When a laboratory accident leads to electrocution and the accidental discovery of time travel, Doctor Petronella Sage, alongside her faithful friend and companion, Erasmus Savant, seizes the opportunity to make her mark in the annuls of history.
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Sage and Savant have grown complacent with their travels, taking the miracle of transmigration for granted, the doorways to other times and places as a given. The universe has a way of humbling those that do not show proper regard for these things. In this month’s episode, Our heroes discover what it is like to lose one of their own and what lengths they will go to in the quest to retrieve a friend.
Dr Sage has been exploring the connection of music to time travel. Music also plays a big role in our episodes, most especially with our Featured Artists. Music can change the way we look at life. We look forward to increasing the role of music in future episodes and letting Dr Sage discover the role of music in her own life.
Continue reading “Music, the Tao and the Life Changing Effects”
Steampunk has a lot in common with Tao thoughts. In Episode 9, Dr Sage finds the underlying thoughts of Taoism very similar to her quest for understanding of her own research. We thought we’d include this tidbit.
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Seeking further enlightenment, Dr Sage and Prof Savant travel back to 2nd century China. In this time, Dr Sage learns that time travel can be a “ruff,” leaving Savant to fumble his way through the concepts of immortality.
Learn more about music and the dao.
Music, Cosmology, and the Politics of Harmony in Early China
by Erica Fox Brindley
The writings of Wei Boyang and the art of alchemy
Cantong qi
Continue reading “Background Information for Episode 9: In Secret and Silence”
There are a number of books available with more information about Vikings. Here are just a few.
Continue reading “Books about Vikings”
Every episode our heroes are faced with the idea of reanimating dead bodies. Well, image if this happened when the Vikings were visiting the New World. What would the Native Americans think about this sort of activity? We include a brief reference to Skadegamutc in this episode because it’s a wonderful way to look at how Sage & Savant might appear to the locals.
Continue reading “Skadegamutc or Ghost-Witch, Background for Episode 8”
The Icelandic Sagas tells of the exploits of various Viking travels. Because these were songs or stories of heroic adventures, not every detail is included. However, the The Saga of Erik the Red or Eiríks saga rauða–one of the Vinland Sagas–is an account of Viking travels in the new world, over 400 years before Columbus. Many of the characters we have in Episode 8: Vikingr are directly from this saga. We even quote a section about the exploits of Freydis, a woman who fought off a band of Skrælingar, or indigenous people.
Continue reading “Sage and Savant Appear in The Sage of Erik the Red”
In Episode 8: Vikingr, we mention record keeping. Vikings had an alphabet or runes they used to write. Although many of their sagas–including the sage we include in our episode, Eric the Red–were handed down through oral tradition, they did write fairly extensively. The Viking letters or runes are called FUTHARK for the first six letters: Fehu,Uruz, Thurisaz, Ansuz, Raido and Kenaz. There are actually two types of runes, Elder Futhark and Younger Futhark.
The Elder Futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabets. It was a writing system used by Germanic tribes for the northwestern and Migration period dialects. Its inscriptions are found on jewelry, amulets, tools, weapons, and rune stones from the 2nd to 8th centuries.
In Scandinavia, from the late 8th century, the script was simplified to the Younger Futhark, while the Anglo-Saxons and Frisians extended the Futhark which eventually became the Anglo-Saxon futhorc. Unlike the Anglo-Saxon and Younger Futharks, which remained in use during the Early and High Middle Ages, respectively, knowledge of how to read the Elder Futhark was forgotten until 1865, when it was deciphered by Norwegian scholar Sophus Bugge.
The style our vikings would have used would be Younger Futhark. The Younger Futhark is divided into long-branch (Danish) and short-twig (Swedish and Norwegian) runes, in the 10th century further expanded by the “Hälsinge Runes” or staveless runes. The lifetime of the Younger Futhark corresponds roughly to the Viking Age.
We try to incorporate as much historical information in our episodes as possible, pulling from a variety of sources to ensure the events we portray are as accurate as possible–even though the premise of time-travel is fictitious at this point.
Continue reading “Saga of Erik the Red, Background for Episode 8”