Don't Forget Snow White! A Poisoned Apple And Crazy Weird Mirror!!

Don't forget Snow White! A poisoned apple and crazy weird mirror!!

ACOWAR References

I wanted to highlight a few of my favorite references in ACOWAR because it really does make the story way more fun! (These are mostly my own observations/ideas and nothing too official). 

I’ll add more tomorrow when I have time… but off the top of my head I remember:

Koeschi: probably from the Russian folk tale Koschei the Deathless

Stryga: the same name as that main chimera on Notre Dame!

Vassa: a reference to the Russian folk tale The Firebird and Princess Vasilia (although her story also sounds like it’s blended with Swan Lake). A lot of other recent YA books have retold this one too yay

I got serious Exodus vibes from Nephelle’s story

Lord Thanatos. lol

Thesan, the Etruscan Goddess of dawn

the Morrigan (which still makes me so happy)

Andromache

pretty sure Azriel is named after Azrael, the Angel of Death

Madja the healer: I read about an ancient Egyptian archeological site where they found a healer’s body and named her Madja but maybe that’s a total coincidence

not sure if Dagdan is a reference to The Dagda but that was my first thought… especially the association with the cauldron

Idk if Elain is a reference to the Arthurian legend where Elaine the Fair (or The Lady of Shallott if you’re an Anne of Green Gables fan) dies of unrequited love… but that kind of fits.

the Myrmidons: I’m taking this in the Achilles context

Eris, the Greek goddess of discord

I think the Illyrian stuff is obvious but there’s that

Helion’s probably a form of Helios, the Titan god of the sun

I totally googled this after a certain plot point: Lucien means “light/illumination” and that’s rather fitting haha. He’s also a prince in Persian mythology buuut I don’t think that really fits.

the Naga

And this is old news but still makes me sad when people don’t know it, so: the ancient Scottish ballad of Tam Lin

Ouroboros!

and then there are the obvious influences in earlier books of Beauty & the Beast, Hades/Persephone, Cinderella (with how she had to pick the lentils out of the fireplace before she could go to the “ball” in ACOTAR), East of the Sun West of the Moon, etc…

Ok I feel like I’m forgetting a ton and I know I’ve read about a Brannagh before, so let me think on a few and add more later! I just love mythology and how many reference Maas can throw into one book.