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Possession Allusions & Cultural References

When authors refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.

Literary and Philosophical References

Figures from Myths, Fairy Tales, and Legends

  • Proserpine (1.6)
  • Ragnarök (2.2)
  • Melusine (3.51)
  • Rapunzel (4: Epigraph)
  • Maid Marian (4.20)
  • Merlin (4.65)
  • The Princess and the Pea (4.167)
  • Arachne (5.191)
  • Mnemosyne (6.2)
  • Medusa (6.2)
  • Thoth (6.23)
  • Fafnir (7.1)
  • Guinevere (7.74)
  • Pluto (7.86)
  • The City of Is/Ys (8.27)
  • Dahut (8.29)
  • Gradlond (8.29)
  • Ceres (8.55)
  • The Maenads (8.55)
  • Old King Cole (8.115)
  • Psyche (10.17)
  • Venus (10.17)
  • Eros (10.21)
  • Odin (10.22)
  • Gangrader (10.22)
  • Wafthrudnir (10.22)
  • Baldur (10.22)
  • Freya (10.90)
  • Iduna (10.90)
  • Artemis (10.129)
  • Pandora (10.242)
  • Snow White (12.171)
  • Ases (13: Epigraph)
  • Bör (13: Epigraph)
  • Ymir (13: Epigraph)
  • Honir (13: Epigraph)
  • Loki (13: Epigraph)
  • Oedipus (13.7)
  • Ti'amat (13.11)
  • Tiresias (13.11)
  • Narcissus (13.30)
  • Thor (13.46)
  • The Hrimthurse (13.76)
  • Scylla (16.10)
  • The Hydra (16.10)
  • The Sphinx (16.10)
  • Raimondin (16.25)
  • Lilith (19.14)
  • Lug (19.35)
  • Dagda (19.35)
  • Taranis (19.35)
  • Sir Lancelot (19.45)
  • Elaine of Astolat (19.45)
  • Baba Yaga (19.256)
  • Morgan le Fay (19.321)
  • Jack Frost (20.41)
  • Hel (25.186)
  • Hercules (26: Epigraph)
  • Hermes (Postscript: 6)
  • Maia (Postscript: 6)

Historical References

  • Lord (Frederic) Leighton (1.6)
  • Henry Crabb Robinson (1.12)
  • Alexander Selkirk (1.19)
  • Peter I of Portugal (1.19)
  • Iñez de Castro (1.19)
  • Walter Bagehot (1.20)
  • J.M.W. Turner (1.10)
  • Édouard Manet (2.16)
  • George Frederic Watts (2.16)
  • Leonardo da Vinci (2.17)
  • Thomas Fairfax (2.18)
  • Oliver Cromwell (2.18)
  • Gottschalk of Orbais (3.4)
  • Franz Mesmer (3.4)
  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (3.4)
  • Martin Luther (3.4)
  • Sarah Siddons (3.8)
  • Dorothea Jordan (3.8)
  • Mademoiselle Mars (3.8)
  • Sir Humphry Davy (3.12)
  • F.R. Leavis (3.15)
  • Emily Tennyson (3.42)
  • The Cumaean Sibyl (4.133)
  • Julius Caesar (4.137)
  • Saint Etheldreda (5.6)
  • Abélard and Héloïse (5.198)
  • Thomas Jefferson (6.25)
  • Emanuel Swedenborg (6.25)
  • Charles Wesley (6.25)
  • Robert Owen (6.25)
  • The Marquis de Lafayette (6.25)
  • Benjamin Franklin (6.25)
  • Julia Margaret Cameron (6.26)
  • The Fox Sisters (6.27)
  • Francis Bacon (6.27)
  • Robert Dale Owen (6.27)
  • Georges Cuvier (6.34)
  • Jules Michelet (6.34)
  • Joseph Ernest Renan (6.34)
  • Sir John Everett Millais (6.43)
  • Holman Hunt (6.43)
  • Gabriele Rossetti (6.44)
  • Angela Burdett-Coutts (6.46)
  • King James I of England (10.60)
  • Andrew Jackson Davis (10.68)
  • Daniel Dunglas Home (10.68)
  • Paracelsus (10.77)
  • Napoleon Bonaparte (10.96)
  • Melchisédech Thévenot (11.2)
  • Antoinette de Bourignon (11.2)
  • George Stephenson (12.18)
  • Thomas Henry Huxley (12.22)
  • St. Hilda (13.75)
  • Isaac Greenbury (13.104)
  • Johannes Vermeer (19.31)
  • Ronald Reagan (20.5)
  • Sophia Cottrell (20.31)
  • Edward Bulwer-Lytton (20.42)
  • Nassau William Senior (20.42)
  • Paul Gauguin (23.41)
  • Harriet Martineau (25.3)
  • Hallam Tennyson (25.6)
  • Rembrandt (25.23)
  • Raphael (25.23)
  • Machiavelli (26.32)
  • Julius Caesar (28.117)
  • Mark Antony (28.117)

Pop Culture References

  • Dallas (5.113)
  • Dynasty (5.113)
  • The Beatles (5.113)