Puccini's great opera tells the tragic story of Butterfly, a young Japanese geisha girl, who falls in love with the American Lieutenant Pinkerton, in a story set in nineteenth century Japan.

Comic strip character Dennis revels in doing naughty or mischievous things and is at odds with his parents, the local police, his neighbours and the "softies" of his neighbourhood. Supposedly, the idea and name of the character came from a British music hall song with the chorus "I'm Dennis the Menace from Venice".

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, born this day, May 22, 1892, has said that the famous detective was originally inspired by Joseph Bell, a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh for whom Doyle had worked as an assistant. Like Holmes, Bell was famous for his ability to draw broad conclusions from minute observations.

Doyle’s first Sherlock Holmes story first appeared in print in 1887 and continued to be published for the next forty years, until shortly before the author’s death. During this time, the detective had countless adventures, usually accompanied by his loyal friend and assistant, Dr. Watson. ​

Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott was first published in 1820 in three volumes and subtitled "A Romance," is set in 12th century England, and has been credited for increasing interest in romance and medievalism.

Guy Mannering or The Astrologer is a novel by Sir Walter Scott, published anonymously in 1815. Meg Merrilees, a wild-looking, strident gypsy woman, figures prominently in the plot.

In a Border Reivers ballad, recorded by Sir Walter Scott and others, Jamie Telfer is about a poor farmer whose livelihood is threatened by English raiders and only averted by timely intervention of neighbouring clans, but not without losses to his valiant helpers. Painting: Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodhead (painting by Sheila Mullen, 1998)

Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English folklore who, according to legend, was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. Traditionally depicted as being dressed in Lincoln green, he is often portrayed as "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor" alongside his band of Merry Men. Robin Hood became a popular folk figure in the late-medieval period, and continues to be widely represented in literature, films and television.

Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in 1939. Originally named the "Bat-Man," the character is also referred to by such epithets as the Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight, and the World's Greatest Detective.

Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A mischievous boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang, the Lost Boys, interacting with mermaids, Native Americans, fairies, pirates, and occasionally ordinary children from the world outside Neverland.

The Broons is a comic strip in Scots first published in the weekly Scottish newspaper The Sunday Post in 1936. It features the Brown family, who live in a tenement flat at 10 Glebe Street inthe fictional Scottish town of Auchentogle or Auchenshoogle.

Grim is another name for Oden or Odin, in Old Norse Óðinn, a god from the Scandinavian Viking mythology. Helsingland is an old spelling of Hälsingland a landscape/region in the middle of Sweden. Many place names in Britain reflect the influence of Norse mythology.