History Literature / HaroldShea

* HeroesWantRedHeads: Belphebe

* NamesTheSame: Bayard the psychologist and Bayard the CoolHorse. It is shortly mentioned in-universe but never becomes a plot point.

* WarriorPoet: Lemminkainen from ''The Wall of Serpents''.

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Grantorto in ''The Mathematics of Magic'' seems like an AffablyEvil SmallNameBigEgo and doesn't even do anything particularly villainous. [[spoiler:Then at the end, after the rest of his Chapter is killed, he traps Shea and Belphebe and would have tortured them to death, had they not been sucked into another dimension by Harold's spell.]]

* OurGryphonsAreDifferent: The Hippogriff, Buttercup, in ''The Castle of Iron''.

* BalefulPolymorph: Shea's colleague Vaclav [[spoiler:turns into [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent a wolf]] whenever he tries to use magic to change his shape. It's because of his East European ancestry.]]

** However, is there really any such character as "Belphegor" in ''Orlando Furioso'' that is an expy of Belphoebe? I [[http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/615 looked]] and didn't find any character name resembling that. And the names don't seem to be related, either; "Belphoebe" is from the the name of a Titan from Greek mythology plus a prefix meaning "beautiful", whereas "Belphegor" is from the name of a Moabitish deity "Ba'al Pe'or" mentioned in the Torah (or so says Wiki/ThatOtherWiki).

* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The scientist who is [[AntiMagic immune to magic]] since he doesn't believe in it.

In the stories, Harold Shea and other characters visit various [[TheVerse universes]] from mythology and fiction. Each story has one primary setting that is visited, although some visit other settings briefly. The primary setting for each story is: Myth/NorseMythology, ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'', Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem ''Orlando Furioso'', ''Literature/TheKalevala'', [[Myth/CelticMythology Irish mythology]], ''Orlando Furioso'' (again), ''[[Literature/LandOfOz Oz]]'', ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'', ''Literature/DonQuixote'', ''Literature/TheAeneid'', ''The Tale of Igor's Campaign'', ''Baital Pachisi'', ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'', ''Theatre/TheTempest'', and finally Creator/SamuelTaylorColeridge's poem ''Kubla Khan''.

* AntiMagic: As a man of science, the professor doesn't believe in magic. A double inversion of ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve results - magic doesn't work on him.

* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The scientist who is immune to magic since he doesn't believe in it.

* BawdySong: When Shea and Chalmers are forced by the Blatant Beast to recite an epic poem or else be killed, the only poem Harold can remember is ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_Eskimo_Nell The Ballad of Eskimo Nell]]''.

* BigDamnHeroes: Belphebe makes her first appearance rescuing Shea and Chalmers from the ape-like Losels who are attacking them. The Beast is so shocked by the poem's subject that he walks off in confusion.

The ''Harold Shea'' series is a set of fantasy short stories and novellas. (The series is sometimes referred to as the ''Enchanter'' series or ''The Incomplete Enchanter'' series, from the names of the collected volumes.) The first three stories were written in 1940-1941, and the subsequent two in 1953-1954, all of which were co-authored by Creator/LSpragueDeCamp and Fletcher Pratt. A further nine stories were written from 1990-1995, two of which were written by L. Sprague de Camp and the rest by other authors. One more story (by Creator/LawrenceWattEvans) was published in 2005 in a tribute anthology dedicated to L. Sprague de Camp after his death.

In the stories, Harold Shea and other characters visit various [[TheVerse settings]] from mythology and fiction. Each story has one primary setting that is visited, although some visit other settings briefly. The primary setting for each story is: Myth/NorseMythology, ''Literature/TheFaerieQueene'', Ludovico Ariosto's epic poem ''Orlando Furioso'', ''Literature/TheKalevala'', [[Myth/CelticMythology Irish mythology]], ''Orlando Furioso'' (again), ''[[Literature/LandOfOz Oz]]'', ''Literature/JourneyToTheWest'', ''Literature/DonQuixote'', ''Literature/TheAeneid'', ''The Tale of Igor's Campaign'', ''Baital Pachisi'', ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'', ''Theatre/TheTempest'', and finally Creator/SamuelTaylorColeridge's poem ''Kubla Khan''.

* BalefulPolymorph: Shea's colleague Vaclav [[spoiler:gets turned into [[OurWerewolvesAreDifferent a wolf]] whenever he tries to use magic to change his shape. It's because of his East European ancestry.]]
* BawdySong: Shea and Chalmers are forced to recite an epic poem or else be killed, but the [[ClosestThingWeGot closest thing]] that either one of them has memorized is ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_Eskimo_Nell The Ballad of Eskimo Nell]]''.

* BigDamnHeroes: Belphebe makes her first appearance rescuing Shea and Chalmers from the ape-like Losels who are attacking them.

* BoisterousBruiser: Many heroes and warriors met by Shea, including Thor in his very first voyage.
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The scientist who is immune to magic since he doesn't believe in it,

* GenreSavvy: When Harold visits a world that inspired our work of fiction -- oddly enough, he manages to do quite well by running with the tropes that he (or the people he's with) remembers. At times, this has even been used for prophecy -- he remembers how the story came out.

* LiteralGenie: Magical spells sometimes give results different than what Shea or Chalmers intended, but which fit the literal meaning of the words they used.
* TheLoad: Shea himself is a slight example in the first novella. He is less physically capable than his more battle-hardened companions, and his 20th century science turns out not to work at all in the world of Myth/NorseMythology. This changes once he starts figuring out how to use magic.

* MisplacedADecimalPoint: One of the characters has to prove his magical skills by invoking a dragon. The guy accidentally shifts the decimal point two places to the right and summons 100 dragons. Luckily they're vegetarian.

* NotSoHarmlessVillain: Grantorto in ''The Mathematics of Magic'' seems like an AffablyEvil SmallNameBigEgo and doesn't even do anything particularly villainous. [[spoiler:Then at the end, after the rest of his Chapter is killed, he traps Shea and Belphebe and would have tortured them to death, had they not been sucked into other dimensions.]]

* SharedUniverse: Orginally the character belonged only to Pratt and de Camp (with one unauthorized use (''See'' TakeThat, ''below'')); many years later, de Camp, the surviving partner, allowed other authors (so far, Roland J. Green, Holly Lisle, Frieda A. Murray, John Maddox Roberts, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Tom Wham, and particularly Christopher Stasheff) to play with the ''Enchanter'' universe.