SO here we are again—taking a road home to Edinburg after our fun in the Highlands…all pictures–at least mine–are Scotland and all quotes from the Fairy and Elf book…..today we’ll look at how to handle evil (there seems to be more of these than good) fairies when (hopefully never) come calling.
But as usual we’ll take a break for those poor suffering fans (like me) waiting for a return of Jamie and Claire—oh admit it you really want JAMIE ALEXANDER MALCOMB MCKENZIE FRASER…..
“Chroniclers of the elder days tell of fairy creatures called lamias who appeared in numerous threatening guises–as monstrous serpents for instance, or as scaled and clawed beasts.”
START reviewing Lord Gray’s character in the books: here’s some stuff on Sam about him—finding him in the books will take awhile and use up some of that excess time:
Decide if they’re dating or not: read and categorize all the articles as to source, experience etc…..that should take several months….then make an informed decision:
As I noted yesterday there were lots of NOT SO NICE fairy beings…
for instance the Viking lands had two branches of fairies with the evil or dark elves Dockalfar residing below the ground.
While in some areas of the UK had the dark/bad faries called Unseelie Fae who were thought of as vengeful ghost of dead mortals. However most areas had one group with all manner of good and bad like the average human society.
There are also many tale that showed early on there was better relations between the Fae and mortal world “fairies of the early days sometimes acted with great kindness.”
“The philosopher had recognized the fairy threat too late, however. Bereft of his love, Lycius died. His marriage robe became his winding sheet.”
First lesson—don’t fall in love with a fairy:
For instance the Huntsman who repeatedly watched at full moon as a group of lovely swans came to a lake and for awhile became beautiful maidens….one night the hunter took one of their cloaks and the beautiful swan remained a lovely maiden. He brought her home and hid the cape away in a locked place. It was years later when they had a daughter that he that she saw the hiding place and at the next full moon she was gone leaving him alone with their daughter. He continued to live alone with only his daughter for companionship as he could find no one that could replace the lovely wild fairy that had been his for a few years.
There are so many thing to avoid and required of the lover of a fae being…in France a laird could not mention the word death—which of course he eventually did loosing the love of his life with only their children and her palm print to remind him of their time together.
“
One man did have an interesting solution however found by Angus a prince of Ireland who captured a castle and request Caer, the daughter of the vanquished. When he found her she was in swan form and made him swear that she could always return to swan form whenever she wanted, she in turn turned him to a swan and they flew together…Eventually to return to human form they continued living happily ever “sometimes those two kept mortal shape and sometime flew free as swans.”
“Although they were comely of feature and resplendent in their garb of petals and thistledown, these jewel-like creatures were a race in decline.”
Be careful of the advise you take when walking about the forest and never go to follow the sound of a plaintive sound of a child calling out from nowhere…for these are the tricks of the Leshiye, (in Russia–but similar beings are found about many other places including Robin Goodfellow in English woods) who to a human is often unseen as he blends so well to the forest for which he is a guardian. Mostly the creature will only laugh and leave the human lost in the woods but there are tales of women raped or travelers trickled to death by twigs and forest grass by these fickle creatures.
If you spend a lot of time in the forest or fields –or plan to hunt or tend your animals an offering of bread and salt goes a long way to gain the leshiye’s friendship.
In England avoid damaging Hazelnut trees or from tearing off the unripe fruit for the fairies who live in these thickets do not take kindly to humans who do so…there are similar spirits for other groves like apples.
And for heavens sake never cut one down–a Czechs legend tells of how a mortal living happily with a fairy wife and their child cut down a willow tree killing his beloved wife instantly–he used the tree to make a cradle which was the only thing that lulled his child to sleep after the mother’s death.
“He might have blundered into a quagmire, tumbled into a forest pool or followed a vision of sylvan loveliness until his mortal ties seemed mere wisps.”
In England it is best to avoid copses of oaks with bluebells growing as it is a sign “that oakmen were present…” and never pick elderberries (both English and Danish) without asking permission of the guardian spirit the Elder Mother.
Other farming tips: when you clear a field leave these same elderberries standing–plowing around them, and for heaven (or fairy) sake never cut down an elder tree–if you’re a farmer your livestock will soon sicken and die and there are even some accounts of the person felling the tree sickening and dying shortly there after.
And while in Wales especially in the mountain, to avoid old women and goats or a combination of both as they are the favorite forms of the fae who dwell there and they especially dislike humans.
“Most easily visible of the arboreal band were the tree elves–gnarled little men and graceful women who might be spied dancing among the branches to the music of crickets and frogs in the shifting.”
Finally a few general items:
Carrying iron may help as fairies notoriously fear the metal—iron in the shape of a knife might be your best bet just in case you need protection against something less fantastical as well.
Putting a river or stream between you and the fae creature should also do the trick “running water–always a hedge against fairies bent on evil.”
And to prevent problems in the first place try
offerings of food and drink
and respectful demeanor when passing thru suspected fairy domain.
Those of you that are humble and pure of heart stand the best chances.
“A man who glimpsed a vila was doomed. He would yearn for her so desperately that he would become a stranger to all who knew him, and in the end he would die.”
Once upon a time there were fairies…small magical beings that were very similar to humans—some beautiful, some grotesque as it was in the human world….but unlike humans they were also capable of all manner of fantastic abilities and they could also assume the shapes of deer or falcons, flames or flowers–even jewels—that is when they weren’t being invisible.
Fairies lived in a parallel world that could appear and disappear with out indication or understandings by we mere mortals. It was connect to ours, but not always accessible by we mere mortals. Heaven know we tried—we wrote songs and poems and painted pictures trying to describe our visions and glimpses of the impossibly wonderful lands and lovely beings.
Even their names were amazing: In Spain and Italy it was derived from the Latin for “fate”. Even the maurading Vikings had them—though there they were called Elf (Elves).
“….summoning snow or sunshine, and mettng out rough magic to mortals who crossed his path.”
And they were like humans good and evil–sometimes both in the same being—-or as in the case of the Kelpie all bad (statues above): “A savage and treacherous water spirit hungry for children’s blood, the kelpie haunted Scottish rivers and lochs in the shape of a wild gray horse.”
In fact spirits of the water seemed to have a tendency–if not an outright vocation to be evil: In Russia they had vodianoy–green haired bloated creatures and who gave humans dropsy.
While the Scandinavian Neck preferred red abd liked to set on the surface of lakes and river playing a harp and requiring yearly human sacrifices, which didn’t include accidental drownings which they announced with a scream.
“What human could gaze unscathed into the yes of a water nymph?”
RUYARD KIPLING Under the Deodars The Phantom ‘RIckshaw Wee Willie Winkie 1917 book
Fairies like Russia’s Father Frost” (who lived in the forests) who often brought death to those that traveled through those forests in winter. And Denmark also had it’s wintery fae–the Snow Queen who was known to whisk away mortals in her white sled and held them captive with her icy kiss in her palace on a plain in Lapland shivering away the hours in her cold abode. Now that for a girl from Florida is certainly a particularly unpleasant idea of punishment.
In Ireland there were and still are fairy hills were humans (especially beautiful women) were stolen and taken to. Even the English had them: for instance Morgan le Fay, famous far and near for her part in King Arthur’s life and legend. Morgan was reportedly beautiful, wise and very hot for mortal men.
And Cornwall was also a very busy fairy site including an old miser who in order to get gold, braved a fairy midnight revel, and was restrained by their guards, eventually gaining freedom when the dawn brought light but not before he was pinched, prodded and ridiculed by the fairy party goers.
“the Cailleac Bheur of Scotland left withered crops and frozen ground where she struck with her death-dealing staff.”
Knight Chess Piece CIGARETTE LIGHTER VINTAGE Brown
But the miser was lucky—there were many tales of a human who wandered into fairy for just a few hours, but upon returning to his home he found that years if not decades had past in the human world. In the Highlands it didn’t even take that much—just a few moment a human stopped to listen to the beauty of a song bird and then returned to home to find centuries had passed.
Fairies were also known to do such things as taking all the substance from a food item, like cheese…leaving the shape and appearance only. but more serious problems lurked in the fairy spheres for us mere mortals like disappearance, fits, seizures, and babies changed from lovely children to sickly ones or worse yet to strange fairy looking creatures to name but a few.
And these things often happened when the hapless person wandered innocently into a fairy ring or climbed upon a fairy mound.
“The light was a fairy ring of elfin dancers, and the man or maid who stepped within its glow would be imprisoned in their world.”
And fairies can be much more aggressive about these—they often stole: “Then the mother knew the truth: Fairies had stolen her child and left a changeling its place.”
They also were known to steal adults, but rarely left anything (like a changling) in the adults place. Though there were cases where a “stock” was left–which was a wooden likeness that was actually animated for a few days. It was rare for a human to be returned and hard for the human’s friend, family or lovers to rescue them, though there are tales of a few.
“From time to time, anxious mortal mothers said, bands of trooping elves raided country hamlets, stealing healthy human infants to strengthen the dwindling fairy stock.”
KNIFE SHAPERNER Built into Wooden Case Both top ad Bottom–Very Primitve Antique
Stay tuned tomorrow for more looks at my ongoing looks at Fairies in legend and more…..
“She took the mortal man with her into Faerie, and there he lived for seven years.”
“Among the many dangers posed by the fairy world was that of eating elvish food. It was said that doing so made mortals partake of the nature and thus trapped them forever in fairyland. It was also said that one taste of the food made mortals pine for a second, and that the pinning could kill them.”
“Yet the prince gathered her into loving arms and kissed her–and died. Widowed by her fairy nature, the rusalka was left to mourn for all eternity.”
Muzzle Loaders Festval June 23 -24 Greenfield Village 1960’s
“In the era when fairies and mortals lived side by side in the world, an Irish lord named Eochair gambled away his beautiful wife, Etain, to a ruler of the elfin lands.”
This week we’re doing a review of the little people—Fairies and Elves to be exact as there are others out there that might be confused with them…but too many at one time just muddies the waters.
I have in my reading and studies I have heard speculation that fairies, elves and the like were originally in the pagan god/goddess categories and were demoted to this magical, but less threatening to the church’s teaching, beings that continued on in our folklore and remain onto even the modern age,
“Voyaging in search of an enemy, the Irish chieftain Teigue came upon a fairy isle. Its Queen welcomed him and sent him on his way with magical gifts; bright-plumaged birds to guide him and an emerald chalice to guard him from harm.”
THE most famous Fairy that I can think of:
There was another light in the room now, a thousand times brighter than the night-lights, and in the time we have taken to say this, it had been in all the drawers in the nursery, looking for Peter’s shadow, rummaged the wardrobe and turned every pocket inside out. It was not really a light; it made this light by flashing about so quickly, but when it came to rest for a second you saw it was a fairy, no longer than your hand, but still growing. It was a girl called Tinker Bell exquisitely gowned in a skeleton leaf, cut low and square, through which her figure could be seen to the best advantage. She was slightly inclined to EMBONPOINT. [plump hourglass figure]A moment after the fairy’s entrance the window was blown open by the breathing of the little stars, and Peter dropped in. He had carried Tinker Bell part of the way, and his hand was still messy with the fairy dust. From Peter Panby J.M. Barrie
Long a part of the story that has become part of American tradition she was made most famous with her incantation (see above picture) in Disney cartoons and advertisement, not to mention products ad nosium.
and for Elves…Bloom (Orlando) as Legolas in the Lord of the Ring
In the books: “They [the Quendi] were a race high and beautiful, the older Children of the world, and among them the Eldar were as kings, who are now gone: the People of the Great Journey, the People of the Stars. They were tall, fair of skin and grey-eyed, though their locks were dark, save in the golden house of Finarfin …”
“While coursing a milk white, red-eyed stag—colors proclaiming its fairy nature–”
Of course many (if not most) grew up with “Fairy Tales” some had no fairies in them (like Little Red Riding Hood which dealt with wolves and wolf consumed ancestors and the like—tales which evolved from much more gruesome tales. And then there were Fairies and elves in some:
Cinderella and her FAIRY Godmother who allows her to meet the prince thru a wardrobe adjustment and eventually to marry due to a lost shoe.
And for Elves—Grimm’s The Elf and the Shoemaker—again with foot wear–is the only one I can think of….when you right down to it there are fewer fairies and even less elves in these tales than I originally imagined.
“During the days when the Tuatha De Danann ruled within Ireland’s hollow hills, love touched a prince of that fairy race in a strange way.
Even my favorite has an Outlander fairy issue….when a sick, in fact he/she dies about the time Claire finds him and his mother talks against her in court that the sick child was a fairy changeling and she by taking it out of the tree had prevented the Fae from making the exchange of the fairy for their healthy child who now will remain in Fairy forever.
“No Mortal could tell where Faerie lay. The curtain of invisibility that cloaked its towering mountains and turreted castles lifted only at the whim of the fairies themselves.”
Even the Vikings had them: According to Gueber in MYTHS OF THE NORSEMEN: Lightor white elves (tiny creatures) “called Lios-alfar inhabited the realms of air between heaven and earth”, and were gently governed by “the genial god Frey”…They were lovely, beneficient beings, so pure an innocent…..their name was derived from “the same root as the Latin word ‘white'”
He goes on to say, “enthusiastic musicians and delighted in a certain air know as the elf-dance….so irresistible that no one who heard it could refrain from dancing….hears…forced to dance as long as the tones continued…..” and that sacrifices consisting of “some small animal, or a bowl of honey and milk (Alf-blot)” were made regularly to these little people.
“From the underwater kingdom unfathomable to man, the Irish chieftain O’Donoghue–a willing exile from the mortal world—rose with the May Day sun and galloped across the waters. To see him was an omen of good luck.”
Of course there are hundreds—try Googling it and see what you might get–on everything from the legends to series like Lord of the Ring with it’s Elves, haughty superior beings that obviously are a bit disdainful of the inept humans that they must join with to save the world they all reside in.
Movies go from Fairy tales to other legends from the good fairy to the evil and all manner of in between. From Disney’s cutest Tinkerbell—to Elves—a horrible movie which involves Nazi activity to summon elves and with them breed a true master race….REALLY!!!
“For centuries, country folk looked for signs of fairy life in forest and hedgerow on such propitious nights as Midsummer Eve.”
So this week we’ll look at Fairies and Elves and how they came about….where they lived and how they influenced mankind down through the ages.
“A shimmer on the dark surface of a pond, observed closely might resolve into an elegant scene of love and courtship, cupped in the petals of a water lily.”
“In the moonlight of a summer’s night, the stems of flowers served as winding staircases and many-colored moths as tiny soaring steeds.”
Today as you might have guessed we’re still in Scotland for my pictures, and still in Love Lore for the quotes and we’re looking at “The Things We Do For Love”
as our final installment on this emotion that has launched, if not a thousand ships, then at least several thousand movies and even more books and plays.
“From the lover’s graves grew two great trees. Like longing arms, their branches reached toward each other and clung together, resisting any effort of weather or wind to part them.”
Try watching Claire in 1940’s, then 1700s and then 1960’s…watch the scenes and/or episodes (as for the 1700’s pick only one or two and then go back and forth comparing the difference you notice in Ms. Beauchamp Randall Fraser. Oh then after you do all that read this (but not till after): http://www.vulture.com/2016/07/outlander-finale-claires-big-change.html
I have discovered that people want to love and to be love and they’ll do a lot of things to meet those goals….just look at these examples of magic to induce:
Love between a married couple: (Medieval Europe Folk magic) Power some periwinkle or ground ivy when the Moon is in the sign of the Bull. Wrap it in a houseleek (The House Leek (Sempervivum tectorum), or “never dying” flower of our cottage roofs, which is commonly known also as Stone-crop, grows plentifully on walls and the tops of small buildings throughout Great Britain, in all country districts. http://www.gardenherbs.org/simples/house_leek.htm) and take (? as eat???) at meals.
To bring back an Errant Lover: Burn laurel leaves on St. Valentines Day as you chant Repeatedly out loud your lover’s name…..what if he leaves on 2/15?
Marriage Spell from Scotland: place an ivy leaf (hopefully you’re not allergic–this is the symbol of marriage and fidelity) between your breasts and recite a magical incantation which calls for the first “young” man–at my age I could get into that—who smiles at me “My future husband he shall be.”….have you noticed these all seem to be for women?
there are spells for both…and include such combos as
red candles and silver pins and burning same (candles not pins);
One involving a man who wishes to win the love of a young lady insists that he go into the woods (good luck on finding one of those) and find some willow twigs that have grown together into a knot, which he then cuts with a knife (must be sharp and white-handled), he puts them into his mouth and repeats an incantation with his eyes closed….and then the land owner comes along and calls the sheriff as there are no police that far out in the boonies.
My favorite is to mix a pinch of your powdered fingernail clippings with red wine and serve it to your unsuspecting ex- lover (to restore affection–that failing you could just hope that it would make them ill) on a night when the moon is in a waxing (Waxing essentially means “growing” or expanding in illumination)
(above from Wicca Love Spells by Dunwich)
“Whether she had used the sea’s ancient magic to enthrall him or whether her own magic had been enough, he was spellbound.”
Of course literature is full of the follies—or were they actually the truest of truth of love?–that the characters are led to by love.
Romeo and Juliet—a couple of teens that insisted they could not be apart and when one appears to have died (Juliet takes a potion to appear that way) the other (Romeo) takes actual poison in his grief…upon awakening and not having any poison to do her self in she uses his dagger cause what’s an ending without a bit of blood shed? And so ends the tale by the Bard on the things we do, do for that emotion that was popular in Elizabeth (I)’s time.
King Arthur who’s bravest and truest knight falls from grace for love of Arthur’s beautiful bride and their love while deep is a betrayal to a man that they also both love, but not deeply enough to stop their affair. The end varies in the telling with the most common her joining a nunnery and he going into the wilderness as a wild sort of being….to his other downfalls and many authors blame the match for the fall of the once and future king’s Camelot.
“When the newlyweds had drunk the honeyed wine, the bridesmaids removed the bride’s veil to remove a ravishingly beautiful young woman.”
Then there is a man or rather a King, which obviously makes the difference in this story, for what common man would have gotten away with this whole soap opera of emotions and stayed out of jail.
Henry was not raised to be king, but when his brother died he became and early on married his brother’s widow: Catherine of Argon…daughter of a king and queen—Henry probably at the insistence of his father as he didn’t want to loose the alliance or the dowry—they had one daughter (not for want of trying as Katherine had several miscarriages, still births, etc).
Then Henry fell in love and moved heaven (yes he even deserted the Catholic faith for which he had been a great defender) but when you’re in love and the church won’t give you a divorce (and you can’t behead the current queen—yeah cause her dad and mom are both very powerful monarchs (and the object of your affect won’t give you any unless you marry her)—so he made his own church and you might say that love made him the head of it (after he was the king) and then he had the new church grant him a divorce from the queen cause she was married to your brother (surprise)first and he married Ann Boleyn….
But Henry is a prime example of how fickle that Love finger is and with no children (well except a daughter–you may have heard of her Elizabeth I—but girls can’t rule) and so he look about and fell in love again and for this love he become a murderer—not only killing his former love and current queen, (all after a trial by court members who know which side their bread is buttered on) but also her brother and several other people as having been involved with her sexually. And he married the new love: Jane Seymour.
His love for Jane made him the father of a son and then she had the good grace of dying soon after the birth and his love was gone making him a widower…and he married again just cause he could (and besides he needed that spare son) but there was no love for the lucky Miss (Anne of )Cleves—so she was annulled but still alive and he continued to look for love and ended up with a babe:
the teen Katherine Howard was all he wanted and so he married her and love made him betrayed as the young woman preferred young attractive men in her bed rather than an old fat man with a horribly stinky sore on one of his legs that would not heal. And so he again had a wife executed as part of his strange love life…..
But that was the last of his official romances (he had multiple mistresses) for his last wife seemed more of a comfort than a romance and he lived with her with out any real romance and died in peace and Catherine Parr managed to outlive him. And so ended the man who quoted love as making him change the face of a country called England, but that’s an all together other story.
“Pledging their souls to one another, the pair were bound in wedlock. A marriage between two such high ranking mortals needed the sanction of neither priest nor parent. Love alone sufficed.”
Think of the things we do for love—Bonnie joined the crazy Clyde and mayhem and murder followed—-finally their own.
Carl Tanzler a radiologist in Key West fell in love with Maria Elena Milagro de Hoyos, the young woman had TB and died in 1931. Carl gave her a lovely grave monument to rest in—but in actuality took the body and lived with it for about 9 years (using unbelievable amounts of vanilla for the smell and actually covering her decaying face with silk on which he drew features) before he was discovered and put on trial….only to discover that they had no actual laws covering this particular incidence and completely ignoring he was having carnal knowledge of the corpse—-there are some things too bizarre even for Key Weird.
The fact and fiction of the things we do goes on forever and we still don’t understand this thing called love, these uncontrolled passions…the disasters of relationships and on an on and on…..and I’m not sure we ever will
Read the Lord Gray series….check it and other topics about next year’s series at this site: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-07-10/7-things-we-already-know-about-outlander-season-3
“Captured in a pirate raid, Nicolette was parted from her lover.”
Watercolor Print Leo Meiersdorff. 1976 NEW ORLEANS Jazz Group Framed
After a famous author is rescued from a car crash by a fan of his novels, he comes to realize that the care he is receiving is only the beginning of a nightmare of captivity and abuse. (107 mins.)
Obsession—Kathy Bates does it so well as the frightening “super” fan who rescues and in doing so effectively makes a prisoner of a writer that she idolizes and whom, she stumbles across badly injured in an automobile wreck.
or Glenn Close as the one night stand who won’t accept no for an answer and begins a stalking of, not only the man in question, but his family—while some of us can say OK that’s what you get for being a cheating husband most of us would at least wish the family spared from the fall out.
A young woman fakes her own death in an attempt to escape her nightmarish marriage, but discovers it is impossible to elude her controlling husband. (99 mins.)
This final example is the person who actually has a relationship and long term involvement at that, but when things go bad they will not let go and hang on—physically as well as mentally causing great sorrow in the object of his “affection”.
So you have the first of what’s wrong with love:
an OBSESSION:
an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind:
“he was in the grip of an obsession he was powerless to resist“
The first is a love/obsession with an idea—not really a person but who you think that person is–and as in Kathy’s case you become enraged when the object of your infection doesn’t bend and/or confirm to your pre-conception of them.
Then you have the One Night Stand–Glenn obviously has issues one night of sex and what she mistakes for romance—leaves her with a fixation on the person she spends the night with. Either he was really good or she has a problem. Even if she had fallen for him I can not comprehend how that could go from pseudo (obviously not real given the unfolding senerio)-affection she claims to have.
And finally the spouse that can not let go—it is a statistical fact that more abused spouses are murdered or most seriously injured when they attempt to leave the abuser….this husband is so bad that Julia is forced to fake her own death.
“The word of a minstrel’s song led Aucassin to his lost lady.”
PG-13|194 min| Drama, Romance A seventeen-year-old aristocrat falls in love with a kind, but poor artist aboard the luxurious, ill-fated R.M.S. Titanic.
With the back drop of the most famous ship and ship disaster the world has ever known–we see how the jealousy of a rich passenger contributes to the death of one lover and the emancipation of another in this classic.
Jealousy is said to have an ugly head which is rears often:
the state or feeling of being jealous.
“a sharp pang of jealousy”
synomyms: Envy, covetousness
while jealousy doesn’t have to involve lovers or romantic situations it is often found in those contexts.
Tom loves his life, until he realizes he also loves his best friend Hanna only after Hannah gets engaged.
This one is a light comedy that involves a free wheeling bachelor who sudden realize he is actually in love with his Gal-pal and jealous of her new fiancé.
Of course the best example of this (an idea that the emotion is far from new) is:
Othello a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603. It is based on the story Un Capitano Moro by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565. This tightly constructed work revolves around four central characters: Othello, a Moorish general in the Venetian army; his beloved wife, Desdemona; his loyal lieutenant, Cassio; and his trusted but ultimately unfaithful ensign, Iago.
Othello driven by unsubstantiated jealousy of his wife and her “lover” ends up killing Desdemona, who in the end turns out to be completely innocent. Watch it below with Orsen Wells (before most of your times—but the scene is beautifully done)
The betrayed husband takes betrayal one step futher he sets out to commit the perfect murder and inherit her considerable trust fund in the bargain as well as involving her lover in the whole thing….quite a twist on all manner of betrayals I would say.
(the birds described are given as an indication of what a girl’s suitor would be–indicated by the first bird she saw on Valentines morning)
All my pictures today are from Scotland (on a trip up to the highlands)
all Quotes are from the same book as yesterday: The Enchanted World: The Lore of Love
Hi well I’m back and we’re still on the subject of Love which is at best a good guess on my part as love has always confused and befuddled me and I to this day am not sure I will ever get a good grip on the whole mess of relationships but stay tuned cause we’ll have some fun trying.
But first my favorite ROMANCE: OUTLANDER
and how we can get thru heaven knows how many seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and months–hopefully not years—of DROUGHTLANDER
“But the girl greeted by a woodpecker would never marry.”
OK let’s get you through—how about learning to speak Gaelic click here for a lesson worth watching:
Read all the speculation on what is happening in season 3 and decide what is really gonna happen—if you haven’t read book 3 yet do so….and then make your own plan and see how close it is to the TV show. Start here for a speculation on show and new characters:
“A two-leaved clover, placed in a maiden’s right shoe….The first man she chanced to meet on walking out would either be her future husband or bear the same name.”
So while we’re on love let’s look at Romance….that’s the fun part—the getting married and making a life together is not what they tell you about in the songs and books (Well Outlander keeps going but they never stay in one place long enough to do anything but have sex).
Romance: a feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love. “in search of romance”
According to Rotten Tomatoes the top 10 romantic movies are
I’d put Gone With the Wind at the top of that list….and it Happened One Night 2nd…the rest are not on my good list–Casablanca third–with ones like Vertigo and On the Waterfront striking out of the category all together for me…Never saw The Artist…
What do you think–most of them are too old even for me…
ET’s List of 5:
Love Actually
The Notebook
Dirty Dancing
Nottinghill
Wall E
Never saw Actually
Notebook too depressing
Dancing—bored
Wall E======REALLY????!!!
But I do love Nottinghill
See I just don’t get the romantic notion only 4/15 movies about romance do I get.
“To walk around the church twelve times at midnight would give a girl a vision of her future mate.”
Romantic love is a deep emotional, sexual and spiritual recognition and regard for the value of another person and relationship. Romantic love can generate many powerful feelings. It can provide a profound ecstasy, and a deep suffering when frustrated. To some people, romantic love is irrational. That’s from Google and it works for me….
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (ah yes drama and disaster my kind of romance–I liked her sister’s better—Weathering Heights—Heathcliff on my all time bad boy list)
The Notebook (The Notebook #1) by Nicholas Sparks (saw the movie)
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (a classic—no happy ending but a great story)
I guess my choice in literature dates me, and also brands me as a bit of a negative in the line of romance.
So we read and watch stories of romance while the romantic songs (you did click on it so you’d have music right?) continues to go on and on about us…..we are pretty dedicated to this romantic principal….if we didn’t have it the card companies would have invented it:
Average amount spent during Valentine’s Day 2016: $142.31
of U.S. Adults celebrated Valentine’s Day 2016: 54.9%
Total amount spent during Valentine’s Day 2016: $18.9 billion
“A rose blossom plucked on a Midsummer Eve and laid beneath a maiden’s pillow gave off a nebula of dreams….The face and form of the dreamer’s future husband….allowing her to recognize him when they met in their waking lives.”
a quality or feeling of mystery, excitement, and remoteness from everyday life.
to name a few….no wonder we want romance…..we want something more than our every day existence…..we work 8 hours (or more a day) and just want a break—a get away and that’s even better is the break is glamourous and exciting.
So are we fooling ourselves?
Some people think so:
the first chapter of New Ways of Loving is stated in the title: “Romantic Love is a Hoax!
Emotional Programming to ‘Fall in Love’ “. James Leonard Park(Author)
can that be true???????????????
Wikipedi tells us: ” Historians believe that the actual English word “romance” developed from a vernacular dialect within the French language meaning “verse narrative”—referring to the style of speech, writing, and artistic talents within elite classes. The word was originally an adverb of the Latin origin “Romanicus,” meaning “of the Roman style.” The connecting notion is that European medieval vernacular tales were usually about chivalric adventure, not combining the idea of love until late into the seventeenth century.”
So it wasn’t developed until the 1600s? or nearly 1700—interesting.
“A woman could glimpse her future partner in a mirror with the aid of an apple and a comb.”
So we’ve found today that not everybody thinks romance is good or real and it hasn’t been popular for that long….and maybe came in around the time of the whole courtly knight thing that we talked about before….so I don’t know about you but I’m confused as to why it is so all consuming in our lives and the world at large…I’ll be back on Thurs to do some more looking at the whole thing with you.
Italy: “Following instructions given in a dream, the lady Lisabetta found the corpse of her murdered lover. Unable to disinter the body of her beloved, she severed his head and spirited it home to mourn over at her leisure.”
Greek Legends: “Spurning the charms of the girls of Greece, Narcissus finally found an object for his love–his own reflection in a pool.”
This part of Florida still resembles what the settlers saw when they came here in the 1840’s with a promise of 160 acres of free land (“in an effort to crowd out the remaining Seminoles—who took the land from the previous Indians—I like to remind people of that fact). In a state where Indians, alligators and snakes made up a large part of the population, this inaccessible part of the country did not get many takers. One of the first settlers was Andrew Jackson Barber, who with his family arrived here in 1855. The fort was long gone by then and the majority of the people herded and sold cattle. The first church came in 1871: First Missionary Baptist Church with 12 members and a log building that was also used as the community school house.
“Love engendered dreams and nightmares, begat ecstasy or madness, inspired poetry and bloodshed in equal measure.”
After my usual getting through DROUGHTLANDER LAND OF DESPAIR suggestions we’ll move on to our topic This week:
Looking For Love In all Places Right and Wrong.
Main picture is from Doune Castle: . Doune is a popular filming location and has featured in Monty Pythonand the Holy Grail,Game of Thrones and Outlander. Actor/director Terry Jones narrates an audio tour that reveals Doune’s exciting history and tales from the Holy Grail film set.
“Love, in all its terrors and delight swept the souls of peasants as well as Princes, and anyone caught up in its currents was, for a time, on a footing with the gods.”
China: “Once the god of marriage had tied an invisible red thread between the feet of prospective partners, no force in the world could snap it.”
OK now on to Romance and love:
When Poseidon brought word of Thetis’ beauty home to Olympus…Zeus..resolved…that he…should possess her.
all quotes are from THE ENCHANTED WORLD: THE LORE OF LOVE.
OK let’s LOOK FOR LOVE–what it is and how we find it:
So my first stop was the dictionary: and the verb to love:
feel a deep romantic or sexual attachment to (someone).
“do you love me?”
synonyms:
care very much for, feel deep affection for, hold very dear, adore, think the world of, be devoted to, dote on, idolize, worship; More
be in love with, be infatuated with, be smitten with, be besotted with;
informalbe mad/crazy/nuts/wild about, have a crush on, carry a torch for
“she loves him”
But as we have all seen in our lives and others love between “romantic” couples often fluctuate between deep affection and infatuation—some of purely sexual but not always acknowledged or even realized until the passion has been spent and/or the real world raises it’s ugly head.
India: “Magic and curses, the whims of divinities and the malice of demons could all impinge on mortal unions, drawing lovers together or diving them apart.”
Kathleen McCormack in her book Magic For Lovers Says: “Not only does romance open our hearts, it expands our minds to see new possibilities….(and) give us the confidence and courage to act decisively…”
Her first item to help the lover or one looking for one is the Zodiac. She goes on to state that: “with 144 Star Sign possibilities we can decide what is right for us…combinations…advantages regarding the dynamics of romance.
AN example is Cancer: Steady, sometimes bound by tradition, dependable home lovers, creative but not shy, and easily hurt….tenacious and when in love, determined and constant.
Germany: “Love for those fortunate enough to find it, was a joy and a blessing, but the storytellers warned against complacency.”
Though love down the ages have many stories to me the concept of romantic love seems to have been, like a lot of the good things in life, been reserved for legends and fairy tale—even the very powerful and wealthy (i.e. princesses and princes who were forced to marry to form alliances and those of the rich and powerful for more land and wealth). were not allowed the luxury—though men could take mistresses—women with a threat of conception hanging over their heads had to be more careful with such things.
Early civilizations seemed more interested in caring for the female and the fertility of same. Festival like Easter were originally pagan and derived its name from Ostara, the pagan goddess of fertility and the eggs and rabbits that are the symbols of our holiday were fertility symbols in ancient times.
Aztecs: “Even for fortunate couples, the power of love could be frightening in its intensity but when things went awry, the results were terrible.”
During medieval times courtly love developed…a kind of sexless enterprise which gave birth to the legends of such things as King Arthur and his triangle with Lancelot and his wife Guinivere (and how breaking vows and giving in to the baser nature proved to be the down fall of all) the most commonly known one I’d think.
This Courtly love was to be a pure love with no nasty sex or fluid exchanges to be involved. One wonders how well that worked and how many devoted “pure” lovers ended in much more carnal entanglements. I am not critical you understand I just have viewed human nature for too long to give much credence to such things.
“The Fruitful and evergreen orange tree, a symbol of marriage since the days of ancient Greece, provided a remedy for unrequited love. While folks said that if its fruit was thoroughly pricked with a needle and held under a man’s arm overnight, it would inspire passion in any woman who ate it.”
So love (in its romantic definition) is intense feelings for another and is tempered and increased with sexual desire. It has been sung of and wrote about since time began but has only started to be something for the common man and woman in later days.
Love can and often is confused with sexual desire, but love without sexual desire is a weak emotion indeed—so true love—if there really is such a thing—must have affection, desire and above all devotion along with a great bit of tolerance and understanding.
“From the earliest eras of recorded time, young girls sought to learn what they could about their future husbands with the aid of love divination.”
“Certain days, too, were auspicious, among them St. Valentine’s Day, May Day, and Midsummer Eve…the Eve of St. Agnes—patron saints of virgins–was intimately associated with love…..”
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Get through THIS HORRIABLE PERIOD (SO LONG—ITS ABOUT A WHOLE MONTH BY NOW ISN’T IT) OF DROUGHTLANDER BY:
