Did You Know…About the Icelandic Mound?

Tags

atlantis, elves, fae union, fairy mound, hidden people, Huldufólk, icelandic mound, leprechaun, magic council, the broken world series

Iceland has a rich history of believing in the hidden people—invisible elves hidden amongst their landscapes.

In fact, environmentalists camped on volcanic rock to protect the paranormal creature dwelling inside of the volcanic debris. The surrounding lands hold an important elf church, and thousands populate the area. Locals fear that if holy relics are destroyed unnecessarily, the elves will retaliate.

This sounds like a radical belief, but a 1998 survey reported more than half of Icelanders said that they believed in fairies. Paring this with an academic paper, “The Elves’ Point of View” by Valdimar Hafstein in 2000, the folklorist professor said, “If this was just one crazy lady talking about invisible friends, it’s really east to laugh about that. But to have people through hundreds of years talking about the same things, it’s beyond one or two crazy ladies. It is part of the nation.” In 2007, the University of Iceland conducted a study that estimated 62% of the country believed elves were more than fairy tales.

The reason for the high rate of believers is that their versions of hidden people is because they look and behave similarly to humans but live parallel to us. In Faroese folklore, the fae are large, wear gray clothes, and have black hair. They dwell in mounds.

Another justification for so many believers is that Iceland has four holidays that feature the fae. On New Year’s Eve, elves moved to new locations and Icelanders provided candles to pave their paths. On the Thirteenth Night, January 6^th, elf bonfires are a common part of the festivities. The people clean their houses and leave food out on Christmas so that elves who invade their farmhouses can hold wild parties. Finally, Midsummer Night provides an opportunity to seduce elves by laying food and gifts at crossroads.

 

Now, my Icelandic mound is one of the last independent mounds left in the Broken World. My giant leprechaun, Boden, is from the Icelandic mound and returns there in his own short story. There, he remembers an important bit of the monarchy’s history—one that threatens the safety of his home in book four.

The queen is revealed to be as ruthless as the other queens present in the series, but the princess, Asdis, turns out to be a helpful and insightful person and leader. She also has some interesting connections to my protagonist, Ria.

This mound holds the last remnants of the old fae union and the great magickal council that governed the research, the laws, and the justice for the coalition. They also maintain the traditions of apprenticeships within their society, which has been lost to the majority of the fae that had to flee their mounds and, therefore, their customs. The underground mounds, although independent, have a watered-down version of these practices, they don’t have the capabilities of maintaining the rigid control that Iceland holds.

In fact, the Icelandic mound was built for that purpose. They were the strategic mound to fend off invasions and preserve the fae’s history and knowledge.

I’m pretty excited about some of the connections to come from this mound in the last treks of the story. Most thrilling is exploration of how the fae are more similar to gods than they are to paranormal creatures, which are formed from the primordial Greek gods and Atlantean pantheon. I wonder what will happen when they mix…

 

Do you know anything about faerie mounds, politics, or lore? Tell me about them in the comments below!

 

 

Sources:

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/10/why-so-many-icelanders-still-believe-in-invisible-elves/280783/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huldufólk

http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20181217-the-elusive-hidden-people-of-iceland

 

Did You Know…About Pirate Earrings?

Tags

Agnus Konstam, did you know, Gold Hoops, Howard Pyle, Pirate Earrings, pirate treasure, Pirate: The Golden Age, Pop Culture Pirates, prevent seasickness, protection from drowning, superstitious

Pop culture shows pirates, especially older ones, as wearing gold hoops in their ears amongst their otherwise flamboyant dress. They weren’t simply for fashion. They served useful purposes.

Sea-faring folk often sported earrings as tokens from their travels or voyages, like young sailors to celebrate their first crossing across treacherous waters or a trek over the equator, etc.

They were also worn for superstitious reasons, such as believing they improved or cured bad eyesight since precious metals possessed magical powers to heal. They also assumed pierced ears would prevent seasickness or that the gold protected them from drowning.

In reality, silver and gold were worth the cost of a funeral and transportation of their body after death. And these precious metals are acceptable forms of payment across the world. Pirates also generally engraved their home ports on the inside of their earrings so that they could be sent home. Plus, it’s stuck through their flesh, so it won’t be washed off of them in the sea.

Pirates also drilled holes in coins to drape around their necks and wrists so that no one could steal their purse. The myth of burying their treasure is false; instead, they carried it with them, disguised as jewelry. What better way to protect their valuables?

Another reason for hoop earrings were also used to carry wax for gunners and cannons during close combat to plug their ears.

However, as the stories depict, fashion did play a role in what pirates wore. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the European ruling class made laws to regulate what common people wore to legally separate themselves. Pirates and thieves stole and purchased clothes to taunt the town, and the earring was another way of flouting these laws.

Author of Pirate: The Golden Age, Angus Konstam, said that most historians are not convinced that the iconic garb was what pirates really wore. Instead, an American artist, Howard Pyle, crafted the stereotypical pirate after Spanish peasants and bandits in the late nineteenth century for children’s books.

Either way, the bold statement of the gold earring makes the pirate all the more alluring as characters.

 

Featured Artwork by BobKehl @ DeviantArt

Sources:

https://www.livescience.com/33099-why-did-pirates-wear-earrings-.html

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/why-do-pirates-wear-earrings

Did You Know…About the Pixies?

Tags

Cornish pixies, did you know, magical powers, mythology, pixie dust, pixie powers, pixies, Trevose Head in Cornwall, Trooping Fairy, wingerd fairy

The mythological pixie has many of the same base attributes as the others in the fae kingdom. Traditionally, pixies are seen as benign, mischievous, and childlike, which their small stature helps perpetuate. They’re also often described as having pointed ears and wearing green outfits with a pointed hat and shoes, although some stories dress them in rags that they merrily discard for new clothes. Legends also describe pixies as disguising themselves in rags to lure children to play.

Another depiction of the pixie describes them as a Trooping Fairy with red hair, pale faces, and turned-up noses. They also may tend to take on many guises to hide themselves. Other, less traditional portrayals of the pixie shows them as blue or green creatures with brightly stripped stockings. They can also have beautiful wings like a butterfly or dragonfly. And some can shape shift, commonly into the form of a hedgehog. Most agree that they are near ageless and uncommonly beautiful.

Pixies love to dance and often gather in large numbers outdoors to dance or wrestle. In general, they’re said to be helpful to humans, sometimes helping needy widows and others with their housework. But if they consider a member of the household lazy, the wee fae will nip, chase, and moving objects to scare them. At times, they are known to give misleading directions to travelers. This is often referred to as being “pixy-led,” which can be fixed by turning your coat inside out.

With a preference for bits of finery, pieces of ribbon seem to be highly appreciated by the pixies. A bowl of cream is also an excellent reward for them. They are also drawn to horses, riding them for pleasure and making ringlets in their manes as they explore hidden caves and streams and recesses of land. Although they love to travel, they are particularly connected to their homes, and threatening their homes is one sure way to invoke a pixie’s wrath. They have been known to defend their homes from monks and other fae on numerous occasions.

Although pixies are tiny little creatures, they are rich in magick, often using their powers to bring a smile to the face of a friend. They have an extraordinary ability for casting charms that affect human behavior. In fact, the queen of the Cornish pixies is considered to bring good luck with her pixie dust. Nature is also affected by the pixies’ close proximity: “plants grow more quickly, flowers bloom more brightly, and wild animals are tame when nurtured by pixies.”

The history of the pixie predates Christianity in Britain, but during the Christian expansion, these fae were believed to be the souls of unbaptized children, who would transform after their belongings were placed in clay funeral pots.

Before the mid-1800s, pixies and the other fae were taken seriously in Cornwall and Devon. They were believed to populate the hills of Britain. A group of rocks was named after the pixies because they were said to reside there. Six hundred pixies were once seen dancing and laughing at Trevose Head in Cornwall until one lost his laugh. But as we progressed further into the nineteenth century, the pixies’ contact with humans diminished severely.

Do you have a favorite pixie legend or story? Let me know about them in the comments below!

 

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixie

https://mythology.net/mythical-creatures/pixie/

http://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/page/Pixie

https://www.amazon.com/Spirits-Fairies-Leprechauns-Goblins-Encyclopedia/dp/0393317927/

Did You Know…About Sprites?

Tags

affinity for the elements, did you know, dobbie, elves, fae, faeries, house elves, J.K. Rowling, mythology, Sprites

Of the fae, most of us are acquainted with faeries and elves the best, but several other categories of the fae-dom tend to go unnoticed. One of them is the sprite, and much like their counterparts, these creatures are unpredictable and mischievous. Unlike faeries and elves, they have more otherworldly attributes.

Most often, sprites are paired with water, generally linked to elemental spirits, like the Nixie, which comes from nuhhussa, an Old High Germanic word meaning water sprite.  Mythology also called them water nymphs, naiads, or nyads, who were divine entities fixed in one place—differing them from gods and corporeal beings, like selkies and mermaids.

Water sprites are typically spotted near or in small lakes and streams. In Sweden, they can look like a man, a horse a bull, and even a cat or dog. The Bäckahästen make their victims ride on their backs to drown them.

Sprites also have affinities for plants. Brightly colored and roughly the size of larger insects, these sprites have dazzling translucent wings. Many are confused with exotic flowers and butterflies at first glance. At night, they may glow, allowing them to hide amongst the fireflies.

These creatures are more common than their faeries and elven counterparts, living deep in the woods—high amongst the branches, down near rivers and streams, or calm and cool-weathered hills.

Wooded sprites travel in swarms that bite if provoked, and they love to pester butterflies, which they fly faster and longer than. Routinely, the wake and bathe before hunting and eating plant pests, feeding their symbiotic relationship with the flowers, grasses, trees, and bushes.

Tree sprites are responsible for aiding trees in shaking off winter’s snow, budding leaves, and bearing fruit, which they love to snack on. They also help turn the leaves in autumn, and pluck limbs bare to complete the cycle. Afterwards, they hide deep within the trees during winter to keep the tree company and sing to the roots. Sometimes, they don’t make it to the next spring.

A Dobbie is another form of sprite, the “household sprite,” originally seen in 1811, earning its name from dobbin, a farm horse in Merchant of Venice. Sussex, England called such spirits Master Dobbs. Much like J.K. Rowling’s rendition of Dobby, appropriately named, the house sprites take interest in the families they’ve adopted. They live in the unused parts of the house and are often retiring about the time their families are waking up.

Have you heard of the sprite? Which one is your favorite? Let me know in the comments below!

 

Read a Russian Folktale about the Wood Sprite: here.

 

Sources:

https://www.paganspath.com/meta/faeries.htm

https://mythology.wikia.org/wiki/Sprite

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprite_(folklore)

https://aspcwf.wordpress.com/the-many-types-of-tribes-of-wee-folk/alphabetical-listing-of-tribes-discussed-here/household-sprites/

Did You Know…About the Scarlet Queen?

Tags

did you know, fae, faerie mound, fairy folk, Marusya Negreev, Russian Revolution, Soviet throne, the bloody queen, the Scarlet Queen, Tsar Nicholas the second

Marusya Negreev, the Scarlet Queen, single-handedly seized the faerie mound in the Soviet Union just before the Russian Revolution and the fall of Tsar Nicholas the second. Many believe that the fall of the mound influenced the fall of the tsar’s regime, but no one knows for certain.

When Marusya gained power within the Soviet mound, she flayed her own parents for her merciless upbringing and proved to the people that she would defeat all who came against her. Ruthless and dispassionate, her name was a sign of what she’d been burdened with, and her family was blamed for much of her bitterness. Names prove potent enough to taint the soul, especially amongst the faerie folk.

Many fae died without their home to hide within—exposed to the Celampresians and humans. Anyone who did not serve Marusya fled her rule. Too many didn’t make it out and more never found their way to safety.

Immediately following Queen Tarkovsky stepping down from the Soviet throne, Scarlet ordered the execution of what amounted to be a hundred-thousand faerie folk, more than a third of the population, earning her the title as the Scarlet Queen. The bloody queen.

She ran off to join the Celampresians as the revolutionaries gained greater numbers than she had the strength to fight from within the mound. Her death toll rose to a quarter million afterwards.

Now, she works with the vampire queen, searching for ways inside what was left of the independent mounds and the truth about her birth.

Did You Know…About Cinderella?

Tags

#fracturedfairytales, After the Happily Ever After, Baba Yaga and Vasilisa, Charles Perrault's Cendrillon, Chinye, did you know, History of Cinderella, La Gatta Cenerentola, Native Algonquin legends, Rhodopis, The Brothers Grimm, Ye Xian

The versions we currently know of the Cinderella story glean their pieces from a piece dating back to the first century, which transformed a tale about a Greek slave girl becoming an Egyptian queen into a supernatural and magical romance.

The first variant of Cinderella is “Rhodopis,” which originated in Egypt and is believed to loosely based on a real person. Herodotus wrote a story about a young, Greek girl being kidnaped by pirates and sold to a kind Egyptian master. Unfortunately, her fellow slaves are less kind, so she finds solace in her animal friends. Then, she discovers fancy shoes in the Pharaoh’s court. Cue the romance, of course, as she marries the Pharaoh by the gods’ decree. This early tale appeared in various forms across eighteen centuries.

Another close version appeared in the sixth century, depicting a Greek wealthy prostitute named Rhodopis plots to have an eagle steal one of the slave girl’s shoes, fly it across the Mediterranean, and drop it into the lap of an Egyptian king. The shoe was a sign from the heavens, and the king quests to find its owner, marry her, and make her a queen.

In a ninth-century Chinese portrayal, Ye Xian is granted a single wish from some magical fishbones: to create a gown in hopes of finding a husband. A monarch finds the shoe—a gold fish-scale design—and quests for the woman with tiny enough feet to fit it. Ye Xian’s beauty prompts the king to marry her, and the terrible step-mother dies in her cave home, crushed by stones.

The medieval Phillipines created “Anne de Fernandez,” where the title character befriends Gold-Eyes, a talking-fish reincarnation of her mother. Anne’s evil step-family tricks Gold-Eyes, kills her, and prepares her for supper after sending Anne on an errand across the forest. She’s shown the bones when she returns. Her only way out of this hellhole is when the Prince of Talamban falls in love with her instead of one of her step-sisters. An intriguingly small, golden slipper, leads the prince back to Anne in spite of her family’s plotting.

In Japan, Chūjō-hime, escapes her evil step-mother with the help of Buddhist nuns. She joins their convent in the end. And in Korea, the mistreated Kongji goes to the mayor’s feast, meets his son, and the love story ensues.

Most of the newer bits stem from more recent tales, like the seventeenth-century’s “Cendrillon” or “The Little Glass Slipper” by Charles Perrault, which depicted a young girl forced into servitude to her stepfamily and is eventually rescued by a prince with the help of a lost glass slipper, a godmother, and magic, of course.  His account introduced the pumpkin and the cinder element, since the maiden slept beside the fire every night and woke covered in ash. But in Perrault’s world, the stepsisters apologize for being terrible and go on to marry lords.

Most of the countless depictions follow this theme. Although one version has Cinderella murder her stepmother. I want to read this one. And another shows Cinderella force-fed her own toe. Ick. Needless to say, this character and her story isn’t so easily defined, yet she permeates our culture so deeply. She intertwines together centuries of storytelling and many cultures.

Another modern version comes from an Italian collection of short stories. “La Gatta Cenerentola,” or “The Cat Cinderella,” also possessed the ingredients of the modern tale, the step-family, the magic, the missing slipper, but it brings more darkness. A woman named Zezolla flees from a king who wants to marry her, narrowly escaping him at two different celebrations, but he catches her at the third and thwarts her ability to abscond. Instead of uplifting love, Zezolla’s story ends in a forced marriage. Oh, and she has six evil step-sisters instead of two.

A second Italian variant of the tale—or a second-cousin to the story—headlines with a woman giving birth to a talking gourd. A prince stumbles upon it and takes it with him. Eventually, a girl emerges from the gourd and is kept as a slave by the prince, who mistreats her terribly. Beaten to keep her from his ball, she makes it there anyways in disguise. They meet, and he gives her gifts throughout the night, and in the morning, she serves him breakfast as her squashy self, but has slipped her gifts into his food, and he realizes she is his beloved. They get married. Um, what?

Well, without surprise, the Brothers Grimm got their hands on the tale, too, creating a much darker story in the nineteenth-century. “Aschenputtel,” or “Ash Fool,” provides a tree growing from her mother’s grave instead of a fairy godmother to grant Cinderella’s wishes. Instead of a dead father, he’s obstinately ignorant of his daughter’s misery. Grimm gives the girl golden shoes and has her step-sisters cut off their own toes to get the shoe to fit. However, Cinderella still marries the prince, and her step-sisters are bridesmaids, but doves peck their eyes out during the ceremony. Yes! That’s one to read to the kiddos. I mean, if your kiddo was like me as a child…

In Russia, “Baba Yaga and Vasilisa” was written in the mid-nineteenth century and is similarly more adult. The girl, Vasilisa, is sent to a witch by her step-mother, who assumes that the girl will die. But she survives the hut made of human bones, her brush with death reunites her with her dad via a helpful magic doll. Unfortunately, Baba Yaga punishes the cat whose only job was to kill Vasilisa by scratching out her eyes.

Native Algonquin legends in the late nineteenth century provided us with “The Hidden One,” a variance that emphasizes morals rather than revenge. A young warrior named Strong Wind could make himself invisible, which he uses to test the truthfulness of the women who’d like to marry him. Then, he meets three sisters; two claim to see him when they can’t, but the youngest and most abused, tells the truth and, therefore, ends up with Strong Wind.

Disney’s version of Cinderella piggybacked on the more kid-friendly elements, like the talking animals and songs popular in Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. It also worked as an excellent marketing tool, showing the merits of consumerism—the nice ride, the fancy dress and shoes, and how a grand entrance really does make a great first impression. Oh, and did you know that sparkly dress was based on designs by Dior, a French luxury fashion designer?

Most recently in 1994, West Africa offers Chinye, a reprieve from the marriage mandate. The young girl is sent by her step-mother to fetch water in a dark, scary forest. Chinye is patient and good hearted, which leads her to a treasure in the woods. This provides her with the financial freedom of her greedy step-family, and she goes on to live a great life, helping others with her riches.

The Cinderella story most often tells us that we can overcome hardship. That we have the power to change our lives. And if you’re a hopeful romantic, that love will find a way to save us.

I had the honor of reading through and publishing so many new takes on the fairy tale in AFTER THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER. But since Cinderella marries a Charming prince, and so does Snow White, I couldn’t resist smashing the two princesses together in the same kingdom as undercover agents. Yes, you heard me right. Think fairy princess and 007, abusive husbands, crafty DWARVES, and conspiracy theories.

Hardships are abound, but can these two overcome them all? Who’s to say? Well, I could, but I won’t.

 

What’s your favorite version of the Cinderella tale? Let me know in the comments below!

 

 

Sources:

https://www.vox.com/2015/3/15/8214405/cinderella-fairy-tale-history

https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/cinderella-origins

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Cinderella#Origins_and_history

https://www.npr.org/2015/03/13/392358854/a-girl-a-shoe-a-prince-the-endlessly-evolving-cinderella

Did You Know…About the Skoffín?

Tags

death gaze, demon harriers, did you know, hybrid creature, Icelandic lore, Icelandic myth, silver bullets, Skoffin, skuggabaldur

Sometimes fathered by a fox and mothered by a cat and occasionally born from an old hen’s small egg, the skoffín were often killed at birth. The creature is not quite a cat nor a fox, not quite wild nor tame, kind of human but also animal, and extremely dangerous. They are cunning and cruel, often referred to as the “demon harriers.”

Skoffín are partly bald with impressive teeth and claws. They change color with the seasons like an Artic fox, and its exact appearance varies. Born with their eyes open, they disappear quickly after birth and don’t return for up to three years, when they feast on nearby animals. Most are killed at birth because they’re not easy to kill once they reach maturity.

Keeping them under control in the wild is impossible. They are deadly to approach. Meeting their gaze would instantly kill both man and animal. Worse, some stories say that you were dead if they saw you, whether you saw them or not. The skoffín are intrinsically abhorrent and spiteful, and they wet their appetite for destruction by killing.

They are capable of moving in the day and night and are clever enough to hide on church roofs. It once killed people one by one as they left. The priest was smart enough to tie a mirror onto a long stick to kill the beast with its own gaze.

The skoffín is closely related to the skuggabaldur, which are fathered by a tom cat and mothered by a vixen. It is a bit more dangerous and can outsmart a human if it wanted. Should you encounter a skoffín in rural Iceland, try averting its gaze as long as possible and run, and showing a skoffín its reflection is the only way to guarantee its death. You might also try firing silver bullets at it, and carving a cross on them helps.

 

 

Sources:

https://blogs.transparent.com/icelandic/2012/10/18/dont-let-them-see-you/

https://grapevine.is/mag/articles/2008/09/03/more-monsters-and-mythical-beings-skoffin/

https://icelanddefrosted.com/2013/04/13/mythical-icelandic-creatures-skoffin/

https://www.mythicalcreaturescatalogue.com/single-post/2016/06/05/Skoff%C3%ADn-Iceland

Did You Know…About the Succubus and Incubus Demons?

Tags

Cambion, demon mythology, did you know, incubus, Lilith, Medieval Christian demonology, qarinha, sex demons, sleep paralysis, succubus, yakshini

The succubus and incubus come from Medieval Christian demonology that do their evil work by seducing their victims. The succubus is the female counterpart, and males account for the incubus.

The myth has some basic variations, like how the succubi and incubi are two different demons. Incubi impregnate women with demon seed while succubi impregnates itself using a human male. Others say these beings are the same within a shape-shifting demon, which must collect semen from a male before shifting and using it to impregnates another woman. Less regularly, these creatures use intercourse to possess their victim directly, typically while the person sleeps.

(Photo Credit (c) Nicolai Abraham Abildgaard’s Nightmare)

It’s difficult to pin down a specific physical description for succubi and incubi since they have shapeshifting qualities, but some ancient tales portray them as hideously deformed creatures that were small and stooped. They crawled instead of walking with their raptor feet, fargoyle faces, and clawed fingers.

Now, modern depictions of succubus specifically, summons the image of a voluptuous woman with flawless skin and smooth curves in skimpy leather outfits that flaunt their bodies. You know, all the telltale signs that they’re sexy demons. Many modern succubi also commonly have bat wings, barbed tails, curled horns, and glowing eyes like their satanic patronage.

(Photo Credit (c) Elena Samko cosplay Succubus).

In other cultures and religions, sex remains a part of the demon’s mythology. Arabic cultures depict them as jinns, but there are also non-sexual variations where the demon pins the person to a bed and strangles or suffocates the victim in some way.

Often, succubi and incubi don’t care who they hurt in the midst of obtaining their goal, like attacking their victims’ significant other for catching them in the act, an Old Hag in Newfoundland, Canada, suffocates her victims in their sleep with her ancient, hideous bulk, and Ephialtes, from Greek mythology, leaps on its prey like a great frog.

Their personalities have also shifted over time. The original succubi and incubi were nasty, sneaky, controlling, and malicious, opposing the current trend of oozing intense charisma and seductive power that can tantalize the opposite sex. Despite being sex-crazed, the ancient version didn’t care about pleasing men, and like the modern versions, they often used sex to please themselves, to pervert the virtuous, to gain their life energy, or to produce children.

(Photo Credit (c) Igor Igorevich)

Jewish and Kabbalah mysticism showcases Lilith as their prime example of a succubus, transformed after leaving the Garden of Eden and sleeping with the archangel Samael. Originally, Lilith was a Sumerian goddess of fertility, but later became associated with dark demons. The Greek version, Iamia, was beautiful and turned into a monster by Hera.

Merlin, from Arthurian legend, is portrayed as a cambion, or the child of an incubus and a royal woman or nun. And half-human children are common in Japanese manga.

(Photo Credit (c) Devil May Cry Corrupted Vergil).

In one story from 2012, a young man describes a succubus taking form as an imaginary friend from childhood, Lucy, who told the boy as he grew that she would teach him some new, exciting things when he reached puberty. The young man grew obsessed with this invisible character, concerning his parents and sending him to a number of psychologists. At sixteen, Lucy encouraged him to date real women and coached him through his sexual encounters. She stuck around for years until the young man fell in love with and married a real woman.

Historically, sex-demons, especially female sex-demons, can be found in a lot of cultures, like the yakshini in India, the qarinha in Arabia, the deer woman in Native America, the mogwai in China, and the Lamia in Greece.

These legends spread wide as an explanation for sleep paralysis, hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations. It also helped explain sexual taboos and the “devil made me do it” excuse for unwanted pregnancies, incest, and nocturnal secretions. They’ve also been linked to schizophrenia.

Got a favorite succubu/incubi story or myth? Tell me about it in the comments below!

 

 

Sources:

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Incubus_and_succubus_myths

https://www.ranker.com/list/scary-stories-about-succubi/cheryl-adams-richkoff?page=3

https://mythology.net/demons/succubus/

 

 

Did You Know…About Snow White?

Tags

After the Happily Ever After, Brothers Grimm, cinderella, fairy tales, Margarete von Waldeck, Maria Sophia con Erthal, Padmavat, poisoned apple, snow white, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Most know Snow White from the Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the nineteenth-century German fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm: a young, beautiful girl loses her mother. When her father remarries, the princess’s vain and wicked stepmother grows jealous of the sweet fairness of Snow White. There’s this crazy, magical mirror who reminds the aging queen that she is, indeed, aging. Eventually, the queen sends a hitman after the princess, she flees, is taken in by seven coal workers in the woods. They do the whole domestic thing until a witch comes and poisons her. No worries, Disney gives her a happy ending with the prince kissing her awake and whisking her off to the royal castle. The Grimm version makes the stepmother queen put on red-hot shoes and dance until she drops dead. Gives the story a bit more justified karma if you ask me.

A lot of symbolism lies in the fairy tale, but interestingly enough, in 1994, Eckhard Sander, a German historian, uncovered a real woman who could have inspired the story: Margarete von Waldeck, a German countess who was forced to move to Burssels at sixteen by her stepmother, Katharina of Hatzfeld. There, the countess fell in love with a prince Phillip II who became king of several European countries, like Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, England, and Ireland—due to marriage. Margarete’s father and stepmother disapproved of their relationship because of its political inconvenience, and the young woman died at twenty-one, supposedly poisoned by Phillip II’s father, who also opposed to the romance.

Still, the connections continue as the seven dwarfs seem to resemble the children employed by her father in his copper mines. Many of them died due to the poor conditions, but those who lived had stunted growth and malformed limbs from malnutrition and difficult physical labor.

And finally, the poisoned apple may have stemmed from German history as well, when an old man fed poisoned apples to children whom he thought were stealing his fruit.

However, another group of Bavarian scholars believe that Snow White was based on Maria Sophia von Erthal of Bavaria. The daughter of landowner, Prince Philipp Christoph von Erthal and his wife, Baroness con Bettendorff. When her mother died, Sophia’s father married the Countess of Reichenstein, who hated her stepchildren and lived in a castle with a talking mirror, an acoustical toy manufactured in 1720.

The dwarves in Maria’s storied also linked to a mine in Bieber set amongst the seven mountains, which had tunnels so small that only very short miners that wore bright hoods as the dwarfs were depicted over the years.

Additionally, the glass coffin connected to the glass industry of the region, and the poisoned apple associated with the nightshade plants that grow abundantly in Lohr.

Other fictional variations of the story show the queen committing cannibalism, eating Snow White’s lungs and liver, and could be a connection to old Slavic tales of witches eating human hearts. This connects to the later versions where the queen requests her huntsman to return with Snow White’s heart.

In another, Snow White is the villain and jealous of her biological mother. A version earlier than Grimm’s showed Snow White being sent out to collect flowers and being abandoned, both by the mother and a servant. Later, the story changed the villain to a stepmother to be more acceptable for children.

Other traditions outside of Europe create further variations, like Albania’s version showed Snow White living with forty dragons and a ring causing her slumber. However, the tale twists the initial conflict by having Snow White’s teacher urging her to murder the queen for her place of power. Others say her two jealous sisters try to kill her instead.

An epic Indian poem, “Padmavat,” depicts a stepmother queen asking her parrot who is the most beautiful with a disagreeable reply. The same happened in an Armenian story, where a mother asked the moon the same question, resulting in the plot to kill her daughter. And a Russian tale creates a similar story of Snow White but replaces the dwarfs with knights.

Plenty of interpretations exist over the symbolism in the well-known tale: the seven-deadly sins and the seven dwarfs; the black, white, and red and their links to alchemy, Indian philosophy, and Egyptian culture; a metaphysical rebirth of Snow White’s reawakening; the poisoned apple links to Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden, and etc. I could write a post all its own about these.

Another time.

Want to see more twists to the classic tale and others? Check out AFTER THE HAPPILY EVER AFTER, and read my version “She of Silken Scarves,” which mixes Snow White, Cinderella, and Mission Impossible with a slew of conspiracy theories.

 

 

Sources:

https://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends/exploring-true-origins-snow-white-and-seven-dwarfs-004150

http://mythicspiral.blogspot.com/2012/07/snow-white-and-seven-dwarfs.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White#Variations

Did You Know…About the Merfolk?

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Atargatis, Blue Men of the Minch, did you know, Finfolk, fish gods, Kappa, merfolk, mermaids, selkies, The Mermaid Wife

Most are familiar with the Disney depiction of merfolk and Ariel’s struggle to find love on land, without her voice no less, a sanitized version of the Hans Christian Andersen’s tale where she does not have a happy ending, and spoiler, not only does she suffer with every step on land, she also dies a painful death.

This may be a reflection on mermaids’ association with misfortune and death, and the common merging of their mythology with that of sirens, luring sailors to their watery graves. But the mermen have also earned a severe reputation for summoning storms, sinking ships, and drowning sailors.

In any case, we see merfolk described as a half-human, half-fish hybrid creature, and we’ve had mythologies about these creatures for thousands of years, like Babylon’s Era and Oannes, the fish gods. Greek mythology tells of the god Triton, a messenger of the sea, and the Hindu and Candomblé still worship mer-goddesses.

An interesting version from the Shetland Islands mixes the merfolk with selkies, telling of strikingly beautiful women whose appearance is a temporary effect of donning fish skin. And if they lose the skin, they will be stuck on land. In one tale, “The Mermaid Wife,” a man, Unst, walked along the beach, saw a group of merfolk dancing in the sand under the moonlight with skins strewn across the ground. Unst snatched one and concealed it. When he returned to that spot, he happened upon the fairest of the women, sad over the theft of her skin and her exile. Unst offered protection, married the damsel, and they produced several children. After some years, their children found the hidden skin and returned it to their mother. She hugged them goodbye and sped off towards the sea. Unst returned from a trip just in time to chase after her and witness her magnificent transformation. Before she disappeared under the water with her merfolk family, she called back her love to him, but that her first husband was her true love.

Also in Scotland, the Blue Men of the Minch, are a group of mermen, who have blue-tinted skin and gray beards. They challenge ship captains before sieging the ship. If a captain is quick witted, he may best the Blue Men and save his men. They’ve also been known to battle against the Vikings and their Norse king, which may coincide with when the Vikings landed, wearing blue, veiled clothes.

The kappa from Japanese myth live in lakes, rivers, and on coasts, but they differ from the traditional merfolk by taking on a more child-like form with ape-like faces and tortoise shells on their backs. When they interact with humans, they, like the Blue Men of Minch, enjoy challenging humans to games of skill that come with a death penalty when lost. They also prefer to kill children or those silly enough to swim alone in secluded places; however, most prominently, they prefer fresh cucumbers, which might make a nice trade for one’s life.

The Ningyo, also from Japanese myth, have varying human characteristics, making them more monstrous and uglier with a deformed fish face, human torso, and long, bony fingers with sharp claws. These versions of the mermaids have a bonus: consuming their flesh grants immortality, but this comes with great risk as the Ningyo can place powerful curses on the humans who try to trap or wound them, linked with entire towns being swallowed by earthquakes and tsunamis.

In Norway and the Orkney Islands, they have myths of the Finfolkaheem, or Finfolk, which may be one of the least traditional versions, considered sorcerous shapeshifters. They do maintain negative relationships with humans, often abducting them as spouses or making them servants because if Finfolk marry one another, the Finwife will lose her mystical charm and age increases her ugliness in seven-year increments until she becomes a hag, which is why they prefer to abduct human males as their mates. The best way to escape their entrapments is by tossing a silver coin away from oneself, as they have an affinity for the precious metal.

The earliest rendition of a mermaid-like entity came from ancient Syria and their goddess, Atargatis, who watched over the general well-being of her people and their fertility. Human above the waist and fish below, she was obviously associated with water and had the biggest, most stunning temple, which featured a pond full of sacred fish.

A common thread amongst these myths create an intriguing paradox: the beauty and the beast trapped within the same creature. Some are victims, others are predators, but all manifest magic that affects the humans they interact with. Most commonly to the humanity’s demise.

 

Sources:

https://www.wired.com/2014/10/fantastically-wrong-strange-murderous-sometimes-sexy-history-mermaid/

https://www.livescience.com/39882-mermaid.html

http://mentalfloss.com/article/75471/9-mermaid-legends-around-world