Reading List
Lunar-Stellar
The Terrors of Ice and Darkness (1984)
Book | Unread. " A nameless and largely invisible narrator recounts the 1981 disappearance of one Josef Mazzini, whose fascination with a 19th-century polar expedition has pulled him north, to the furthest arctic settlements. Accounts of the two journeys intersect and diverge, challenging the notion of history as linear, seducing the reader with startlingly detailed descriptions of polar exploration. Members of the 19th-century expedition, pursuing honor, glory and other vanities, endure two frigid winters when their ship is trapped in ice: their beards freeze, they are blinded by snow and ill with scurvy, but the Bible is read every Sunday."
Lonely Water (1973)
★★★★
Serial | Iconic unsettling Public Information Film; and in the dreadful pop culture pagan recesses of my mind, I associate him with the Lunar-Stellar and sees him as vaguely Landmothery.
Part of the lesson of the Lonely Water is the Solar-Stellar call to be more like children - in this case, the Public Information Film children of this, Apaches and others, which depict children as running riot and unsupervised in the natural world. While drowning in a littered bog is not wholly advisable, part of the inspiration we are to take from it is to ask ourselves - when did we last play in such a way , even as adults, that this might be possible?
The figure of an ambiguously protective/dangerous figure at the fords who presages death, or of women haunting lakes and rivers, is a prominent part of British spirit lore (in Fencraft, we tend not to assume deities have a fixed, human-like gender, unless we have a very sure sense of them being an ascended ancestor). So, you know. I'm really not joking about the potential of the Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water as an important part of our spiritual heritage.Watch online
The Terror (2018)
★★
Serial | Horror-style true history series about two explorers ships becoming stranded in the arcticin the 1840s. Honestly, this didn't really vibe with me and I can't put my finger on why; I love a good age of sail story. I think, in part, it just didn't deliver on the type of horror I wanted. Which is to say, I was looking for a kind of Lunar-Stellar existentialist horror of the ice, the isolation and the empty ocean. It didn't land, and instead was more focused on the human story and slowburn interrelationships on the crew. I did finish the series, however, and other people I know adore it - including horror afficianados who really vibe with the body-horror aspects of it (and body horror, of course, is also Lunar-Stellar). So, I definitely commend it to you. Based on a book, which I have not read.
Wolfsangel (2010)
★★★
Book | Viking historic fantasy - very intense, but well-written. A subplot about a cult of extreme-sacrifice/pain-ordeal nuns who guard the runes influenced my thinking on the sacrifice themes of the Lunar-Stellar.
Deep (2014)
★★★
Webpage | Is it a sea story? is it a cave story? is it an ice story? It's all three, and it's horrible, and brilliantly presented online journalism. Link