Older Than Print: Difference between revisions

 

From the fall of Rome (c. 476 CE) to the invention of printing. The precise dates vary from region to region, but this was a time when literacy was low and books rare. Most western folklore originated here, often echoing earlier tropes. [[Chivalric Romance]] developed in this era.

 

 

Specific works from this time period include:

 

* Almost everything we know of [[Celtic Mythology]] and [[Norse Mythology]] was first written down during this period.

 

* [[Adjective Animal Alehouse]]: European [[The High Middle Ages|High Middle Ages]] practice.

* [[The Ageless]]: The [[Norse Mythology|Norse gods]] are unaging, so long as they continue to eat the Apples of Idun.

* [[Artificial Limbs]]: The [[Celtic Mythology|Irish god]] Nuada got a silver arm after losing his real one.

* [[Ascended Fanboy]]: Back in 12th century Europe, a lot of knights [[Jumped At the Call]] of the Second Crusade. Why? They were raised on stories of the First Crusade.

* [[Black Knight]]: The two black knights from [[King Arthur|Arthurian legend]].

* [[The Call Left a Message]]: The Sword in the Stone and the Siege Perilous from the [[King Arthur]] legends.

* [[Chain of Deals]]: The Japanese legend of the straw millionaire, a poor man who prayed to the goddess of mercy. She granted him a piece of straw, which he traded through his travels until he managed to win the heart of an heiress.

* [[Changeling Tale]]: Supernatural beings enticing humans away into the Otherworld is a trope of [[Irish Mythology]], though this is not done from malice. The folk belief (common to most of Western Europe) that malicious supernatural beings outright kidnap people (especially babies) and substitute them with changelings is documented from the [[The Late Middle Ages]] onwards.

* [[Chess Motifs]]: Chaturanga existed by the 7th century CE.

* [[Chivalric Romance]]: Hallmark of [[The High Middle Ages|High Middle Ages]] literature.

* [[Cold Iron]]: The traditional bane of [[The Fair Folk]].

* [[Corrupt Church]]: Medieval Western Europe allegedly got it bad enough to be commented on in several contemporary sources. The most notable of these is Dante, who puts several popes in Hell for corruption in the ''[[The Divine Comedy|Inferno]]'', and the one pope we meet in the ''Purgatorio'' is also there for being too greedy before he repented.

* [[Courtly Love]]: A staple of [[Chivalric Romance]].

* [[Damsel Errant]]: In [[King Arthur|Arthurian myths]], such as in the Forest of Arroy.

* [[The Dead Can Dance]]: The ''danse macabre'' motif in art (first in 1425), and various morality plays.

* [[The Dulcinea Effect]]: Chivalric stories, such as the 12th-century tale of the Troubadour Joufre.

* [[The Everyman]]: These were often the protagonists of medieval everyman plays.

* [[Eye Beams]]: The Fomor Balor from [[Irish Mythology]] had a magic eye that could burn men "like leaves cast into a forge." In the ''Matsya Purana'', Shiva used his third eye to burn the love-god Kama to ash in wrath over being forced to fall in love with Parvati.

* [[Eyepatch of Power]]: The god Odin in [[Norse Mythology]].

* [[The Fair Folk]]: Ancient [[Irish Mythology]], bleeding through into British folk tales.

* [[Fanfare]]: European practice heralding the arrival of a King.

* [[Fantastic Foxes]]: Oral traditions in Europe and Asia.

* [[Faux Death]]: The [[Celtic Mythology|Celtic]] precursor of "Sleeping Beauty".

* [[Fence Painting]]: The modus operandi of the West African trickster Anansi the Spider. It eventually backfires on him.

* [[For Want of a Nail]]: The proverb first appeared during this period, though the concept may be older. There's also the ''Arabian Nights'' tale "What a drop of honey caused" (it caused a war.)

* [[Gentle Giant]]: Saint Christopher, post [[Character Development]], in the ''Golden Legend'' c. 1260 CE.

* [[Greedy Jew]]: Medieval European prejudice.

* [[Hammerspace]]: Thunder-god Thor of [[Norse Mythology]] could make his hammer shrink to an incredibly tiny size, and be pulled out of seemingly nowhere, and is both the first user and [[Trope Namer|namer of this trope]].

* [[Heroic Albino]]: Prince Zal in ''The Shāhnāmeh'' by the great Persian poet Ferdowsi.

* [[IKEA Erotica]]: The gods Izanagi and Izanami, in the Japanese creation myth.

* [[Knighting]]: Medieval European practice.

* [[Knight Errant]]: [[Chivalric Romance]]

* [[Knight in Shining Armor]]: [[Chivalric Romance]]

* [[Land of Faerie]]: The Otherworld, inhabited by the Sidhe of [[Irish Mythology]].

* [[Mad Eye]]: Cuchulain, [[Celtic Mythology|Irish]] folk hero, sucks one eye all the way into his skull while the other pops right out when he gets into a rage.

* [[Magic Knight]]: The [[Norse Mythology|Norse god]] Odin.

* [[Merlin]]: The "modern" incarnation of him began in this time period, along with the modern [[King Arthur|Arthurian mythos]].

* [[Mineral MacGuffin]]: In [[Chivalric Romance]], the magical jewel that shone of its own light is a stock magical item.

* [[The Mourning After]]: The [[Chivalric Romance]] ''Floris and Blanchefleur''.

* [[Nerf]]: Generals in [[Xiangqi]].

* [[Once Upon a Time]]: Per Webster's, started around 1380.

* [[Pop Goes the Human]]: There's a Celtic yarn about a boy who is mad at his brother for being a glutton, and makes a [[Chain of Deals]] so he can hang him. When he finally gets the materials to build a gibbet, he returns home to discover that his brother burst.

* [[The Promise]]: In the [[Chivalric Romance]] ''Sir Orfeo''.

* [[Random Events Plot]]: ''Apollonius of Tyre'', a [[Chivalric Romance]].

* [[Religion of Evil]]: Pre-Christian pagan religions thought Judaism was this. Later on medieval Christians accused pagans of Satan-worship. Nowadays atheists accuse Christians of this. Tomorrow....?

* [[Robe and Wizard Hat]]: The [[Norse Mythology|Norse god]] Odin invented it.

* [[Sassy Black Woman]]: Brunhild the Moor in ''Die Mörin'', Hermann von Sachsenheim, 1453

* [[Shapeshifting Lover]]: Japanese kitsune and tanuki, [[Celtic Mythology|Irish]] selkies, European swan maidens, and others.

* [[Shapeshifting Squick]]: Foxes in Japanese folklore who seduced men, then turned back into foxes after a one night stand.

* [[Simple Staff]]: Little John, ''[[Robin Hood]]'', 14th century

* [[Sorting Algorithm of Evil]]: ''Beowulf'', in the order in which he fights the three monsters.

* [[Suicide Attack]]: [[The Hashshashin]], the original assassins.

* [[Third Eye]]: The Hindu ''Matsya Purana'' tells of the fear of the gods when Shiva mourned unceasingly for his dead wife Sati, because a prophecy stated that a new son of Shiva was needed to save the gods from a coming catastrophe. Kama, god of love, shot Shiva to make him fall in love with Parvati, so Shiva grew a third eye and burnt him to a crisp with [[Eye Beams]].

* [[Thud and Blunder]]: ''Beowulf''

* [[Turn Out Like His Father]]: Some variants of Percival, from [[King Arthur]] myths.

* [[Valkyries]]: May have dated from earlier, but the age of Vikings was in full-swing during this period, and most [[Norse Mythology]] was codified and recorded during this period.

* [[The Wild Hunt]]: Unequivocal instances of this trope date to this era, the oldest probably found in the ''Bhagavata Purana'' of Hindu literature (9th or 10th century), where mention is made of a travelling army of ghosts, headed by Shiva. For Europe, this supernatural phenomenon is probably first described by the chronicler Ordericus Vitalis in the 1130s.<ref>The "Wild Hunt" myth is also often connected to the army of the ''Harii'' described by Tacitus in ''Germania'' (c. 100 AD). The ''Harii'' supposedly attack at night, with their bodies painted black, thus willfully spreading fear. However, Tacitus says they are a real, living tribe.</ref>

* [[William Telling]]: The earliest instance is that of Palnatoki or Toko, recorded in the 12th century in Saxo Grammaticus' ''Danish History''. William Tell, in contrast, is first described performing the feat in the 15th century in the ''White Book of Sarnen''.

 

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