Talk:Genius loci

message: could somehow genii loci be linked to this. Which term is more commonly known as to link it better?
::Genii loci is the plural. The singular is about 300 times more common than the plural on Google, so it's safe to say that the singular is more common, plus Wikipedia prefers using the singular form of a word whenever possible. -Silence 02:34, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: genii loci

message: What's the proper capitalization of the term? The article uses Genius Loci, Genius loci, and genius loci. Surely only one should be used consistently. :) -Phoenixrod 22:01, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Capitalization

message: Isn't the phrase actually Genus Loci?  —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 206.17.130.184 (talk) 16:31, August 23, 2007 (UTC) 
:Every version I've personally seen before now has always been "genius loci," and a quick Google search of both phrases has genius far outnumbering genus. The Online Etymology Dictionary says "genius" originally referred to a spirit of some kind, particularly a guardian spirit present from birth. It's the same root that was used when the Arabic term "jinni" was turned into "genie" by Europeans (the resemblance is accidental). "Loci" is a plural of "locus," which means place, location. Thus, "genius loci" means "spirit of a place," while "genus loci" would mean something like "kind of a place" (if it even made any kind of sense put together like that). Myself, I've always wondered why it's not genius locus considering it's supposed to be a spirit of a single place, not a multitude of places, and loci is the plural form. Nerrin 04:37, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The spelling, capitalization, and pronunciation are all questions that can be answered by consulting a dictionary. According to the Random House College Dictionary, it's genius loci, pronounced GENioos LŌkē (US) or JĒnēəs LŌsi (British).  "Genus" is also common but incorrect. (I assume it is simply a confusion with the completely separate Latin word genus.)  In Latin, loci is either the nominative plural or genitive singular of locus. In this case it's the genitive singular -- "of the place". -- Margin1522 (talk) 06:01, 20 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Genius? Loci 

message: I've added a chunk of text discussing the genius loci as a monster in high fantasy settings, such as DND. I had to do some paraphrasing so that I didn't overwhelm the original article. Between the fact that I can't find anything about it more official than my own analysis here and my lack of citation expertise in situations like this, I've left it completely uncited, with a list of good sources here.
I'm sorry for putting what is technically "original research" here, but we Tolkien geeks tend not to write in-depth, thoroughly researched papers about this sort of stuff. We've generally all read the original material, and can relate everything necessary to transfer a concept like this in two or three sentences. That doesn't provide anything useful for an encyclopedia entry, though, so there isn't really anything to cite.
These were my primary sources while writing this, but I've encountered genius loci in a number of other works (mostly short stories by various authors, although they're occasionally the monster of the week in epic fantasy novels).
Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 epic level handbook
Turn Coat: book 11 of the Dresden Files
Many high fantasy settings that use a more literal hot-and-cold-running-mana system, as described in Niven's works, also sometimes feature intelligent mana pools. These share many similarities with genius loci even though they're not named as such. I haven't found any really good similar term/page for these, and I tend to conflate them anyway, so I've stuck a reference to intelligent mana pools in there.
71.112.89.139 (talk) 08:24, 1 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Added section discussing monster in fantasy settings 

message: The statue at this church has been part of the article since this revision, but does it really depict a genius loci? The linked page of the Tockenham village website says that the status depicts Asclepius. If that is true, then the snake is the Rod of Asclepius, which is a symbol of healing. It is a snake, but has nothing to do with genius loci? -- Margin1522 (talk) 00:17, 15 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Church of St. Giles 

message: I disagree with the characterisation that it is in Roman mythology that "a genius loci was the protective spirit of a place". It is actually in Roman religion that we have the much broader evidence of the Genius Loci -- the thousands of altars that are at least in part dedicated to the Genius loci, plus the idea that aspects of the imperial-era Emperor-cults evolve from local Roman municipal cults to Lares Compitales which were reorganised by Augustus into the Lares Augusti and combined with the Genius Augusti. This stuff is religio, not superstitio or fabulae. GermanicusCaesar (talk) 01:36, 27 March 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Roman Mythology - or Roman Religion 

message: When talking of Genius Loci in Western context it is critical to Include the work of Christian Norberg-Schulz in his book 'Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture'. This book is required reading in many schools of architecture to introduce the notion of creating a 'spirit of place', it would be good to see it acnowleged here if anyone who knows enough about the topic could add to the article.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.130.190.253 (talk) 11:14, 16 February 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Architecture & the Built Environment 

message: What is the difference or relation between Genius loci and Spirit of place? --S.Asadi (talk) 11:03, 29 October 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Spirit of place 

message: #These refer to the identical idea, and indeed the two titles translate into one another. There is relatively little material in Spirit of place that is not already in this article. I would be surprised if anyone found a merger objectionable. (Go ahead, surprise me!)
#If it is agreed to merge these, should it be under the commonly used but nevertheless Latin term Genius loci or under the English term Spirit of place? Clean Copytalk 23:48, 15 June 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merge with [[Spirit of place]] 

message: These refer to the identical idea, and indeed the two titles translate into one another. --Лобачев Владимир (talk) 11:24, 1 July 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merge with [[Tutelary deity]] 

message: TV tropes redefines the word as a location itself with sentience.  Like Ego the Living Planet. Booger-mike (talk) 10:23, 14 June 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Redefinition