Topic Brainstorm

Mermaids- I've always loved mermaids. When I was little, The Little Mermaid was my favorite Disney movie. As I got older I became interested in the darker original mermaid legends, as well as related creatures like sirens. I will use The Folklore of the Isle of Man by A. W. Moore as a starting  place for my research.

Fairies- My long time fascination with fairies is similar to my interest in mermaids. They were always pretty and friendly in children's media I liked, and when I was older I liked the less occasionally less than benevolent versions of them in older stories. I really only know anything about the Celtic versions of fairy lore, so it might be interesting to learn about equivalent stories in other cultures. I think the book The Fairy Mythology by Thomas Kneightly will be a good source for this.

                                        
                                            (The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania by Noel Paton)

Goddesses- I'm really interested in the stories of greek goddesses, especially Persephone and Artemis. I would be interested in learning about the goddesses of other cultures and seeing how they compare to those stories I'm familiar with. I think the List of Deities on Wikipedia will be a good place to start looking for goddess stories I'm interested in learning more about.

Witches- The concept of humans being able to use magic is a cool one for me. Honestly, I don't think I'll ever truly get over not receiving my Hogwarts letter as an eleven year old. I would be interested in learning more traditional stories about witches, although I doubt most of them will be very positive. I will use Edwin Sidney's English Fairy and Other Folk Tales.