The six fantasy creatures in American culture
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 13 июн 2024
- A look at how American culture has transformed traditional goblins of English folklore into wacky new things. Including elves, leprechauns, gnomes, fairies and more! This video was sponsored by Manscaped male grooming supplies. Get 20% OFF + Free Shipping @Manscaped with promo code “MCCULLOUGH” at manscaped.com/mccullough! #manscapedpartner
SUBSCRIBE: ruclips.net/user/jjmccullough?...
FOLLOW ME:
🇨🇦Support me on Patreon! / jjmccullough
🤖Join my Discord! / discord
🇺🇸Follow me on Instagram! / jjmccullough
🇨🇦Read my latest Washington Post columns: www.washingtonpost.com/people...
🇨🇦Visit my Canada Website thecanadaguide.com
Some music by:
Craig Henderson- / @craighendersonmusic
ComradeF- / comradef ,
HASHTAGS: #fantasy #tolkien #elves
This video was sponsored by Manscaped male grooming supplies. Get 20% OFF + Free Shipping @Manscaped with promo code “MCCULLOUGH” at manscaped.com/mccullough!
Dont forget the most important small American creature---Danny Devito
Troll toll
Time for a CharDee MacDennis vexicology video
If you wanna get into that boy's hole
You gotta pay the Troll Toll
To get in!
@@bolm1This brings us to Frank’s flag which is… which is… Unfortunate.
Or the mysterious Zachariah Hadelus
I Laughed way too hard at the segment on dryads
Same. I had to rewatch it twice 😂
“segment”😂
I mean, only one I know is in Btd6
Yeah, that bit killed me
there is a good article explaining dryads on Wikipedia. 😉
I always think of Pixies as being more mischievous then fairies. That might be the influence of Harry Potter
Harold
It’s interesting to me that Tinkerbell uses pixie dust, and lives in Pixie Hollow, but is still a fairy.
Lain
I always think of them as being more business-minded due to Fairly Odd Parents.
@@jake2011rtin section 3-11 of page 235 of the human pixie agreement signed in forth by both peoples in regards to eachother it clearly states that "slander of the other party is a punishable offense and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of pixie law", and that the term "business-minded" is deemed a slure and slander of the pixie population, it's all here in the fine print.
A cool follow-up video for this could be how D&D modified Tolkien to create an American fantasy canon and via gaming had a massive effect on modern fantasy.
Yes I am planning on doing that
It also fused Tolkien's work with other fantasy with other writers like Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, and Michael Moorcock in a way that solidified various creatures into a more specific and less whimsical vision.
That!
@@isaaclemmen6500initially the creators of the game avoided Tolkien but then used his lexicon and bestiary because it was so broadly used in the fantasy community. DnD, initially anyway, had been influenced by mostly by modern American fantasy authors like Jack Vance and world myths and less so by Tolkien.
@@JohahnDiechterThis is actually interesting to me. I would have guessed that Tolkien and DnD went together like PB&J from start to finish. Very interesting. I still tell people (and still feel) that the fantasy genre of novels is the only genre invented whole cloth by one man. It isn't that I'm unaware that every ELEMENT of the fantasy genre had appeared in countless places before Tolkien wrote LoTR, but the modern genre appears to be entirely comprised of authors consciously imitating (or satirizing to varying degrees) his works.
"Irish-themed cereal"
Explaining this to someone who had no idea what Lucky Charms was would just seem so absurd 😆
A bit like Irish Themed Pubs.
Your country is full of short, whimsical, alcoholics, and that makes us hungry.
Frau gave a pretty good description of the cereal and its commercials: ruclips.net/video/El4tHP5HdPA/видео.html
Hadn't heard of brownies before! As a knowledge trade, Dryads are basically nymphs but are guardians/spirits for trees specifically
Brownies were in lords of magic, only time I heard if em lol
Brownies are those delicious chocolate confections.
@@zoanth4that was going to be my comment, they are Earth's scouting unit if I recall
@@Sahuagin yup!
In Celtic folklore, brownies are house spirits. They hide from people and secretly help the people in the house by doing good deeds like house chores at night while the residents are sleeping. People are supposed to thank them by leaving them cakes or a bowl of cream. Brownies choose the house holds where they know they will feel welcome, so having a brownie in your home is a sign of good luck. They were the inspiration for the girl scout "brownies level." Girls at that level learn the importance of doing good deeds and taking the initiative to help others.
“Sprite Boy” sounds like a spicy insult, somehow.
It sounds like a gay slur. Move out the way Sprite Boy
Perhaps in an alternative reality, this term became a synonym for "gamer" initially used as an insult but reclaimed by the gamers like "queer" for LGBT folk.
Fun fact:
Zwergstatt is a wordplay, combining the German words for dwarf, "Zwerg", and workshop "Werkstatt".
Also, the German word for garden gnome is GartenZWERG, (garden dwarf) so it fits very well.
That might explain the look of the dwarfs from Disney's version of Snow White
@@TheAnalyticalEngine
do elaborate
@@arcuscotangensThe seven dwarfs from Disney's _Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs_ all wear clothes that you'd normally expect on a garden gnome, plus the pointed hat
I might be able to shed some additional light on nymphs and dryads!
Those creatures are actually among the few on this list to originate from Greek folklore. A nymph was a type of minor goddess, who was associated with some natural environment, such as the ocean, freshwater, mountains, or the sky. And each environment had its own subgroup of nymphs associated with it.
One such subgroup were the dryads, tree nymphs (specifically oak trees, but the name also can refer to all tree nymphs). Dryads were among those nymphs that were associated with particular natural features, as each dryad was seen as the embodiment of a specific tree. In fact, some dryads were so strongly tied to the tree they represented that, if the tree were to die, the dryad would die with it, making them one of the few deities in Greek mythology that can be killed. They feature in many stories, usually ones centered around the goddesses Demeter and Artemis, who were themselves strongly associated with nature. And as you might imagine, many of those stories involve dryads being tragically killed by reckless woodcutters, who are then subject to divine retribution.
In pop culture dryads are definitely pictured as more mature, like a woman in her 40’s and nymphs tend to look more like teenage girls
I feel like one cannot discuss fairies in the modern context without mentioning William Shakespeare's play: A Midsummer Night's Dream and how fairies are depicted in that work being both mischievous as well as magical.
Also the tempest. Shakespeare used a lot of depictions of fairy/spirit like creatures
Let's not forget the Brothers Grimm's story The Elves and the Shoemaker where elves fix shoes unbeknownst to the cobbler who runs the shop.
Was just about to say that! Although I think sometimes the tale is translated as "The Brownies and the Shoemaker" but brownies are very similar. Still solidifies the industrial, resourceful nature of elves (at least in low fantasy).
Yeah I think JJ puts too much emphasis on English traditions when many of these creatures were common in continental Europe and had a very old oral history
in the original German, the elves are "Wichtelmänner", which is cognate to English "wight".
another very famous German tale is that of the Heinzelmännchen, who are said to have once done all the work at night in the city of Cologne, until one night the tailor's wife stayed up to see them, after which they never came again, making the Cologne citizens having to work again.
Heinzelmännchen are also usually translated to elves in English.
As a former brownie and girl guide, brownies are just the level before guides. It starts with Sparks for kindergarten age, then Brownies, Girl Guides, Pathfinders and finally Rangers for older teenagers.
I was an Imp in brownies! 😂
I’d like to add how much British culture adds to the American fantasy canon. Orcs were originally created by Tolkien to be evil elf creatures but would be reimagined into the hulking, dim witted, green skinned, barbarians we know today thanks to the British table-top war game “warhammer fantasy battles”.
warhammer would also introduce the concept of technology advanced dwarves who have access to magical technology
The word “orc” was around before Tolkien and likely has the same root as the word “ogre”. But it was always ill-defined. At some point following D&D, orcs got defined as pig-like creatures in some media. And that became the prevailing version in some parts (notably Japanese anime and
games).
Actually, that would be a neat idea for a video on some channel out there. How JRPGs and specifically Dragon Quest influenced the Japanese perception of Western-style fantasy. You wouldn’t believe the number of fantasy anime I’ve seen that include “slimes” as a stock fantasy creature. And sometimes they even include JRPG mechanics like leveling up. Wouldn’t work here though, because of the America focus.
As a former Girl Scout Brownie, I don’t think we were ever given a reason as to why we were called that, and I’ve never heard of a brownie as anything other than a Girl Scout rank or, waaaay more commonly, a tasty baked treat.
A cool topic would be how the original Zelda game on the NES is based on traditional western mythology (fairies, sea monsters, centaurs, sword and shield) essentially but also adds in the American horror canon (mummies, bats, ghosts) as well in a way that works well. An extension of that could the made-up names they gave those creatures like gibdo, keese, lynel which is both inexplicable but also creative.
A catch-all term for a lot of these creatures could be Fey/Fae. At least that's how Dungeons and Dragons collectively refers to most of these creatures.
Yeah I was thinking that too. Faefolk.
I just use fairy.
The "pixie cut" is way older than you suggest; the fashion model Twiggy made it famous in both name and style back in the 1960s.
Just came here to say this!
It's even older than that. Audrey Hepburn in the 50s. Josephine Baker in the 20s.
Thank you! Kids these days.... Think the world started in the 80s, at best. If this had been a live lecture, I would have been involuntarily shot from my seat to shout "Twiggy".
I've seen pictures of my great aunt with a pixie cut from the late 1920s.
The pixie was called a bob in the '20's.
Elf on the shelf is very inspired by 40s/50s/60s North American Christmas elf decorations. I have one of my Grandma's from the late 50s/early 60s. It looks a lot like an elf on the shelf, including side glancing eyes, but with a green felt body and hat. I loved that elf growing up, I had a whole story about him in my head.
Same. I couldn't understand why they were so popular again all of a sudden.
And weren't 40s/50s/60s north American Christmas elfs inspired by Scandinavian Nisser or Tomtar?...👀
Gnomes had such a glow-up 😭
The part about East Germany being the source of the Garden Gnome was hilarious. Mainly the stasti arrest those guys for owning them. Maybe that could make a good period film about the fall of East Germany.
Dryads are an offset of nymphs from Greek mythology, they're the kinds that live in trees. Other kinds of nymphs include nereids/naiads (water nymphs), oreads (mountain nymphs), lampades (underworld nymphs), and nephelae (cloud nymphs). Like you said, nymphs aren't as well-recognized as the other little creatures, but if I had to choose some popular American depictions of them, it would be in the Disney movies Fantasia and Hercules, and, more recently, the Percy Jackson book series (which has overall helped to popularize Greek mythology amongst Zoomers).
For me it was Percy Jackson that kinda encapsulates what I think nymphs are.
I¨m from Scandinavia, and when I read Tolkien, I was amazed by how much he had borrowed from Nordic Mythology. He also changed it enough to make it a little but confusing for me as a kid.
Well Tolkien's intention was to borrow those things from Anglo-Saxon mythology, which is closely related to Nordic mythology, but different, and not tremendously well understood (most of it never survived into written record)
@3DGECASE to add to this, he also built a great deal off of Celtic (more specifically Welsh) mythology and cultural beliefs as well. If I remember correctly, much about the Elves were the most influenced by this, especially considering that the Elvish is based off of the Welsh language.
@@seanpcoon It's complex. Tolkien generally denied Celtic myth influence as he personally disliked Celtic myths (but some were definitely influential like the Irish tuatha dé danann), though he loved the Welsh language and used that as well as Finnish. Elves are originally Germanic (and Anglo-Saxon) which is the main basis for the legends as he was a professor of Anglo-Saxon history (and mythology) at Oxford. He was very into the idea of old English myths
He did also famously write about how he dedicated his general mythology to England in 1954 (when LoTR was published) "Having set myself a task, the arrogance of which I fully recognized and trembled at: being precisely to restore to the English an epic tradition and present them with a mythology of their own: it is a wonderful thing to be told that I have succeeded, at least with those who have still the undarkened heart and mind."
@jameschambers2349 interesting, that certainly doesn't surprise me a whole lot though. What does seem odd is the degree to which they do still share a great deal of traits. It seems to me, at least as far as I'm aware, that Tolkiens elves seem to have far more in common with the celtic 'fae' than any other group of generally otherworldly spirits. To my knowledge, the elves of germanic mythologies don't seem to be nearly as prevalent as the fae are in celtic myths. It's likely possible that I'm wrong, I'd genuinely love to read some more about this sort of stuff if you could please provide to better improve my knowledge base on the subject.
EDIT: What I mean to say is that I'm not that knowledgeable about the elves of Germanic mythologies, and would like to know more.
@@seanpcoon I think you may be more familiar with germanic myths that you know. Norse (north germanic) mythology is very well known. The gods have different names but the same archetype in other Germanic myths. The Norse called their lighting god Thor, the old English Thunor (this is where Thursday come from) and the old Germans Thunar or Donar. But it’s all the same god.
Elves seem to have been quite important in old English with many people having elf in their name. For example the name Alfred (aelf-red) is thought to mean elf-council. The elves in germanic myth are very prevalent. Now largely changed by Tolkien of course, the modern elf is weirdly his invention (as is much of fantasy). Though of course there are also tiny elves like the elves in the shoe maker or the danish (germanic) brothers Grimm elves.
I would also argue that it’s common for people to see something pagan and think Celtic when it may actually be from germanic paganism (esp Norse). Our conception of fantasy dwarves is also germanic.
I do think Celtic influence made its way into LoTR. Even if Tolkien didn’t do it consciously. But it’s mainly rooted in new ideas, old English, broader germanic and of course Finnish which he loved.
To start I’d just recommend a Wikipedia binge on elves and dwarves. It’s the summaries are decent. On specifically old English there’s a book called “Elves in Anglo-Saxon England. Matters of Belief, Health, Gender & Identity” that ive seen referenced but I haven’t read it. I’m sure there are general history books on elves out there too though.
Have a lovely day!
Fun fact, the original voice actor for the Keebler elf commercials was an old family friend. He insisted that the lead elf Earnie be named after his wife, Ernestine.
Brian Froud’s book Faeries shows quite a diverse assortment of fairy creatures. It came out in the late ’70s and was fairly popular. Froud went on to be the designer for the movie Labyrinth.
It really doesn't have a massive canon but I love Borrowers. Little people that live in the walls of normal sized people homes. They steal food, buttons, and other small things that would probably go unnoticed or ignored.
The Studio Ghibli movie Arriety and the 90s movie with John Goodman in it are certainly the most popular depictions.
For me it's the Bortowers book series those were based on! I loved them so much growing up.
I find it interesting that you don't know what dryads are, though I suppose I've mostly seen them in Japanese content like JRPGs, anime, manga, and light novels. Basically a step further into being a literal plant, but still a hot lady.
I think i learned about them on some kids cartoons. I can't remember specifics but i dont remember any in Japanese art ive seen read etc
CS Lewis user Dryads and Nymph in the Chronicles of Narnia extensively as well, I don't think the movies explicitly used the terms though...
Imagine if he talked about TOUHOU next as being "responsible" for shaping "Female" mythical creatures into what we imagine today?
As a kid I always remember liking that story about the elves and the shoemaker.
That was my first memory of elf stories 🙂
Wow i totally thought the brownies girl scout group was named after the baked good lmao
Yeah lol I had zero idea it had anything to do with “goblin type things”. Totally news to me!
This is probably why people were so easily persuaded the name was racist
@@JJMcCullough well here's the question: are the brown skinned mythological creatures an invention with a racist subtext? Or even with an overt racist context...
I thought it was they had the brown vests
@@JJMcCulloughSo dumb..
I don't think it really ever occurred to me that we refer to Legolas, Santa's child laborers, and those little Keebler gremlins with the same word "elf." I feel like the evolution of the cultural image of the elf could be worth a video all on its own!
What is Legolas
@@JJMcCullough He's the tall, stoic archer elf from the Lord of the Rings
There's an old College Humor sketch where a Tolkeinesque elf visits his Christmas elf parents at the North Pole that's funny.
Dwarves were once considered a type of elf
@@JJMcCulloughSeriously, I can never tell if you're kidding or not!
I always thought of most of these things as different variations on fairies
Fairy
Tiny fairy (pixie)
Elemental fairy (sprite)
Tiny elemental fairy (nymph)
Male fairy (imp)
And so on.
In Australia, Brownies is PART of the Girl Guides organisation, just for younger girls (same as "cubs" are for Scouts). From memory, I think Brownies are about 6 to 9yo, then Girl Guides are about 10 to 14. (Then there's "Venturers" which has always been unisex, for teens. And then "Rovers", which I think went into early 20s)
Same in eastern Canada
Nymphs in ancient Greek/Roman mythology were these sort of semi-divine maidens who often worked for goddesses, and even at that time they were associated with nature and fertility. They seem to me to have been the ultimate male fantasy of their time, and part of that was the common implication that they had very high sex drives, which is where we get the term nymphomaniac from.
Basically embodiments of wilderness settings who attended the goddess of the hunt.
Manic Pixie Dream Girl is always so fascinating to me because the trope is literally just "girl with Autism, but make it a male fantasy"
I'm an autistic guy, and I've only been in long-term relationships with autistic women. For me, I don't have to explain myself as much, and they often have spare fidget toys on them.
2 of the 3 fit the MPDG stereotype. I can promise everyone, it's not as advertised on TV. People aren't their purple hair.
That's fascinating, because I've always thought of her as "Girl with ADHD, but make it a male fantasy." There are many overlaps between ADHD and Autism, so I see the similarity. The difference that I think of is spontaneity-- ADHD folks are ready to do impulsive, wild things at a moment's notice, whereas the Autistic folks I've known are more likely to want a plan. Both are completely valid (and my family has both kinds), it's just the difference that seems interesting.
And the most fun are those with both! AuDHD is a whole other story! :D
Dwarves (or dwarfs, the plural used in Disney's film title) definitely have a place in this too, obviously Tolkien played a big role in the modern dwarf but as Snow White shows they definitely existed in the popular imagination before, although I imagine they might be closer to how actual little people are thought of.
A dryad is a quite important NPC in the video game Terraria, i'm not sure how relevant thst is but i'm sure thats where a lot of people know the word from
YOU CAN JUST SKIP THE DAMN DRYAD! i hope to be reimbursed in the next fantasy creature cultural canon video, great video as always!
My mental image of a Pixie is a bald screaming guy with a Telecaster, but that's just me.
Fairies play a major role in the recent season of the children's show Hilda and their take on them is pretty refreshing compared to the stereotypical Tinkerbell-type fairies. They're spooky, mysterious, and known for kidnapping children. Early on the main characters go around asking people about them and get various contradictory claims, reflecting the inconsistencies of actual fairy lore.
Some other fantasy creatures that weren't shaped by Tolkein:
Kobolds: They were originally a kind of humanoid sprite from Germanic lore but D&D popularized them as mini dragonesque minions because they needed another type of monster that low level players could kill.
Gremlins: Originally kind of sprite to explain machines malfunctioning. There's Loony Tunes shorts and a Twilight Zone episode with them sabotaging planes. The Spielberg movie may have changed what people associate with gremlins though.
And "kobold" is literally just German for "goblin". In fact, that's how cobalt got its name. Cobalt ore looks identical to silver ore, but gives off a poisonous gas when it's smelted, leading people to conclude its existence was a dirty trick that goblins were playing on miners.
There was a Roald Dahl book and a comic book series by Disney iirc that were called "Gremlins." But the Spielberg movie isn't exactly based on either of them.
@@SheilaDeBonis Disney also had an animated movie pitch that never made it to production; it wouldn't surprise me if that became the comic book you mentioned.
It was a Joe Dante film. It was made for Spielberg's Amblin pictures.
@@stevethepocket Yeah, the book and the abandoned movie are related. These Disney gremlins would later appear in the Epic Mickey video games.
Imagine having the Stasi after you, because the government feel threatened by garden gnomes.
11:55 GNOMEO AND JULIET MENTIONED RAAAAAAAHHH
It's funny how you came up with your list, but there are still so many "Fantasy Creatures" to choose from! Dragons, mandrakes, sirens, mermaids, golems, phoenix, unicorns, and banshees. Though I'm surprised to see that you don't have a video on cryptids, I think that'd be a very fascinating topic. Especially the ones we look at as being the biggest ones in America. So many of them are very focused on specific countries (Chupacabra/Mexico and Loch Ness Monster/Scotland)
only Dryad I've ever encountered in modern popular culture is a character in the game Terraria. Based on that, they seem pretty similar to Nymphs (although interestingly enough, in Terraria, the Dryad is a friendly NPC character, and Nymphs are a very difficult enemy that wells in caves)
There are nymphs in the Percy Jackson series and also the Narnia series. In both, they are depicted as a human form an part of nature (tree, river, ect.) can take on. In Percy Jackson, Dryads are depicted as wood or tree nymphs.
Disney actually made tinkerbell popular. Peter pan was already popular before Disney. But Walt Disney decided to use tinkerbell as his mascot for his show called "Disneyland" (which was just a commercial for the Disneyland theme park), instead of Mickey, for fears of Mickey being seen as overexposed. The show was a hit, the park was a hit. So tinkerbell became the new face of Disney. Which is why you see Tinkerbell at the opening of Disney movies, and not Mickey.
I remember seeing the play version with Mary Martin and Tinkerbell was just a flashlight beam. I had already seen the Disney version by that point and thought the flashlight beam version was really lame.
@@KasumiKenshirou Peter Pan is also one of the 2 roles that Michael Jackson really wanted to play. The other one being Willy Wonka. Which is kinda weird because they both involve luring children.
12 years ago FHM did a "50 hottest women of non-existence" poll and Tinkerbell was #1. Others that I remember are the queen of hearts, siri, the statue of liberty, and of course, the green M&M.
The queen of Hearts?? That giant loudmouth broad from Alice in Wonderland always yelling OFF WITH HER HEAD??
For some reason I always take note whenever the J.J's "Industrial Revolution sound byte" plays... It's my own Willhelm scream easter egg for your videos...
The song is originally from Final Fantasy VI of all places(Magitek Factory is the exact song)
3:41 the background music gave me whiplash. I recently learned of Bach's cantata 147, and didn't know of its association with Christmas
As someone who is so involved in D&D and its culture, I often forget that the differences that game tried to establish between these creatures (sort of as a justification to have them all) are not super well known outside of the fantasy-tabletop space. A lot of things that in real world folklore are just "odd little fellows" are, in the fantasy-tabletop space, taxonomically different. Calling a kobold a gnome could get you killed!
Dryads are from Greek and maybe Roman mythology as they are tree spirits. True story, we had an oak tree in our backyard. Our toddler would play out there and babble to the tree. He later said that a little girl lived in the back yard and played with him. Dryad.
They had nymphs, local nature spirits; dryads, spirits of individual trees and also myths about nymphs or maidens who were transformed into trees by a god to prevent them from being raped.
One of the big takeaways from this channel is that the idea of things having super well-defined definitions/characteristics is a relatively new invention. I've come across this myself in various contexts. For example, I've been reading fairytales to my kids, and I've noticed that terms like "giant" and "ogre" don't refer to specific species, like is often the case in modern fantasy, but more a general type of exaggerated human. Some of the language even says stuff like, "an ogre of a man," rather than an ogre specifically. And sometimes both ogre and giant are used to describe the same character. Sometimes they are more monstrous, and sometimes, they're just a large human.
It's always a thrill when Magitek Factory Theme pops up in your video.
I'd love a video on North American Cryptids. Mothman, Bigfoot, etc.
"Why do fairies have to be hot?"
Because, if you're just making stuff up anyway, why not make it attractive. It's simply the natural inclination. I'm not opposed to inclusivity for the NOT conventionally attractive, but society has to put a lot of thought into it to get around to that. It's not going to be your first idea.
Unless the point is to scare or ick or somesuch.
"You know what a brownie is, right?"
Oh sure, JJ. It's a chocolate desert, it's flat, we all know what a brownie is yeah.
"A kind of goblin-type thing"
Oh. I guess we do not all know what a brownie is.
Dryads are nymphs, basically, only more closely associated with trees than nature as a whole. There are stories of river nymphs, but dryads are dry.
very excited to hear a video where you talk about JRR Tolkein's influence in greater depth, as well as how our modern "fantasy" canon came to be
I personally always associate nymphs specifically with water, partially because they’re often specified as “water nymphs” but also because a nymph in the world of insects is a larval form that lives in the water
Hey J.J, a dnd nerd here. The word commonly used to classify such fantasy creatures is Fae, at least that’s what i would call them as a classification as i would think most people familiar with fantasy based nerd culture would as well.
Pretty close to "fée" (French for fairy)
JJ! I was a Brownie in the 90s. They are not an off-shoot of Girl Guides, they are the stage before.
5-7 year olds: Rainbows
7-10 year olds: Brownies
10-14 year olds: Guides
Older: Rangers
Now you know the full global Girl Guiding hierarchy 😁
Dryads are exclusively women who are each linked to a tree. You fell the tree, you kill a nymph. They also have to kidnap men to procreate. They're also an Ancient Greek invention.
Pixie cuts were far more prominent in the 80s well before Haley Berry was around. Jamie Lee Curtis, Pat Benetar among others.
Longer ago than that. Audrey Hepburn in the 1950s!
Lop off the bun and Tinker Bell basically has a pixie cut, which might explain the origins of the name.
Twiggy - can no one remember Twiggy?!😱
I've noticed Scandinavian style Christmas gnomes are taking over now as an alternative to the garden gnome, they are simpler and are being used to for multiple holidays.
JJ: Fairies are depicted as sexy except the tooth fairy.
Fairy godmother: 😳😉
Also I had that Gnomes book as a kid! I had completely forgotten about it.
I had the Gnomes book too! I loved looking through it.
you forgot the fairy godmother
"Dryad" in the RPG world is a spirit that lives in a tree. Probably, it will be depicted as a woman with plant-like details, like green skin or vine hair or whatever.
Except in Warhammer were they appear as miniature Ent like creatures.
Great vid, but I hoped you would go into more detail about the HISTORY of where these things came from... Also could add Dwarves, Goblins, Ghouls, etc to a future vid maybe?
They don’t come from anywhere in specific
I was going to comment about dwarves and goblins, but thinking about it, I feel like I need to go consult the Canon, Tolkien and D&D.
However, according to my own universally accepted definition, ghouls do not belong in this menagerie because being creepy creatures of the shadows with the desire to prey on humans physically and metaphysically, like a cross between hideous vampires and zombies, they're more for Halloween and politics.
Feel free to borrow and incorporate into cannon. ✌️😸🍀
Before watching:This is my one of my favorite topics! I'm thrilled to learn more about it!
Now: It just feels weird to know more about a subject that JJ. 🤷🏾♀️
A Dryad is a tree spirit.
I believe nymphs and dryads are from Greek mythology, and a dryad is specifically a forest nymph. Nymphs are said to be the spiritual manifestations of certain members of nature, appearing to humans as women. There are also naiads and Nereids, water nymphs that inhabit fresh- and saltwater sources, respectively. Romans had their springwater variant, the Lymphae.
Elf on the shelf is terrifying to me; both practically and conceptually. I shudder even seeing it on video.
“Came in with the clutch” love it. I learned somewhere that garden gnomes were actually real people in the 18th century. Richies back then would pay poor hermits to grow their beards, live in their yards and just kinda hang out.
The lawn gnome tradition actually goes back much further than to Germany. In Ancient Greece and later (like with practically everything in the former civilization) Ancient Rome,farmers would put statues of Priapus, god of produce in their gardens as a protective thing
Is that the guy who the "little blue pill" side effect that lasts more than three hours is named after?
@@KasumiKenshirou Idk what that is, and I probably don't want to know
And gnomes were categorized as an earth elemental in the works of the alchemist Paracelsus, so it makes sense that they’d safeguard growing things.
@@AdamYJ Who was that guy (aside from that he was an alchemist)?
Yes.
JJ just out here collecting so many awards for his videos. When does he have time to rest?
I believe it's worth noting the recent evolution of gnomes into catchall holiday icons, even beyond the confines of the garden, especially the design where their eyes are covered by their hat. This transformation seems to have originated from the ease with which hobbyists could craft their own cloth gnomes (my grandmother certainly among them), extending now to mass-produced items: adorning various things such as hand towels, shower curtains, and doormats. Whether it's Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, or Independence Day, gnomes flaunting their best festive attire are sure to be abundantly available.
And I think that particular doll look originally started in Scandinavia?
@@JJMcCullough Yes, being mainly associated with Christmas, in particular with name Nisse, Tomte, or tomtenisse. Themselves circling back to the ambiguous nature of elves/fairies. Interesting to consider how using the word "Christmas Gnome", "Christmas Elf", and "Christmas Fairy" can now conjure notably different creatures to the average American.
Idk more Americans when they think of elves outside of Christmas we think like fantasy settings, not Keebler. Your Gen X is showing JJ lmfao.
I think I've heard JJ announce that he was a Millennial,
When a gay man tells you his age you should take the age he told you then add 5 years if hes like 20-30 and add 10 years if he's older than 30. He's graying. Hard doubt he's a Millennial even a an old one without cherrypicking a source that defines the deadlines of generations..@@manderse12
I always just thought “brownies” were younger girl guides .. I had no idea they were a different faction or about all the elf stuff 😂. Interesting
It appears to me that the book about Gnomes was the basis for a children's cartoon, 'David the Gnome'. I used to watch it 90ies Germany.
Also, aren't dryads forest / tree spirits? I get the impression JJ used Dryad from Secret of Mana as inspiration for his little line-up.
Good eye. Is that what the character is actually called in SoM? I just had some vague memory of it as being something like what I thought a Dryad was, so that would be cool if that’s what the character was actually called!
@@JJMcCullough
It is. Curiously enough, the Earth spirit was just called Gnome. But the water spirit was Undine, not Nymph. So not a full hatrick.
Obviously those are the English translations, but according to my cursory research, the Japanese names were simply transliterations of those English terms to begin with. So presumably the translators just reversed the transliteration when possible.
Curiously enough, in the German translation (which I played as a kid), "Gnome" was called "Rocky".
I'm sure I needn't explain this to you, but it is quite common for English words to be used in Japanese to sound cool and in particular for character names. Off the top of my head, there are loads of DragonBall characters like Frieza, and quite a few Pokemon as well, like Freezer.
Something similar seems to be going on with German words such as Frieren = freezing / shivering in a currently popular anime, or many terms used in Neo Genesis Evangelion for example.
@@JJMcCullough
PS:
I just checked the other Mana spirits. All their Japanese names are transliterations of European folklore terms. The only exceptions are arguably Shade, and Jinn which is not originally European. The English names are just the original terms, except for Wisp which is shortened from Will o'Wisp.
Michael Moorcock played a decent role in creating the tropes dnd introduced like the “lawful/chaotic” alignments.
Brownies, a "breakaway faction," sounds way more revolutionary than it was. Former sprite.
I have a g g g g g girl viewer???
I love this channel! Super interesting and educational, but also perfectly chill and conversational. Best part has to be the SNES musical cut ins-- so nostalgic for me!!
I'm a little surprised you didn't mention the 1917 Cottingley Fairies and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle publication in The Coming od the Fairies. They appear to be among the first visual depictions of fairies as small, attractive women in skimpy dresses.
They could have have been inspired by the 1911 Peter and Wendy, but it pre-dated the 1924 Peter Pan movie with Virginia Browne Faire as Tinker Bell, who was also in a short gown. All long before the Disney Tinker Bell.
Let's also not forget Cinderella's fairy Godmother, who wasn't much like Tinker Bell at all.
And the Blue Fairy from Disney's Pinocchio was the same size as a human. (And I don't think she had wings, but I might be remembering wrong.)
Going further back than that, I'm really surprised he didn't mention ' A Midsummer night's dream" which clearly defined fairies as beautiful, glamorous, self-conceited and a little malevolent. Especially the fairie queen Titiana who's dress is described as made of leaves and she wears a holly and oak crown.
I'm not denying that Leprechauns originally cane from Irish folklore, but they seem to loom much larger in overseas depictions of Ireland than within Ireland itself. In Ireland, as a symbol they're often seen as being kind of an American invention and to the extent that you'll see Leprechaun iconography here it will usually be in something that is sold to tourists.
I feel like the mining and underground gnomes going unmentioned is a bit weird, maybe just to steer clear of tolkien inspired gnomes
Pixie cut is a little older than 2010 dude. Goes back to the 1950s. In form and description.
So Sprite is a spinoff of Coca Cola. I did not know that.
It’s the Gnome from Left 4 dead 2
Dryads are tree nymphs. Sometimes they are trees. Other times they are connected to trees and die when they are cut down. But their job is to protect trees.
The most notable depiction in recent times is in the Narnia movies where they aren't the typical fierce women or trees, but seem to be spirits made of flower pedals.
Always love your videos JJ:)
I am surprised you haven't mentioned the Fairy Godmother alongside the Tooth Fairy as an example of non-hot fairy characters
Love your channel, out of ordinary topics.
I wonder how the popular conception of these creatures is different in the other cultures that have them. Did you find across any fun facts in that vein?
This video didn’t show up in my feed for some reason! Really strange. Love you JJ
Santa cinematic universe, lol. Talking about movie themes as cinematic universes, even when they weren’t intended to be that. I think ill start using that in my daily life
The Rankin/Bass specials and films had an interconnected universe before it was cool. But even within their own specials there were some contradictions, such as two very different versions of Jack Frost.
@@KasumiKenshirou But i love a good contradiction like that, like who says things need to be totally consistent. Even Jesus got 4 guys to write 4 different biographies
I just cannot get over how interesting your videos are bru.
i laughed at the bavarian guy being arrested in east germany for having garden gnomes
I first heard about dryads from playing the first Quest for Glory game back in the 90s. They're similar to how you described nymphs in that they're tied to nature, but dryads are specifically tied to trees. In some cases, they look like trees or are part of the tree itself, while in others, they just live in or near trees. The image at 19:25 is a good example of how I think of a dryad.
The copy of the gnome book that used to belong to my grandmother is on my shelf right now.
I waited for the explanation of dryads, and JJ explained them great.
I can’t believe you didn’t mention or missed The Fairly OddParent. They are a major part of the fairy lore for Americans that were young when it aired, I believe. love your content!!