Welcome to


a webpage dedicated to exploring the complex mythic/archetypal figure of Trickster

Fool, n. A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculation and diffuses himself through the channels of moral activity. He is omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscient, omnipotent. He it was who invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph, the platitude, and the circle of the sciences. He created patriotism and taught nations war--founded theology, philosophy, law, medicine, and Chicago. He established monarchical and republican government. He is from everlasting to everlasting--such as creation's dawn beheld he fooleth now. In the morning of time he sang upon primitive hills, and in the noonday of existance headed the procession of being. His grandmotherly hand has warmly tucked-in the set sun of civilization, and in the twilight he prepares Man's evening meal of milk-and-morality and turns down the covers of the universal grave. And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night of eternal oblivion he will sit up to write a history of human civilization.
- Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

If you would like to comment on what you find here, if there is a link you'd like to suggest, or if you find a link that does not work, please send me a note.

• Jester's Bauble: Trickster in Role Playing Games
  As you can possibly tell by the URL, Fools Paradise grew out of my efforts to understand how Trickster might present in the fantasy role playing game world of Glorantha. This is where I have moved all the game related links I've found.
  
  
• Trickster in the "Real" World

  There seem to be many businesses and people who feel some sort of affinity to various forms of Trickster! I have put together a list of various people and businesses with Trickster-related names/nicknames/personas.

  From my own researching of printed materials, I have put together a list of various magazine articles, books, and poems relating to Trickster.

  Also for your exploration, exaltation, exploitation, expectoration, and/or enspiration (words with an "e" this time), I put together a list of various web links relating to the general topic of tricksters, fools, jesters, clowns, etc. Please note that the categories into which I divided these links are based purely on my own subjective "feel." If you think a link would be better served by being in another category, or have a suggestion for another way to organize these links, please let me know.

  From or regarding:

  • the Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian traditions/perspectives
  • the Australian Aborigines tradition/perspective
  • the East Asian tradition/perspective
  • the Turkish/Anatolia tradition/perspective
  • the East and South African traditions/perspectives
  • the African West Coast tradition/perspective
  • the Ancient Egyptian and Greco-Roman tradition/perspectives
  • the European tradition/perspective
  • the Jewish tradition/perspective
  • the Norse tradition/perspective
  • the North and South American Indian tradition/perspective
  • the Afro-American traditions/perspectives
  • the modern & postmodern 20th Century Euro-American traditions/perspectives

Trickster in the "Real" World

From or regarding the Melanesian, Micronesian, and Polynesian traditions/perspectives I found:

• Some Hawaiian Myths and Legends, including one for Maui.
• Encyclopedia Mythica articles about Qat, Marawa, Olifat, and Kaulu.

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From or regarding the Australian Aborigines traditions/perspectives I found:

• An Encyclopedia Mythica article about Bamapana.
• The Trickster and The Girl is a story about Namaranganin.

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From or regarding the East Asian tradition/perspective I found:

• A short description of Journey to the West, (aka Monkey or Monkey King).
• An abstract of Whalen Lai's essay From protean ape to handsome saint: The Monkey King.
• Shagdar: A Mongol Trickster.
• Crazy Wisdom and Tibetan Teaching Tales Told by Lamas, by Lama Surya Das.
• Uncle Tompa Sleeps with a Virgin, an excerpt from the book Tales of Uncle Tompa.

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From or regarding the Turkish/Anatolia tradition/perspective I found:

• Erol Beymen has a whole website devoted to Nasreddin Hodja.
  We are still cutting the branch that we all are sitting on!
• The Curriculum Vitae of Nasreddin Hodja.
• Some Famous Stories of Nasreddin Hodja.

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From or regarding the East and South African traditions/perspectives I found:

• Ananse the Trickster Spider and the Witch Named "Five."
• Encyclopedia Mythica articles about Anansi and Yurugy.

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From or regarding the African West Coast tradition/perspective (including Caribbean versions) I found:

• Trickster at the Crossroads about Eshu-Elegbara, West Africa's god of messages, sex, and deceit.
• Amber Thompson's paper about Exu: The Divine Messenger.
• Susanne Iles' essay on Eshu: An Afro-Caribbean Divine Trickster.
• An Encyclopedia Mythica article about Ti Malice.
• An About.com page about African Trickster Tales.

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From or regarding the Ancient Egyptian and Greco-Roman tradition/perspectives I found:

• Remember the Force Hassan! is about Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics of jugglers.
• The Classical Mythology Project has information about Prometheus and Hermes.
• Laurel Bowman's Classical Myth Homepage provides both images and text about Hermes.
• James W. Jackson's description of Hermes, including some art.
• Hermes in Western Art.
• An Encyclopedia Mythica article about Hermes.

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From or regarding the European tradition/perspective I have found:

• The Exploding Dictionary has definitions for both fool and jester.
• The Catholic Encyclopedia includes information about such "foolish" medieval celebrations as the Feast of Fools and the Feast of Asses.
• Edward Yong has several pages of information about the Feast of Fools, all starting with his Notre Dame de Paris and the Feast of Fools page.
• Dave Ricker's The Fools Paradise and The Feast of Fools.
• A Thumbnail History of Commedia Dell'Arte, by David Claudon.
• Allen Wright's Pook's Hill has information about Robin Hood and Robin Goodfellow (aka Puck).
• The Surface Of Folly Breaks Open To Reveal Surprising Depths: The Fool As Social Critic In Shakespearean Comedy, by Justin Vellucci
• Another Illinois Shakespeare Festival Program Guide article, Imaging the Children of Pan, is about the changing aspects of the fairies in A Midsummer Night's Dream as they have been represented in various productions throughout the years.
• An article by Kim Pereira for the 1995 Illinois Shakespeare Festival Program Guide to The Comedy of Errors.
• King Lear and the Fool in the Storm was painted by Dyce in 1851.
• Clifton Snider's Victorian Trickster: A Jungian Consideration of Edward Lear's Nonsense Verse.
• Wilhelm Busch's classic story of Max and Moritz.
• The Ulenspiegel Homepage.
• The home page of the Société Internationale Renardienne (SIR), also known as the International Reynard Society. (IRS)

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From the Jewish tradition/perspective I found:

• Chapter 8 of the Resource Guide for Bill Moyer's Genesis: A Living Conversation web site contains a PDF file with Susan Niditch reflection titled "Rebekah, A Trickster Heroine." (Google also provides this in a text file.)
• The short story of Gimpel the Fool by Isaac Beshevis Singer.

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From or regarding the Norse tradition/perspective I found:

• Bridget Herrera's description of Loki from her Independent Study project about Germanic Mythology.
• An analysis of the character of Loki, by Johannes Persson.
• The "Loki Cult" Web Page.
• The Circle of Ostara, a "Magical Order associated with the Odinic Rite," describes their view of Loki.
• An essay titled The Flame and the Fire by Elsa-Brita Titchenell.
• Loki the Underappreciated and Misunderstood: A Paean in Progress.
• The story of The Theft of Thor's Hammer.
• An Encyclopedia Mythica article about Loki.

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From or regarding the North, Central, and South American Indian tradition/perspective I found:

• Course overview for Dr. Kenneth Pimple's American Studies class titled "Tricksters of North America."
• Tad Beckman provides some notes about Trickster's social and psychological roles for his Humanities course on Indigenous People of the Western US.
• Richard Dieterle provides a extensive information about the Trickster Cycle of myths, tracing the adventures of the Winnebago culture hero Wak'djuk'aga.
• The Lakota Creation Myth, in which the trickster Inktomi plays a part.
• Steve Mizrach's article about Thunderbird and Trickster, explaining the connection between the Thunderbird and being heyoka.
• A Zuni tale about Swift-Runner and Trickster Tarantula.
• Eldrbarry's Raven Tales
• Several stories about Raven.
• A variety of Coyote Stories/Peoms.
• Skunk Outwits Coyote.
• Glooscap.
• A pictograph at Mazinaw Lake of Nanabush, a shamanic Trickster figure.
• The Ojubway storys of How Nanabush Created the World and Nanabush and the Giant Beaver.
• The Saulteaux story of Nanabush and the Bulrushes, for children, with illustrations and questions.
• Acacia Artists have some notes aout Kokopelli.
• Does ve'ho'e mean "whiteman" or "trickster"? can be found at the Cheyenne Language Web Site.
• The Encyclopedia Mythica contains articles about Amaguq, Yehl, Cin-an-ev, Crow, Chulyen, Blue-Jay, Kmukamch, Old Man, First Scolder, Saynday, Inktomi/ Unktomi, Cunawabi, Manabozho/ Nanabozho, Azeban, One Tail of Clear Hair, and Bead Spitter.

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From or regarding the Afro-American traditions/prspectives I found:

• Carissa Bohne's Slave Trickster Tale Homepage was created for Emerson College's "Trickster in American Literature and Culture" course (IN371).

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From or regarding the 20th Century Euro-American traditions/prspectives I found:

• Dr. C. W. Spinks has created Trickster's Way, an online journal dedicated to Trickster research.
• An Encyclopedia Mythica article about Trickster/Transformer.
• Coyote the Trickster is a page for grade school teachers, describing a unit designed to extend the third grade Social Studies curriculum. The purpose of this unit is to contribute to the students' understanding of the coyote and to expose students to the trickster tale genre of literature.
• The Trickster Tale is oriented towards children, and explores basic elements in trickster stories.
• The performer Mark Shepard provides information about a "Drums, Songs, & Stories" school program on Trickster Tales (complete with Study Guide) for "Exploring the Trickster Archetype In Many Cultures."
• Florentin Smarandache's Trickster's Famous Deeds: A Trilogy of Theatrical Plays For Children.
• Myth Mappers is an online children's game that teaches about mythology by pitting the adventurers against the Trickster.
• Bret Steinbook's Hero Versus Hero: Oedipus and Sir Gawain in The Winnebago Hero Cycle.
• The Riddle of the Trickster is a cross-cultural overview of the trickster archetype.
• The Idiosyntactix Culture-Jammer's Encyclopedia includes some overview info about The Trickster.
• The Trickster and the Squirrel: Western Sexuality Between Religion and Morals uses Winnebago myth to analyze recent changes in how sexuality is experienced in the Western world.
• C. W. Spinks' article The Laughter of Signs: Semiosis as Trickster.
• Bob Trubshaw's The metaphors and rituals of place and time - an introduction to liminality or Why Christopher Robin wouldn't walk on the cracks.
• An essay titled Mind: Trickster, Transformer by Blair A. Moffett.
• Salon Magazine's November 1998 article The God of the Information Age is a Trickster wherein "Erik Davis talks about technology's habit of hoodwinking us."
• Introduction to Canadian Media Theorists: Tricksters on the Margins looks at issues of Canada as a "communication state."
• Time Magazine's August 1996 article Mars as Divine Cartoon: Perhaps the Universe is the hysterically funny work of a trickster-comic by Lance Morrow.
• William Grassic provides Cyborgs, Trickster, and Hermes: Donna Harway's Metatheory of Science and Religion.
• A Ben Kutz Idea Tree essay exploring trickster phenomenon within emergent systems.
• A Ben Kutz "Anatomy of an Economy" essay discussing Fragility and Tricksters.
• Thomas E. Cook's Unitarian Universalist sermon A Fool's Journey: Acts of Sedition Against the Orthodoxy.
• Todd Eklof's Unitarian Universalist sermon People Who Laugh With The Coyotes: Honoring Your Inner-Trickster.
• Tricksters are "God's fools" here on earth, an Easter meditation by Sue Eagle, is hosted on the Mennonite Central Committee web site.
• Rick Heffern wrote a Homage to the Trickster column for the National Catholic Reporter.
• Stanley Daimond's Job and the Trickster.
• Creative Minds' monthly discussion about Mythology, Legends, & Folklore looked at Trickster in September of 1996.
• Course overview for a Religion class about religion and comic literary theory (specifically Irony).
• Multiculturalism and Humor, an essay by David Espy.
• Midlife and the Shaman/Trickster: An Interview with Allan Chinen by Bert H. Hoff.
• Zen Tricksters: a band of musicians.
• Coyote Zen, "for alternative Zen from a Native American perspective."
• Terri Windling's Wile E. Coyote and Other Sly Trickster Tales.
• The Wile E. Coyote Question page, where people seek to answer questions like "Is Wile E. Coyote in fact, an example of the tragic hero, like Oedipus or Macbeth? What is the tragic flaw for which the forces of the universe have punished him (For instance, why are laws of nature suspended in the Roadrunner's favor)?"
• David "Rabbitman" Kelton writes on The similarities between 'Rabbit-Gods': The Great Hare, the Jade Rabbit, Bel, and Wn.
• The Rabbit, from a Warner Bros. Space Jam promo, describes the development of the character of Bugs Bunny.
• Erik Davis' Toon In, Turn On, Drop Out: The Sacred Wisdom of Bugs the Elder looks at foolish and tricksterish quality of "classic" cartoons.
• A very different Wascally Wabbit page.
• The Eulenspiegel Society. (Beats me: what this site is about.)
• Don Juan as Psychopath by Gordon Banks.
• Kubrick's Psychopaths: Society and Human Nature in the Films of Stanley Kubrick by Gordon Banks.
• Alan Watts on The Value of Psychotic Experience.
• A Conversation with Allen Ginsberg, as interviewed by Tom McIntyre.
• The Jester's Court is a "fyne musick" site with many "folk traditions."
• Clown History and Tradition, by Clowns of America International.
• The International Clown Hall of Fame's A Brief History of Clowning.
• FoolWeb is the home of the Corporate Fool, applying the jester's traditions to the corporate world.
• Information about Mr. Paul Birch, who was employed as British Airways' official 'corporate jester' in 1995.
• An article about magicians and The Art of Honest Deception, by Vincent H. Gaddis.
• Sin City, the Web home of Penn and Teller.
• skew #11 has a brief article about Carnival.
• Our Magical Heritage: A Tip of the Hat to Juggling Magicians from Juggler's World, 39(2).
• An essay on The Symbolism of Juggling from Juggler's World, 39(4).
• The Jim Rose Circus Sideshow.
• nurple.com's Sideshow of "Pickled Punks, Human Oddities, Nature's Mistakes, Circus Carnival Sideshow Freaks, Geeks, Physical Phenomena, Living Human Curiosities, Monstrosities, Medical Abnormalities, Bizarre, Fantastic, Nature's Anomalies, Extraordinary Dark Obscurities. .......forgotten by god?"
• A description of the "Humbug" episode of the X-Files.
• cynsa bonorris' The Butt Page.
• The RE/Search Guide to Bodily Fluids by Paul Spinrad includes a chapter about Joseph Pujol, The Fartiste.
• Cecil Adams of The Straight Dope answers the question "Did a French vaudeville star once specialize in trained flatulence?"
• Le Petomane: The Strange Life of a "Fartiste", a Retro article by Garrick H.S. Brown.
• D.L. Ashliman has an index of folklore and mythology, including information about Trickster Wives and Maids and Legendary Farts.
• Lugodoc has written Stolen Masks of the Horned God: A Short History of The Devil.
• An essay titled Some Light on Lucifer by Ina Belderis.
• The comic Saturnalia is a pagan response to Jack Chick.
• Art by Partick Sean Farley: A peek at the pooka.
• An excerpt from The Mystery of the Bards: The Book of the Fool, information about The Holy Fool: The third member of the Triad, and The Gifts of the Fool can all be found at The Pagan Library.
• From an astrological perspective, The Zodiak Master provides some information about Hermes, Mercury, and Kokopelli.
• John Opsopaus has a Pythagorean Tarot website, being "an interpretation of the Major and Minor Arcana on Pythagorean and Alchemical principles," and having a description of both the Fool and the Magician.
• Ian Borchardt's page about the Tarot cards of The Fool and The Magician.
• The Archetype of the Magician was Jim Granrose's 1996 diploma thesis for his degree from the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich.
• From Chasing the Dragon: The Junky as 20th Century Hero, Chapter 4: The Trickster, by Steve Perrin.
• The first of a three-part series, Adam Gorightly's Carlos Castaneda - The Trickster of Truths ran consecutively in issues 6-8 of the magazine The Excluded Middle.
• The Trickster Archetype in Psychotherapy with Alcoholics and Addicts by Jacques Rutzky.
• Robert Philen and Terry Trewitt explore Trickster and the Universal Elvis.
• Salon Magazine's January 1999 article The Trickster President: Clinton's enemies have made him a culture hero by Richard Goldstein.
• A list of 101 Murphy's Laws.
• The original Krusty the Clown Homepage.
• A website devoted to the comic strip Zippy the Pinhead.
• The Quasiofficial Robert Anton Wilson Homepages.
• Kristin Buxton's Discordian Page.
• The Church of the SubGenius.
• The Q Continuum is dedicated to the omnipotent Star Trek trickster. (BTW, did you know that when Star Trek first came out in the late 1960's there was a small group of people who were convinced it was not a fictional TV show, but a documentary that was filmed on location in space?)
• The 21st episode of the early 1990s TV show, The Flash, was titled "Trial of the Trickster". (And the Trickster was played by... Mark Hamill?! He also went on to star in the 1991 movie "Flash 2: Revenge of the Trickster." "Use the farce, Luke.")
• Tricksters: Surviving Con Men (and Women!), a "how-to" guide.
• A set of Regalia, for the complete and utter fool.

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And lastly, here are some "foolish" fiction, sayings, poems, and a prayer:

• An excerpt from Tom Cool's novel Secret Realms.
• The Trickster's Way by Mark Van Sciver.
• A Trickster's Tail by Phaedrus.
• An "iconoclase legend inspired from an old indian tale" called I am Trickster the Joker
• Todd Arthur White's Trickster-Waiter Creates the Food Service Industry.
• Jonathan Andrew Sheen had a short story titled The Trickster.
• Stormy Gael's Fool.
• Trickster In Love (a poem)
• Poly-nothing Man's poem Trickster
• Jim Esch's poem The Trickster
• Proverbs: Fools and Folly.
• A poem about The Goddess and the Fool.
• Rodert Bastell's poem Jester.
• The Fool's Prayer.

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From here you can go to Jester's Bauble, to my Glorantha page, or to my home page.

URL: http://members.aol.com/pmichaels/glorantha/foolsparadise.html

This webpage last escaped into cyberspace on: 07 March 2002.

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