Something fascinating about QfG3...

[Rath Darkblade]

...specifically, the gi-ants.

I just came across something from Herodotus, an ancient Greek who was the first person to write down history. It's thanks to him that we know about the Persian invasions of Greece, the battles of Marathon and Salamis, and a whole heap besides about ancient Greece and the surrounding countries. But this being a QfG forum, here's the link - he wrote the following:

The Man-Eating Giant Gold-Mining Ants of India
There are ants smaller than dogs but larger than foxes. These ants live underground... the sand they dig out has gold in it. The Indians go into the desert to get this sand. Each of the prspectors takes three camels. ...They deliberately set out at the hottest time of the day, when the heat has driven the ants underground. ...The Indians fill their bags with sand and then run for home as fast as they can.
(Herodotus, The Histories, 3.102 FF)

Obviously this is pure fiction. But when Lori and Corey were creating QfG3, maybe they were using this legend as the basis of the gi-ant monster! (Maybe not, but it'd be neat if they did!) What do you think?

[Jules]

It’s possible they’ve used this legend. It seems more uncommon than the other legends used in other Sierra games like the Minotaur, Genie in a bottle, or Hades, Lord of the Underworld, but there’s still a possibility.

Now I wonder where they found the legend of the Awful Waffle Walker and the elusive silly clowns phenomenon.

[Akril]

I haven't played QfG3, but I have heard about those giant ants before. I wouldn't be surprised at all if the giant ants in that game were inspired by those mythological monsters -- after all, I've come across references to equally little-known fairy tales and mythology in the KQ series.

[Collector]

How many had ever heard about Baba Yaga before Hero's Quest?

[Jules]

How many had ever heard about Baba Yaga before Hero's Quest?

I haven't. Sierra has taught me a fair share of the mythological world.

[Akril]

How many had ever heard about Baba Yaga before Hero's Quest?

I've known about her since I was about seven years old, long before I even heard of QfG.

[AndreaDraco]

Same here.

Baba Yaga is a very big myth in Russian folklore, and many fairy tales Italian kids read are influenced by German (the Grimm Brothers) or Russian tales. Moreover, in high school we usually study Vladimir Propp's theory about archetypal figures in fairy tales, and Baba Yaga is a favored example.

[Rath Darkblade]

How many had ever heard about Baba Yaga before Hero's Quest?

Ooh! Ooh! *puts hand up* I have! Since my parents and grandparents were born in Russia, Baba Yaga was a big part of my childhood. My grandma was always telling me Russian folktales, particularly the ones featuring good ol' Baba. The great things about listening to Russian folktales told in Russian - they actually written in *rhyme*. How many kiddies' stories can you name that do that?

Nevertheless, a long time had passed between being a kid and listening, open-mouthed, to a scary story about Baba, and being a teenager and playing QfG1. Still, it brought back some of my favourite childhood memories. It's still one of my favourite games.

[Datadog]

My Baba passed away a few years ago. Baba Yaga always reminds me of her.

It's very likely they could have been inspired by a Greek myth to produce giant ants. Then again, they could have also been inspired by "Honey, we shrunk the kids." But they have touched down on a lot of things in eastern European folklore. I never even knew what a Leshy or Rusulka was before playing QFG4. I guess it all comes down to sharing what you're interested in.

[DeadPoolX]

Before HQ/QFG, I'd never heard of Baba Yaga, but in my defense, I was eight years-old at the time my Dad and I played the original. My world revolved around Transformers and ThunderCats.

As I got older, I looked up information about her and other myths. When I was a Freshman in high school, my English class spent an entire at least six weeks on Greek mythology. I thought that was pretty interesting, especially compared to the normal crap (i.e. so-called classic literature) we were forced to read.

[Rath Darkblade]

Classic literature is crap? *raises eyebrow* Can you give a few examples, please?

[DeadPoolX]

Classic literature is crap? *raises eyebrow* Can you give a few examples, please?

I should rephrase that: the so-called classic literature we were FORCED to read in high school was utter crap. There's a lot of literature -- classic or not -- that's exceptionally good, but for some reason or another, schools feel compelled to make students read the most uninteresting of the bunch.

The way many of these "classics" are chosen often have more to do with political correctness and racial issues (ex: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings or Uncle Tom's Cabin) than anything else. I wouldn't define a book as "classic" simply because it was written by a minority.

[Rath Darkblade]

Hmmm. Isn't Uncle Tom's Cabin a classic? I've always been informed it was - apparently it was the first book to portray black people in any way that wasn't stereotypical (i.e. the "big, dumb, violent black man" cliche). Also it was written a little time before the ACW, so I'm pretty sure it would've been very controversial at the time.

I agree with you that a book isn't a classic simply because it's written by a member of a minority group, but UTC was written by a white person. So...

I also agree that schools normally have to teach, for some reason, some of the most boring classics on record - Wuthering Heights, for instance, which I was forced to digest in year 11. If you haven't read it, don't bother - it's about 300 pages of boring, sentimental pap. Bah!