Curated playlist
Male characters in literature
- Company of the RingThe Company of the Ring, also known as the Fellowship of the Ring and the Nine Walkers, is a band of nine travellers sent out to face nine enemies. J. R. R. Tolkien says he fixed the number on purpose. It was meant to match and oppose the…
- Frodo BagginsFrodo Baggins reached Mount Doom and then claimed the Ring. Gollum bit off his finger and fell into the fire.
- Sherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes never says "Elementary, my dear Watson" in any of the sixty Conan Doyle stories.
- King ArthurGeoffrey of Monmouth gave King Arthur his first full life story around 1138. Much of it was his own invention.
- BoromirBoromir leaped to seize the Ring from Frodo, then wept at once. He later died defending two hobbits.
- Pippin TookPippin Took, a hobbit who dropped a stone down a hole, ends up Thain of the Shire.
- James Bond (literary character)Ian Fleming took James Bond's name from the author of a bird guide. He thought it the dullest name he ever heard.
- Peter Pan (character)Peter Pan began as a seven-day-old baby in a 1902 novel for adults. He first flew into Kensington Gardens.
- Merry BrandybuckMerry Brandybuck stabbed the Lord of the Nazgul behind the knee. His blow let Éowyn kill the Black Captain.
- Jacen SoloJacen Solo, Han and Leia's son, became the Sith Lord Darth Caedus. His twin sister Jaina killed him in a duel.
- Sam Weller (character)A servant named Sam Weller lifted The Pickwick Papers from about a thousand copies to forty thousand.
- Willy WonkaFive Golden Tickets lie hidden inside chocolate bars, and finding one means a tour of a candy factory. Willy Wonka, the man behind the contest, is a fictional character created by British author Roald Dahl for his 1964 children's novel…
- AladdinAladdin was never part of the original One Thousand and One Nights. A Frenchman added it from a Syrian storyteller.
- DenethorDenethor never surrendered Gondor, but a palantír showed him only lies.
- Captain AhabCaptain Ahab's ivory leg fits into small holes drilled in his ship's deck. He is the whaling captain of Moby-Dick.
- Winnie-the-PoohWinnie-the-Pooh first appeared in a London newspaper's Christmas story, not a book. The Evening News ran it in 1925.
- Elric of MelnibonéElric of Melniboné is a fantasy hero whose sword feeds on souls.
- Samwise GamgeeTolkien called Samwise Gamgee, not Frodo, "the chief hero" of The Lord of the Rings. Sam mostly cooks and carries packs.
- Judge HoldenJudge Holden may have been a living man, a borrowed name, or only a rumor that one soldier wrote down. The proof that he existed at all rests on a single memoir. More than a century after that memoir was finished, the novelist Cormac…
- Gimli (Middle-earth)Gimli the Dwarf asked Galadriel for one hair and got three. She had refused the Elf Fëanor three times.
- HAL 9000HAL 9000 sang "Daisy Bell" as astronaut David Bowman pulled out his memory modules.
- LegolasLegolas earned a place in the Fellowship by delivering a message. He reported Gollum's escape from his father's realm.
- ZorroZorro first rode into print in 1919, and the novel that introduced him eventually sold more than 50 million copies. That figure places The Curse of Capistrano among the best-selling books of all time. Its author, the American pulp writer…
- BarbapapaBarbapapa got its name from a child calling for cotton candy. An American heard it in a Paris garden in May 1970.