also, dragons are farts

[lauralh]

I finished When They Severed Earth from Sky in a frenzy this weekend. It was totally great, a look at deciphering myths as encoded history for pre-literate cultures. Most of the myths they explained were either about volcanoes or stars. The star myths were fascinating - basically every time a great cataclysm or apocalypse happened in a myth, it was really about the fact that the North Star was no longer North. Our familiar Polaris wasn't always the guiding star. The authors set down a few principles on how to decipher myths, and then they go for it in great detail. Really interesting stuff.