Fiction Chapters

Great novels are often connected-to (or based-on) real-life events. It's fun to search-for (and uncover) those connections. This Collection features fictional stories with real-life tie-ins.

Slaves and prisoners become brutal killers in gladiator games, which entertain the Romans.

Ali’i - The Hawaiian noble order. Aloha - The word of greeting, departure and general affection in between. Hale - Grass house....

Margaret Mitchell began writing her famous novel after injuring her ankle which failed to quickly heal. It was one way for her to cure boredom.

With "Kong: Skull Island," we explore the world of Gorillas. How did Kong become so huge? Gorillas are the largest of the living apes with two species...

Grendel is a monster, possibly a troll, attacking Heorot, the King's mead hall, every night killing some of its residents.

To avenge her son's death, Grendel's sea-hag mother kills Heorot's residents until Beowulf stops her.

Hawaiian ali'i (noble) ohana (families) traced their origins back to great leaders from the mythic past.  And those connections were made th...

Paris falls in love with Helen and abducts her. Sparta's King Menelaus is already Helen's husband, and talks the Greeks into going to war with Troy to...

Although he and Catherine of Aragon have a daughter, Princess Mary, Henry VIII wants a living son. This leads to problems with his marriage.

Heorot is the Danish King Hrothgar's mead-hall, which Beowulf defends against the monster Grendel.

Spiders begin their meal by vomiting digestive fluids on their food, chewing it with their jaws, swallowing it and then digesting it!

William Makepeace Thackeray illustrates his own book; see a sampling of those pictures.

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