Category Archives: Mythology

May 29, 2020 · 11:19 pm

The Twelve Handmaidens of Frigga

Love this post from Neptune’s Dolphins blog.

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nbfrigga_gpalmer By Grace Palmer

At her hall of Fensalir, Frigga, the Norse All-Mother, has twelve handmaidens or ladies-in-waiting to attend to Her. Not much is known about who these handmaidens were since the Lore is scanty about Goddesses in general. Much of what is known today is by Group Verified Gnosis. Diane Paxson and Raven Kaldera, both, have collected this information and written their views about the Twelve Goddesses.

The listing is as follows from Snorri in The Younger Edda.

Saga
At her hall, Sokkvabekk (Sunken Hall), Saga drinks with Odin, the All-Father. The two Gods spend their time trading stories. In common usage, “saga” means “a long tale.” Since She is the Patroness of Historians, Saga collects and passes on knowledge.

Eir
A master physician, Eir lives with Mengloth, the Jotun healer, at the Mountain of Healing, Lyfja. As the Healer of the Gods, Eir could be considered a…

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May 21, 2020 · 7:00 pm

FOOL KILLER FORTY-THREE: JANUARY 1911

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE

Fool Killer garbPART FORTY-THREE: The targets of James Larkin Pearson’s version of the Fool Killer in the January of 1911 issue:

*** The Government Printing Office, for its extravagant waste, which is STILL infamous.

*** Jackleg lawyers who gave the rest of the profession a bad name. Pearson depicted them as lecherous villains trying to ravish the blind female embodiment of Justice.

*** Horace Fletcher once again. Fletcher’s “health plan” which consisted of thoroughly chewing one’s food was still a popular fad.

*** People who were throwing themselves into the craze to own and pilot airplanes as they were coming into wider use. Many of these unskilled wannabes wound up just getting themselves killed in spectacular accidents. Continue reading →

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May 15, 2020 · 11:30 pm

TWENTY VIETNAMESE GODS AND GODDESSES

Balladeer’s Blog’s theme of Top 20 Lists for 2020 continues! For a look at U.S. Presidents click HERE 

Vietnam mapMAT GA TRONG – “Sun rooster”. The Vietnamese sun goddess. A daughter of Ngoc Hoang. Her sister is the moon goddess. The sun is her palanquin, adorned with rooster images, and carried across the sky by her attendants as she reclines on it and gives the world light and warmth. Seasonal changes in the length of the days and nights are explained by saying that in summer she is borne across the sky by virile young attendants who take their time because they like to flirt with the goddess on the way, resulting in longer days.

In winter she is borne across the sky by older attendants who hurry across the sky so they can rest their arms and backs all the sooner, resulting in shorter days. In summer her sister has the older attendants and in winter the younger ones. Her son is the Vietnamese fire god Ah Nhi.   Continue reading →

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May 15, 2020 · 3:57 pm

THE EPICS OF ENKIDU: AVAILABLE NOW!

epics of enkidu sizeAHMED ALAMEEN, motion-comic creator and best-selling author of the novel PSYCHS, has just launched his independent graphic novel project THE EPICS OF ENKIDU! Regular readers of Balladeer’s Blog are familiar with my obsession with ancient mythology, so it goes without saying that I love the premise of this tale, which combines super-heroics with mythology and autism awareness.

The man-beast Enkidu, the foe-turned-friend in The Epic of Gilgamesh, has survived to the present-day. He surfaces in a hospital, suffering from amnesia. Can an encounter with an enigmatic superhero revive his memories or will these two figures, who should be allies, instead be doomed to fight it out in a tragic misunderstanding of Earth-shaking proportions? Continue reading →

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May 12, 2020 · 5:00 pm

FOOL KILLER FORTY TWO: DECEMBER 1910

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE

Fool Killer timelessPART FORTY-TWO – The targets of James Larkin Pearson and his Fool Killer in the December 1910 issue:

*** Women who chewed snuff, whom they called “Snuffragettes.” As more proof that it’s tough to categorize Pearson, he always praised and defended actual Suffragettes. Yet he condemned women who wore pants and chewed snuff.   

*** Fire and brimstone preachers, whose brand of religion they called “cheap.”

*** Horace Fletcher, “The Great Masticator,” who was famous for insisting people should chew their food until it was liquefied before swallowing it. He claimed that even MILK should be “chewed” around in the mouth to ensure it was properly mixed with saliva before swallowing it. Fletcher insisted this would maximize the nutritional benefits.

*** Spiritualists who claimed that former president Theodore Roosevelt was being controlled from beyond the grave by Abraham Lincoln, Julius Caesar and Napoleon.

*** Youngsters who smoked cigarettes. 

*** Silk-hatted tycoons who looked down their noses at farmers. Continue reading →

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May 6, 2020 · 3:03 pm

FOOL KILLER FORTY-ONE: NOVEMBER 1910

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE

Fool Killer timelessPART FORTY-ONE – Lore: This month a Rodman Gun was added to the Fool Killer’s growing arsenal of weapons.

Targets in the November of 1910 issue of James Larkin Pearson’s Fool-Killer:

*** People engaged in the literal buying and selling of votes in the midterm elections.

*** German scientists at Nuremberg (which in 1910 had none of the associations we make with it today) who announced successful tests with a remote-controlled ship. A small, crewless boat had been controlled wirelessly from up to 18 miles away. Even firing and reloading weaponry had been set up mechanically. The tests were set to move on to larger ships next.

*** The “Ass-ociated Press” as Pearson and his Fool Killer always called it, for the way it was overhyping the birth of a calf to Official White House Cow Pauline Wayne.  Continue reading →

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May 1, 2020 · 9:31 pm

SEASONAL MYTHS WHICH HAVE THE SAME THEME

Persephone and pomegranateThis is a good time to examine some of the ancient myths about winter and the coming of spring.

The celebration of those myths plus the fact that many of those myths centered around dead and resurrected deities necessitated Christianity’s attempt to superimpose its OWN dead and resurrected deity over top of those older stories. Hence the celebration of Easter in springtime. (And it’s not just Christianity that behaved that way – other religions also would superimpose their own celebrations over top of those held in honor of the previously dominant gods in their region. I’ll cover the behavior of those other belief systems – especially Islam and the Incan faith – another time.)

Not all seasonal myths conformed to the following pattern. I’m limiting this list to the ones that did.

PERSEPHONE

Pantheon: Greek (The Romans called her Proserpine)

The Tale: Persephone was the beautiful daughter of the goddess Demeter (Ceres to the Romans). Persephone caught the eye of Hades, the god who ruled over the realm of the dead. Overcome with lust Hades (Pluto to the Romans) emerged from his subterranean domain and stole Persephone away to his realm to become his Queen.

The Savior: Demeter went searching for her daughter throughout the world, often assuming the form of a mortal woman. Her search wore on and on with no results, causing Demeter to fall more and more deeply into despair. Because she was the goddess of nature that despair manifested itself in colder weather, in the leaves falling off the trees, other vegetation dying and some animals hibernating or migrating to flee the cold.  Continue reading →

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April 30, 2020 · 7:23 pm

LOCAL 58 TV: KRIS STRAUB’S ONGOING HORROR PROJECT

Local 58Here at Balladeer’s Blog I’ve made clear my love of myths and folklore and ARG’s (Alternate Reality Games). I enjoy the way truth, fiction, pretended truth and pretended fiction can intermingle, especially like the Orion/ Elvis Presley situation or in the participatory manner of ARGs, Adult Swim and CreepyPastas. 

For what it’s worth, I would recommend hopping on to Kris Straub’s latest experiment in meta-horror, Local 58 TV, while it is still ongoing. If you’re not familiar with Straub’s work he parlayed his quasi-CreepyPasta tale about Candle Cove, a “forgotten” Children’s Show with horrific undertones into a collection of short stories and later a television series.

masc chair and bottleIn the fashion of the H.P. Lovecraft Fictional Universe, largely centered around the Miskatonic Valley, the Necronomicon and Miskatonic University, Kris’ shared fictional universe largely centers around the nonexistent towns of Ichor Falls, Broodhollow, Edenvale and Lasker City. The towns are located in the real-life Mason County, WV.

Local 58 TV, serving Straub’s fictional towns, is part of his latest ingenious horror project. Like Candle Cove, the tale of this made-up television station has started out as a hauntingly incomplete mosaic.

The station’s vaguely sinister slogan We have always been here is just the opening salvo in its eerie, disturbing and horrific programming. Deepening the mystery is the way in which it is often unclear how much of the unfolding terror is actually the station’s fault and how much is content from vile unknown parties who hijack the station’s signal. Continue reading →

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April 28, 2020 · 4:52 pm

FOOL KILLER FORTY: OCTOBER 1910

Balladeer’s Blog continues its examination of the many facets of Fool Killer lore. FOR PART ONE, INCLUDING THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT, CLICK HERE

Fool Killer 1910-1929PART FORTY: The October of 1910 issue of James Larkin Pearson’s Fool-Killer. LORE CHANGE – For the first time the Fool Killer is depicted using a Bomb of Truth against his targets, making these explosives the latest addition to his arsenal of weapons. Even today we often use the figurative expression “Truth Bombs.”

Best imagery invoked by Pearson and his Fool Killer this month: Congress as a collection of corrupt fools safely fighting the citizenry from behind high walls made of piles of taxpayer money. Some things never change. 

Targets for this issue:

*** People who were hurriedly exploiting the still-new invention the airplane for wartime uses.

*** Those members of the wig industry who were harvesting most of the hair for their wigs from the heads of corpses.

Fool Killer pic*** John J Astor and his wife, who were going through an ugly and costly public divorce.

*** “Doctor” George W Carey, who was pushing the theory that the Sun was “the father” of all the planets in our solar system except for the Earth, which was “the mother” of those planets. Carey further stated that the South Pole was the womb of the Earth and that sunlight hitting the region eventually impregnated the Earth, which gave birth via Antarctica.

              George also explained that the Moon was the Sun and Earth’s youngest child and that if the true South Pole was ever reached an umbilical cord running all the way up to the Moon would be discovered.

              If that’s not enough “science” for you, Carey stated that the umbilical cord would detach from Antarctica around the year 1945, following which the Earth would get pregnant again by the Sun and give birth to another celestial body as a child. Any questions? Continue reading →

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April 24, 2020 · 4:10 am

MERINA MYTHS: TOMPONDRANO

Tompondrano

The French who first came into contact with the people of Madagascar mistook Tompondrano for Leviathan from Christian mythology.

TOMPONDRANO – “Lord of the waters.” The supreme snake deity in Merina mythology. Not only were all other serpents subordinate to Tompondrano but he often acted as an ambassador between snakes and human beings, negotiating the end to conflicts between the two groups. 

A major myth about this deity includes its role in advising the Vazimba how to use sacrifices to appease gods and demons. The Vazimba were little people who were previously the dominant race of Madagascar. They are similar to the Menehune in Hawaiian myths and to “little people” who figure into mythology and folklore from around the world.  

One day a Vazimba boy was playing with a seven-headed serpent monster. That serpent decided to keep him and make him live with him under the water. The Vazimba prayed to Tompondrano to save him. Tompondrano advised the Vazimba boy to be patient, then sent the Kingfisher bird to the Vazimba’s parents with word that sacrificing a chicken and a sheep to the seven- headed serpent would appease it and get it to release their son. Continue reading →

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