The weird history of magical ways to protect your home

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/12/11/the-weird-history-of-magical-w.html

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Bookmarked as research for my high-fantasy RPG about non-profit consultancy for protecting vulnerable villages…

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“Jimmy would love to come over but did you put your urine and nail clippings in the chimney? We have to Be Smart about these things you know.”

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Harry Dresden would approve.

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Huh. So I guess maybe it’s a good thing I stashed all those bottles of urine in the walls.

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never heard of these books, until i just googled them…any good?

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Don’t forget to paint your porch ceiling and shutters haint blue. Been keeping me save from ghosts for years

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Seems more like over-the-counter witchcraft.

Sometimes it’s hidden in plain sight:
https://owlcation.com/humanities/Dutch-Hex-Sign-Style-Guide

I’m sure Robert Mercer’s friend has you beat.

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“And the jars of urine?”

“Ohhh. . . we’ll hang on to those.”

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YES! Not everyone is excited by modern urban fantasy, but Jim Butcher is among the best with his Dresden Files series.

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What’s this about strange items popularly invested with the power to protect property despite all evidence to the contrary?

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Salt and sage, too. Family members swear they help to get rid of ghosts. :ghost::scream:

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Sage and Onion helps get rid of Turkey.

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That’s one approach the PKK hasn’t tried yet.

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Madam Mrs. the Ratel wiped them out in the space of about a year, largely as an escape from someone’s terrible twos. I can’t remember if she liked his high fantasy series more or less, but enjoyed both in any event.

I enjoyed the one season TV series, taking its numerous shortcomings in stride. If it had come together 10 years later it would have probably been a hit, what with the cheaply available effects and a quickly growing market for fantasy/sci-fi. Paul Blackthorne’s charisma pretty much carries it.

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The Codex Alera books are pretty good, but not on the same level as Dresden, IMO.

I mostly agree about the TV series, but with the addition that it suffered from what a lot of TV or movie adaptations suffer from, which is wild deviation from the plot and/or characters that made the source material compelling. A couple episodes were quite good at sticking to the source, one was excellent despite coming out of nowhere, but most just drifted too far off the mark for me. Again, IMO.

I also think it would have benefited from release on a streaming platform like Netflix that serves quality content for the long tail.

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Yeah. It was definitely ahead of it’s time for the noughties, when a lot of this stuff was just starting to really settle in on the big screen.

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I think they way they handled Bob (played by the excellent Terrence Mann) was done very well. And Conrad Coates chewed up scenery as Morgan.

I guess I’m digging out the box set again this evening…:slight_smile:

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The answer to that is YES! The audio books are very good too

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Yes, absolutely. The Dresden Files is one of few fantasy series I’ve read that is just as good (if not better) from start to… where it is now, fifteen or so books later. And the next one, Peace Talks, is finished and in the publisher’s hands, so you’ve probably got time to catch up before it drops! (Lucky you! It’s been a loooong wait for me… :smile:)

Start here:

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