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Pagan News Beagle: Airy Monday, June 29

It's that time of week again: time for Airy Monday! This week for our regular exploration of magic in pop culture we take a look at an American Indian tabletop game, the BBC adaptation of Susanna Clarke's alternate historical fantasy novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and the relationship between the blues and Southern Hoodoo. All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

The novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell made something of a splash when it was released in 2004, noted for its pastiche of 19th century writing styles and meshing of magical intrigue and Napoleonic history. Now the novel's been adapted to television as a miniseries for the BBC to great acclaim. Science fiction and fantasy website io9 interviews writer Peter Harness about how he and his colleagues went about their adaptation.

There's been a lot of talk recently about the place of women in superhero comics and how they're often sexualized in a way their male counterparts are. But how should such issues be resolved? One artist has taken the route of redesigning popular superheroines' costumes, to make them more "functional." Take a look and see what you think.

It's widely known that the ancient Egyptians practiced mummification as a means of preparing themselves for the afterlife. It is also known, to a somewhat lesser degree, that they often mummified their pets as well. But as it turns out, up to a third of the animal mummies may have been fakes! Learn more about this surprising discovery over at the National Post.

One of the most influential blues singers in American history was Bessie Smith, sometimes known as the "Empress of the Blues." What isn't always recognized, however, is how frequently she referenced the practice of Southern folk magic or "Hoodoo" in her work. This piece from Patheos examines the relationship between blues music and Hoodoo magic and how Bessie Smith brought them together.

Many Pagans are familiar with Dungeons & Dragons, the influential and popular tabletop fantasy roleplaying game launched in the 1970s by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. In addition to making use of popular fantasy at the time, D&D drew a great number of influences from Western mythology, adding such real gods as Silvanus and Mielikki to its cast of fictional deities. But what if D&D drew its influences from elsewhere, such as American Indian mythology? Boing Boing takes a look at one new tabletop game that aims to do just that, called Ehdrigohr.


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Aryós Héngwis (or the more modest Héngwis for short) is a native of the Pontic-Caspian steppe, born some 5000 years ago, near the village of Dereivka. In his youth he stood out from the other snakes for his love of learning and culture, eventually coming into the service of the local reǵs before moving westward toward Europe. Most recently, Aryós Héngwis left his home to pursue a new life in America, where he has come under the employ of BBI Media as an internet watchdog (or watchsnake, if you will), ever poised to strike the unwary troll.

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