Susan Van Camp Old Man of the Sea Original Art
- Christian Tobehn
- 2020-11-02
Before Magic entered the complex multiverse of Dominia with Antiquities, Arabian Nights gave Magic enthusiasts a spectacular look into the myth-enshrouded world of the Middle East in aboriginal times. Hither is a await at the lesser known lore behind Magic's very showtime expansion.
Arabian Nights included some generic, stereotypical cards like Camel, Pyramids, Desert, or Oasis simply also a bunch of originals from the legendary One Thousand and One Nights. In the following we will discover some characters that made it all the way into pop civilization also every bit protagonists and places you perhaps did non know originated in Thou and One Nights.
Before we beginning I want to make a couple of very short notes: When the Nights were translated into French in 1704 (the first European translation followed past an English one just a few years later) they were already a couple of hundred years former. Their developement is set between the third and the tenth century with various roots and influences from Arabic, Persian, Indian, Greek, Jewish, and Turkish folklore and literature. 1 of the oldest Arabic (post-Farsi) manuscripts is dated to the ninth century.
Tales like "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad" practise have a real background in a sense. They are seafarer and pirate stories, which were told all over the world in every culture and accept been expanded many times. This kind of oral verse also led to Homer's Ilias and Odyssey. These tales were told or often sung time and time again merely busy and refined oft.
I picked vii Magic cards from Arabian Nights and took a look behind their bodily lore. Let's enter the vault of the Library of Alexandria and become deep Into the Story.
Shahrazad
We shall begin with Shahrazad, or Scheherazad, because she is such a central figure and the main storyteller of this Middle Eastern collection of tales. In Sir Richard Francis Burton's translation of I Grand and 1 Nights, Scheherazade was described this mode:
"Shahrazad has perused the books, annals and legends of preceding Kings, and the stories, examples and instances of by gone men and things; indeed it was said that she had collected a thousand books of histories relating to antique races and departed rulers. She had persued the works of the poets and knew them by heart; she had studied philosophy and the sciences, arts and accomplishments; and she was pleasant and polite, wise and witty, well read and well bred."
This is the framing introductary tale of 1000 and One Nights, properly taken from the kickoff issue of The Duelist:
Sindbad
Shahrazad is the one telling the king almost the famous seven voyages of famous Sindbad, or Sinbad the sailor, who also fabricated information technology into Arabian Nights. He is, along with Aladdin and Ali Baba, 1 of the best-known characters from the Nights. As you will see, "The Seven Voyages of Sinbad" had a big influence on the set.
The overnice artwork by Julie Baroh (encounter above) shows the leg of the Roc, which is carrying Sindbad into the Diamond Valley (come across below).
Island Fish Jasconius
On his first voyage, Sindbad the sailor sets aground on what appears to exist a Tropical Isle. Merely this pretty isle later proves to be a huge, old whale on which trees have grown with fourth dimension. This beautiful scene was illustrated by Jesper Myrfos on the menu Island Fish Jasconius.
Accounts of seafarers' encounters with gigantic fish, considered to be isles, appear in several different tales like the "Legend of Saint Brendan" or the "Adventures of Businesswoman Munchhausen." They are pretty old and common. Other pop depictions testify Jasconius as a giant island-turtle every bit seen in Pokemon, the One Piece movie, or The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask.
According to the tradition of the Physiologus and medieval bestiaries, the aspidochelone is a fabulous ocean brute, variously described every bit a big whale or vast ocean turtle, and a behemothic sea monster with huge spines on the ridge of its back. No matter what form it is, it is always described as being huge where it is often mistaken for an isle and appears to be rocky with crevices and valleys with trees and greenery and having sand dunes all over it.
Tales like these are what is commonly known every bit "sailor's yarn." Such stories were told all over the globe since forever. The German philosopher Hans Blumenberg ("Arbeit am Mythos") classified them as a manner and an effort to explicate and deal with natural phenomena.
Great Whale from Urza's Saga once once again picked upwards the idea of a huge whale condign an island. The flavor text of Isleback Spawn from Shadowmoor referred to the sailor's yarn theme. The most recent accept on the isle monster theme appeared with the legendary Kraken creature carte du jour Arixmethes, Slumbering Island.
Diamond Valley
What do Brian Snõddy and Gustave Dore have in common? Well, they both did a beautiful analogy of the Valley of Diamonds and both vest to my favorites when information technology comes to art.
The second voyage leads Sindbad into the Valley of Diamonds or but Diamond Valley. On an island he finds a behemothic egg of the legendary Roc, a bird of epic proportions. It carries Sindbad, tied to the bird'southward leg, deep into the valley. The valley itself is littered with diamonds and huge snakes, big plenty to eat an elephant. Sinbad hides himself in a cave at night until merchants kickoff throwing chunks of greasy meat into the valley. Their sneaky plan is to permit the diamonds stick to the meat and allow the eagles send them out of the valley. In exactly the aforementioned manner Sindbad ties himself to a piece of meat and manages to escape as a stowaway with the merchants.
Old Man of the Bounding main
On his fifth voyage Sindbad makes acquaintance with an elder human, also called the Old Man of the Bounding main, who rides on his shoulders and twists his legs around his neck. To get rid of him, Sindbad somewhen tricks the onetime human into drinking loads of cocky-made wine until he falls off. Sindbad and then takes advantage of the opportunity and slays him with a rock.
As well the gritty and iconic artwork past Susan Van Camp, the card's flavor is perfectly executed past the rules in my stance. It is just on point.
Urban center of Brass
City of Brass is probably the most reprinted out of all cards mentioned here. Besides the original artwork by Marking Tedin, there are three other illustrations for the card. The City of Brass in 1 Thousand and One Nights is one of the creepiest stories in the collection. It is identified with Iram, also called Irum, Irem, or Erum, a lost urban center mentioned in the Quran.
The actual tale from the Nights goes like this: A group of explorers, on the chase for efreets, reaches a big, walled city. On the outer walls they encounter several appealing young women, who later reveal themselves to be automatons meant to fool intruders into jumping off the walls to their deaths. A few men die until the secret is revealed. Inside they find buildings of unbelievable opulence, with about everything covered in gilded and jewels. The city is admittedly silent. The only inhabitants are human corpses, some nevertheless sitting in their homes. Time seems to have frozen here. The political party eventually reaches the queen of the city. Her sparkling eyes cause them to briefly mistake her for a living person. An embalmer filled her eyes with quicksilver. An inscription reveals the deplorable history: the urban center was struck past a famine, and the people, once they had exhausted every effort to save themselves, went dorsum to their places and awaited their fates.
Island of Wak-Wak
"Al-Wakwak," also spelled al-Waq Waq, Wak al-Wak, or just Wak Wak, is the name of an island, or possibly more than i island, in medieval Arabic literature. Ane M and One Nights actually tells us nigh 7 islands. The first six are inhabited by militant maidens, while the seventh is filled with evil djinns, efreets, and spirits.
The flavor text mentions a tribe of "winged folk." This might exist an allusion to the Wakwak, a vampiric, bird-like creature from Philippine mythology. In Arabic lore the isle is ruled by a queen and the population is one hundred percent female. In the Kitab al-Bulhan from the 14th century, too called Book of Wonders, a painting showed the "Tree of Waq Waq." Information technology illustrates the mode in which the all-female population reproduces by growing offspring from the tree. They mature like fruit until they are ripened, and when they driblet to the ground, they emit a yell that sounds like "Waq Waq!"
I promise I was able to shed some light on the lore behind Arabian Nights. Feel complimentary to leave a comment if yous desire to add together something. Thank you for reading and always exist careful what y'all wish for!
Opinions expressed in this commodity are those of the author and not necessarily Cardmarket.
Source: https://www.cardmarket.com/en/Magic/Insight/Articles/Lesser-Known-Lore-Arabian-Nights
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