The Gardener's Tale


Hello. Now that you've found yourself in my Garden, let me tell you a bit about my own background and interests, so you might have a better concept of what you'll see here.

I am the head of a medical library, working full-time, so I don't get to update this site as often as I like. Please be patient and I'll eventually get it all up on the Web.

I am also a graduate student, working on a master's degree in history, especially that of ancient, mediaeval, and early modern Europe. I'm particularly interested in magical,religious, and philosophical beliefs, but I also study social history, women's history,and Judaica. My thesis concerns a 16th-century humanist and occultist, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, and his work De nobilitate et praecellentia
de foemeni sexus
, which argues for the natural nobility and pre-eminence of women. He was a controversial figure, and believe it or not, I'm enjoying the task of trying to figure out what he was up to.

If anyone else is also interested in Agrippa, please send me e-mail at eilir@earthling.net.
I would appreciate any input.

I also hold a master's degree in Library Science, with studies in cataloguing, archives, preservation, and computer use in libraries, hence my reason for playing on the web.

My undergraduate studies included history, sociology, and classical civilisation. My other academic interests include: anthropology, archaeology, Aegyptology, comparative religious/mythological systems, linguistics (although please don't mention Chomsky to me for awhile--this past semester left me scarred!), and languages (in which I often dabble and rarely develop fluency, a trait I hope to alter).

My interests/hobbies include: gardening (of course), amateur criminalistics (purely from my armchair, never in the field), mystery fiction, science/fantasy fiction, and classical horror (i.e., Poe, Lovecraft, etc.), Victorian culture, and role-playing games. Obviously, I read a lot, although not nearly as much as I'd like anymore, and I'm finally starting to write down the stories I've been coming up with all these years. Don't worry--the purpose of this site is not to inflict my fiction on you. [There's another site for that--see below. :) ]

I sing in a community women's chorus, based in the central Kentucky (USA) area, called SisterSound. We have a temporary site up at SisterSound. Expect a better site coming soon, as one of our members is busy working on that right now.

Somewhere along the way a classmate and I wound up as editrices of an online literary magazine for creative writing at the University of Kentucky. We've just started it, so it's still evolving, but you might check it out. Some of my stuff is there, but you should really check out some of my classmates' work. There are some good writers in that group. It's called A Heap of Broken Images. And, no, we didn't originally mean to take the title from The Wasteland, but hey, what do you expect of a bunch of English majors?

I also run a site devoted to ancient Mediterranean religion. I'm particularly interested in the Pagan religions, but eventually the site will include information on Judaism, early Christianity, and Islam, roughly up to about the year 1000 CE. It's also a GeoCities site, found at The Temenos. Let me know what you think. On a related note, I'm a member of an organisation which is primarily devoted to the study of ancient and modern Paganism. It's called The Rosemoon Guild. While both of these sites are currently under construction, I'd be interested in what you think about them.

Well, that's enough about me. As you can see, most of my interests involve products of human culture and achievement, nor are they concentrated in any one field. This has been a problem throughout my academic career. If you know of any way I can make money with otherwise useless trivia, let me know. In the meantime, I've got to put all those facts together somewhere. Hopefully there are enough of you out there who are interested so this isn't just an exercise in academic masturbation. If you like, it, please drop me a line at the link above. (And, if you don't, let me know that, too.) I realise I have a horrible tendency to do prissy things. I'm trying to stamp that out, so let me know if it's too offensive. You will notice, however, there are no unicorns on this page!)

I'll add links to some of the sites I've found along the way, some of which may be useful and others just may reflect my interests. I suppose the librarian in me wants,
to collect sites just as I would collect items--and I am a notorious packrat.

Please click HERE to return to the Garden gate.

I'm including some miscellaneous links related to my personal interests from this page.
Here's a few with which to start:

Fantasy

The Susan Cooper Home Page

Mysteries

The Unofficial Elizabeth Peters Page
The Mysterious Homepage
A Sherlockian Holmepage

Gardening

Joe & Mindy's Garden (Very nice, lots of links)
English Gardens
Algy's Herb Page

...and last, some friends of mine...

Zabasity (The Lair of the Womberine)(You will notice that there are no photos of me on her page. The moment I actually take a picture that doesn't make me look about 30 years older and frumpy, there may be one both there and here. (The curse of British genes!--well, that and an unreasonable love of gardens and useless trivia, so I guess I can't complain.) In the meantime, don't hold your breath. I haven't taken a decent picture since I was about nineteen. Actually, make that fifteen.
Rosemary's Baby

Want to learn more about censorship and privacy issues in cyberspace?

Digital Doomsday Clock Digital Doomsday Clock
Blue Ribbon Campaign
Golden Key Campaign--Privacy Issues
Center for Democracy and Technology

This page last modified December 26, 1998.

© 1996, 1998 Eilir Rowan. All rights reserved.

This page hosted by Get your own Free Home Page