BOOK OF THE DUN COW (Lebor na hUidre) – In the past, Balladeer’s Blog has done deep dives into gods, goddesses and epics from Hawaiian, Inuit, Navajo, Choctaw, Ainu, Nyanga, Norse, Shinto, Aztec mythology and many, many more pantheons. This kicks off a multi-part look at the various works in Ireland’s Lebor na hUidre, The Book of the Dun Cow.
For anyone not familiar with this collection of ancient material, it features cultural, historical and mythological material mixed together in many forms from around 1,000 AD and much earlier. I will be examining the material section by section.
SIX AGES OF THE WORLD (Sex aetates mundi) – This was one of the many texts from many Christian-influenced cultures that viewed the world from Creation through Jesus Christ as being Six Ages. In this fictional context each age was roughly 1,000 years.
The First Age lasted from Adam and Eve to Noah and the Great Flood. The Second Age ran from that time period up to the time of Abraham. The Third Age covered Abraham to King David. The Fourth Age picked up from King David to the Babylonian Captivity. The Fifth Age lasted from there to the Birth of Jesus. And the Sixth Age ran through the life of Jesus and everything afterward.
The assumption that, per these ages, the Sixth Age would end 1,000 years after Christ’s birth contributed to fears of the End of the World occurring around 1,000 AD. Some belief systems add a Seventh Age, as in the supposed 1,000 years of peace, aka the Millenium, which would follow the return of Jesus. Continue reading
HITLER – DEAD OR ALIVE (1942) – You’ve heard of grindhouse movies? Well, you could consider this a GRINDE-HOUSE movie, because it was directed by Nick Grinde and produced by Charles House. 
Hitler – Dead or Alive starts out with a pair of stereotypical hungry reporters who bluff their way into a face-to-face meeting with eccentric, unorthodox, Howard Hughesesque tycoon Samuel Thornton. Thornton has just donated a million dollars worth of fighter planes to the war effort, and the snooping reporters ask if there’s any connection to the million-dollar reward he offered for Hitler a few months earlier. 
NCAA DIVISION TWO CHAMPIONSHIP GAME – This title tilt pitted the undefeated NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY SHARKS against the WEST LIBERTY UNIVERSITY HILLTOPPERS. 
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA Vol 1 #21 (August 1963) 
The company’s method of adapting more “up to date” versions of their Golden Age heroes without losing the copyrights on those figures was to state that the original versions of all their old heroes came from an alternate Earth, designated Earth-Two. The Earth with the newer heroes was called Earth-One, since they were the newer, CURRENT versions. 
TWO THOUSAND MANIACS (1964) – For people who’ve never heard of Herschell Gordon Lewis, I’ll point out that he’s known as “the Godfather of Gore.” And not even GOOD gore, but the obviously fake kind that makes you laugh. Add to that the inept acting, bland dialogue and quickie production techniques like you’d get in old black & white flicks and you’ll understand the man’s Bad Movie magic. 
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FLORIS (1969 and 1975) – Actor Rutger Hauer and director Paul Verhoeven first worked together for this adventure series set during the very early 1500s. The program aired on Netherlands television in 1969, then was remade – again with Hauer in the swashbuckling title role – in 1975 for German television and ran for even more episodes than the original series. 
Around the year 1502, word finally caught up with our wandering hero that his father and two older brothers had died. Floris returned home, accompanied by his adventuring sidekick Sindala (Jos Bergman), an Indian Fakir. (Floris and the Fakir was originally going to be the title of the series.) 
Floris and Sindala fought their way out of the hands of the enemy and wound up allied with Wolter van Oldenstein and his men at Castle Oldenstein. I often wonder if the 1991 film Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves took partial inspiration from the premise of Floris, with a returning nobleman fighting oppression alongside a nonwhite comrade from his overseas adventures. 
THE MONK (1796) – Written by Matthew G. Lewis. Though The Monk was preceded by other works of Gothic Horror like The Castle of Otranto (1764) and The Necromancer (1794), Lewis’ novel cranked up the supernatural elements a great deal. It also painted the Catholic clergy in extremely unflattering terms, at least in the initial edition. 
GENTLEMAN JEKYLL AND DRIVER HYDE (1950) – Educational short films are often hilarious snapshots of their era. Driver’s Ed shorts are especially vulnerable to seeming outdated given how quickly car designs can change in certain decades. 
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