One of Dracula’s Often Overlooked Inspirations Is the Indian Vetala - It was an English “translation” that turned a wise, if mischievous, figure into a bloodsucker, by Emma Starer Gross October 30, 2020
"...As legend goes, the vetala is a ghoulish trickster...that haunts cemeteries and forests, hanging upside down from trees and waiting for humans to play pranks on. They are said to exist in a realm between life & death, and have the ability to see into the past, present, and future. This boundless knowledge makes them invaluable to sorcerers, who often seek to capture & enslave the vetala to use its powers... “Growing up, my father taught me that the vetala could see everything,” recalls a priest at the Pasadena Hindu Temple in Los Angeles... “They could detect the good and the evil inside you. We were forever cautious around cemeteries. Because you never knew what might be waiting for you...”
The Dagda encountered the black-winged Mórrigan at the River Unshin (Unius) in #Connacht, who was standing with one foot on each bank and washing the clothes of those about to be killed in the next day’s battle at Mag Tuired. True to form, when the Dagda saw the enormous goddess bending over the stream, he was overcome with desire and engaged her in intercourse. So satisfactory did she find their encounter that she agreed to support his side in the next day’s battle, singing her magical chants from the sidelines as the Tuatha Dé Danann fought their mortal enemies, the monstrous beings called the Fomorians, and finally drove them from #Ireland.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore https://twitter.com/starwheelastro/status/833432200112648193
#FolkloreThursday for #WorldOceansDay: Sea captains were often born from the mating of the #Scottish Highland #Ceasg. This mermaid—half woman, half salmon—was also known as the maighdean na tuinne or “maiden of the wave.” Like other captured #faeries, she was said to grant wishes to her captor. But like any other seagoing siren, she was also capable of capturing humans, who usually lost their lives upon entering her watery domain.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore https://twitter.com/originsoflaoich/status/1494301676257357827?t=bMpvVKyS6DzIMqrs5wto1Q&s=09
#WorldOceansDay: #Fintan mac Bochra lived at least 5000 years after the Deluge, escaping it by turning into a salmon. When the water masses had receded, he turned into an eagle, then a hawk, afterwards into all the different animals of #Ireland and finally back to human form.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
#Dylan sometimes bears the epithet Ail Ton, “son of wave” or Ail Mor, “son of the sea,” and so he has been interpreted as being #Arianrhod’s child with a sea god or merman. (Arianrhod‘s second child, born on the same occasion, was LLeu Llaw Gyffes.) Certainly the sea was Dylan’s element, for he swam like a fish and took great pleasure in feeling the waves under his body. But he was killed by his uncle, the rapist Gilfaethwy.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore#WorldOceansDay
#FolkloreThursday for #WorldOceansDay: In the #Scottish#Hebrides the #mermaid did not sport a magical cap as in other lands. Instead she had a magical belt that had to be stolen to tame her. Her descendants were said to have the gift (or curse) of foreseeing who would die at sea.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
As Baile Binnbhéarlach (“sweet-spoken Baile”), prince of #Ulster, traveled alone to a trysting place, a maleficent #fairy told the prince—falsely—that his lover was dead, whereupon he died of grief at Baile’s Strand, a seashore near today’s Dundalk. The spiteful sprite then carried the same story (sadly true this time) to Ailinn, a #Leinster princess, who also fell down dead of grief.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore https://twitter.com/hidden_grove/status/1580140668617641985
#Conchobar lured #Deirdre and Noísiu back to #Ireland by vowing that he had lost interest in his bride. Noísiu, homesick, agreed to return. Despite premonitions of doom, Deirdre reluctantly agreed. Under an ominous blood-red cloud she sailed for Ireland with the three sons of Uisneach.
„Immediately upon landing, Noísiu and his brothers were set upon by Conchobar’s warriors, who killed them.“
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
When #Conaire arrived at Da Derga’s hostel on the magical feast of #Samhain after breaking a series of sacred vows, he faced his doom within it. A hag came to him demanding entrance. When the king of Tara denied it, she stood on one leg like a crane and cursed him. Immediately, Conaire developed an all-consuming thirst, which no water from any source in #Ireland could quench, and died of it.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore https://x.com/eDIL_Dictionary/status/866639498586845184
The History and Mystery of Yemen’s ‘Well of Hell’ - The first-ever expedition to the bottom of a startling desert sinkhole found wonders—but only natural ones, by Sarah Durn October 20, 2021
"...Actually, there was a concern more sinister than reptiles and spirits when Al-Kindi finally reached the bottom: unexploded ordnance. Since 2014, Yemen has been in the midst of a bloody civil war and, Al-Kindi explains, pilots sometimes drop bombs into caves, since people seek shelter inside. “So that got me worried a bit,” he says. “Apart from that, it was a very enjoyable moment.” ...Al-Kindi estimates the sinkhole could be several million years old, but its origin, too, is the subject of local legend. One legend says an ancient king forced jinn to carve the “well” as a place to hide his treasure. In others, the well has always served to contain evil, uncontrollable jinn..."
I am reading an article about how every time ancient art depicts a goddess as sexually alluring, they always get labeled a "goddess of fertility". Even when there is no indication of children, pregnancy, or anything fertile.
The article argues that some goddesses were deities of sex and pleasure, without the maternal fertility aspect.
I am like 🤯 🤯 I have a whole entire archaeology degree and we never addressed this...
Hello, Myth Lovers! Join us for tomorrow's theme: Mythical Places. What myth features a mythical or legendary place, location, or landscape? Use the tag #MythologyMonday for reposts. See you tomorrow!
#FolkloreThursday: „The Celts were not dualistic in their view of the world, preferring to speak of balance rather than conflict between winter and summer, male and female, night and day.“
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of #Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
#LegendaryWednesday: During a war to support the king of the province, Suibhne, a king of a small region of Ulster, went mad.
Thinking himself a bird, he climbed a yew tree. Each time he was found by his supporters, he fled again, always finding another tree in which to make his home.
During his mad days, Suibhne spoke in sensuous poetry. Finally, while in the process of dictating his adventures to a scribe, he was stabbed with a spear.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore https://twitter.com/ElvaBJohnston/status/945955162274791425
#Celtic#LegendaryWednesday: According to the British historian Geoffrey of Monmouth, Myrdinn Wyllt “Wild Merlin” was a #Welsh king/hero who went mad and fled to the woods, where he lived in a bird costume (or perhaps actually transformed himself into a bird). The name derives from a Welsh legendary figure who became famous as the magician Merlin.
Source: P. Monaghan Encyclopedia of Celtic #Mythology and #Folklore
RT @GodysseyPodcast
Foundational to the creation of Merlin is Myrddin Wyllt, or Myrddin the Wild, a bard who in Welsh poetry went mad after a battle and fled to the Caledonian Forest far to the north as a wildman, contemplating his former life but gifted with prophecy. #FolkloreThursday
🖼: A. Lee