In the end of Harry Potter, we learn that This however, does not account for why Snape shows favoritism to Draco before the Dark Lord resurrects (after which it is relatively obvious why). I am surprised because we are supposed to see Snape as a good guy, and while it makes sense for him to to...

I was reading Mark Twain's Joan of Arc and Joan converses with the Dauphin of France. The talk between Joan and the King was long and earnest [...] and has been set down in [...] testimony at the Process of Rehabilitation; for all knew it was big with meaning, though none knew what that meani...

According to Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey, Tolkien believed that people had an innate ability to "hear" subtle differences in names and dialects, even if they didn't full understand why things sounded different. Accordingly, in the area of the Shire, he gave things names dervied from English and ...