This is the fifth part of Balladeer’s Blog’s look at the swashbuckling legends that surround Francois Villon (1431-1463?), remembered as one of France’s greatest poets and a notorious outlaw.
FRANCOIS VILLON PART FIVE – We left off last time with Villon on the run again, having fled Paris after the Navarre College job in which he and his fellows robbed a record amount of gold for the time period.
Formerly, despite his criminal career most of the notoriety Francois had earned was for his scandalous, irreverent poetry regarding The Powers That Be in France of his era. The December 20th, 1456 Navarre caper changed that.
From early 1457 and for a few years more, Villon continued his outlaw existence in and around the French province of Anjou and the Loire River Valley. Depending on the source, Francois either officially became a member of the criminal fraternity called the Coquillards at this time or was already a member and deepened his ties to them.
Falling in with a gang of highwaymen, Villon helped prey on the carriage trade, which enhanced his underdog/ quasi-Robin Hood reputation because only the wealthy and the high-born traveled by carriage in that era. No one else could afford to. Continue reading
This is the fourth part of Balladeer’s Blog’s look at 
FRANCOIS VILLON PART THREE – We left off last time with Villon forced to flee Paris after killing the priest Sermoise in a duel over a woman named Isabeau. Already well-versed in the criminal underworld of the region from his career as a thief, Francois hid out just 17 miles southwest of Paris at the Abbey of Port Royal-des-Champs. 
FRANCOIS VILLON – This part picks up with one of the most infamous incidents from Villon’s career as an outlaw and iconoclast. He graduated from the Sorbonne as a Master of Arts and had acquired such a reputation for youthful rebellion and hard-drinking bad craziness that “Villonerie” had become a catch-all term for disorder and disobedience. 
THE QUEST OF SETH FOR THE OIL OF LIFE (1962) – Written by Esther Casier Quinn, this is one of the best and most concise works of comparative mythology that I have ever read. It’s a medieval legend often compared to the Grail story and is appropriate for Holy Thursday. The Quest of Seth for the Oil of Life is also known as The Quest of Seth for the Oil of Mercy, The Legend of the Rood and many other titles. 
For those not familiar with this particular popular offshoot of the canonical story of Jesus Christ here’s a brief overview:
THACH SANH – A son of the supreme deity Ngoc Hoang. His father forced him to incarnate as a human and in this demi-god form he fought monsters, rescued the son of the chief sea god Long Vuong, vanquished his evil foster-brother and married a beautiful princess.
FRANCOIS VILLON (1431-1463?) – The swashbuckling legends that surround this real-life French poet have sometimes been compared to tales of Robin Hood or Dick Turpin. Like Dick Turpin, Villon really did exist, but in his case he left behind an impressive body of literary work and he is still considered one of France’s greatest poets. 
GEORGE ADAMSKI (April 17th, 1891 – February 26th, 1965) occupied a special place in the history of cults. In 1936 he claimed to represent the Royal Order of Tibet and preached “its teachings” in California (where else). 
The readjustments started after George Adamski published Pioneers of Space in 1949, a general look at the infant Flying Saucer phenomenon, and in 1952 he claimed to be in telepathic contact with a being from Venus. Claims of additional contacts followed, including hieroglyphic writings from the Venusian.
TUILAKEMBA – This figure was the son of Tuilangi, the god who ruled over the Skyland, and a mortal woman. When Tuilakemba was a little boy he was often ridiculed by the other children for not having a father on hand like they did. One day the young demigod had had enough and threatened to kill his mother unless she told him who his father was. 
If you enjoy serious analog horror like 
Around 2012 Richard Littler began mocking up some fake 1970s public health posters and government pamphlets for schools and general consumption. He presented them with an enjoyably twisted slant that perfectly captured the vaguely menacing, often insulting approach of such material. 
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