeremiah’s thirst for puzzles down to a dull roar but unfortunately a film about a doomed ship has set him off again. Jeremiah has a hunch. It leads him to clues and revelations and the realisation that things are not always as they seem. However, he is determined to get to the bottom of things despite attracting the attention of a very unsavoury character, getting both he and Dandelion into many dangerous situations and managing to help solve a few murders along the way.
Being a computer nerd makes saving the land of the Faerie a bit of a doddle for Jeremiah Willow-Bottom. Watching a raindrop running down a windowpane one day he imagines he sees an old, gnarled, leafless forest, moss-covered and sad. His daydream becomes reality one night when he looks deeply into another raindrop and he actually finds himself in the place he calls the Dark Land. However, something startles him and he immediately returns to his bedroom. All his further attempts to return to the strange place are thwarted. Then, one day on a nature trip he accidentally put his name down for, he meets Dandelion Flamethrower, a rather rude and sarcastic Goth fairy. Unfortunately, their meeting has been witnessed by his nemesis who is trying to take over the Dark Land by use of a curse and, upon his return there, Jeremiah has a crisis of identity.
Were all idol-worshippers at heartputting loves, desires, and expectations ahead of God. But theres good news! Elyse shows us how we can identify our idols and battle besetting sins.
ÊI remember well the feelings roused in my mind at mention or sight of the name Lucifer during the earlier years of my life. It stood for me as the name of a being stupendous, dreadful in moral deformity, lurid, hideous, and mighty. I remember also the surprise with which when I had grown somewhat older and begun to study Latin, I came upon the name in Virgil, where it means the Light-bringer, or Morning-star,Ñthe herald of the sun. Many years after I had found the name in Virgil, I spent a night at the house of a friend in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, right at the shore of Lake Michigan. The night was clear but without a moon,Ña night of stars, which is the most impressive of all nights, vast, brooding, majestic. At three oÕclock in the morning I woke, and being near an uncurtained window, rose and looked out. Rather low in the east was the Morning-star, shining like silver, with a bluish tinge of steel. I looked towards the west; the great infinity was filled with the hosts of heaven, ranged behind this Morning-star. I saw at once the origin of the myth which grew to have such tremendous moral meaning, because the Morning-star was not in this case the usher of the day but the chieftain of night, the Prince of Darkness, the mortal enemy of the Lord of Light. I returned to bed knowing that the battle in heaven would soon begin. I rose when the sun was high next morning. All the world was bright, shining and active, gladsome and fresh, from the rays of the sun; the kingdom of light was established; but the Prince of Darkness and all his confederates had vanished, cast down from the sky, and to the endless eternity of God their places will know them no more in that night again. They are lost beyond hope or redemption, beyond penance or prayer. I have in mind at this moment two Indian stories of the Morning-star,Ñone Modoc, the other Delaware. The Modoc story is very long, and contains much valuable matter; but the group of incidents that I wish to refer to here are the daily adventures and exploits of a personage who seems to be no other than the sky with the sun in it. This personage is destroyed every evening. He always gets into trouble, and is burned up; but in his back is a golden disk, which neither fire nor anything in the world can destroy. From this disk his body is reconstituted every morning; and all that is needed for the resurrection is the summons of the Morning-star, who calls out, ÒIt is time to rise, old man; you have slept long enough.Ó Then the old man springs new again from his ashes through virtue of the immortal disk and the compelling word of the star. Now, the Morning-star is the attendant spirit or ÒmedicineÓ of the personage with the disk, and cannot escape the performance of his office; he has to work at it forever. So the old man cannot fail to rise every morning. As the golden disk is no other than the sun, the Morning-star of the Modocs is the same character as the Lucifer of the Latins.
This is a valuable resourse book through the Bible, explaining many customs practiced in Bible times. Not only is it easy to understand, but it is also filled with many helpful illustrations.
Out of a lifetime of study of the ancient Near East, Professor Olmstead has gathered previously unknown material into the story of the life, times, and thought of the Persians, told for the first time from the Persian rather than the traditional Greek point of view. "The fullest and most reliable presentation of the history of the Persian Empire in existence."—M. Rostovtzeff
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A modern classic of true crime, set in a most beguiling Southern city—now in a 30th anniversary edition with a new afterword by the author “Elegant and wicked . . . might be the first true-crime book that makes the reader want to book a bed and breakfast for an extended weekend at the scene of the crime.”—The New York Times Book Review Shots rang out in Savannah’s grandest mansion in the misty, early morning hours of May 2, 1981. Was it murder or self-defense? For nearly a decade, the shooting and its aftermath reverberated throughout this hauntingly beautiful city of moss-hung oaks and shaded squares. In this sharply observed, suspenseful, and witty narrative, John Berendt skillfully interweaves a hugely entertaining first-person account of life in this isolated remnant of the Old South with the unpredictable twists and turns of a landmark murder case. It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: the well-bred society ladies of the Married Woman’s Card Club; the turbulent young gigolo; the hapless recluse who owns a bottle of poison so powerful it could kill every man, woman, and child in Savannah; the aging and profane Southern belle who is the “soul of pampered self-absorption”; the uproariously funny drag queen; the acerbic and arrogant antiques dealer; the sweet-talking, piano-playing con artist; young people dancing the minuet at the black debutante ball; and Minerva, the voodoo priestess who works her magic in the graveyard at midnight. These and other Savannahians act as a Greek chorus, with Berendt revealing the alliances, hostilities, and intrigues that thrive in a town where everyone knows everyone else. Brilliantly conceived and masterfully written, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a sublime and seductive reading experience.
"A brilliant, witty, and altogether satisfying book." — New York Times Book Review The classic work on the development of human language by the world’s leading expert on language and the mind In The Language Instinct, the world's expert on language and mind lucidly explains everything you always wanted to know about language: how it works, how children learn it, how it changes, how the brain computes it, and how it evolved. With deft use of examples of humor and wordplay, Steven Pinker weaves our vast knowledge of language into a compelling story: language is a human instinct, wired into our brains by evolution. The Language Instinct received the William James Book Prize from the American Psychological Association and the Public Interest Award from the Linguistics Society of America. This edition includes an update on advances in the science of language since The Language Instinct was first published.
