Fortuna

'We were meant to be seductive. We were designed to lure humans in.' Fortuna Sworn is the last of her kind. Her brother has disappeared, leaving her alone. She hides among humans, spending her days working at a bar and her nights searching for him - until she catches the eye of a powerful faerie. Collith desires Fortuna. And if she will bind herself to him, he offers something irresistible. So Fortuna leaves her safe existence behind and descends into a world of glamorous creatures and deadly power. She soon realises it's not just her heart she has bargained with - but quite possibly her life. _______ The first book in the darkly addictive romantic fantasy series that's already a TikTok sensation! Perfect for fans of Holly Black and Sarah J. Maas. _______ 'I am obsessed.' 5* reader review 'Absolutely SMASHED my expectations' 5* reader review 'Deliciously dark' 5* reader review 'The world she created is absolutely amazing and I love all of the characters, even the ones that can't be trusted!' 5* reader review 'An incredible, lush romantic fantasy' 5* reader review

Traces the history of good fortune traditions from sacred divination to modern gambling • Reveals how dice were originally considered sacred objects of divination and details the techniques and meanings of a dice oracle • Looks at medieval grimoires for fortune-telling and other divination traditions, including those using cowrie shells, bones, coins, cards, sticks, and stones • Examines how dice became a means of gaming and gambling and how gambling gave rise to specialized lucky charms Some believe that our future is predetermined, while others assert that we have free will and our future can take many different courses depending on our actions. In ancient times, it was believed that the will of the gods determined people’s lives, and divination or sacrifices to the gods could change or improve one’s future. Of the deities devoted to luck and the future, the Roman goddess Fortuna is most famous, having two shrines in Italy where divination was conducted under her guardianship. Tracing the history of the culture of good fortune from sacred divination to profane gambling, Nigel Pennick explores the many ways people through the centuries have sought to divine the future, ensure protection, and draw the full benefits from days of good omen. He shows how dice were originally considered sacred objects of divination and reveals the divinatory geomancy techniques and meanings of a dice oracle. In addition to dice, he looks at how cowrie shells, bones, coins, cards, sticks, and stones can be used to form meaningful patterns for interpretation and how these cultural divination practices were often accompanied by texts or oral traditions that explained the meanings of the patterns, such as the Chinese I Ching and the West African verses of the Sixteen Cowries. He also looks at medieval grimoires for fortune-telling, lottery books, and dice books. Exploring how dice became a means of gaming and gambling, the author details the forms of trickery and “crooked dice” used in games of craps by cheating gamblers and the Dream Books or Policy Books that served as oracles for those who played the “Numbers Racket.” He examines how gambling gave rise to specialized lucky charms, luck-ensuring rituals, and even mascots. He also explores the emergence of ideas of randomness as they relate to divination and magic. Revealing how divination and gambling are two sides of the same coin, the author shows how, whether you are a gambler relying on Lady Luck or a diviner querying the gods, we’re all looking to Fortuna in the quest for a better, richer life.

What is good luck and what did it mean to the Romans? What connections were there between luck and childbirth, victory in war, or success in business? What did Roman statesmen like Cicero and Caesar think about luck? This volume aims to address these questions by focusing on the Latin goddess Fortuna, one of the better known deities in ancient Italy. The earliest forms of her worship can be traced back to archaic Latium, and though the chronological scope of the discussion presented here covers the archaic age to the late Republic, she was still a widely recognized allegorical figure during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The primary reason for Fortuna's longevity is that she was a conceptual deity, symbiotically connected to the concept of chance and good fortune. When communities, individuals, and social groups interacted with the goddess, they were inevitably also interacting with the concept: renegotiating it, enriching it with new meanings, and challenging established associations. All the available literary, epigraphic, and archaeological sources on Fortuna are explored here in depth, including analyses of all the attested sanctuaries of the goddess in Italy, an updated study of inscribed gifts offered to her by a variety of individuals, and discussion of how authors such as Cicero and Caesar wrote about Fortuna, chance, and good luck. This study of the goddess based on conceptual analysis serves to construct a radically new picture of the historical development of this deity in the context of the cultural interactions taking place in ancient Italy, and also suggests a new approach to polytheism based on an exploration of the connection between gods and goddesses and concepts.

I chose to use the image of a tile as the cover of Fortuna because, for me, that's how the story began - with a small piece of red tile that washed up on the beach on Long Beach Island, New Jersey in 1970. More than half a century before, the Fortuna, loaded with roofing tiles for ballast, set sail on a two-year voyage to New York. Just short of her final destination, she became one more shipwreck off the coast of Long Beach Island. Those tiles were her calling cards. Fortuna almost ended the same as it started. While photographing the tile for the cover of this book, a huge wave came in and washed the tile back into the sea. But, like all the other pieces of this story that landed at my feet, the tile washed back onto the beach five days later.

The late 16th century and the first half of the 17th century saw a final resurgence of the concept of Fortuna. Shortly thereafter, this goddess of chance and luck, who had survived for millennia, rapidly lost her cultural and intellectual relevance. This volume explores the late heyday and subsequent erasure of Fortuna. It examines vernacular traditions and confessional differences, analyses how the iconography and semantics of Fortuna motifs transformed, and traces the rise of complementary concepts such as those of probability, risk, fate and contingency. Thus, a multidisciplinary team of contributors sheds light on the surprising ways in which the end of Fortuna intersected with the rise of modernity.

The first study, along with edition and translation, of Chrysostomus Javelli’s epitome of the Liber de bona fortuna (1531), a work permitting insight into the early modern understanding of fortune, fate, and free will.

Nestled along the Eel River in Northern California's Humboldt County, Fortuna has changed and grown according to economic and historical forces. Harvesting, milling, and shipping of redwood lumber provided the economic mainstay for nearly 100 years. The fertile Eel River Valley became known for its apples, potatoes, and a large dairy industry. Relative isolation ended in 1914 with the completion of the railroad from San Francisco, and in the 1920s expanded automobile traffic brought growing numbers of tourists to the redwood forests. "Friendly Fortuna" is a city of celebrations, known for its annual rodeo, first held in 1921. Organizations such as the Fortuna Volunteer Fire Department, founded in 1904, form the heart of the community. The Pacific Lumber Company town of Scotia, the now-vanished mill town of Newburg, and other neighboring communities such as Fernbridge--born in 1911 to house the men building what would become the world's longest concrete bridge--have also woven their stories into the tapestry of Eel River Valley history.