Category: Myths Superstition And Legends - Meandering Through Time

The Loch Ness Monster

22/8/2019

It was in the year 565 that the first sighting of the legendary Loch Ness monster was recorded.

The story of the Loch Ness monster appears in the biography of St Columba written by Adamnan, an abbot of the monastery on Iona. The text refers to "aquatilis bestiae" or water beast. This account is one of the many tales of miracles performed by this 6th-century saint.

Adamnan's account has Columba looking for a way to cross the River Ness, he writes that Columba spotted a boat moored on the opposite bank and ordered his travelling companion to swim across the river to fetch it.

While waiting he notices a tribe of Picts burying a man they say had been attacked and killed by a huge 'water beast' whilst swimming river. Columba proceeds to raise the man from the dead by placing his cross on his chest. Shortly after performing this miracle Columba and the gathering crowd watch as the great water beast rises from the depths, attracted to the surface by the splashing of the aforementioned swimming monk. Columba, writes Adamnan, invokes the powers of the almighty and brandishing his trusty cross frightens monsters who quickly swims away. Astonished by what they have just witnessed the heathen Scottish tribe of Picts fall to their knees and are converted to Christianity on the spot and are baptised in the river before the last ripple, caused by the fleeing beast, has disappeared from the water.

I can imagine Nessie swimming from the River Ness into the Loch shouting the immortal words of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator "I'll be back!" and true to his word he was back nearly one thousand years later. The so-called Loch Ness Monster appears for the second time as part of the story of one Fraser of Glenvackie who is said to have slaughtered the last Scottish dragon. This story, written in 1520, states that the dragon was slain but it also states that the creature of Loch Ness had been 'lately seen.'

Simeon and the Cradle Rocking Ceremony

3/2/2019

On the nearest Sunday to Candlemas (2nd February) there is held in the Nottinghamshire village of Blidworth a Cradle Rocking Ceremony. This tradition has taken place in Blidworth since the 13th century and continues to this day - however it was banned during the Reformation but revived in 1923.

Before the ceremony begins an old wooden cradle, that has been decorated with ribbons and flowers is placed in front of the altar awaiting the arrival of the parishes most recently baptised baby boy.

The baby is placed within the cradle and all through the service, he is rocked gently by the vicar. At the end ceremony the baby is returned to its parents and the congregation sing 'Nunc Dimittis'

The story of this tradition has its roots in the Gospel of Luke - an event in the life of Simeon. Nunc Dimittis is a hymn that is also known as The Song of Simeon.

Simeon is said to have been a devout man unto who an angel appeared promising him that he would not die until he had seen the new Messiah. Sometime later, Mary and Joseph arrived at the Temple in Jerusalem bringing with them their baby for the ceremony of consecration of the firstborn son, which you will know is Candlemas. It was into Simeons arms the baby Jesus was placed.

The time frame in which these events occurred is not specified and therefore I don't know how old Simeon was when the Holy Spirit arrived, or how long after holding the baby Jesus Simeon died.

However, as previously stated this story appears in the Gospel according to Luke, and Simeon is stated to be one of the translators of the of the Greek Old Testament (c 2nd/3rd century BC) if this is the case it would mean that Simeon would have been over two hundred years old at the time of the meeting the Messiah.

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 Highwayman

7/4/2018

John Nevison was a notorious highwayman who had been convicted of horse theft and highway robbery. He went to his death in 1684 following his conviction for murder.

Nevison was a rogue who had a reputation as a 'gentleman highwayman' a veritable Robin Hood who it was said 'never used violence against his victims, who was always polite and robbed only the wealthy.' He was an ex-military man from a wealthy family who fell on hard times following the death of his father. Everyone knew about Nevison at the time, even King Charles II had heard of him.

In 1676 Nevison was tried on a charge of armed robbery that took place in Kent. Evidence was heard at his trial that he was in York at eight o'clock on the evening of the murder and therefore it was impossible for him to have been in Kent that morning and it was agreed that it was impossible to cover over two hundred miles in one day and therefore Nevison was acquitted.

This ride from Kent to York was later used the embellish the story of another highwayman - does it ring any bells?

John Nevison's name has faded into obscurity, his life story is similar to that of many men who resorted to highway robbery to earn a living, however, certain aspects of his life have been attributed to a man who few knew of at the time, but whose story would become stuff legends are made of.

Dick Turpin was a violent troublemaker in Essex, a horse rustler, a sheep stealer in Lincolnshire whose past finally caught up with him. Turpin was sentenced to death by hanging and executed on the 7th April in 1739. It is said that he paid for professional mourners to follow him up the scaffold where he put on a great show for the large crowd.

Reality and storytelling came together in 1834 in the book Rookwood, where the author, either by mistake or design, merges the gentleman highwayman that was Nevison with the violent show-off that was Turpin and added his own twist to the tale in the form of Turpin's horse Black Bess who he said to have died on exhaustion following Turpin's ride from London to York to establish an alibi.

Both these men lived a life of crime and were punished for it, but I cannot help feeling sorry for Nevison, the life he chose seems to have been born out of necessity whereas Tupin's, in his later crimes anyway, out of greed and profit.

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 knew 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.
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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.