This is a really moronic question, but hear me out.

I'm recently looking into mythology (among others) for inspiration and which mythology would most be appropriate and interesting to use motifs from for Urban Fantasy?

Well Greek Myth holds a special place in my heart, but everyone and their dog has done Greek.

Well, I did some research on it and yeah...didn't learn anything knew. Then again, it's maybe because that for some reason it's pretty popular where I live. I found Norse Mythology to be much more "fantasy" like.

Do you have more of a direction than just that? I'm assuming you don't want it to be just "D&D in the FUTURE" a la Shadowrun, but there's still a huge amount of directions you can go.

And the aforementioned Shadowrun is technically using a whole bunch of mythologies (Dwarfs are Norse, Elves are sorta Celtic, etc...), even if it's third or forth hand mythology.

To be specific, what exactly is the element of mythology suppose to accomplish? Is it subtle or an ever-present aspect of the story?

Do a wiki-walk.

Now.

I've already assembled an army of Semar, Binbeal, Itzpapotl, Fionuala and Aodh, Fenrir, Anansi and various others.

Don't know who most of them are?

Good.

edited 24th May '11 2:44:05 AM by MrAHR

....none of them. I never heard any of them except the last two and I only know about Fenrir and vaguely heard about the last one...

THAT IS THE POWER OF A WIKI-WALK.

DO IT. JUST TYPE IN GODS OR SOMETHING AND START CLICKING LINKS AND TAKING NOTES.

NOW.

Ooooh, you wiki-walked? I thought those came out of your brain. Thanks!

I recognise four of those figure I'm quite proud of myself.

I tend to be a fan of Norse mythology, because the gods actually do something. Do you need to get your hammer back from some giant who wants to marry the most beautiful person in the world? Have your trickster friend dress you up as a woman, so you can take the hammer from the giant's lap and kill him.

A VERY LOUD AND RESOUNDING YES.

I'm a Greek mythology fan, right now the story I'm working on holds a lot of similarities to the myths of various figures in Greek mythology but I'm not following it 100%; I may change the actual myth (but not completely) to suit the pace and situation of my story.

I like Norse and Germanic mythology the best.

Not sure if I could adequately explain why.

Irish mythology? I mean, c'mon, there are magical fish.

You speak about it as though the Salmon of Knowledge magical wisdom fish isn't the coolest thing ever.

edited 24th May '11 9:31:58 AM by cityofmist

Celtic mythology is a special kind of badass, and Irish Celtic mythology is a double-special kind of badass.

This dudeking named "Nuada" had a silver arm that replaced one he lost in battle. The ancient Celts never really explained how this worked, so I'm forced to conclude that it was Clock Punk.

Yup, the Irish Celts had ancient Full Metal Alchemist.

Try persian mythology.

Or something with the Mithras cult (although it might be hard to find info on that)

I'm good with Greek, Norse, Japanese, Celtic, Chinese, American Indian, and West African mytholoy - in that order of knowledge.

I draw on all of them for my Weird Tales series.

X7 I believe you'd be interested in this then...

Anyways, I think Celtic lore would be a good source to mine. Not just faeries either — get some Ulster Cycle and Cu Chulainn's nigh-lovecraftian hulking out warp spasms in there.

edited 24th May '11 5:51:10 PM by Sparkysharps

I've seen a lot of vaguely Celtic Urban Fantasy: People love them some fae.

That and vampires and werewolves seem to the biggest influences, maybe some Arthurian stuff, and with the right writers (or getting into anime and manga) you get Japanese mythology. Plus Voodoo and the like gets a lot of use, especially with the current zombie craze in fiction.

Picking something outside the really well known myths is probably the best bet if you want to write something really original. But checking out current urban fantasy might give you hints at what is done most commonly, on so some ways to put originals twists on things

Everything I write turns mythic at some point. If it doesn't end up using actual mythology, it inevitably starts drawing on the same themes and archetypes. I can't help myself. It's like a drug addiction, but with mythic characters and Joseph Campbell-esque plot structures.

As so many have said: Celtic & Germanic mythology, legends and folklore are never wrong. Finnish and Slavic are good as as well. (You have to likeTheKalevala...)

edited 25th May '11 6:18:32 AM by TheBorderPrince

True, but in how many urban fantasies have you seen a seven-fingered spearman who could kill a man by throwing a spear with his feet? Or one who tricked hundreds of pursuers into killing themselves through suicidally stupid jackass stunts?

Celtic myths have some crazy, underutilized heroes in there.

Sign me up for celtic myth.

Now.

I'm a fan of all kinds of mythologies. Greek and Norse, of course, of course. ;)

Currently, I've been thinking of looking into African and Native American myths.

Here's a good place to start. Or you could go here if you want summaries instead of the translated texts.