Links are my favorite things about websites. They can occupy me for hours, searching from site to site. So I thought I would provide some of my own. Some things to keep in mind:
There is a lot of junk out there on the web. I decided that if I was going to provide links they would be to sites I had some confidence in. I can't speak for the quality of the links on those sites, of course.
I hate sites with music, unless the music is the point. You won't find any sites here with Celtic harp music or the like.
I hate broken links. If you find that any of these are broken, please let me know.
A number of these, especially the academic ones, are .pdf's, so you'll need at least Acrobat Reader for them. That can be downloaded for free, though, and will prove useful time and time again.
If you have any sites to recommend, send them to me. I'll check them out and decide whether I want to put them here.
Enjoy.
Nemos Ognios (ADF) - My grove's website.
Ár nDraíocht Féin: A Druid Fellowship - ADF, founded in the 1980s by Isaac Bonewits, is the largest druidic organization in the United States. I am proud to be a member.
America:
Adams Family Papers - The famous letters between John and Abigail Adams, plus John's diaries and autobiography.
The Constitution - Worth reading from time to time, if for no other reason than to remind yourself of how amazing this document is. In its original form it was four pages long! With a few changes, we've governed ourselves for over 200 years on four pages.
The Great Seal of the United States - How it came to be.
Library of Congress Collections - Huge collection of American source material.
Star of Columbia - A song by M. T. Durham.
The Supreme Court Historical Society
USHistory.org - "Created and Hosted by the Independence Hall Association in Philadelphia." Large number of pages centering around the history of America from its founding through to the Revolutionary War. A lot of information centering on Philadelphia, of course, but the rest of the colonies are well-represented.
Walt Whitman - reading from "America."
America: Separation of Church and State
Critique of David Barton's "America's Godly Heritage" - A publication by a proponent of the "America is a Christian Nation" is trashed by the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs.
Separation of Church and State Home Page - Essays giving arguments in favor, and answers to arguments against.
Thomas Jefferson on the Wall of Separation between Church and State - Read what he really wrote.
Treaty with Tripoli, 1796 - Did you know that the United States wasn't founded on Christianity? The Founders did.
The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom - One of the three things Thomas Jefferson wanted on his tombstone was "Author of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom." A must-read for anyone wanting to understand the thoughts of the Founders regarding religious freedom.
Anatolia
Goddess and Child Statue - Beautiful, isn't it?
Introduction to Hittite
The Balts:
templeStudia Mythologica Slavica - An on-line journal. Despite the title, there are a number of articles on the Balts. Maybe of the articles aren't in English, but in Slavic languages. Many are, however, or in German or French.
Witches in Baltic Fairy Tales - Mostly a linguistic analysis of the words for "witch" in Baltic, but with some folklore as well.
The Celts:
General:
About a Bull - The Táin Bó Cuailnge in comic book form (so far only a few chapters).
Bradley W. Schenk Graphics - Celtic and Retro Sci-Fi clip art.
Celtic Astrology - The Fabrication of 'Celtic' Astrology by Peter Berresford Ellis. Bad news for fans of Robert Graves and the Ogham Tree Alphabet.
An Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language - By Alexander MacBain
Everything Ogham on the Web - Links to a mix of academic and not-so-academic sites. Includes links to Ogham fonts.
Fianna: Guide to Irish Genealogy
A Manx Notebook - Everything Manx, including the complete texts of a number of old folklore books.
Map of Ireland - Clickable; includes megalithic sites.
Morphing Tetradachms - Many Celtic coins were based on Greek ones, and as time and space goes by the Greek images dissolve into Celtic abstraction. Up till now you've had to see this by looking at pictures of coins next to each other, but now you can see it happen right before your very own eyes! Truly cool.
Roman Britain - Maps and general information.
Neo-Pagan Celts
Deo Mercurio - Gaulish Reconstructionism
Lugh - In a medieval style, from Deviant Art.
The Preserving Shrine - Homepage of Celtic Reconstructionist Erynn Rowan Laurie.
Primary Sources:
Ancient North Italic Inscriptions - Copies of these inscriptions, with transliterations. No translations, though.
Baile in Scáil ("The Phantom's Frenzy") - Very famous story about Lugh and the red ale of Sovereignty.
The Bodleian Dinnshenchas - Medieval stories about place names. Many important myths.
The Book of the Taking of Ireland
Carmina Gadelica - The first volume, in English and Scottish Gaelic, of this late 19th century collection of Scottish prayers.
CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts - A project to publish on-line all of the medieval Celtic texts. Most aren't translated, but many are. This is a good place to look first.
CoinProject
The Colloquy of the Two Sages
The Edinburgh Dinnshenchas
The Four Ancient Books of Wales
Gerald of Wales - The Conquest of Ireland - Not the one with the horse sacrifice in it.
Gerald of Wales - The Topography of Ireland - This is the one with the horse sacrifice, as well as the description of the eternal fire of Brighid.
Mary Jones - This link could have been put in a number of places, but I decided that it would be most important here. Among other things, Jones has gathered (and continues to gather) a large number of Celtic texts, right from the pre-Christian era. It's a lot like CELT, but has a large number of texts the other site doesn't. An excellent place to start.
Pictish Stone Database
Preiddeu Annwn - Authoritative edition and translation of one of the most important and most commonly mistranslated Welsh texts.
Ptolemy: The Geography
Sengóidelc - Quotations from Medieval Irish literature, in both Irish and English. Some lovely stuff.
Tribes and Customs of Hy-Many
A Veue of the Present State of Irelande, by Edmund Spenser (1596)
Academic Secondary Sources:
Bibliography of Irish Linguistics and Literature (School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies)
Brehon Law Links - The medieval Irish had a very involved and well-thought out system of law. A little too well-thought out; you can't help imagining Irish lawyers sitting around going, "OK, we know how much we should fine someone if their cow wanders onto someone else's land. But shouldn't we decide whether the fine should be different by day or night?" "Good idea." "And what about if they had to break down a fence to do it?" "Great thinking." "And shouldn't we give different fines for different colour cows?" "Ah, Seamus, now you've gone too far."
Electonic Dictionary of the Irish Language - The DIL has been the source for both Old and Middle Irish for almost a hundred years. It's a bitch to use, but now it's on-line and you don't have to pull out the magnifying glass to read the tiny text. And it's searchable! Yee hah!
E-Keltoi - On-line journal.
Gaulish-English Dictionary
Name Constructions in Gaulish
What's a Digital Medievalist? - The person who runs this site is a graduate student in Celtic Studies at UCLA. Some great essays and reading lists.
Museums:
Those of us without access to the great collections of Gaulish artifacts, such as Esperandieu, have little exposure to their richness. Books on the Celts show a favored several dozen of artifacts, all quite wonderful. But there are so many more, many of them wonderful in their own way. Fortunately, a lot of museums are putting images of parts of their collections on line, and since some of these are smallish local ones, they have all sorts of artifacts that won't be found in the lists of famous ones. Since they're local (i.e., the artifacts in them were found in their area), they're mostly in either French or German. Some have English translations, but since the main attraction is the images, those with no French (me) or German (me almost) can still get quite a lot out of them.
Danish National Museum - where the Gundestrup cauldron lives.
Musée des Archéologie Nationales
British Deities
Coventina: Carrawburgh
Cocidius: Yardhope
Epona: Wiltshire
Matronae: Lincoln
Water Nymphs: Chester
Continental Celtic Deities
One of the great things about studying the Continental Celts is that you don't have to learn a Celtic language. Sure, French and German are darn useful, and a touch of Latin never hurt anyone, but the most important evidence is in the artifacts. I'm going to concentrate on the deities here, although there are certain to be other artifacts on the pages I'm recommending. I'll also be including images of Roman deities identified with Celtic ones.
The labels on the links are either the findspots, the museums the artifacts are in, or the website I found them on, in that order of preference.
Apollo: Bifrost
Artio: Bern
Aveta: Treveri
Bandua Araugelensis: Museo de Arqueología de Badajoz
Danuvius: Vienna?
Endovellicus: Terena
Epona: Epona.net
Frieberg am Neckar
Gannat
Köngen
Langres 1
Langres 2
Metz
Musée des Antiquités nationales 1
Musée des Antiquités nationales 2
Pannonia
Salonica
Wikipedia Commons - Photos of a number of images.
Esus: Chronarchy.com
Genii Cucullati: Rivery, Picardy
Grannus: Andesina
Bonn
Jupiter Columns:
Arlon
Bonn
Dieburg
Donon (Vosges)
Echzell
Grand (Vosges) 1
Grand (Vosges) 2
Köln
Luxembourg
Metz 1
Metz 2
Obernburg 1
Obernburg 2
Magusanus: Bonn
Empel
Matres/Matronae:
Bath - (Not from the continent.)
Bibracte
Bonn
Bonn (Aufonian Mothers)
Zulphich
Mercury: Clermont Ferrand
Mother Goddess:
Musee National d'Archeology 1
Musee National d'Archeology 2
Nantosuelta: Metz
Speyer
Naria:
Muri
Nehellennia: Colijnsplaat
Various 1,
2,
3,
4
Rosmerta:
Clermont-Ferrand
Eisenberg
Reims
Sequana: Dijon
Sirona: Malain
Sucellus: Amiens
Metz
Musee National d'Archeology
Prémeaux
Trier
Vienna
Taranis:
Avignon
Le Chatelet Gourzon Haute Marne
Gundestrup Cauldron
Landouzy-la-Ville
St. Romain-en-Gal (Rhône) (This one is especially interesting, since it depicts a ritual in front of a Jupiter column with Taranis on top. Since the mosaic is arranged seasonally, it may represent such a ritual in June, possibly even at the summer solstice.
Teutates: Reims (I have my doubts about this one.)
Tricephalous:
Musée des Antiquité nationales
Paris
Reims
Reims 2
Soissons (Fig. 20)
Classical:
Ancient Greek Music - Reconstructed songs.
Ann R. Raia, Index of Images
Beazley Archive - Great collection of artifacts.
The Bronze Tablets of Iguvium - Poultney's translation of the only ritual manual from the western Indo-Europeans. It's in Umbrian, which is unfortunate, since although Umbrian is closely related to Latin, it isn't closely related enough for us to be sure of everything in the text. The tablets also use technical terms, and assume a familiarity with ritual that we don't have. For instance, the tablets use the word poni, which can be translated as "drink," but that doesn't tell us what drink. Poultney translates it as "mead," but that's only a guess. Still a very important document, though, and worth a read.
Classical Abbreviations for Authors and their Works
Classics FAQ
Electronic Antiquity - On-line journal.
Greek Gods and Religion - Artworks from the Met depicting deities, rituals, and mythology.
Homeric Singing - Information, bibliography, and some sample tunes.
The Obscure Goddesses Online Directory:Roman - An on-going project (projected to go to 300 pages) to list and describe obscure Roman goddesses.
An Overview of Greek Grammar - Good for an introduction or a quick review.
The Rhinoceros Lodge - This site belongs to a Greek Pagan group. There is much here about their rituals, an amazing collection of reviews of books written by real scholars, and some random ramblings that are never boring. (I broke my promise here; there's a musical background on the site.)
Roman Power and Roman Imperial Sculpture - The most interesting thing here is cup at the bottom of the page that shows the moment of killing in a Roman sacrifice. I'm not aware of any other such representation.
The Stele - Graeco-Roman Paganism.
Terme di Diocleziano Museo Nazionale Romana - Photos of artifacts from the museum.
The Theoi Project - Short descriptions of the Greek deities. Also over 600 pictures of them, many from pottery, a major source of knowledge of Greek religion,
The Vindolanda Tablets - Roman writing tablets from northern England. These are the sort of things that get thrown away, but were preserved in this case. It's the everyday stuff that's the most important.
Primary Sources:
Festus, Breviarum
Ovid's Fasti - A poem explaining the festivals of the Roman year. He only finished half of it, but what we have is priceless.
Sextus Propertius, The Love Elegies
Germanic:
General:
Beowulf in a Hundred Tweets - I almost put this in the humor section.
Germanic Lexicon Project - Dictionaries and grammars of a number of Germanic languages.
Lārhūs Fyrnsida - Anglo-Saxon Reconstructionism.
Hrafnar - Norse Reconstructionist kindred.
Odin's Gift - Norse Reconstructionism. Many pages. I've found the page of songs especially useful.
Primary Sources:
Anglo-Saxon Charms - Some of them in translation.
Gallehus Horn and Runestones
Ragnar's Viking Page - Links to sagas and the rune poems.
Saxo Grammaticus' Gesta Danorum. The first nine books of one of the important sources for Germanic mythology.
Wulfila Project - Collection of texts in Gothic and some other early Germanic languages.
Judaism and Christianity:
The Development of the Canon of the New Testament - Also includes non-canonical texts.
Early Christian Writings - Both canonical and non-canonical works, including the writings of the Church Fathers.
Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library
Orion Center for the Study of the Dead Sea Scrolls - From the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The Kalasha:
The Kalasha are an Indo-Iranian people living in Pakistan who are neither Indic nor Iranian. (Discuss.) Although under assault by Islam, for centuries, and tourists, in recent years, their culture has survived. They are now the only Pagan Indo-European culture, making a study of them of great importance for Indo-European Pagans.
Muhammad Kashif Ali, A Historical Reflection of Zhoshi: the Spring Festival of the Kalasha of Chitral (Pakistan)
The Kafirs of the Hindu-Kush -- George Scott Robertson traveled through the area of the Kalasha from 1889 - 1891, and wrote this book on his experiences. He writes as the British officer he was, but shows a love of the area and its people. This, together with the early date, makes his book very useful for understanding the traditional culture of the Kalasha.
Kalash Religion - By Michael Witzel.
Mithraism:
Modern Paganism:
Into the Mound: Druid Occultism and Pagan Sorcery -- Blog of Ian Corrigain, Archdruid Emeritus of ADF, and a darned good liturgist and composer.
Pagan Hierarchy - Wondering where you fit in in the Pagan community? Want to know who you should be looking down on and who's looking down on you?
The Pagan Pride Project Website
Paganism in the Disney Vaults - I've always thought that Disney was Pagan.
South Central Druid Coalition - Links to druidic groups in Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Louisiana.
Welcome to the Witches' Voice (Witchvox.com) - A great resource for contacts with Pagan groups and open ritual announcements.
Shinto
Shinto is the only widespread Pagan religion of an industrialized country, so it's worthwhile for modern Pagans to look into it. It's not doing too well, though, which is also a reason to check it out, to see what's causing its decline.
Basic Terms of Shinto
Green Shinto - Shinto Magazine.
Jinja Honcho - Association of Shinto Shrines
Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America - Shinto shrine in Washington state.
Silver Ravenwolf:
Silver Ravenwolf is one of the most popular Wiccan authors today. Unfortunately, her work has some severe problems, not the least of which is that she recommends that children lie to their parents. Here are some websites critical of her:
The Problem with Silver Ravenwolf - An essay from Smiling Panther's Den.
Tarnished Silver: Why I don't recommend Silver Ravenwolf.
Slavic:
Bulgarian - Store for Bulgarian art, music, folklore, jewelry, clothing, and the like.
Polish Art Center - Store for not only Polish art (particularly folk art), but books, including on folklore.
Studies in Slavic Culture - An on-line journal. I especially recommend Issue V, on ritual.
Studia Mythologica Slavica - An on-line journal. Maybe of the articles aren't in English, but in Slavic languages. Many are, however, or in German or French.
Thelema and Ceremonial Magic:
Also see my pages on Nuit
The Blue Equinox - Volume III of The Equinox (see below).
The Equinox - When my wife gave me the ten issues of Volume I for a wedding present in 1981, she had people all up and down the east coast looking for them. She finally got a complete set in a bookstore that had gotten them in as a special order. When the manager learned why she wanted them, he sold them to her. Now the thing's on line. I like her way of getting them instead.
The Lemegeton or Lesser Key of Solomon
The Libri of Aleister Crowley - Crowley wrote so much that I doubt this has all of it, but there sure are a lot. Also some links to other Thelemic sites.
Ra-Hoor-Khuit's Magical Library - On-line copies of some of Crowley's works.
Thelemic Texts
Thrace:
The Language of the Thracians
The Tocharians
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Tocharian (but were afraid to ask) - Assuming you did (and were).
Vedism and Hinduism:
Der Rig Veda - The Rig Veda translated into German.
Rig Veda - Griffith's translation. It's obsolete, but is still the only complete English translation. Maybe not useful for Vedic scholars, but fine for those wanting a feel for the tradition.
The Rigveda: Metrically Restored Text - This is the RV in transliterated Sanskrit. Those who, like me, don't read Sanskrit, might still find it useful. Sometimes knowing the exact word is in Sanskrit is important. For instance, is a word translated "Law" originally "rta" or "dharman?" It can make a difference.
Rites of the Twice-Born - Classic book on Indic ritual.
Veda and Vedic Ritual: Agni, Soma, and Pravargya. - Not only great descriptions of these rituals, but videos of parts of them being performed. How cool is that?
The Vedic Experience - A collection of Vedic texts with commentary, by Raimon Panikkar.
The Vedic House - By Louis Renou.
Vedic India - By Louis Renou.
The Vedic Wedding Ceremony - A short overview.
Michael Witzel's Home Page. - Dr. Witzel teaches Indian Studies at Harvard. His site contains a number of his publications, including a book on Vedic religion.
Wicca and Neo-Wicca:
Catalyst Point - Some marvelously original ideas on Paganism.
Commentary on the Charge of the Goddess - By Hekate's Hound. Theology and sources.
Covenant of the Goddess - An organization composed of covens and solitaries. Well-respected; they sent a representative to the Second Parliament of World Religions in 1993. A video of part of their presentation was shown on the 700 Club to show those "awful Wiccans." It showed a professional-looking woman in a suit giving a calm and clear presentation on Wicca. Apparently Pat Robertson had no idea that the clip might make people think that Wiccans were actually more respectable than they had thought.
Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition - One of the works of Charles Godfrey Leland, a source of Wicca.
Gerald Gardner.com - Indispensible for studying the history of Wicca.
High Magic's Aid - Gerald Gardner's fictional work in which he lays out a lot about Wicca, including the earliest printed version of the first and second degree initiation rituals.
The Law of Liberty - by Aleister Crowley. Much of this ended up in Gardner's first draft of "The Charge," but more importantly, it describes a theology of the God and the Goddess that almost certainly had a strong effect on that of Wicca.
Levity's Vestments - Similar to my essay on the origins of the Charge, only concentrating on the bits from Crowley.
Society of the Elder Faiths - Massachusetts Pagan Organization.
Thelemic Origins of Wicca - There is a large amount of Crowley's writings and theology in Wicca.
Thirten Books every Wiccan Should Read - Of the books I've read, I agree. Especially with A Book of Pagan Prayer.
The Witch Cult in Western Europe, by Margaret Murray - One of the founding documents of Wicca. Murray was a respected Egyptologist who came up with the idea that the people persecuted for witchcraft were actually practicing a secretly surviving Pagan mystery cult. Gardner took here seriously. No one in academia does anymore. Worth reading as an historical document, and as a way to see what in Wicca has its source in her.
Zoroastrianism (and other Iranian)
Afrinigan - Film of one of the Zoroastrian rituals.
Ashoi - Recordings of manthras.
Avesta - Zoroastrian Archives - As far as I can tell, a collection of files of all the Zoroastrian scriptures.
Encylopedia Iranica
No Ruz - The Iranian New Year.
The Religious Ceremonies and Customs of the Parsees - by Jivanji Jamshedi Modi. A long book describing the Zoroastrian rituals. It's on the Avesta site, but deserves its own link.
Ritual Instruments in the Zoroastrian Tradition - Fezana Journal, 27:4 (December/Winter, 2014).
The Role of Fire in Parsi Ritual - Journal article.
Scythian Art - Slides from the collection of John Haskins at the University of Pittsburgh. Beautiful.
Yasna - A film of the most important Zoroastrian ritual.
Zoroastrian Liturgical Ceremonies - Short descriptions of the more important Zoroastrian rituals, with photos of them.
Zoroastrian Texts - translated with notes by Prods Oktor Skjærvø. A modern translation of Zoroastrian scriptures.
Zoroastrian Worship
Crap Detectors
It's a sad truth that when you hang around with the sort of people I do, you get exposed to a lot of hooey. After a while you decide it's not worth the trouble getting upset about things, and you learn to smile and nod. I was getting used to that, and then Reiki came along to add one more thing to the list.
AntiPolygraph.org - This particular crap detector is the real crap. How come I learned that lie detectors were bogus in my psych classes back in the 70s, but the government is still using them?
Bad Astronomy - I don't agree with all his opinions of movies, but the science is excellent.
Bad Science - Science isn't always taught particularly well.
Bad Science Debunked - No, it doesn't debunk the site above.
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal. - They'd probably hate most of this site, but I'm glad they're out there doing their job.
The Crackpot Index - "A simple method for rating potentially revolutionary contributions to physics."
Don Lindsay Archive - Essays by a computer scientist on a variety of subjects, primarily fringe "science." There is a good one on fallacious arguments. He takes on creationism as well.
Encylcopedia of American Loons - We have such a rich diversity of loons in this country.
Exposing PseudoAstronomy
Handbook of Logical Fallacies - The basic rules.
Investigator's Guide to Allegations of "Ritual" Child Abuse - A report from an FBI agent on just how crazy the rumors of ritual sacrifices are.
Elizabeth Loftus - The website of the premier researcher into how memories are created and recalled. Great writer as well as researcher.
Memory and Reality - Website of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation. Memory is a tricky thing. The worst thing about it is that it's not just the bringing to mind that's unreliable, it's the storing. People's lives have been ruined over this stuff.
Moon Base Cluvius - Yes, we did in fact land on the moon. Now go eat your paste quietly.
The Museum of Hoaxes - It's nice to see people who have fun with their work.
Quackwatch: Your Guide to Quackery, Health Fraud, and Intelligent Decisions.
James Randi - The premier skeptic.
Snopes - One of my favorite sites. If you hear anything that sounds too good to be true, look it up here. Or you can just go to it from time to time and browse; that's what I do.
Swallowing the Camel - "Using logic and reason to find the truth about the bizarre."
Evolution
It's sad that evolution still has to be defended, but there are still those who think that religion should be taught in science class, and that the scientific method shouldn't apply to questions of the origins of species.
Anti-Evolution: The Critic's Response
Becoming Human
Creationism’s Fallacy of Retrospective Astonishment
Evolution: Frequently Asked Questions - A nice treatment of the basics from PBS.
Know Your Creationists: Kent Hovind - Kent Hovind is finally out of jail after a long stint for tax evasion, and back to his old tricks. But while he was away, his son stole his organization out from under him, so he's a bit less effective than before.
Laetoli Footprints - 3.6 million year old footprint of hominids walking erect.
The Many Faces of Anti-Evolution
No Answers in Genesis
National Center for Science Education - Defending the Teaching of Evolution in the Public Schools. Check out their Project Steve.
The Panda's Thumb - Discussion group. Named after one of the best anti-creationist arguments, the panda's "thumb," which is actually a jury-rigged wrist bone. Makes a Creator who made things just the way they are seem not very competent.
A Reducibly Complex Mousetrap - Michael Behe, the apostle of Intelligent Design, likes to use a mousetrap as an analogy of an irreducibly complex system, one in which the loss of any one part means the system loses the ability to function. Let's put aside the fact that since mousetraps don't reproduce and aren't subject to natural selection, the analogy is irrelevant, and just read John H. MacDonald's account of how a mousetrap could after all "evolve," piece by piece.
Science and Creationism - The National Academy of Science's take on the subject.
Talk.Origins Archive - A collection of essays on the debate between Creationism and evolution. Absolutely fascinating, and a good teaching tool.
Understanding Evolution
Flags and Heraldry:
One of my lesser-known geek interests.
Australian Proposed Flags - See why some people should be allowed to design flags (Ralph Kelly; the one with the kangaroo) and some people should not (Antonio Martins).
The College of Arms - Center of British heraldry.
Heraldry Clip Art - Clip art of heraldic elements. Good not just for heraldic art; you never know when you might need clip art of a griffin.
Flag Identifier - Look up a flag you want to identify, or play around with it, seeing what flags line up with what design elements you choose. Not just national flags, either, so there are some pretty out-there designs here.
Institute of Heraldry - US Army heraldry.
International Heraldry and Heralds - If I were to send a newbie to heraldry to one site, it would be this. It gives information on how coats of arms are formed and described, the history of them, the laws in various countries about having them, and much more. I'd also recommend it to the more experienced; I myself learned a lot from it. Lots of great pictures of arms, too, most of them with blazons.
Mooney's Flag Detective - Another site to look up flags by appearance, rather than country.
Princeton, Massachusetts - Possibly the worst flag ever designed. It has a basic design, with a seal, on which is (among pictures of buildings) a shield with a design on it which is the reverse of the basic design. Plus clip art scattered around the field, including windmills, skis, and a tennis racket. Worth a look and a laugh. Sorry, Princeton, when it comes to flags you failed.
7 Fantastic Flags that Break Evert Design Rule - Sometimes you just have to go crazy.
History:
Books banned in Nazi Germany - We're not quite there yet. However, when the time comes, I'm sure these will be on the Neo-Conservatives' lists as well:
Writings of a philosophical and social nature whose content deals with the false scientific enlightenment of primitive Darwinism and Monism.
All writings that ridicule, belittle or besmirch the Christian religion and its institution, faith in God, or other things that are holy to the healthy sentiments of the Volk.
NetSERF - Many links to Medieval Studies sites.
Roman Emperors - So many emperors, so little time.
They Thought They Were Free - Excerpt from a book about how pre-War Germans got used to living under the Nazis. See how much of this sounds familiar.
Indo-European (language and culture):
Areal and Typological Affinities of Proto-Indo-European - pdf by Ranko Matasovic
The Ash Tree in Indo-European Culture - Article by Darl Dumont. Pretty cool; did you know you can actually make mead from ash sap?
Paleoglot: The Headache of the Indo-European Subjucntive - Plus other linguistic articles.
The Early History of the Indo-European languages. - (Click on the left-most book.) Article from Scientific American by Gamkrelidze and Ivanov; their theories about the Indo-European homeland and Proto-Indo-European phonology are controversial, but they are well respected.
Indo-European Dispersals and the Eurasian Steppe - Youtube video of a lecture by J. P. Mallory on the origin and spread of Indo-European.
The Indo-European Family -- The Linguistic Evidence - Good overview of Indo-European linguistics, by Brian D. Joseph of Ohio State.
Indo-European Phonology - As well as the subject `, this site contains a large number of Proto-Indo-European words, with their proper endings.
Indo-European Resources - Links to sites on Indo-European languages and culture.
"Let us now praise famous grains." - Article by Calvert Watkins that's required reading for anyone interested in Indo-European sacred drinks.
On the creation of domestic animals in Proto-Indo European mythology - Very basic, but useful as an introduction.
An Overview of the Proto-Indo-European Verb System- Listed as out of date, but still the best (or atleast easiest to use) treatment for those who want to write in Proto-Indo-European.
Language:
American English Dialect Map
Ape-English Dictionary - Admittedly, you won't be able to write a novel with this. But it might come in handy in Ape Bars.
Ardalambion - Everything you always wanted to know about the languages of Tolkien.
The Awful German Language - Mark Twain's essay on German.
Ancient Scripts - One of my dorky interests; gives examples of more ways of writing than I knew existed.
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest - "It was a dark and stormy night ... "
Cliche Generator - If they had been recorded in some primitive tribe, or included in an ancient text, we would say that they were records of a shared culture.
Circolwyrde Wordhord - Computer Terminology for speakers of Old English. This probably should have gone under "Too much time on their hands."
Dialectizer - A good supplement to Babel Fish.
Diner Lingo Dictionary - OK, we've all heard of "Adam and Eve on a raft," but I was greatly disappointed to learn that the diner lingo term for a BLT is "BLT."
Elfling - Excellent site on Tolkien's languages.
Endangered Language Project - Descriptions of endangered languages, and, even better, sometimes there are recordings.
Engrish - In Japan English is kind of cool, but those who put it on things such as t-shirts don't necessarily know what they're saying. Let this serve as a warning to those getting tattoos of Chinese words. Do you really know what message you are permanently putting on your body?
A Glossary of Linguistic Terms - For a field which studies language, linguistics has an almost impenetrable jargon.
Another Glossary of Linguistic Terms
How tu Pranownse Inglish - It runs out that English spelling does have spelling rules that will allow you to pronounce written words correctly 85% of the time.
How to Say "Rabbit" - in different languages.
"Ich bin ein Berliner." - Did JFK really say he was a jelly donut? Hell, no. Click here and find out why.
Interactive Sagittal Section - You can adjust the shape and such of a cutaway side view of a mouth, to show what is meant by descriptions such as "bilabial stop."
International Phonetic Alphabet Pronunciation - Click on the symbol and hear the pronunciation.
Jennifer's Language Page - How to say common phrases such as "hello" and "thank you" in many different languages, plus some very useful links to other linguistics sites.
The Language Construction Kit - Truly marvelous advice on inventing your own language.
Language Evolution
Learn to say "squirrel" in over 100 different languages. - They left out the Proto-Indo-European *werwer-.
"My name is ... in over 275 languages.
Net Lingo - A dictionary of internet terms.
North American English Dialects
Oh, my god, there's an axe through my head! - In 112 languages.
The Organization of Dialect Diversity in North America - The good news for my daughter is that the failure to distinguish between "cot" and "caught" is fairly widespread. The bad news for civilization is that the failure to distinguish between "pen" and "pin" is spreading.
Phrontistery - About words, including some marvelous material on "lost words."
Pseudodictionary - Madeup words.
San Diego Linguistics Papers
sci.lang FAQ - Questions and answers on linguistics. Where to go to find out just how many words the Eskimos have for "snow."
Sentence First - Etymology blog.
The Slot - By a copy writer for copy writers and language mavens. I can't say that I agree with everything he says (I can't go along with his problem about calling Bush simply "Governor" instead of "Governor of Texas"), but most of it is an argument for common sense in the face of language Nazis.
Take Our Word for It - Fun etymology site.
Unsuck it - Translating jargon into real language.
Word2Word Language Resources - Links to forums, translators, language courses, etc. It's hard to tell how good these courses are without using them, but it's good to see them all in one place.
World Atlas of Linguistic Structure
Your Dictionary.com: Grammars and Language Courses - Links to on- and off-line resources for learning particular languages.
Linguists' Web Pages:
Many linguists have webpages, usually on their institutions' sites. The great thing about them is that they frequently contain papers (sometimes even books), either published or not. There's some truly amazing stuff. There can also be humor pages, interesting links, or odd things like a live feed from outside their office window. Some of the material may be not in English, but even on a German linguist's website there are usually at some papers in English. Many of these papers are out of my depth, but you might enjoy them.
Paul Boersma
Andrew Carnie
Paul Hagstrom
Brian D. Joseph
Frederik Kortlandt
John M. Lawler
Bruce MacLennan - Mostly on cognitive science from a computer point of view, but a few articles on linguistics.
Beatrice Santorini - Amazing humor pages (plus serious stuff).
Religion:
Is that in the Bible? - Fascinating articles about the bible, especially the sources of the parts of each book. Particularly interesting is the article, under "Resources," entitled "Poor and Misleading Translation in the New International Version (NIV)." Since the NIV is very popular among Evangelicals, it's a pity there are these problems. In many cases parts of the NIV have been translated to avoid contradictions that are in the text, which is a very dishonest thing for a translator to do.
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Monastic Mumblings: A Friar's Journey - A Christian site with essays on religion, politics, and culture. His writings are thought-provoking, and I recommend the site to anyone of any religion.
Psyche's Links - Over 5000 links to religion sites, mostly Christian and Jewish. I make no promises of the accuracy or even the sanity of the links.
Virtual Religion Index - Links to links on religions, ancient and modern.
Science and Math (Miscellaneous):
The Beetles - The world's most successful family.
Estimating the Time of Death - Completely useless to me, and all the more interesting because of that.
Inside David's Head - My name is David. This is not my head.
Online Journals:
At the Edge Home Page - An online folklore journal.
The Bryn Mawr Classical Review - Reviews of books on ancient Greece and Rome.
Histos - Classics journal.
Internet Archaeology - Online archaeology journal.
Journal of Religion and Society
Meatnews.com - What it says.
Electronic Antiquity
Speculative Grammarian Online - "The premier scholarly journal featuring research in the neglected field of satirical linguistics." Looking for an article entitled "How Many is Umpteen?" Feeling a need for a Proto-Indo-European roots crossword puzzle? Then this is the journal for you.
TOCS-IN - Not actually a journal, but an index to 185 journals on the classics, the Ancient Near East, and religion. Incredibly useful; before you can find something, you have to know what there is to look for.
Miscellaneous Primary Sources:
Diotoma - Texts from Rome, Greece, and Egypt relevant to women in those cultures.
Folklore and Mythology: Electronic Texts
Perseus Digital Library - Mainly Greek and Roman texts.
The Robin Hood Project - Extensive collection of ballads and other sources of the Robin Hood legend.
Sources For Hard To Find Books:
AddALL
Alibris.com
Allbookstores.com
BookFinder.com
Locating Books - A list of links to places to get out-of-print books.
South Asia Books
Dissertation Express - You can order copies of doctoral
dissertations here.
Aardvarks
Aardvarks are beasts with very long noses.
Aardvarks are beasts with very long toeses.
They uses their toeses for ripping up mounds
Where termites do live on African grounds.
"Aardvark" means "earth pig." - Aardvark's are not "timid animals." This noble beast is simply above the fray. He will fight fiercely when attacked, however; never mistake nobility for cowardice.
Great Uncle Aardvark? - One of the ways in which these noble beasts are special is that they have their own order. Now here's another: genetically they appear to be very close to the first mammals.
Orycteropus afer (On Animal Diversity Web) - General information on this noble beast.
Beatles
The world's most successful musical group.
Alan W. Pallock - Analyses of Beatles' recordings by a musicologist. Find out why they were so great.
What goes on: Beatles Anomalies List - Odd things that go on in Beatles songs, many of them artifacts of the recording process.
While My Guitar Gently Weeps - "While my guitar gently weeps" played on a ukulele like it was a classical guitar. You have to listen to this, whether you're a Beatles fan or not. Heavenly.
Games
Asteroids Revenge 3 - Asteroids from their point of view.
Flags: Guess the Nation - They show you the flag, you guess the nation. Hey, some of us think this is fun!
Free Educational Games
Free Rice - Define words, and these people donate rice to poor people.
Hangnun - Hangman, sort of.
The Official Rock Papers Scissors Strategy Guide - And you thought the game was simple.
Orisinal - A few dozen original games, some seriously chickish (collecting flowers on the string connecting a bottle of champagne and a rising balloon? Please.) But some non-chick ones as well. I.e., you get to blow things up.
Penguinball - No penguins were harmed in the making of this program.
Perpetual Bubblewrap - The only one who loses here is you, when you realize how much time you've wasted.
Smalltime Industries - Among the links here is "Guess the Dictator/Sitcom Character."
Movies and TV
Crossovers and Spin-offs - Characters from one show often show up on other ones. For instance, Ursula from Mad About You is the twin of Phoebe from Friends, and Alan Brady from The Dick Van Dyke Show appeared on Mad About You. This means that all three shows exist in the same universe. It turns out that this is an extremely common thing, and that more shows are connected than you might think. This site links then all.
Mayberry in Star Trek - Simply amazing.
Metacritic - Reviews from many sources of movies, music, games, and dvds.
Movie-a-Minute - Summaries of movies for when you don't have two minutes.
Movie Names That Sound Like You are Taking a Poop
Pajiba! - "Scathing reviews for bitchy people."
Recycled Movie Costumes - Not all costumes are made especially for a particularly movie, especially when they are period. This site has photos of actors and actresses wearing the same costume (often with slight changes) in different movies.
Top 10 Things I Hate About Star Trek - Dead on.
Too much time on their hands:
Blurry Dots - Seriously too much time on their hands.
Peep Research - Filling a gap in our knowledge of the world. Notice the presence of some actual scientific and medical equipment. Check out the "Illuminated Site of the Week" button; some truly bizarre links there.
Pi-Search - Put in a sequence of numbers and see where in pi it's found. Compete with your friends to see whose birthday comes first! Fight it out by randomly picking numbers! Win no valuable prizes!
Momo - Momotaro Hirata's website. He's a hamster.
University of Bums on Seats - Lower education.
Things Unclassified (and in some cases unclassifiable):
All About Campfires and Fire Starting - When I told my wife about this site, she said, "I'm so glad we have a girl."
AOL Secret Dirty Words List - AOL won't let you use certain words on their bulletin boards. Which ones? They're not sayin'.
Awesome People Hanging Out Together - Pictures of famous people together. Some are a bit of a surprise.
Baby's Named a Bad, Bad Thing: A primer on Parent Cruelty - Why is it that parents seem to think that giving a child a "unique" name will make them more special? If I were the kid, I would find it insulting; what, I can't be special by myself, only if you gave me the right name? And how does spelling a name oddly, dooming a child to a lifetime of having their name misspelled, help them become "unique?" By giving them something all their own to be pissed off at? The example I love/hate the most is "Rhyannon." I'm guessing that the letter "y" was put there to make the name look more Celtic. This of course ignores the fact that since the name is Welsh, it's already Celtic. Some people shouldn't reproduce.
Basho's Frog Haiku - In Japanese, and then 30 translations.
Big Bang Theory Transcripts
BookCrossing - A wonderful project - register a book, print out a label for it, put the label in it, and leave the book somewhere for people to read and pass on. If they post to the site, you can follow your book as it travels. Two copies of A Book of Pagan Prayer registered, one in England and in North Carolina.
Bored.com - Almost makes this section of the links unnecessary.
The Cave of Chauvet-Pont-D'arc - Beautifully designed site about one of the cave systems in France with ancient paintings and carvings. The artistry of the pictures is stunning. Highly recommended.
Chuck Lorre Vanity Cards - You might have seen them flash by and wonder what they said but not wanted to go to the trouble of freezing the screen to read them. Here they all are for us lazy people.
CIA website. - Such delicious irony; the CIA with a website. Maybe this should be classified rather than unclassified.
The Cowsills Official Web Page - The world's most successful family musical group.
Crank Net - I am in awe of this site. It's a collection of links to odd groups -- UFO cultists, creationists, holocaust deniers, etc. -- with rating such as "cranky" and "crankier." Lots of fun, and a little bit scary. They don't get Discordianism, though.
Dead People Server - We know that Paul isn't dead. Who is?
eNature - Put in your zipcode and find out the animals in your area.
Everything You Need to Know About Writing Successfully - in Ten Minutes, by Stephen King - King is a brilliant writer, and his advice here is excellent. I especially like his first rule . He's just cynical enough to be a pro.
Everything2 - It's hard to explain this site. It's a place for writing and a place for reading. Sometimes people tell life stories, some heartbreaking; sometimes people express religious or political opinions; sometimes they ask questions. Give it a try and see what it is for you.
Forgotten Bookmarks - A used bookseller posts things he's found in books he's bought. Charming.
Free-Range Kids - I've been ranting about this stuff for years. Especially that freaking out about excessive cleanliness may be the cause of the rise in allergies. People, let your kids have lives.
Geek Test - Are you a geek? I sort of am, but without the computer talent.
Geograph British Isles - Their goal is to post a photograph of each square mile of Great Britain.
How to Remove an Artifical Eye - Now you know.
I love you kitten - I promissed my wife I'd put this link on my site.
Implosion World - Explosions are pretty cool, but implosions are not only cool, but artistic.
The Importance of Password Security - Tips on creating strong passwords.
The Institute of Official Cheer - Bringing us yesterday's pop culture today for a better tomorrow. With celery.
International Carnivorous Plant Society - I had no idea there were that many species.
Kinderlieder - German children's songs. But then if you could read the site, you would be able to figure that out. I found this site because when I spent 5th grade in Germany I learned a song that I could only remember some of. This site had it. Yee haw.
Kim Jong-Un Looking at Things - What is says on the tin.
Medical Slang - For when you don't want the patients to know you're talking about them. The site is British, so I don't know how much of this applies to the US.
Megalithic Ireland - Court tombs, Portal tombs, Wedge tombs, and Stone cirlces in Ireland -- where to find them, with photos.
Megalithic Portal - Find any stone circle or row in the British Isles.
Mondegreens: A Short Guide - A Mondegreen is a misheard lyric (or sometimes other things, such as advertising slogans), preferably humorous. The most famous is, of course, "'Scuse me while I kiss this guy," but there are fortunately many others to giggle about.
The Obscure Goddesses Online Directory - On-going project to list and describe the obscure goddesses of the Egyptians, Etruscans, Phoenecians, and Romans.
Onomastics - The studies of names, including placenames.
Optical Illusions
57 Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena - Seriously cool.
Overheard in New York
Pale Blue Orb - Earth from Saturn.
Pillar Stones, Ogam Stones, and Cross-Pillars of Ireland.
The Possibility of Aesthetics - Is it possible to say that any one thing is more aesthetically pleasing than another? Patrick Colm Hogan seems to think so, and I would dearly love to agree.
PostSecret - Moving. What do people keep secret from each other? What do you?
Psyche's Links - Over 5000 links to religion sites, mostly Christian and Jewish. I make no promises of the accuracy or even the sanity of the links.
Pyracantha Studios - The page of Hannah Shapero, a wonderful artist. Her site also includes very good essays on Zoroastrianism and links on Western Esotericism.
Slipups - For when you're depressed and want to look at someone else's mistake.
State Symbols - State amphibian? Fossil? Mineral? Soil? And my favorite, New Mexico has a state question. It's not complete, unfortunately; it doesn't have Massachusetts' state cookie (the chocoate chip cookie, which was invented there) and state pastry (Fig Newton, named after the town of Newton.)
Stone Pages- Stonehenge, stone circles, dolmens, ancient standing stones, cairns, barrows, hillforts and archaeology of megalithic Europe.
TEAMS Middle English Texts
This is Sand - Make your own virtual sand art.
TV Tropes - "Storytelling devices and conventions," with examples from TV, movies, literature, video games, etc. Complete waste of time, in the best sense.
Sheep 101 - Do you know what a "wether" is? I didn't.
Unusual Aviation Pictures
What Caused the Civil War: or, How to Argue with a Confederate Apologist - If your answer is anything other than "slavery," you're wrong.
What do you call people from different states?Redsigning State Flags video on youtube.
What if? - At xkcd. Answres to important question, like "What if everyone pointed a laser pointer at the moon at the same time? What if there were a robot apocalpyse? (But the latter doesn't consider what will happen once the internet becomes conscious, as I believe it someday will - so many connections, operating not unlike brain cells.
Worldwide Wombat Website - Monty Python was right; there are people who care about how many wombats were injured.
Things Humorous, Not Always Intentionally So:
Awkward Family Photos
Bad Hebrew Tattoos - You really have no business getting a tattoo in a language you don't know.
Black People Love Us - Reaching across the racial divide.
Cat Enema - You really don't want to do this.
Cats That Look Like Hitler - Some of them really do.
The CommieTubbies Information Center - I always knew they were evil.
Crib Notes for the Turing Test - Don't let your robot see this.
Despair, Inc. - Home of the demotivational poster.
Dihydrogen Monoxide Research Division - Raising our consciousness of the dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide.
Dog Condoms - End the genital mutilation of dogs by providing them with birth control.
Elephanticity - Contains, among other things, proof that there is no such thing as electricity; that what's really happening is tiny elephants travelling around in wires.
Estimating the Airspeed of a Fully Laden Swallow - Really.
Eternal Earth-Bound Pets, USA - Taking care of your pets in the post-Rapture world.
A Fine Madness - Is it possible to be creative and still lead a normal life? Yes, if you have a wife to bring you back down from time to time. But in between -- glorious madness!
Food Fight - "an abridged history of American-centric war, from World War II to present day, told through the foods of the countries in conflict."
Gallery of "Misused" Quotation Marks - Very "interesting" and "funny" "site."
The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation.
Guide to Government Signs - The government's looking out for you. Really.
Hanzi Smatter - "Dedicated to the Misuse of Chinese Characters in Western Culture."
The Illuminati - Now I have to kill you.
I used to believe - Kids don't always say the darndest things. Sometimes they think the most absurd.
Kim Jong-Un Looking at Things - He seems to do this a lot.
Landover Baptist Church - Extraordinary parody site.
Literally Unbelievable - Sometimes people have troubles understanding that The Onion is a satirical magazine. Sometimes they then post on Facebook.
The Mad Revisionist: The First Intellectual Avdventure of the 3rd Millennium - How much do we know? And how much of it is real? Rethinking such "obvious" questions such as whether the Titanic sank, whether the Parthenon is from ancient Greece, and whether the moon exists.
My Cat Hates You - Nice alternative to cute kitten sites.
A New Approach to Rodent Performance Evaluation - Or, squirrel fishing.
The non-moving Earth and anti-evolution web page of The Fair Education Foundation, Inc.
Obvious Plant - Jeff Wysaski puts up signs on bulletin boards and adds his own contributions to things already posted, such as book recommendations at bookstores or circulars at stores.
Origami Boulder Company - You buy wadded up paper now!!!
The Picture of Everything - Artists, you can relax now. (Although I don't think there are any pictures of sculptures made out of cheese doodles.)
Rapture Ready - The sky is falling! Or wait, should that be "the Christians are rising?"
Save the Endangered Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus - What a beautiful creature! It would be such a tragedy for it to become extinct. Please do all you can.
Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator - For the times when you're ticked off enough to want to write a complaint letter, but not enough to want to go through the effort.
Stairway to Heaven - by a Beatles tribute band. Dead on.
Stop Alien Abductions - A public service. I am particularly grateful for his thoroughness of listing sources for the materials.
Stuff on my Cat - Just the right amount of insanity.
Things My Girlfriend and I have Argued About - Sometimes a bit acerbic, but often hysterical.
The Uxbridge English Dictionary - Funny definitions.
The Whole World Toilet Paper Museum and Society - Finally some serious contributions to the study of history.
The World's Worst Website - Accurately named.
XKCD - Cartoons, based in part on geek subjects, but also on an insightful and often moving view. Very funny.
Existential Comics - "A philosophy comic about the anguish of living a brief life in an absurd world. Also jokes."
Zen Stories to Tell Your Neighbors.
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