Heroic Dreams - All Things Medieval

I have been seeing trailers for the new movie 300 and I am very much looking forward to it! If you haven’t heard about the movie or the story it is based on let me give you a bit of a background on it.    It is based on a true story unlike any other story. This is a story of how 300 men (Spartans) sacrificed their lives, changed the world forever, and had an impact on the world we live in today. Does it get any better than that? Isn’t that what epic fantasy is all about?

Here is the story: In 480 BC the King of Persia gathered a force of supposedly 2 million soldier (2 million is what Herodotus says) and he made a move to conquer Greece. The Greeks were not ready for this and they dispatched a force of 300 Spartans to the pass of Thermopylae in an attempt to buy time. Thermopylae is a very narrow pass between the mountains and the sea so this was a good place to make a desperate stand. The 300 Spartans held that pass for seven days, and  every one of them died in the process. Here is a quote from Herodotus “Three hundred Spartans and their allies held off the invaders for seven days, until, their weapons smashed and broken from the slaughter, they fought “with bare hands and teeth” before being at last overwhelmed.”

Does it get any more epic than that? Now here is the thing about this story that is really appealing. At the time, in Greece, Democracy was just an idea in its infancy and if the Persians would have conquered Greece it would have been an idea lost in the past. We would probably have no democracy today! Imagine how we can feel the impact of their courage and heroism to this day!

I don’t know if the movie is going to be great, but the story is! And the movie gives credit to being adapted from the Graphic novel written by Frank Miller. And I am not familiar with that novel but I have read, and do absolutely love another book written on this story. It is called Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield.

If you are a fan of epic fantasy, heroism and that kind of stuff this book has got to go to the top of your list. If you read one book this year make it this one! I can’t recommend it highly enough. I read it when it first came out and have since re-read it. You won’t be disappointed. It is a great story and a great story telling. The book also has some nice maps so you can visualize the battlescene. Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

As a note: This whole Spartan Warrior thing is just way too fascinating and I am putting together some nice website stuff about spartans, their weapons, warriors and techniques. SO check back again and I will post to you when I have stuff ready for viewing.

Resources: Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae

Official Movie Site for 300 

Quote from the Movie:

Persian: “Our arrows will blot out the sun.” Spartan: “Then we shall fight in the shade.”
 

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I told you about the two Boris Vallejo Drawings up for auction, and the interesting story of how the owner got them by trading one of his sculptures for them.

The owner contacted me and sent me a link to a picture of the actual sculpture that was traded! This is pretty cool, and the sculpture is gorgeous; Boris of course has good taste in sculpture. If you want to see the sculputure I have posted a link to it here. It is of a nude woman with a sword and it is gorgeous. This artist is talented! While you are on the site check out the sculptors other work.

 (This is a nude so you have to be over 21 to check it out. By clicking on this link you verify you are over 21)

The Boris Vallejo drawing/sculpture exchange

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If you are a fan of fantasy, then you are no doubt a fan of Boris Vallejo. He has been doing drawings and paintings in the fantasy genre for decades now and he is the top dog in the whole realm. He and his wife Julie Bell are the king and queen of fantasy  art -bar none.

 I was recently contacted by a collector offering at private auction two original pencil drawings by Boris! Can you imagine how my heart skipped a beat. Imagine that! The possibility of owning a real Boris! - And it gets better. The owner is a sculptor and he traded with Boris one of his sculptures for the drawings!!! OMG the world is a strange and beautiful place.

Now you are probably curious about the drawings and yup the owner was nice enough to send me some pics and allow me to show them to you but, they are nudes so if you are under 21 you can’t view them. But if you are over 21 feel free to take a look! They are gorgeous and I am not positive, but to me they look very much like works from the series of covers he did for the John Norman Gor novels.

Here are the Boris Vallejo Pencil Drawings and more information about Boris- And if you can’t afford private collecting Boris and Julie have a great new book of art out that you might be interested in The Boris Drawings

If you are seriously interested in the auction, or if you want to see more of the collectors offerings visit his website at: studioSL.com or contact the owner at: borisdraw@studioSL.com

About the drawing in this blogpost: It is an excerpt from one of the auction pieces and it is copyrighted. Do not copy or reproduce in any manner.

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