Category: Myths Superstition And Legends - Meandering Through Time

Hal an tow and the Furry Dance

7/5/2018

The 8th of May in Cornwall: Hal an tow and the Furry Dance - One big party but two pagan festivals.

The Furry Dance, which is also known as The Flora or Floral Dance, takes place in Helston on or around May 8th every year. Pre Christian in origin, it is a celebration of spring, and one of the oldest British customs still in performed.

On this day much dancing takes place, with children dancing hand in hand up and down the Cornish streets but it is the midday dance is perhaps the best known: it was traditionally the dance of the gentry in the town, and today men wear top hats and tails while women wear pretty spring dresses.

On the same day, the Hal an tow event takes place, it is a pageant that takes the form of roaming mystery play with historical and mythical themes that represent good versus evil, such as George and the Dragon, as seen here. This event is also based on the seasons but it is quite distinct from the Furry dance.

This festival was suppressed in the nineteenth century owing to the over exuberance of merrymakers and later became associated with drunkenness. The Hal an tow was revived by the Helston Old Cornwall Society in the 1930's and has since merged with the Furry Dance celebrations as one festival.

The Salam Witch Trials Begin

28/2/2018

At the beginning of February in 1692 in the village of Salam in Massachusetts William Griggs, the village doctor, came to the conclusion that a number of girls, including the daughter of the Samuel Parris the villages preacher, were ill because they were bewitched.

By the 25th of the month Parris's servant, a slave girl who he had bought while in Boston, confessed following a beating from Parris to practicing witchcraft. By the 29th of February a complaint was made against the servant girl and she and her husband and two other women were arrested on suspicion of witchcraft.

This one accusation was the first of many, soon fingers were pointed and tall tales told, eventually, hysteria reached such great heights that it resulted in trials and executions.

The Salam Witch Trials as they have come to be known ended in the May of 1693 when those still accused were given pardons - that's over five years of terror for the people of Salam and the deaths on twenty innocent people nineteen by hanging and one by pressing.

Many place the blame for the witchcraft trials firmly at the door of the Parris household, that is Samuel Parris, his daughter and her cousin. Parris added fuel to the fire of a community in turmoil by preaching provocatively from the pulpit - ‘there was one devil among the twelve disciples so in our church God knows how many Devils there are’ he said. The actions of his daughter and her cousin were where the trouble first began, they were said to have used what is called the Venus Glass and been frightened by what that thought they saw. Perhaps they were influenced by talk of the religious practices of the servant girl's homeland - who knows?

How easy would it have been for the girls to blame the servant when their puritan father found out what they had been doing and for Parris to use witchcraft to further his religious crusade.

No one person was held responsible for what happened in Salam but history tells us that when such things as religion, superstition, intolerance, fear and community feuds come together there can be only one result.

Death of Lady Jane Grey

11/2/2018

Lady Jane Grey's execution took place inside the Tower of London on the 12th February 1554, her place of execution was a privilege afforded only a select few, most executions took place outside on Tower Hill. In the years between 1483 and 1941 twenty-two people were executed inside the walls of the Tower of London five of them were women and three of the five were queens, Anne Boleyn, Catherine Howard and Jane herself. The other two were Margaret, Countess of Salisbury and Jane Boleyn, Lady Rochford.

The last day of Jane's life is shrouded in myth, a myth that has been circulating for nearly two hundred years. In 1852 English antiquarian John Gough Nichols published his version the account of Jane's death in his Chronicle of Jane Grey and Queen Mary, the chronicle itself is based on an eyewitness account by an unknown person who was inside the Tower of London at the time.

John Gough Nichols had a keen interest in rare books and had enjoyed coping from texts and epitaphs as a young boy, he also accompanied his father to Royal Society and Society of Antiquaries meetings. Obviously, words were important to him, you would think then that with such a passionate love of words and history he would know what embellishing and adding untruths to ancient text could lead to. In 1834 Nichols went to see the latest work of French artist Paul Delaroche in the National Gallery, this work went by the title The Execution of Lady Jane Grey. It was this one painting that changed history and how we understand Jane's story today. There is no doubt it's a fine painting that evokes a sense of sadness in us and it must have had the same effect on Nichols, he had fallen for an ideal. Delaroche in his story of Jane Grey's last moments uses pathos to get his idea of the suffering of the French nobility across - clever that! However, to the vast majority of the viewing public, all they saw was a romanticised view of the tragic death of a young girl.

Paul Delaroche used other English historical victims as cloaked references to the French Revolution, his victims were Charles I and Thomas Wentworth. Another example of Deloroche getting his point across is his 1831 artwork The Children of Edward, which he took inspiration from Shakespeare The Life and Death of Richard the Third, a story he knew to have some truths. With this in mind, he was able to make a comparison of the deaths of the two English princes to draw attention to the mysterious deaths of Louis XVII of France. Delaroche always denied any reference to the revolution in his works, but why would a French artist produce work based on the deaths of English victims of tyranny, if it was not to represent his own. Twenty years later, when Nichols wrote his Chronicles of Jane Grey and Queen Mary the memory of Deloroche's painting must have still been as vivid as the day he saw it, why else would he feel impelled to embellish the story and put words into the mouth the dying Jane Grey that she did not utter. In his chronicle he writes:

'First, when she mounted the scaffold, she said to the people standing thereabout " Good people, I come hither to die, and by law, I am condemned to do the same. The fact and the deed, against the queen highness, was unlawful and the consenting thereto by me, but touching the procurement and desire thereof by me or on my half, I do wash my hands thereof in innocence...Then the hangman kneels down and asked her forgiveness who she forgave most willingly. Then he willed her to stand upon the straw which doing she saw the block and said "I pray, dispatch me quickly" and kneeling down saying "will you take it off before I lay me down?" and the hangman answered "No, madam" She tied the handkerchief about her eyes and feeling for the block said "What shall I do? Where is it?" One of the standers-by guided her unto she lay her head down upon the block and stretched forth her body and said "Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit" and so it ended.'

Compare this to the original written account of the aforementioned eyewitness present in the tower on the day of Jane's death.

'Jane, we are told, is nothing at all abashed neither with the fear of her own death, neither with the sight of the dead carcass of her husband. She came forth, the leftenant leading her in the same gown wherein she was araigned. Neither her eyes anything moistened with tears although the two gentlewomen, Mistress Tilney and Mistress Ellen wonderfully wept. Jane carried a book in her hand whereon she prayed all the way to the said scaffold"

Another source writes

'She conducted herself at her execution with the greatest fortitude and godliness.'

Jane was the daughter of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk and Francis Brandon, she was also the pawn of her father in law, John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland whose actions cost her her life, and she is only really remembered in history for two things, firstly as the queen who reigned for just nine days and secondly, the aforementioned manner in which she died.

During the first few months of 1553, Edward VI under the influence of Dudley, had made an amendment to his Devise for the Succession in which he disinherited his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth and named Jane his heir. By the May of that year and as part of his master plan Northumberland arranged the marriage of his son Guildford to Jane. Two months later, the boy king was dead and Jane was proclaimed queen and in a surprising act of defiance refused to allow Guildford to be named king, therefore scuppering Northumberland's plans to control both Jane, Guildford and England. Soon after events took a downturn with surprising speed. By July Jane was deposed, by November she had been tried and found guilty and by the beginning of February she was awaiting the day of her execution.

It would seem that the masses were not aghast by the death of this queen, for they new little of her, the traitorous acts of Northumberland and the failed Wyatt revolt saw to it that Jane's sad tale quickly faded into obscurity.

What we should now remember about Jane is that she was an intelligent and feisty girl who left a lasting impression, notably on John Feckenham the Catholic priest Queen Mary sent to convert her and that she was one of many Tudor women whose wants and needs were overridden by the actions of the self-serving Tudor man. She was not the first to die because of the ambition of others, and she would not be the last.

An interesting side note on Jane's death is the death of Richard Morgan the judge who condemned her, he, by all accounts, died tormented by guilt two years later -

"touching the condemnation of this lady Iane, here is to be noted, that the Iudge morgan who gaue the sentence of condemnation against her, shortly after hee had condemned her, fell mad, and in hys rauing cryed out continually to haue the Lady Iane taken away from him, and so ended hys lyfe.

This account appears in John Foxes Actes and Monuments another appears in Holinshed's Chronicle. Jane's death made her a Protestant martyr, and there can be no better way to brand the Catholic religion as evil than to point out the horrible death those who do not follow the new true faith.

Jane Grey was buried along with her husband in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula.

Their grave is not marked.

The Galgano Sword

7/1/2018

Saint Galgano was born Galgano Guidotti in 1148 in Chiusdino, a village in what is now the modern province of Siena in Italy.

Galango was said to have been a medieval Tuscan knight, the son of a feudal lord. Galgano had a reputation for selfishness and being somewhat of a rebel in his youth. Galgano, after have a vision of the Archangel Michael, saw the error of his ways, abandoning his old life for that of a hermit at Rotonda di Montesiepi. To prove his total commitment to his new cause Galgano plunged his sword into a large stone forcing it through the rock up to its hilt, thus changing the sword into a cross a symbol of his new found piety.

Galgano died here on 30 November 1181 and since then pilgrims have arrived in large numbers and miracles have been performed. A papal commission was set up in 1185, after which Galgano was canonised in 1190.

For centuries the sword was thought to be a fake, but researchers revealed in 2001 that the sword is in fact, twelfth century. The University of Pavia, who tested the metal of the sword also used ground penetrating radar analysis and revealed that beneath the sword there was a cavity in which is thought to be the body of Galgano.

Incidentally, in the church, there are two mummified hands and these too are twelfth century. A local legend says that anyone who tried to remove the sword from the stone had their arms ripped off.

The Conception of King Arthur

6/11/2017

This rather amusing scene depicts Tintagel Castle in Cornwall. Looking over its ramparts is a very angry Ingraine, the wife of Gwrlais the Duke of Cornwall.

In the illustration there is trickery afoot, Merlin has used his magic to aid Uther Pendragon's entry into the castle. Pendragon has had his eye on the beautiful Ingraine for ages and had every intention of having his wicked way with her!

Poor Ingraine has realised that Merlin has changed Pendragon's appearance and has enabled him to take the form of Gwrlais. When Ingraine sleeps with her husband that night she is in fact really being ravaged by Uther Pendragon - the cad!

Ingraine becomes pregnant and later the legendary King Arthur is born.

Hector, Achilles and Ajax

1/6/2016

According to the Iliad, a rather grand Greek poem, Hector was an ideal warrior and the defender of Troy.
He was a Trojan prince and the first-born son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba and hero of a number of Trojan victories, whose exploits were told in the aforementioned Iliad by Homer.

Two of his famous battles are with Ajax and Achilles.

Ajax was a Greek hero and grandson of Zeus, whose hand to hand battle with Hector lasted most of the day. Hector breaks into the Mycenaean camp burning all the ships, the only way he feels he can defeat the Greeks, Ajax is said to have leapt from ship to ship brandishing a spear and holds off Hectors army single-handedly.

A fight between the two ensues, and at first Ajax is the stronger and wounds Hector with his spear but he knocks him down with a large stone. Hector fights on courageously until Zeus intervenes calling the battle a draw ordering both men to exchanging gifts. Ajax is said to have given Hector a purple sash and Hector giving Ajax a sharp sword.

The more famous fight with the mighty Achilles see's the end of Hector whilst avenging the death of his friend Patroclus. Achilles sets out to meet Hector and kill him. Both men were hero worshiped by the men of their armies, they were young and strong and both have a cause, Achilles, of course, was revenge and Hectors was the fate of the city of Troy. After the fight is over Achilles is the victor, from the city walls Hector's father can only watch as Achilles binds Hector by his feet to his chariot and drags it three times around the city walls. King Priam pleads for the release of his sons body to which Achilles agrees.
post!

What happened to Achillies and Troy? Well you will have heard of Achillies heal and the Wooden horse of Troy...........well that's another story......or in my case

Greek Mythology: Phineus

16/5/2016

In Greek mythology, Phineus was a prophet and the ruler of a region known as Thrace, ancient lands thought to have been bordered by the Balkan and Rhodope mountains and the Aegean and Black Sea.

Phineus was gifted with remarkable foresight, but eventually he suffers the scorn of Zeus, the king of the gods on Mount Olympus. His father is thought to have been Agenor, King of Tyre, or one of Agenor's sons, Phoenix or Poseidon, who we know to be the Greek god of the sea. Phineus was said to have been married three times, he is tricked by his second wife into blinding his two sons by his first wife.

This is one reason why Phineus is punished with blindness himself, but the popular version is the one we see in the 1963 film Jason and the Arognauts, which is prophesying too accurately and revealing divine truths to mortals.
As further punishment, Zeus leaves him on an island were there is ample food and drink, but none of which Phineus can eat, for Zeus has sent Harpies to steal away from him every last crumb.

Phineus' punishment continues until Jason and the Argonauts come ashore on his island and hear his story. In return for freeing him from his tormentors Phineus tells Jason how to reach Colchis, the island that holds the Golden Fleece.

In the 1963 film Jason and the Argonauts, Phineus is played by Dr Who actor Patrick Troughton.
In the first of the two images you can see a drawing of the Harpies by Ray Harryhausen and in the second how close to his drawings the figures in the film are.

Thomasine Blight, the White Witch of Helston

27/8/2015

Stories of witches and ghosts stem from the Celts believing that evil spirits came with the long hours of winter darkness, it
is at the end of October, All Hallows Eve, that these people believed the barriers between our world and the spirit world
were at their weakest and therefore spirits were most likely to be seen on earth, they built bonfires to frighten the spirits
away and feasted and danced around fires.

Cornwall has always had its tales of the supernatural, local legends of standing stones and other landscape features
suggest a history of witches, ghosts and goblins attending night meetings and after all Cornwall is the home of the
Museum of Witchcraft. In the first half of the ninetieth century our county also had its very own witch, her name was Thomasine Blight and she went by the name the White Witch of Helston. She was born Thomasine Williams in Gwennap,
near Redruth in 1793.

It is more than likely that Thomasine first applied her trade in the market town of Redruth where she would take spells
off of cursed livestock, cure the sick, remove the curses of black witches and place her own curses on those who
displeased her. Blight's husband, James Thomas, was said to possess similar powers and for a while they had a
successful partnership but there was an indiscretion on his part and he was forced to flee, no doubt with Thomasine
cursing him all the way!

In reality, Blight was probably an independent and resourceful woman who saw through superstition but used it to
her advantage.

Thomasine died the year painting below was completed, it has been said that as she lay on her death bed, people were
carried to her on stretchers and placed beside her and with one incantation they were said to have risen up and left
perfectly cured.

This wonderful painting by if Helston's White Witch is William Jones Chapman, a travelling portrait /sport painter,
and is held in the Royal Institution of Cornwall.

Matthew Parker, The Duke of Wellington and the Great Exhibition

10/8/2015

What do they all have in Common?

Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury was born on 6th August in 1504.

Parker served as chaplain to Anne Boleyn, was involved in implementing the Thirty Nine Articles, a set of doctrines within the Church of England, he was also an avid book collector, salvaging medieval manuscripts that were set to be destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries. His efforts meant he left us a priceless collection of manuscripts that are now housed at the Parker Library at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

But did you know that Matthew Parker was the first 'Nosey Parker'?

A nosey parker as you will all know, means someone who pokes their nose into other peoples business. Allegedly, people thought Parker was far too inquisitive about church matters for his own good, they also thought he had rather a long nose.

Here's the man himself. His nose looks okay to me.

The term itself, sticking your nose into other people’s affairs, can be dated back the the late 1880's. Before then, anyone called nosey was just somebody with a big nose, like the Duke of Wellington, who had the nickname Old Nosey.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first citation of the statement was

“You’re a askin’ too many questions for me, there’s too much of Mr. Nosey Parker about you.”

My favourite has to be the 1907 'Adventures of Mr Nosey Parker' a set of postcards illustrating the antic's of a gentleman who never minded his own business.

Nosey Parker's origins may spring from the 1851 at the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park where a very large numbers of people attended the exhibition, so there would have been lots of opportunities for peeping Toms and eavesdroppers in the grounds.

Interestingly the word Parker is a medieval term, being used for an official in charge of a park, a park-keeper.

The Adventures of Robin Hood

28/7/2015

Featuring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland. 1938

The Victorians would have loved this film, it a romantic romp and probably owes much to the stories of Sir Walter Scott and the illustrations of Howard Pyle rather than Robin Hood's 'true' tale.

"Its injustice I hate, not the Normans" Robin says

Which is just as well, as Flynn's Robin doesn't take much of a stand against John, and the Crusades only get a passing mention and as usual 'good' King Richard swans in an out of the film just as he swanned in and out of the country in real life!

None the less, its a decent, rousing swashbuckling film, and really not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The story of Robin Hood, a local hero, who took on the might of the realm, has its roots in late 15th century to early 16th century English ballads.

Walter Bower, a Scottish abbot of Inchcolm Abbey wrote in 1440

"Then arose the famous murderer, Robert Hood, as well as Little John, together with their accomplices from among the disinherited, whom the foolish populace are so inordinately fond of celebrating both in tragedies and comedies, and about whom they are delighted to hear the jesters and minstrels sing above all other ballads."

This film is proof that Bower was not wrong.

The Adventures of Robin Hood is a bit of a fairy tale, Errol Flynn, with sword in one hand and his eye of the beautiful Maid Marion, jumps from the highest branches of trees, managing to land with both feet firmly on the ground and both hands on his hips, all this without his plucky little grin ever leaving his face.

What a hero!