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In speculative fiction and, loosely applied, in mythology, a liminal being is a fantasy character that combines two distinct states of simultaneous existence within one physical body. This unique perspective may provide the liminal being with wisdom and the ability to instruct, making them suitable mentors, whilst also making them dangerous and uncanny.

Many beings in fantasy and folklore exist in liminal states impossible in actual beings:

• both animal and human:
  • centaurs from classical mythology, among them Chiron, the mentor of Hercules.
• both human and demonic
  • Merlin, the son of a woman and an incubus
• both human and vegetable
  • The Green Man
• both alive and dead
  • ghosts, among them Tiresias, the dead seer whom Odysseus consulted in the underworld, in Odyssey
  • the revived Gandalf, in The Lord of the Rings

In science fiction, liminal beings include those that are both human and machine - cyborgs - and human and alien.

[edit] See also

• Liminality

[edit] References

• John Clute and John Grant, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy