March 11, 2008
Gnome terrorizes South American Town. Makes Me Piss Myself with Laughter.
Weird day today. This was too hilarious not to share.
The Sun (yeah, I know) claims a town in South America is being plagued by a gnome(yeah, *I know*) and they have video. You must watch the video.
Those kids obviously did not read Harry Potter. The Weasely's knew exactly how to treat a gnome infesting their garden.
(more stupidity via The Sun)
Posted by Groonk at 04:38 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth, Weird
October 18, 2007
The Nomadic Aborigine Myth Debunked
Dwellings were constructed in various styles, depending on the climate. Most common were dome-like structures made of cane reeds with roofs thatched with palm leaves.Some of the houses were interconnected, allowing native people to interact during long periods spent indoors during the wet season.
The findings, by the anthropologist and architect Dr Paul Memmot, of the University of Queensland, discredits a commonly held view in Australia that Aborigines were completely nomadic before the arrival of Europeans 200 years ago.
The belief was part of the argument used by white settlers to claim that Australia was terra nullius - the Latin term for land that belonged to nobody.
Dr Memmott said the myth that indigenous Australians were constantly on the move had come about because early explorers made their observations in good weather, when indigenous people were more mobile than at other times.
(via warren ellis)
Posted by Groonk at 12:55 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, History, Myth, Research, Science
October 16, 2007
Oh BTW: Huntsville's Fully Haunted
The Halloween spirit is finally taking hold of me.
Huntsville - The Carter Mansion - is haunted by the ghost of Sally Carter who died a violent death at 16 year old and is buried on the Carter Estate. She has been sited walking the grounds. Some say she is responsible for toppling her headstone on occasion.Huntsville - Crybaby Hollow - Ghost of a baby wails through the trees on cold nights and will sometimes scratch on the bottoms of cars that park there. Mysterious breathing sounds sometimes heard as well.
Huntsville - Dead Children's Playground (next to Maple Hill Cemetery) - The ghosts of children often are seen swinging in swing sets or sometimes the swings are moving as if someone were in them. The children are seen very late at night or early the next day like from 11:00pm to 3:00am, too late for children to be out.
Huntsville - Hell's Gates (Green Mountain) - There are a set a big black gates that stand about a mile from the bottom of the mountain that guard some huge mansion on this mountain. If you go and sit in front of the gates for a little while a car will come down the mountain and chase you until you get to the bottom and the car will suddenly vanish...its no myth.
Huntsville - Heritage Bible College - WHBC Frat House - Late at night you can hear the Ghost of former youth minister Anthony Stephens walking through the house flushing the toilet. His now deceased brethren Robert Ekisbus and Adam Cooper follow him around making noises that almost sounds like the word "cheese".
Huntsville - Huntsville High School - People have claimed to here foot steps and laughing of teenagers through the halls at night after late softball or basketball practices.
Huntsville - Kent Robertson park - A young boy died there one summer day. They named the park after him and made a memory stone. He still is heard in the park at night and the hunt club-woods behind it.
Huntsville - Maple Hill Cemetery - An old lady passed away and was put in the family burial house. Her family placed her antique rocking chair in the crypt with her because it was a prized possession to her. Most anytime when you stand outside the burial house, you can hear the rocking chair moving back and forth.
Huntsville - Old Dallas Mill Site - The Dallas Mill was built in 1891 and burned down in 1992. Haunted by a man died while cleaning the smoke stacks shortly after the mill was built, and a homeless person who lived there after the mill burned down. People have reported seeing him wandering around the ruins.
Huntsville - Space Camp - Space camp counselors tell the story there about a man who was working on the sleeping quarters at the facility. One day they were using explosives to make large holes in the ground for the below ground quarters. The explosives went off early and he was buried alive by dirt and rubble. Until this day in the halls and in some rooms there they can still here his cries for help echoing through the halls and large moans late at night.
(via shadowlands haunted places index)
Posted by Groonk at 04:45 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Alabama, History, Holiday, Myth
Cemetery to Kill "Dead Children's Playground"
This is a bit of local(Huntsville, AL) folklore that's about to make way for more dead people. A place to bury the dead apparently means more money for the city.
An e-mail last week from Huntsville cemetery Director Brenda Webb - who was out of the office Wednesday for medical reasons and could not be reached - to the City Council and other officials addressed a proposition to turn the park into an area for burial spaces and crypts."It is hardly ever used for much except vandals, drug deals, lovers and employees hiding out from their employers," Webb wrote. "It is thought too dangerous for most children to play in."
Some folks are calling shennanigans.
"For the past 10 or 11 years, we've gone to the park regularly on weekends with our dog, and we've seen families playing on the playground," Lattanzi said. "And there was a great baseball field with a backstop."Saturday morning, it was all still there. When we went back on Sunday, it was all gone."
Lattanzi doesn't approve of voting on the proposal the week of fall break, when he said many of the families who might like to protest the park's closure are out of town.
"They say illegal activities are going on, but I've never felt anything but safe at that park," he said. "And anything illegal that was going on probably had nothing to do with playground equipment.
"I don't see how expanding a cemetery is going to fix that."
Parks and Recreation Director Greg Patterson said he doesn't love the idea of losing park space, but he said it is an under-utilized area that has security problems.
I'm oddly sad to see it go.
(via huntsville LJ and al.com)
(photo credit to beepboop's livejournal and flickr)
Update: Looks like the ghosts will live.
"It was poorly handled," Mayor Loretta Spencer said Tuesday after meeting with department heads involved in the equipment removal decisions.Spencer said she will yank the cemetery expansion ordinance from the City Council agenda and restore the park. "I am pulling this from the agenda and I have ordered new playground equipment," she said. Spencer said the equipment will be paid from a $50,000 line item in the budget for recreational equipment. It should be installed within a month, she said.
"That's wonderful. That's what we needed in there all along. I think it will be a real benefit for the neighborhood," reacted Blossomwood resident Nancy Grayson Van Valkenburg, who joined other residents last week in begging the council to protect the park.
City workers on Tuesday began repainting a pavilion and reinstalling picnic tables and benches. Spencer said she has instructed her city landscaping director to remove overgrowth to enhance the park's safety.
The park resurrection comes on the heels of public outcry at last week's City Council meeting over the dismantling of the park with no advance notice. Council President Glenn Watson apologized to residents for the way it was handled.
Posted by Groonk at 03:59 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Alabama, History, Myth
August 23, 2007
The Poe Toaster Revealed: Mystery Deepens
I'm unsure on how to feel about this. I made the Poe Toaster my personal weekly hero back in January. The Emo Kid/Tragic Goth in me could have lived a lifetime without knowing the(possible) truth.
But the birth of long lasting cultural mythology makes an interesting read. I read the article and was surprised. How strange that it didn't seem to diminish the yearly ritual for me.
"We did it, myself and my tour guides," said Sam Porpora. "It was a promotional idea. We made it up, never dreaming it would go worldwide."Porpora is an energetic, dapper fellow in a newsboy cap and a checked suit with a bolo tie. He's got a twinkle in his eye and a mischievous smile, and he tells his tale in the rhythms of a natural-born storyteller.
No one has ever claimed ownership of the legend. So why is Porpora coming forward now?
[...]
Porpora's story begins in the late 1960s. He'd just been made historian of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, built in 1852. There were fewer than 60 congregants and Porpora, in his 60s, was one of the youngest. The overgrown cemetery was a favorite of drunken derelicts.
The site needed money and publicity, Porpora recalled. That, he said, is when the idea of the Poe toaster came to him. The story, as Porpora told it to a local reporter then, was that the tribute had been laid at the grave on Poe's January 19 birthday every year since 1949. Three roses -- one for Poe, one for his wife, and one for his mother-in-law -- and a bottle of cognac, because Poe loved the stuff even though he couldn't afford to drink it unless someone else was buying.
The romantic image of the mysterious man in black caught the fancy of Poe fans and a tradition grew.
Not surprising that some have contested Porpora's story.
(via cnn and Dunc)
Posted by Groonk at 02:20 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
July 05, 2007
Chinese Villagers are Eating Dinosaur Bones...for Sexual Healing
The article didn't say that but you just know they were.
BEIJING - Villagers in central China dug up a ton of dinosaur bones and boiled them in soup or ground them into powder for traditional medicine, believing they were from flying dragons and had healing powers.Until last year, the fossils were being sold in Henan province as "dragon bones" at about 4 yuan (50 cents) per kilogram (2.2 pounds), scientist Dong Zhiming told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Dong, a professor with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said when the villagers found out the bones were from dinosaurs they donated 200 kilograms (440 pounds) to him and his colleagues for research.
"They had believed that the 'dragon bones' were from the dragons flying in the sky," he said.
(via yahoo news)
Posted by Groonk at 06:29 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Animals, Myth, Research, Science
May 25, 2007
Thrice Caught in the Gaze of the Deerman
If he spies you 3 times. You die.
A week ago the column was devoted to recalling the legend of the half-man, half-deer who supposedly lurked in the woods north of Kewanee.We were responding to a request from Neponset seventh grader Gus Block who asked the newspaper to "uncover the truth" in an unbiased fashion. Gus had heard some "pretty tall tales" about this Deerman from his "parents and other old people" and wondered if his leg was being pulled. We have since learned Gus overheard the adult Sunday School class at the Church of Peace reminiscing about stories of Deerman one Sunday morning and his curiosity was piqued so he penned a letter to the paper.
[...]
As we explained last week to Gus and the rest of our readers, the legend of Deerman began in the early 1960s in a column in this newspaper called "Mostly Malarkey," written by editor and publisher Jerry Moriarity.
For several years the rumors of sightings and encounters circulated and "Deerman was here!" could be found scrawled on road signs, barns and walls throughout the Kewanee area.
[...]
... A Kewanee serviceman who asked to remain anonymous for his own safety read the Deerman column on our website and was amazed that the legend still exists. "The story I heard as a kid in the '80s was that Deerman was created by a man who earned his living skinning and tanning hides in his barn. Somehow, late one dark and stormy night, something happened and he was given two legs of a deer, a man's torso and arms (for writing), and the gigantic head of a 10-point buck," said our serviceman. "It's important to note that Deerman was not a cruel freak of nature, but the result of an unholy obsession with taxidermy."
Half-man, half-animal legends being bandied about at Sunday School, you say? One would think that the Deerman and Jesus just wouldn't mix.
(via warren ellis, star courier)
Posted by Groonk at 03:46 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
January 10, 2007
Jinn: Born from the Smokeless Fire
Gaiman linked to this quite nice article talking about the Jinn's(or genie's for the western layperson) place in history and contemporary times. The whole article is worth reading and knowing.
The Bible holds that God created angels and then made man in his own image. The Koran states that Allah fashioned angels from light and then made jinn from smokeless fire. Man was formed later, out of clay. Jinn disappointed Allah, not least by climbing to the highest vaults of the sky and eavesdropping on the angels. Yet Allah did not annihilate them. No flood closed over their heads. Jinn were willed into existence, like man, to worship Allah and were preserved on earth for that purpose, living in a parallel world, set at such an angle that jinn can see men, but men cannot see jinn.[...]
In Somalia and Afghanistan clerics matter-of-factly described to your correspondent the range of jinn they had encountered, from the saintly to the demonic; those that can fly, those that crawl, plodding jinn, invisible jinn, gul with vampiric tendencies (from which the English word ghoul is taken), and shape-shifters recognisable in human form because their feet are turned backwards. Occasionally the clerics fell into a trance. Afterwards they claimed their apparently bare rooms had filled with jinn seeking favours or release from amulet charms.
[...]
But to more scholarly clerics jinn are little more than an energy, a pulse form of quantum physics perhaps, alive at the margins of sleep or madness, and more often in the whispering of a single unwelcome thought. An extension of this electric description of jinn is that they are not beings at all but thoughts that were in the world before the existence of man. Jinn reflect the sensibilities of those imagining them, just as in Assyrian times they were taken to be the spirits responsible for manias, who melted into the light at dawn.
(via neil gaiman and economist.com)
Posted by Groonk at 07:31 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Just Freaking Neat, Myth, Religion, Research
January 06, 2007
James Gunn Rules over the Dead
This is not really Myth and not exactly Grammar. I'm just covering my bases so I'm sure to run into it in later searches. Ever since my History of English Language class my fascination with the etymology of names shot up 200%:
1.Is your last name really Gunn? Cuz that's freakin' cool. 2. Were you buds with Rooker prior to Slither? – MikeYes, that's really my last name. My original family name (in Ireland) was MacGilGunn. My relatives there now are all named GilGunn. My grandparents shortened it to Gunn when they came over, to avoid anti-Irish bias (there was such a thing back then).
But even cooler is the origin of the name. MacGilGunn means Sons to the Servants of the God of the Dead. Gunn means "God of the Dead." I shit you not.
And, no, I wasn't friends with Rooker prior to SLiTHER, but I was a big, big fan.
That comes from James Gunn's first blog of the year 007. He did SLiTHER and DAWN OF THE DEAD and SCOOBY DOO and lots of other things. ANGEL fans make a note. The character of Charles Gunn was named after James and Sean Gunn(brothers ya know.
There are lots of other writing and screenwriting questions answered in this particular blog, too.
(via james gunn and possibly james gunn's god)
Posted by Groonk at 04:28 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Culture, Grammar, Myth, Tutorials
October 13, 2006
Double-13 Friday Gives Crazies Pause
Paraskevidekatriaphobics think on numbers too much.
The phenomenon hasn't happened in 476 years, said Heinrich Hemme, a physicist at Germany's University of Aachen who crunched the numbers to find that the double-whammy last occurred Jan. 13, 1520.
"Pure chance," the good professor told the press yesterday.
But it's not exactly TGIF for the 21 million Americans who fear the day. Some may not travel or even get out of bed, said Donald Dossey, a North Carolina psychologist who coined the term "paraskevidekatriaphobia" 20 years ago. He estimates that the nation is out $900 million in lost productivity because of Friday the 13th sick-outs.
"It's just ingrained in our culture -- one of those collective, unconscious fears stretching back about 2,800 years," Mr. Dossey said. "But it will be all gone tomorrow. By the time you learn to pronounce 'paraskevidekatriaphobia,' you're cured."
Friday the 13th has had unlucky baggage for centuries, with references to "bad" Fridays cited in the Bible, Norse mythology, Chaucer, French and British history, numerology and folklore sources, Mr. Dossey said.
Presidential hopeful John Edwards must be phobia-free. The former Democratic senator from North Carolina begins his 13th campaign trip to Iowa today, according to the Des Moines Register.
(via 7d and the washington times)
Posted by Groonk at 08:32 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Grammar, Holiday, Myth
August 23, 2006
Ancient Whale Rexes, Demon Ducks, and a Dead Mystery Critter in Maine
The fossil is the latest in a list of ancient creatures including sabre-toothed kangaroos, horned "devil wallabies" and the unlikely-sounding "demon duck of doom" that are reshaping views of Australia's prehistoric past.
The 25-million-year-old whale fossil has forced scientists to rethink the evolution of baleen whales, the placid giants which feed by using fine hair-like fibres in their mouths to filter plankton from the sea.
"The fossil proves the baleen whale, including toothless filter-feeders like the blue whale, often thought of as gentle giants of the sea, were not always so giant or gentle," Monash University graduate researcher Erich Fitzgerald told AFP.
While baleens are large -- with the blue whale reaching up to 30 metres (98 foot) -- the prehistoric predator was a swift hunter-killer only 3.5 metres (11.5 foot) long that fed on fish and small sharks, Fitzgerald said.
Scientists in Australia have discovered a fossilised ancient relative of the blue whale, seen here, with a fearsome razor-toothed appearance that has seen it dubbed 'the T-rex of the oceans'
He said it also had large eyes, like a modern great white, to compensate for its lack of sonar.
(via phys org)
Let that beastie kiss you at Seaworld.
A 12-million-year-old giant thunder bird called Bullockornis had a massive head with large powerful jaws. Although thunder birds were long thought to be plant-eaters, features of this bird's skull suggest that Bullockornis may have been a flesh-eater. Scientists have nicknamed this huge bird for its suspected meat-eating habits and its possible distant relationship to waterfowl - the 'Demon Duck of Doom'.
Evil quacks.
TURNER, Maine --Residents are wondering if an animal found dead over the weekend may be the mysterious creature that has mauled dogs, frightened residents and been the subject of local legend for half a generation.
The animal was found near power lines along Route 4 on Saturday, apparently struck by a car while chasing a cat. The carcass was photographed and inspected by several people who live in the area, but nobody is sure exactly what it is.
Michelle O'Donnell of Turner spotted the animal near her yard about a week before it was killed. She called it a "hybrid mutant of something."
"It was evil, evil looking. And it had a horrible stench I will never forget," she told the Sun Journal of Lewiston. "We locked eyes for a few seconds and then it took off. I've lived in Maine my whole life and I've never seen anything like it."
For the past 15 years, residents across Androscoggin County have reported seeing and hearing a mysterious animal with chilling monstrous cries and eyes that glow in the night. The animal has been blamed for attacking and killing a Doberman pinscher and a Rottweiler the past couple of years.
(via boston.com)
People love their legends.
Posted by Groonk at 08:54 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Animals, Myth, Science
May 25, 2006
Superman is a Tulpa
Neil Gaiman and Adam Rogers penned an article on the power and myth of Superman. I find myself reading it repeatedly.
[...]
Superman stands between humanity and a capricious universe.
(read the entire article)
I do disagree with the statement that, "Bruce Wayne plays Batman." In my mind, Bruce Wayne is the facade that Batman puts up in order to deflect accusing eyes. If you could talk to Bruce...if he were standing flesh and blood in front of you and you asked him the honest truth, "Who are you really?" I'm dead sure he would say, "I'm Batman," without hesitation or campy intent.
(via wired news)
Posted by Groonk at 02:17 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Comics, Just Freaking Neat, Myth, Research
December 06, 2005
Geomythology: Saving lives with Folklore
This is some damn interesting shit:
But the memorial's main job is not to commemorate the disaster, which has only just come to light, but to warn local people that similar devastation could strike at any time.
The area sits over massive fault lines whose dangers have been highlighted by a startling new scientific discipline that combines Earth science studies and analysis of ancient legends. This is geomythology, and it is transforming our knowledge of earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis, says the journal Science.
According to the discipline's proponents, violent geological upheavals may be more frequent than was previously suspected.
Apart from the 'lost' Seattle earthquake, geomythology has recently revealed that a volcano in Fiji, thought to be dormant, is active, a discovery that followed geologists' decision to follow up legends of a mountain appearing overnight.
Geologists have found that Middle Eastern flooding myths, including the story of Noah, could be traced to the sudden inundation of the Black Sea 7,600 years ago. The Oracle at Delphi has been found to lie over a geological fault through which seeped hallucinogenic gases. These could account for the trances and utterances of the oracle's mystics.
'Myths can tell us a great deal about what happened in the past and were important in establishing what happened here 300 years ago,' said Brian Atwater, of the US Geological Survey in Seattle.
(via warren ellis)
These stories were a key influence on Atwater, who started to study the 680-mile long Cascadia subduction zone fault along the coast. What he found provided a shock. Long stretches had suffered sudden inundation relatively recently.
The study of trees stumps in this drowned landscape indicated there had been a huge earthquake and a tsunami between 1680 and 1720. 'We didn't know whether it was one massive quake or a couple of slightly smaller ones. Nor did we know exactly when the disaster occurred,' added Atwater.
Later research on tree rings put the date at between 1699 and 1700. Then local legends helped again. Japanese colleagues studied their records and traced an orphan tsunami - a giant wave not linked to a local earthquake - that destroyed several villages on 27 January, 1700.
'That told us two things: that our earthquake must have been vast, Richter scale 9, to devastate part of Japan thousands of miles away. It also gave us a precise date for our disaster.'
Scientists now believe huge earthquakes and tsunamis devastate the Seattle area every 200 to 1,000 years. 'We may be due one soon,' added Atwater.
However, until this year, the lesson of that tsunami was remembered only as a dim legend. Other such stories have been put to better use, however.
Last year's tsunami was also triggered by a strong earthquake, and around 300,000 people died. The Moken - or sea gypsies - of Thailand, however, have a tradition which warns that when tides recede far and fast, now known as a precursor of a tsunami, then a man-eating wave will soon head their way: so they should run far and fast. Last 26 December, they did - and survived.
Another example of the power of geomythology is from Patrick Nunn, of Fiji in the South Pacific. His studies of volcanoes on the Fijian island of Kadavu indicated they had not been active for tens of thousands of years.
'Then I heard legends of recent eruptions,' he told The Observer. 'I thought them unlikely. When a road was cut there in 2002, I found there had been a volcanic eruption long after it had been occupied by humans. It made me look at myths in a new light.'
Now, Nunn is working for the French government to compile tales that might pinpoint Pacific islands where scientists should look for warnings of earthquakes, volcanoes and catastrophic landslides.
These include stories of deities who fish up islands from the water and others in which they are thrown back into the sea.
'If you had asked me 10 years ago if there was value in local myths I would have said "not a lot",' added Nunn. 'Since then I have had a Pauline conversion.'
Posted by Groonk at 10:43 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth, Religion, Research, Science
October 08, 2005
Archimedes Death ray not a "Busted" Myth?
MIT geeks do have their uses:
Ancient Greek and Roman historians recorded that during the siege of Syracuse in 212 BC, Archimedes (a notably smart person) constructed a burning glass to set the Roman warships, anchored within bow and arrow range, afire. The story has been much debated and oft dismissed as myth.
TV's MythBusters were not able to replicate the feat and “busted” the myth.
Intrigued by the idea and an intuitive belief that it could work, MIT's 2.009ers decided to apply the early product development ‘sketch or soft modeling’ process to the problem.
Our goal was not to make a decision on the myth—we just wanted to assess if it was at least possible, and have some fun in the process. Jumping ahead, you can see the result… but let’s start at the beginning of the process.
Also of interest, the mini-solar death ray.
(via boingboing)
Posted by Groonk at 12:29 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Myth, Science
September 21, 2005
POWER SEARCH: Skeletons
Went looking for skeleton images. Found a bunch of other stuff that didn't help me at all.
»Illustrations of weird skeletons
»The drawings of Leonardo da Vinci
»Some site where a guy investigates the Genesis of Giants. I did have several links involving research into giants but I lost all the links when the damn hard drive died.
It includes a link to a BBC article where archaeologists believe they found Gilgamesh's Tomb somewhere around Iraq in 2003.
Posted by Groonk at 03:31 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Funny, Myth, Science
August 17, 2005
The Mysterious Viking Horned Helmet
A look inside the many forms of viking helmet.
(via neilgaiman)
Posted by Groonk at 03:15 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Myth
August 04, 2005
Not a dog but a god
(link via b55seddel)
Posted by Groonk at 01:48 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Art, Culture, Myth, Research
June 25, 2005
$4500K to Clear Negative Energy
I won't be bothered to post a pic of the thing.
(via boingboing)
Posted by Groonk at 08:05 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
June 19, 2005
"The king's ears are really... donkey's ears!"
Anime can teach you things:
Everyone knows the story of King Midas and his golden touch. However, there's another, lesser-known story about King Midas that this quote references: Midas was asked to judge a music contest between the gods Pan and Apollo. When Midas chose Pan as the winner, Apollo got mad and cursed Midas to have the ears of a donkey, which Midas hid under a turban and revealed only to his barber. Unable to keep the secret to himself, the barber whispered it into a hole in the ground, but reeds grew over where the secret was "buried", and from that day forward the winds whispered the secret when they blew through the reeds.
(via tvtome)
Posted by Groonk at 12:32 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
March 29, 2005
Secret Societies
I'm trying to assemble a list of secret societies.
Some of those suckers are keeping their secrets too well.
I did find the Kom'Royza. I also found a mild interest in sanskrit.
ANd of course the least secret of all secret societies The Illuminati.
Posted by Groonk at 02:57 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
March 28, 2005
Speaking of Monkeys
This be a neat webcomic about the monkey king.
Posted by Groonk at 09:23 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
February 04, 2005
A Dissertation on Trolls
Finland has received what appears to be the first doctoral dissertation on traditional forest trolls.Master of Philosophy Camilla Asplund Ingemark, 30, has researched the subject for six years. She will defend her doctoral dissertation, which is classified as a work on folklore, at the bo Akademi University in Turku on Friday.
The study describes the world of trolls according to the beliefs in the folklore of Swedish-speaking Finns
(via boingboing)
Posted by Groonk at 05:19 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
September 12, 2004
Godchecker
Godchecker has oodles of Native American myths waiting to be read.
WAKAN-TANKA: Creator God of Multiplication, Addition and Long Division.He started by dividing himself into 4 and then back into 1, and then doubled up to produce Sun, Sky, Earth etc. Followed by branching out plus 4 more high ones, plus 4 Companions dividing the many acts of creation.
The 4 Companions then added 4 Related ones = Whirlwind, Four Winds, Four Legs and Two Legs. Then came another 4 Godlike Ones which equals 16 into God knows what, all of which are divisible by WAKAN-TANKA as they retain a part of him to the value of W squared unless you know how to round it all up. He may even have Square Roots. This was all before decimalisation, Euros and Sales Tax.
He now manifests himself as the Great THUNDER-BIRD, leading his flocks to battle against the demon watersnakes of darkness. There must surely be some thrilling music to go with it as they fly off in formation.
As a final summary, his name means Great Mystery. There is nothing we can take away from that.
Posted by Groonk at 03:16 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
Some geek myths
Who says you can't learn something here?
Posted by Groonk at 02:58 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
August 04, 2004
It ain't true
Yahoo is not closing down instant messenger on August 17th.
Don't believe me?
Track the origin of this Urban Legend.
About even has a reference to similar lies in their Urban Legends section.
Posted by Groonk at 08:12 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
June 29, 2004
1,750,000 Year Old Man-Made Bridge found
The recently discovered bridge, currently named as Adam's Bridge and made of a chain of shoals, 30 km long, in the Palk Straits between India and Sri Lanka, reveals a mystery behind it. The bridge's unique curvature and composition by age reveals that it is man-made. Legend as well as Archeological studies reveal that the first signs of human inhabitants in Sri Lanka date back to the primitive age, about 1,750,000 years ago and the bridge's age is also almost equivalent.
This information is a crucial aspect for an insight into the mysterious legend called Ramayana, which was supposed to have taken place in tredha yuga (more than 1,700,000 years ago).
In this epic, there is a mentioning about a bridge, which was built between Rameshwaram (India) and Srilankan coast under the supervision of a dynamic and invincible figure called Rama who is supposed to be the incarnation of the supreme
MedicMike sent this link via co-worker Bhavesh.
Posted by Groonk at 05:54 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Myth, Science
May 13, 2004
The baby making blackout myth
via 7d
The belief that more babies will be born in May because the Aug. 14, 2003 blackout created more intimate moments amounts to urban legend, said S. Philip Morgan, a Duke University professor of sociology specializing in fertility."I'd be shocked to see a baby boom because I'm not convinced there is more sex during blackouts," Morgan told the Detroit Free Press for a Thursday report. "Some people are stranded, some people have to work because of the crisis, some feel romantic, but some are freaked out. Some women won't be ovulating. And we do have birth control."
Spokespersons at hospitals in metropolitan Detroit acknowledge that maternity wards are typically busy in April and May, but are no more so this year than last.
Experts like Morgan aren't the only ones who scoff at "blackout baby" stories.
Michael Kam's experience during the blackout went like this: After the power went out at the Detroit Medical Center in Detroit, Kam left work and needed three hours to drive home to Oakland County's West Bloomfield Township, 12 miles to the northwest. The night was spent searching for batteries and entertaining his cranky 10-month-old son.
"Sex was the last thing on my mind," said Kam, 30. "It was hot and muggy. We didn't have working showers. We went into survival mode, not sex mode."
Posted by Groonk at 10:05 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
April 20, 2004
Blade and Buffy: not needed here
Now how can you argue with logic like this?:
Villagers here aren't up in arms about the undead - they're pretty common - but they are outraged that the police are involved in a simple vampire slaying. After all, vampire slaying is an accepted, though hidden, bit of national heritage, even if illegal."What did we do?" pleaded Flora Marinescu, Petre's sister and the wife of the man accused of re-killing him. "If they're right, he was already dead. If we're right, we killed a vampire and saved three lives. ... Is that so wrong?"
[...]
But the biggest tip-off that a vampire is near is his or her family, for vampires always prey on their families. If family members fall ill after a death, odds are a vampire is draining their blood at night, looking for company.
"That's the problem with vampires," said Doru Morinescu, a 30-year-old shepherd who, like many in the village, has a family connection to the current case. "They'd be all right if you could set them after your enemies. But they only kill loved ones. I can understand why, but they have to be stopped."
Enjoy a none registering link to the same story.
via 7d
Posted by Groonk at 09:07 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth, Weird
April 14, 2004
Project Seven Mile Boots
Boingboing reported on this:
"Seven mile boots, the magical footwear known from folk tales, enables its owner to travel seven miles with one step. With little effort one can cross the countries, to be present wherever it seems suitable and to become a cosmopolitan flaneur with the world as the street.
The project SEVEN MILE BOOTS is a pair of interactive shoes with audio. One can wear the boots, walk around as a flaneur simultaneousy in the physical world and in the literal world of the internet. By walking in the physical world one may suddenly encounter a group of people chatting in real time in the virtual world. The chats are heard as a spoken text coming from the boots. Wherever you are with the boots, the physical and the virtual worlds will merge together.
Those had best be a working prototype cause you wouldn't catch my feet anywhere near bright red boots. The Flash, Daredevil, and Captain America can pull of the red boot look. I cannot.
The main thing that caught my interest is the seven mile boot legend. My google searches are hitting dead ends.
If the boots were a little less obtrusive like...let's say.. a pair of Alpine Stars:
Then we'd be on the right track.
Posted by Groonk at 04:54 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth, Technology
March 29, 2004
American Gods listed
A brave soul has attempted to list all of the gods mentioned in Gaiman's excellent book, American Gods.
Check out Easter or Eostre:
Eostre: Also known as Ostara, she is the Anglo-Saxon personification of the dawn. She is a fertility goddess and a friend to children, and she changed her pet bird into a rabbit to amuse them. Eostre is the same as the Greek Eos and the Roman Aurora. Information from TJ: "She was also the Goddess of Spring, her symbols were the hare, the colored egg, and shamrocks. And her festival day is March 21st, the Spring Equinox."
via neil gaiman
Posted by Groonk at 03:54 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Books, Myth
February 22, 2004
The Monkey King
The Monkey King, Sun Wukong , is perhaps the most famous and beloved fictional character in all of classic Chinese literature. He is the main character of Journey to the West, a story dating back to the Tang dynasty. Through a series of audacious stunts he acquires immortality, shape-changing ability, cloud travel skills, and ownership of a handy as-you-will resizeable cudgel which can be nestled behind the ear for easy carrying or resized to tree-trunk size for pounding the sense out of dragons.
Also known as Son Goku
Posted by Groonk at 09:30 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
February 07, 2004
Monsters on my Mind
Posted by Groonk at 05:52 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Myth
January 10, 2004
Where did it come from?
The Last Samurai's opening monologue spurred this net search.
Japanese Creation Myth
Long ago all the elements were mixed together with one germ of life. This germ began to mix things around and around until the heavier part sank and the lighter part rose. A muddy sea that covered the entire earth was created. From this ocean grew a green shoot. It grew and grew until it reached the clouds and there it was tranformed into a god. Soon this god grew lonely and it began to create other gods. The last two gods it made, Izanagi anf Izanami, were the most remarkable. One day as they were walking along they looked down on the ocean and wondered what was beneath it. Izanagi thrust his staff into the waters and as he pulled it back up some clumps of mud fell back into the sea. They began to harden and grow until they became the islands of Japan.The two descended to these islands and began to explore, each going in different directions. They created all kinds of plants. When they met again they decided to marry and have children to inhabit the land. The first child Izanami bore was a girl of radiant beauty. The gods decided she was too beautiful to live in Japan, so they put her up in the sky and she became the sun. Their second daughter, Tsuki-yami, became the moon and their third and unruly son, Sosano-wo, was sentenced to the sea, where he creates storms.
Later, their first child, Amaterasu, bore a son who became the emperor of Japan and all the emperors since then have claimed descent from him.
That blurb is insanely short. So I found other links.
Of course other odd links popped up. Like this performance art bit. A nice little bit I might add.
Other creation myths for browsing.
Posted by Groonk at 01:27 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
December 18, 2003
Hindu Gods and Goddesses
MedicMike provides me with more Gods and Goddesses:
The Hindu scriptures were eloquent while describing the qualities of God. He is all-knowing & all powerful. He is the very personification of justice, love & beauty. He is ever ready to shower His grace, mercy & blessings on His creation.
Posted by Groonk at 12:44 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
November 26, 2003
Haida Children of the Raven
Cultural hero, trickster, transformer and the most important of all creatures, Raven put the sun and moon in the sky, created the rivers and lakes, brought plants and animals to the land, and released humans into the world by opening a giant clam shell. He gave the people fire, and brought light to the earth by stealing it from the Spirit of the Sky World, who kept it in a tiny box within a series of bigger boxes. Capable of doing both helpful and harmful deeds, Raven taught humans important skills, as well as causing them trouble by performing mischievous antics. He is a paradox, an embodiment of the creative tensions that exist between two opposites.
Posted by Groonk at 03:37 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
Tengu leftovers
Rare Tengu Armour:
links thanks to MedicMike
Posted by Groonk at 08:17 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
November 25, 2003
Ravens
Fell upon raven mythology a bit earlier than I needed. But don't look a gift horse etc etc.
"You don't choose your totem, it chooses you"Karasu: Nihongo (Japanese) Raven; Crow; Corvus corax
The Raven is an animal that has played a role in the folklore of most every culture. Its role varies from visionary messenger to creator in these stories, but in all it symbolizes intelligence, vision, change, or transition in some fashion.
Posted by Groonk at 03:09 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
Folklore of the British Isles
Is funny how research into one area (japanese Tengu) brings up relevant information in another. The more I learned about Tengu, the more I realized they reminded me of boggarts. The boggart search turned up this British Folklore site. Which I could be lost in for days.
Posted by Groonk at 02:55 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
"Two-Fisted Spiritualist"
From what I can gather, Mr. Rizza has created a comic that delves heavily into real myths. So he made a guide that compares his stuff to the real deal:
...a TENGU, one of the mountain-dwelling goblins of Japanese folklore. Birdlike in appearance, their manner ranges from mischievous to downright malicious. They are gifted with the power to change shape, and can possess people. In some legends, Tengu are the malevolent ghosts of dead human beings. Greedy, hypocritical priests were said to be transformed into Tengu, as punishment. Some Tengu disguise themselves as Buddhist clergy, and try to lead people morally astray. Tengu have even been blamed for setting Buddhist temples ablaze. By the 19th century, woodcutters and hunters were making offerings to the Tengu, to assure themselves success. The tengu were believed to have control over thunderstorms and whirlwinds. In present-day Japan, country folk offer a cake to the tengu before chopping down a tree. The tengu are still worshipped in some mountain temples, and festivals are held in their honor.The original Tengu legends are probably influenced by stories of the Chinese T'ien-kou ("Celestial Dog"), another mountaineering demon that sometimes appears as a winged, bird-billed humanoid. The birdlike Buddhist deities called Garudas are another likely influence.
...Irish ghosts known as DUBHLACHANS (pronounced, and sometimes spelled, "Dullahans"). The word "Dubhlachan" referred originally to any especially sullen person. Later the name was applied to headless Irish phantoms. Dubhlachans are famed for driving the Coach a bower, a ghostly carriage which passes by the homes of people who are doomed to shortly die.
Revenants are not walking corpses; they're walking souls. A revenant's corpse stays where it was buried. At night, however, the revenant's soul escapes its body and wreaks havok. Revenants drink blood -- but most commonly from the chest, not from the neck. Revenants have the power to cause all manner of misfortunes, including hailstorms, excessive rain, plagues, sickly crops, and "dry" milk cows. In Iceland, revenants are said to dance loudly on frozen sod roofs. In Serbia, they overturn Gypsy caravans. Revenants cannot change into animals, or into mist.
I only posted clips from the real myths. Link via MedicMike
Posted by Groonk at 02:48 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
Tengu
Doing demon research:
This one is via MedicMike:
For as long as human memory, the mist-shrouded peaks of Japan have been home to the Tengu, mountain goblins with an unusual sense of humor. While no one is sure where these creatures came from, it is believed they migrated across the cold seas from the Chinese mainland before the words of the Buddha reached Nippon.
I'm sure the long nose is no accident:
Found throughout Japan, two species of tengu inhabit the mountains. The karasu-tengu has a feather-covered body and a beak that protrudes from its green face. Distant cousins of the Hindu god Garuda, and the first tengu species recorded in Japan, they are servants of the konoha-tengu, tall red beings that could be mistaken for humans save for their exceedingly long noses.The tengu is reputed to be able to extend and retract its nose by fanning it with a magic fan fashioned from a leaf of the Aralia japonica shrub. The konoha-tengu is associated with Saruta-hiko, a giant Japanese god with a nose the length of seven hands who acted as a guide for Prince Ninigi no Mikoto when he descended from heaven. Saruta-hiko's eyes shone like multi-planed mirrors, and he radiated light, but it was his long nose that caused him to be regarded as a phallic deity.
Posted by Groonk at 02:27 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
November 19, 2003
Moai face lift
RANO RARAKU VOLCANO, Chile (Reuters) -- The steep side of dormant Rano Raraku volcano is the most photographed spot on mysterious Easter Island.
Tourists crowd each other to shoot photos of the statues called Moai in the native language. The enormous long faces of these best-preserved examples look down on their eroded brothers at outposts along the coast of Rapa Nui, as the island is known in the native language.
All of the existing 870 Moai sculptures were born here in a quarry of unique volcanic tuff rock.
The statues that were never moved from the quarry were protected from destructive rain, fire, animals, and souvenir grabbers that have destroyed other Moai and threaten to ruin the island's unique archeological treasure and tourism attraction.
The impassive charm of the Moai -- and the double mystery over the origin of the carvers and the engineering methods they used to move the statues -- draws 20,000 tourists a year, and $3 million in revenue, to this tiny triangle in the South Pacific, the most remote inhabited island in the world.
No one knows if the creators of these statues paddled to this 166-square-mile island from Polynesia, 1,800 miles away, or the even more distant mainland of South America.
And there are many theories but no facts about how the people who carved these statues 400 to 1,300 years ago moved monoliths up to 6 yards tall and weighing up to 82 tons -- the equivalent of two sperm whales -- down the steep slopes of Rano Raraku to huge platforms near the shore, using only primitive tools.
Posted by Groonk at 11:53 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Myth, World
October 28, 2003
Another myth tested
Somebody got their friends to test a long touted theory:
Week Two, July 9July 16, 2003:
CUM CHEEK: The cum cheek feels tighter, but very dry. It isnt pleasant. Im constantly wondering whether someone can tell if I have cum all over my face, too. Ive taken to using more perfume just cuz I feel like I smell of spunk.
MOISTURIZER CHEEK: As good as always. I have taken to using a bit less each time I apply it. I wonder if thats because it feels so much cleaner relative to the cum.
via dph
Posted by Groonk at 09:57 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Funny, Myth, Sex
October 27, 2003
Windigo...
Or if you prefer Wendigo or even Weendigo. There are so many spellings for this spirit.
A little folklore is needed this week. I found this guy while beginning a new net search on the infamous Windigo. He even goes as far as saying that Beowulf's Grendel is a similar critter:
The word used to describe the creature is not a proper noun because it has no name. Windigo is only a kind of "reference". The word itself is just one of the many ways to spell it. The term derives from the Algonquian root word "witiku", though throughout the tribes and times the term's spelling varies: Wendigo, Windego, Wetiko, Windago, Windikouk, and so on.The legend varies in the details, but the outline of it is basically always stays the same: lost hunters or people that have stayed too long in the state of famine (especially during the wintertime), turning to cannibalism as a last resource, will become windigoes or be inhabited by its spirit and then be drawn towards eating people. When this happens, asides the cannibalism, they become violent and antisocial. Even after returning to civilization and eating normally, the want for human flesh will return to the "windigoes". This craving will endanger the rest of the community. It is believed that the only way to kill the windigo and the malevolent spirit is to burn the body of its host into ashes.
As previously said, the legend varies in details, one of which is there are different ways to turn into the windigo: either the above, a curse from a medicine man, dreaming of the Windigo, being bitten by the Windigo or a windigo, encountering it or even the fact of hearing it pass by.
Everything I find on this critter mentions it's incurable hunger. Maybe Windigo needs to go on the Subway diet.
Posted by Groonk at 02:47 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
October 21, 2003
Oldie and still funny
Responding to pressure from religious groups, Alabama's state legislature redefined the value of pi from 3.14159 to 3 in order to bring it in line with Biblical precepts.
Of course it's a big ole Urban Legend. But not far off from some southerners' thinkings.
via 7d
Posted by Groonk at 01:02 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Funny, Myth
October 17, 2003
Baby's First Mythos
I have my soul blasted at least once a year. Clears out the bugs.
Spawned from the mind of horror king and Origins award winner, C.J. Henderson, ("The Things That Are Not There," "Tales of Inspector Legrasse") this book is a fun-filled must for every Lovecraftian everywhere. Lavishly illustrated with dozens of all new, highly detailed pieces by the incomparable Erica Henderson, this is one of those rare instant classics that everyone is simply going to have to have on their shelf. It will also blast your child's soul as you teach them their ABCs - Mythos style!
via Dunc!
Posted by Groonk at 06:37 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Art, Books, Myth, Photos
October 14, 2003
Deliciously odd...
"As the sun goes down, all bloody and stained, I am reminded of the time I hunted humans with Elton John."
Posted by Groonk at 04:29 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth, Weird
September 10, 2003
7 Samurai!
In doll form.
MedicMike approved
Posted by Groonk at 03:12 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
September 08, 2003
Numenorian
Still gathering mythology:
Nmenr was an island far to the West, a "land apart" given to the heroic Edain (humans) of the First Age who had aided the Elves in the wars against Morgoth. The realm of Nmenor is held to have begun in the 32 year of the Second Age, when Elros 90 years old ascended the throne in the city of Armenelos where he was inscribet as Tar-Minyatur in the High-Elven tongue; Quenya, and it lastet until 3319 where it was drowned benieth the Belegaer and the Second Age ended.When Morgoth were overtrown, the gods held council. The Elves were summoned to return into the West and those who choosed so dwelt again in the lonely isle Eressa. But men of the three faithful Houses and those who have joined them were richly rewarded, for Eonw came among them and thaught them and gave them wisdom, power and a life longer than any others of mortal race. A great land was made for them ; not a part of Middle-Earth and not wholly separate from it.
Posted by Groonk at 02:50 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
September 03, 2003
White Buffalo Calf Woman
This Lakota myth tells of two men who were on a hunting trip when they noticed a beautiful young woman walking towards them. She was dressed in white buckskin and carried a bundle on her back. One of the men had bad thought about her, but the moment he approached her, he was suddenly surrounded by a white mist. When the mist dispersed, nothing of the man remained but a skeleton.
The woman turned to the other man and she told him to go home and prepare a big lodge for her. The man ran home and did exactly what she had told him to do. When the woman walked into his village, he had already completed his task. She then told the people of the village that she came from Heaven and was here on earth to teach them how to live and what their future would be. She gave the people maize, taught them the use of the pipe, and taught them the seven sacred ceremonies. Furthermore, she gave them colors for the four winds or directions. When she was finished she turned into a white buffalo calf, then turned the color black, then red, then last she turned yellow, representing the colors of the four directions. Then she disappeared.
Posted by Groonk at 01:11 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
Buffalo Dance Origin Myth
In the earliest times the Hotcgara existed in the form of animals, as it was in this form that they had come together to found the clans that make up the nation. At that time they had all the power that they needed, but as they evolved into human form, they had to fast to obtain those powers necessary for life. When he had just reached puberty, Hodjnoka (Young Man Just Maturing) therefore began to fast, and went off to seek blessings from the spirits. After he nearly fasted to death, a spirit came to him in his dream, and said, "Mortal, I bless you. I bless you with a victorious warpath, and with a long life." He made it known that he was one of the Buffalo Spirits. "Remember us in your offerings," he said, "and from time to time pour tobacco for us and give us Dog Feasts. When you make offerings, present eagle feathers, tobacco, and food. Indeed, we bless you mortal, for you have made yourself very pitiable. We shall soon come for you and bring you to our camp that you may obtain what you truly long for." Then one day he dreamed again, and the Buffalo Spirits came to him and took him to Spiritland where they had their village. There in the village of the Buffalo Spirits, he saw an old man and a child. The child had heard his prayers, and it was he who had taken pity on him by blessing him. The child gave him an herb and told him, "This is what we give you. With this you may cure the sick; but since it will also increase your strength when you run, you may also use it in war." They gave him a holy buffalo tail, and flutes. Then they taught him four songs:
Let him walk in the road;
Let him walk in the road.
Walk by, Hodjnoka;
Walk by, Hodjnoka.
Say, 'Walk by Hodjnoka'.
Hodjnoka, go towards;
'It is coming, it is coming';
Say it to them, say it to them.
Then they showed him the Buffalo Dance. After all this instruction, he retuned to earth.
It is said that when the dance is announced they do not go about with invitation sticks, but invite people through the use of an emissary. In the appointed lodge they prepare for the dance by creating a loose mound of dirt which is called the "buffalo mound." On top of the mound, or Mnuserek, they place a plate of maple sugar. The host appoints someone from the Buffalo Clan to be the leader of the dance. This man puts upon his own head the head of a buffalo and attaches to himself a buffalo tail. He then leads the dancers in line to the dish of maple sugar and licks some of it up just as a buffalo would without using his hands. Each in turn does this, and as they dance towards the earth mound, they bellow like buffaloes. As each dance is completed the drummer passes the drum to the next person. Once everyone has been the drummer, they are ready to eat. Each person has his own plate; however, there is a special plate in the center of the lodge with wild rice on it. The host tells the dance leader that this plate is intended for him and anyone else he chooses to share it with. When they have done eating, the ones in the center of the lodge then take their heads and flip the plate in the air as if they were buffalo goring it. Only when they have caused it to land upside down using only their heads, is the ritual over. Then the host rises and sings a dancing song, and everyone dances out of the lodge each with his own plate in hand. Thus ends the Buffalo Dance.
Posted by Groonk at 01:09 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
Magic
I feel I'm gonna have to library research this topic but I did find some interesting quotes:
The primary principle of magic is connection.
--Starhawk, witchMagic is a spurious system of natural law as well as a fallacious guide of conduct Men mistook the order of their ideas for the order of nature.
--Sir James George Frazer, folkloristMagic-- I hate the word because of what it has come to mean, but anyway-- magic in the big sense can only happen where there is very strong feeling. You can't set it going with a skeptical mind-- with your fingers crossed, so to speak. You must desire, and you must believe. Have you any idea how hard that is for a man of my time and a man of my training and temperament?
--Robertson Davies, Canadian novelistIt is thus that when Hindu philosophy states that everything is fundamentally Shabda, or sound, it is talking about the basic pulse of energy which is differentiated, as light by a prism, through all our modes of perception. Upon this eternal harp, loom, or spectrum is played, woven, or seen-- by the contrasts of sound and silence, warp and woof, light and darkness-- the whole transient Maya of our cosmos. But its desired delights and dreaded terrors are all of one sound, one cloth, and one vision.
--Alan Watts, American scholar
Posted by Groonk at 01:05 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
August 11, 2003
Salvaging the Future
Ok here's an extensive review/essay of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome that goes so far as to raise the flick to the level of highmythology.
This site was discovered while looking up this week's Groonkly Bit.
An interesting read so far. Looks as if several teachers and college professors have made this essay required reading in their classrooms.
As it's extremely late in my current time zone... I think I'll hold off on finishing this article tonight.
Posted by Groonk at 01:44 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
July 13, 2003
Hunting for Hunters
Autolycus: Autolycus was the son of Chione and Hermes, and the grandfather of Odysseus. He was renowned for his wiliness and his cleverness as a thief.
Orion: Orion was the son of Poseidon and Euryale. Like most of Poseidon's children, Orion was a man of gigantic proportions. He also was quite the hunter, and the constellation that bears his name forms the shape of a great hunter in a defensive pose against Taurus, the bull.
Posted by Groonk at 09:21 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
June 24, 2003
Amazons and other Black Sea peoples
The Commentary to Final Fantasy: Spirits Within made mention of a myth about the Caspian Mountains. Something about the amazons and barbarians being frozen there until the world ends. Then they will awaken and spread across the land. That almost immediately grabbed my attention:
[Amazon < Ama-don "mother-garment" or "mother (in) essence"]... However, it is also possible that the Greeks created the myth of the Amazons from stories of a distant past when they fought with enemies having long hairs. We see many Turkish-speaking peoples in history who grew their hairs long. For example, the Khorasanian Turks whose traditions was captured by the early ninth-century Arab historian Al-Jahiz are described as such:
"It is related that the men who conquered Amorium, and killed their warriors and carried away their women and children, are said to have their hairs like those of women (11) and their clothes like those of the monks... We (Khorasanians) are a well-built, long-haired people" (JahMJFE 46).
My research continues...
Posted by Groonk at 01:56 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of History, Myth
Filipino folklore and mythology
I think GDN may have a gremlin 'cause I was positive I posted this article last night:
A lot of us in the West have heard of trolls, leprechauns, and vampires.Yawn.
Have you heard of Manananggal? Tikbalang? Maria Makiling?
Read on then, because folklore and mythology is important, all over the world. And the Philippines has an extremely rich and fascinating folklore. "Ang siyang di lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay di makararating sa paroroonan (Whoever does not look back at a starting point, will not arrive at a destination)". It is bad to lose touch with one's cultural roots, and the cultural roots, in turn, of the world, the least reason for which is so as to not wind up as bitter as this guy.
And no I'm not just being clever with the article's theme.
Manananggal
Manananggal are similar to Pennangalan in Malaysia, to which the Philippines is linguistically and culturally related. Also called Wakwak in the Visayas (The Philippines can be roughly understood in 3 pieces: Luzon in the North, the Visayas in the middle, and Mindanao in the south... each is linguistically and culturally somewhat distinct).
What are Manananggal? The scariest goriest bad ass vampires you are ever to come across.
By day, they look like beautiful women. In fact, the more adoring males they come across they often turn into their consorts who guard their queen fanatically, especially when her inanimate body is most vulnerable: at night. The word Manananggal roughly means "self-remover" in Tagalog. This is because at night, a Manananggal's head lifts from her body cavity, and she flies about, her internal organs hanging from her floating head. Alternatively, she turns her arms into wings, or spouts wings, and severs at the torso instead. Here is a sketch of that form from Dion Fernandez.
The smell of vinegar gives them away, the fluid that preserves their ghastly parasitical cohabitation with their daytime body. Manananggal prey on pregnant women, specifically the fetus, almost exclusively. They have a tube which comes out of their mouth to perform the feeding, like this (Warning: annoying midi music ahead).
You kill a Manananggal by putting salt on its lower body while the head is flying about. But of course, you have to get past the fanatical consorts which guard her vulnerable lower half first. If a Manananggal cannot reunite with its lower half by sunrise, she dies. The salt prevents this. They are part of a larger group of corpse-loving changelings called Aswang, of which they are perhaps the strongest and most powerful.
Maria Makiling
Maria Makiling is a diwata, a filipino fairy. She is a trickster forest spirit. She is alternatively malevolent, especially to hunters, and helpful. She is also sad in a way. Her story is attached to Mt. Makiling on the big island of Luzon. This page has a good write up about Maria and the mountain:
Makiling is one of the most famous mountain in the archipelago and with that comes a lot of folklore and legends about the mountain and the goddess that lives in the mountain, Mariang Makiling. In fact people living within the towns under the shadow of the mountains has always describe the silhouette of the mountain peak as that of Makiling lying down.
One of the famous stories is about an enchanted woman who lived in the quiet woods at the foot of Mt. Makiling. The people named her Maria Makiling because of where she lived. She was a young and beautiful woman. The beauty abundance and serenity of this enchanted place complimented her rare qualities. She was kind and compassionate to the town people. She shared the full and rich abundance of her enchanted places; fishes in the lake, food and crops, fruits and trees. All were for free. People could borrow from her whatever they need, whatever they wanted. Her kindness was known far and wide. One afternoon, a hunter came by and wandered into her kingdom. When he saw her beauty, he fell in love with her and she too felt the same way for him. They met and talk everyday and promised to love each other forever. Until one day Maria waited for him but he did not come. Maria discovered that he found a real woman and got married. She was very sad and frustrated. She felt deeply hurt and realized that the town people could not be trusted because she was different from them and they were just using her. Forgiving was really difficult. Her sadness and frustration turned into anger that she refused to give fruits to the trees. Animals and birds were no more. Fish no longer abound the lakes. People seldom saw her. It was only during pale moonlit nights that they sometimes see her.
Another story is about three suitors who intensely battled for the heart of Makiling. One was a Spanish soldier, another, a Spanish-Filipino mestizo and the third, a Filipino farmer named Juan. In the end the Filipino won the heart of Maria Makiling which angered the two other suitor. They have plotted to kill him through a fire that broke down on the garrison, which they blamed against Filipinos including Juan. They shot Juan as punishment and before dying he shouted the name of Maria. Maria went down in the mountain and cursed the two as well as the other men who cannot accept failure in love then she went back in the mountains never to be seen again. The Spanish soldier died during the revolution while the mestizo died of illness. When somebody gets lost in the mountains, people attribute it to the curse on Makiling.
Here is a more thorough telling of Maria's experience with her 3 suitors. Here is a good abstract portrait of her by Arnold Arre. Here is another one of her legends. The legends usually revolve around hunters getting lost in the woods and falling in lover with her, and her alternately being helpful at first, and then wrathful when promises to her are broken, or just plain mean to hunters lost in the woods to begin with, perhaps due to prior experiences? There is always a theme of lost or forbidden love as well with Maria.
Tikbalang
A tikbalang is sort of a centaur in reverse- like a minotaur. They are sometimes harmless, and sometimes downright malevolent creatures, depending upon the myth, but they are never stupid. They are tricksters, and are very playful and intelligent. They often riddle whomever they meet, and if successfully beaten at their riddling, they will allow their victims to pass, or reward with gold. A little off-topic: "Tame the Tikbalang" is also the name of a great Pinoy Punk band! More. Pictures.
Kapre
Kapre are strange tree demons that smoke huge cigars. Warning: annoying midi music ahead.
The term kapre was derived from the Spanish "kapfre", in turn from the Moors, from the Arabic Kaffir, an African non-believer. It is suggested that when the conquistadors first came to the Philippines, they heard about the mystical creatures approximating their kafre, and soon the conqueror's lexicon prevailed in any areas.
Be very careful when trees move without wind. This means that a kapre is present at the very top of the tree. The kapre sits quietly smoking a leg-sized cigar that never burns out. It terrifies passerby with its size, glowing eyes and cigar, but it is otherwise harmless. It is said to live in trees, abandoned houses and ruined buildings. They are believed to appear only at night.
Mangkukulam
Mangkukulam is Filipino black magic. A great practitioner of Mangkukulam is called a Mambabarang. Do not mess with it. I won't even talk that much about it, besides to quote this tale:
A woman friend (let's call her Lita) of ours from Batangas (Philippines) had an ugly fight with an old man regarding a coconut tree. After sometime, Lita finds her tummy getting big. Thinking she was pregnant, she announced it to almost everyone in the barrio. Days passed she became aware that there is something wrong with her preganancy. Her tummy gets bigger way too fast - considering that she had only been "pregnant" for two months. When she went to a doctor, the doctor tells her that there's some kind of a "mass" inside her tummy, and it's definitely not a baby. So she had surgery. When the doctor opened her tummy, nata de coco (a processed coconut) spilled out of her. Almost 2 bags were taken out. "Binarang ka siguro ng matandang nakaaway mo, kilala iyon sa lugar namin bilang mambabarang" (The old man you had a fight with is well known to be a mambabarang and you had become his victim) says one of our ka-barrio.
Siquijor
I once talked to a guy from Siquijor. I told him I wanted to go to that island because of its fascinating connection with the supernatural. And he was like, "Why would you ever want to go there?" It's not a particularly large or impressive island. It's quite tiny and charming, actually, it's just a little out of the way. But for some reason, its infamy in the Visayas as a center of witchcraft and Mangkukulam is well-establish. The guy said he was constantly teased at school in Cebu for being from there. And whatever you do, according to those "in the know," if you go to Siquijor, if you let anyone there touch you, you MUST immediately touch them back! Or you will be doomed to the world of black magic and be at the mercy of Mangkukulam. Here is a good examination of the quaint little island with the strange reputation.
You have only scratched the surface! You need to find out about Dwende, the Filipino equivalent of elves, or gnomes, Engkantos, Baconaua- huge dragon sharks, etc. More links:
Posted by Groonk at 12:53 PM | Comments (1) | Ministry of Myth
June 12, 2003
Star Wars Mods
Boingboing found a handful of neat casemods:
Posted by Groonk at 11:33 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Art, Myth, Photos, Technology, USA
June 10, 2003
The Real Tomb of God
I am unsure why I have this link in my research list. After reading over it again my interest has been re-newed:
The mythology surrounding Christian Rosenkreutz, the legendary founder of the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, may provide us with clues as to the location of the Emerald Tablet of Hermes, upon which their Hermetic wisdom is based, as well as the famed relic of the Holy Grail, which this magazine is dedicated to. It may also shed some light on the mythological importance of the so-called "Hollow Earth" theory, and tell us the location of the body of a dead God or King. In question, the location of Rosenkreutz's tomb. He is said to have died at the age of 106, in the year 1484, and was buried in a secret vault, deep in a cave inside of a mountain, which was "lit by an inner (or artificial) sun." The location of this tomb was kept secret, until 120 years later, when it was discovered by a group of Rosicrucian brethren. Here they found a cache of sacred mystery writings, which became the core wisdom of their order. And yet, their wisdom is said to be based on the Emerald Tablet, begging the question of whether or not it was in fact the Emerald Tablet that they found. They also found the body of their master, "pure and unconsumed," his flesh having not decomposed one bit, but appeared to be made of candle wax. With the discovery of the tomb and the sacred mystery writings, the Rosicrucian Brotherhood, having been ostensibly dead since the demise of their leader 120 years previous, is born anew, and the brethren who have made the discovery take off to spread the news to all the corners of the Earth.
Posted by Groonk at 11:12 PM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
May 08, 2003
Myth taken
I'm on a myth hunt:
THE DEATH OF C CHULAINN The beginning of the story is missing in the Book of Leinster, but a few fragments survice in another manuscript. It begins with a conspiracy among the children of three men killed by C Chulainn.
It's not exciting but it will involve a future project.
Posted by Groonk at 02:18 AM | Comments (0) | Ministry of Myth
