Chaos
3 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Chaos. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)
(See Philosopher's Stone.) Charcot, Prof. J. M.: (See Hypnotism .) Charlemagne; or Charles the Great: The greatest of Frankish kings; was the elder son of Pepin the Short, and succeeded his father in 768 A.D. He is included in this work chiefly because of his close connection with the supernatural so far as legend is concerned. Again and again in the pages of French romance, notably in these romances dealing with the adventures of William of Orange, do we find the Emperor visited by angels who are the direct messengers of the heavenly power. This of course is to symbolise his position as the head and front of Christendom in the world. He was its champion and upholder, surrounded as he was on all sides by the forces of paganism, the Moors on his southern borders, and the Prussians and Saxons on his flank. Charles was regarded by the Christians of Europe as the direct representative of heaven, whose mission it was to Christianise Europe and to defend the true faith in every way. No less do we find him and his court connected with the realm of fäery. Notices of the encounters of the fairy folk by his paladins are not so numerous in the original French romances which deal with him and them; but in the hands of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Pulci, they dwelt in an enchanted region where at any moment they might meet with all kinds of supernatural beings. But both in the older and later romances the powers of magic and enchantment are ever present. These are chiefly instanced in magical weapons such as the Sword Durandal of Roland which cannot be shivered; the magical ointments of giants like Ferragus, which rubbed on their bodies make them invulnerable; the wearing of armour which exercises a similar guardianship on the body of its possessor, and so forth. But we find heroes like Ogier, the Dane, penetrating into fairy land itself, and wedding its queen. This was the fate of a great many mediæval heroes, and Ogier finds in the enchanted realm King Arthur, and several other paladins. The analogous cases of Tom-a-Lincolne, Tannhäuser and Thomas the Rhymer , will readily occur to the reader. The magical and the marvellous is everywhere in use in the romances which deal with Charlemagne. Indeed in this respect they entirely put in the shade the later romances proper, as distinguished from the Chansons de Geste.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
ka'os, in ancient mythology, that vast, infinite space out of which all things spring. "In the beginning," say the Scriptures; "Out of Chaos," say the Greek writers. The Roman Ovid represents chaos as a confused, shapeless mass out of which the universe or cosmos took shape. According to the Greek Hesiod Chaos was the mother of Erebus and Nox, darkness and night. Milton is fond of coupling night with chaos. Both quotations are from Paradise Lost : The universal host up sent A shout that tore hell's concave, and beyond Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night. Where eldest Night And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold Eternal anarchy. See Mythology
1000 Classical Characters (1900)
The vacant and infinite space which existed, according to the ancient cosmogonies, previous to the creation of the world, and out of which the gods, men, and all things arose. Chaos was called the mother of Erebos, and Night.