The music of a bygone age Copyright © John Melhuish Strudwick 1890.

The Call of the Muses: dreams of lyre music, realms of poetry

After having read Tennyson, Keats, Byron and such, I suddenly felt an urge to write poetry in English... Woe is me! ;) Hmm, maybe I should give a warning that the poetry displayed here is not really joyful... maybe, because the chosen subjects are dark subjects and only those inspire me...

Maidens of Death is about maidens doomed to die or to be unhappy, as Tennyson and Keats had Ophelia, Isabella, the Lady of Shalott or Elaine. Ambitious, isn't it? (Updated July 20th, 2000)
Knights of Light, young, in shining armour, come to rescue lovely maidens in distress... or are to be taken in their nets, as in La belle dame sans merci... Let's see which one I'll choose! (Updated March 3rd, 2003)
Ghosts of Darkness are my fallen angels and dark, bitter men come to haunt your nightmares... (and obviously I'm better with them than with fair knights...) (Updated May 23th, 2002)
The Realm of Pain is now available! I changed the graphics for not having to wait anymore on the copyrights. Be warned that this is probably the darkest section of poetry. (Updated October 6th, 2002)

Voices of the Skalds: dreams of eternity, realms of gods

Herald of Sorrow is my version of my favourite tale, the binding of Fenrir, seen from Tyr's point of view. (Completed May 5th, 2003)

By the Fireside: dreams of faraway countries, realms of fairy tales

Among my many interests, I do happen to like fairy tales... and this section is just about this! In fact, I plan to rewrite some of my favourite fairy tales (or to invent some new ones...), of course, in my personal style (which may not be fit for fairy tales, but who knows ;)) My favourite fairy tale being Beauty and the Beast, don't be surprised if you feel a bit surrounded by it ;)

I, Beast is my version of Beauty and the Beast, seen from the Beast's point of view. (Completed November 26th, 2000)
I hopped for her is the story of a young prince transformed into a shape he doesn't appreciate the least, so he hopped for a princess to free him! (Coming soon)
And sleep was thy fate... is the long version of the tale The fairies' scheme. If the protagonists are - basically - the same, the plot is not exactly the same! (Coming soon)
In a faery land... leads you to a new part of my realm, which could almost be in standalone. It's about a lot of fairy tales... and the different versions one could write about them! Of course, don't worry too much, there is a section for Beauty and the Beast in there! (Updated February 3rd, 2003)

The Music from Heaven: dreams of higher skies, realms of angels

Those are specifically about Angels - not like in others, where Angels make their apparition and leave ten lines after - because I was beginning to have Angels creeping everywhere :) Surrounded by music, books, movies and others about Angels, I thought that maybe they wanted their own stories AND their own section, so I gave up and here it is! Anyway, for someone called Azrael, it was somehow fate :)
Little change about this section: as talking of Angels often brings up the Demons, Guardians and Demon Knights, the section is no more only about Angels, but also about all of those.

Next Step (Archangels & Demons) is, as the title says it, not only about Angels, but about Demons too... And, as usual, in the middle of the mess, are humans... (Completed on December 30th, 2002)
Broken Wings is the sequel to Next Step. Tyrael still doesn't like Demons very much and keeps fighting them, but sadly, accidents happen during battles! (Coming soon)
Beyond the Gate... is a nameless horror and if you open it, you'll wish you hadn't! It is also the proof that Guardians are very much like weed: when you think there's no more, there's always one left! (Coming soon)
The Mountains of Doom, where the old temple is now in ruins, held a fascination and some will stop at nothing to reach it. (Coming soon)
Daughter of Lightning is the Demon Knight of the protective Demon Leviat, first met in Bronze Knight (yes, I know, I mix everything :)). (Coming soon)

The Gothic Crypt: dreams of dark nights, realms of vampires

I finally gave up to my gothic side! ;) Here come the vampires, even if you will never see that name in my stories, for I'm using the terms from Romania (found in the book written by Adrien Cremene). Maybe would it be more accurate to say that it's the section for dhampyrs rather than strigoïs though... Anyway, as I saw Blade and Vampire Hunter D recently, I think that everybody is pretty much used to the notion of half-blood now... And it made my vampire side yearn to come back to the light! Huh... to the moon light, that is!

The avenging angel: Dhampyr! introduces, not really an angel, despite the title, but a dhampyr... Fangs show up everywhere, but Venetia has courage to spare! (Completed February 19th, 2001)
The avenging angel: Sisca! is what happens after The avenging angel: Dhampyr!. Venetia is back and she's not happy! (ok, she's never happy <grin>) (Coming soon)
Nightwalker: Hunter came up in my mind just after watching Vampire Hunter D. After a first moment of amazement, I decided that I liked it very much, so I bought Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust in the same row and I'm wondering if I'm not going to learn Japanese to be able to read the novels... Huh, sorry for the digression :) Anyway, after seeing D, I decided that Venetia was far too normal for a dhampyr and I'm thus trying to complicate the thing a bit more! Though it's appearing after in the list, it's in fact happening before Venetia's story. (Updated on June 3rd, 2002)
Nightwalker: Hunted is what follows Nightwalker: Hunter. When the Hunter becomes the Prey... (Coming soon)

The Clang of Swords: dreams of honour, realms of the knights

The Shining Guard

Let's see... The Shining Guard is a (long) tale about chivalry and presents the kingdom of H'iiril, where is the Shining Guard: one thousand Bronze Knights, one hundred Silver Knights and ten Golden Knights. How to become part of the Metallic Knights? It's easy: you just have to be part of the Iron Squires and, sooner or later - rather later than sooner - you may become a Bronze Knight :) Now the question is: how do you become part of the Iron Squires...?

Iron Squire introduces Ireno and answers the previous question: how to become an Iron Squire. Well, you generally have to be a Copper Squire before :) (Coming soon)
Bronze Knight tells the adventures of a little group of Knights and Squires when war is about to rage. (Coming soon)
Silver Knight shows that friends stick hard in the H'iiril brotherhood and gives an idea of how life is in Fzzuxe. (Coming soon)
Golden Knight is about myths and revenge in the Shining Guard! Ever dreamed to visit the Land Beyond the Mountains? (Coming soon)
Arms Master introduces Manfred, new arms master of the Metallic Knights. Witty, ironic, he's exactly my kind of favourite character! :) (Coming soon)


Fan of Steel happens in another realm, where Court is full of intrigues and where a girl has to fight to save her land! (Coming soon)

... and what remains

And the melting pot for all the rest that I don't know where to put...

The Major Arcana is something totally different. It comes from the fact that I had an interest for tarot desks, so here is what it gives! (Updated July 3rd, 2000)
The Stormwalkers live on the energy of storms - and even create some when needing so... But then, too much is more than one can bear... (Updated May 8th, 2003)
Obsidian Darkness is the shadow that surrounds you when you follow Sturm Invictus and Vesper Oillider down the paths everybody should avoid... (Updated December 27th, 2003)
Here you will find my favourites: there are my favourites sentences, coming from everywhere, from Jesus Christ Superstar to Bernard Shaw... No order, there are just put in the way my mood tells me to use :)) (Updated September 19th, 2002)