21 December 2020 – The Black Dog in Folklore continued
The session continued the topic of the black dog in Folklore.
1/. Black Dogs as Guardians
We looked at many examples across the country. Guiding people across difficult terrain, protecting from thieves, saving them from cars. They appear and disappear mysteriously.
2/. In Classical and Celtic Mythology
Dogs acted as hunting companions to the gods and were also protectors and healers. Celtic healing shrines have been found with images of dogs. Dog licks have been associated with healing.
3/. Black Dog and Bogey Beasts
These are always mischievous, malicious, scary or dangerous. They have little or no regard for humankind. They are not always black.
They occurred in forms other than dogs, most often an animal but not always. They are sighted across the country and are often seen in places which are subject to misty, gloomy conditions. Again the common themes for these were sightings at bridges, crossroads, graveyards etc. which are mystical crossing points to the otherworld.
The other forms include a cross between rough-coated dog and monkey, a donkey and monkey, a small horse, a headless duck, a bag of soot, white rabbit.
They can be shape shifters. We looked in more detail at the Pelton Brag County Durham and that was reported to have taken more than one form: like a bushy tailed calf, a white sheet, a naked man without a head, a galloway. (ref Westwood & Simpson, “The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England’s Legends, Penguin Books, 2006)
Some of the stories start as legends and become folk tales with detailed back stories. One such example is The White Rabbit of Crank from Lancashire. (ref Terence Whitaker, “Lancashire’s Ghosts and Legends” Robert Hale Ltd ,1980)
It is possible that the references to rabbits may originally been hares, as rabbits were introduced by the Romans.
Next time we shall continue with boggarts.
7 December 2020 – Black Dogs in Folklore
The session started the topic of the black dog in Folklore, these occur all over Britain and Continental Europe. Some just have sightings and some have stories added.
1/. Black Dogs as Portents of Death and Disaster
We looked at many examples including Formby Merseyside, Bunbury Cheshire, Portland Dorset, Norfolk, Ely and more.
The common themes for these were sightings at bridges, crossroads, graveyards etc. which were places associated with being the boundaries between the world and the afterworld, places of transition which feature heavily in Celtic Myths. In Greek Myths Cerberus is a hound which guards the gates of hell to stop the dead from getting out. Mythology bleeding into folklore.
The black dogs all have a similar appearance, they are large, shaggy, black and have big eyes. They are portents of death or disaster. Many people believed ordinary dogs could predict death.
2/. Black Dogs with Mischievous/ Scary/ Malign Intentions
Examples were from Beetham in the old Westmorland, Manchester Old Church, Peel Castle, IOM and more. Not all the examples were from quiet places, some were in the centre of cities.
These dogs are not portents of misfortune but are scary, may make physical attacks and there is a need to keep a distance from them. They have more in common with the supernatural bogey which appears in many forms. They may let the horses out, are mischievous, cause you to go off the path. They may have no links to the first group of black dogs.
3/. Black Dogs linked to the Devil
We looked at a case from Bungay, Suffolk of an attack by the Devil in the form of a black dog in 1577. A this can be found on the internet by looking for ‘A Straunge and Terrible Wunder’ by Abraham Fleming. It manifested itself inside the church during a terrific thunderstorm, killing two people, injuring others and causing strange damage. On the same day there was also an incident in Blythburgh and the claw marks remain on the church door there. Here is a link to online article with photograph of the Blythburgh church door:- https://www.eadt.co.uk/news/weird-suffolk-black-shuck-folklore-1-6503598
This could be an explanation/interpretation of ball lightning from the severe storm.
Next time we shall look at Black Dogs being examples of supernatural creatures such as bogles and as harmless or guardians.
References:- Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson ‘The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England’s Legends, from Spring-heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys’.
November 2020 – Scandinavian Mythology
Reconvened remotely after a long break due to Covid-19.
The session:
Completed the topic of Scandinavian Mythology
1/. Recapped the last topic from March covering the origins of Thor and his accessibility to both the gods and ordinary people.
2/. Freya the Bride – Another battle of wits with the Frost Giants which started with the Mjollnir (Thor’s hammer) which was held for ransom for the hand of Freya. This involved Thro dressing up as Freya and Loki dressing as Freya’s bridesmaid. A tall tale where Thor in the guise of Freya eats an ox, eight salmon and drinks barrels of mead. Thor eventually gets Mjollnir back and slays the giants.
3/. Thor’s Visit to Utgard. Another confrontation with the Frost Giants. A tale you could imagine being spun around a roaring fire. Whilst on a peacemaking visit to Utgard, Loki and Thialfi and Thor are challenged to contests in eating, running and drinking which are not what they first appear. At first it seems that they have failed but they have not. The eating contest was against fire, the running contest against thought and the drinking contest was an attempt to drink the sea. Far from failing Thor had caused the sea levels to drop and the first ever tide. The Frost Giant respected them for their efforts and there was a guarded truce.
4/. The Lay of Hymir – starts with a crisis in Asgard as they have run out of ale and mead. To brew the ale and mead they need a vast cauldron. Tyr, part giant, with a father with a cauldron five miles deep travels with Thor to get it. Cunning is used and great feats of strength.
5/. In a number of creation myths the forces of chaos are pushed to the edges during creation. These are represented by the Frost Giants in the Scandinavian myths. Thor’s role is in keeping this chaos at bay. There is a need to be alert as chaos could return. The myths are larger than life but always presented in an understandable way. The magic and mysticism are low key.
6/. Discussed what our next topic should be. We decided for our next topic we should shift away from far away places, “big” mythology and gods & goddess, to folklore that is closer to home. We shall be looking at Black Dogs and other similar supernatural creatures, including boggarts, bogles, bugganes et al. Legends and folktales concerning these creatures are common all over Britain, and it will be interesting to speculate as to why they were so widespread. We can also think about possible origins and meanings behind the stories.
The sessions are now taking place remotely and will be the 1st and 3rd Monday of the month at 10:00. If you would like to be involved, please contact June Jones
March 2020 – Scandinavian Mythology
The session:
Continued the topic of Frey and Freya the twin gods of fertility in Germanic and Scandinavian mythology.
1/. Frey – means lord
According to Snorri Sturluson he was good, gentle, beautiful to look at, had power over sunshine and rain. He had a boar which pulled his chariot. Frey was venerated particularly in Uppsala in Sweden where there were great celebrations including wild dancing, men dressing as women, laying down of weapons. The people doing it believed it was vital to do or Spring would not be able to come again.
We had a look at the story of Gunnar Helming where Gunnar due to a twist in the plot impersonated Frey. Olaf Tryggvason the King of Norway who has a role in this story features in historical records.
Frey was married to Gerd the daughter of a Frost Giant. There is a tale about how their marriage came about where gifts were offered and threats given before she gave in and married Frey. This can be seen as Winter marrying Spring after a confrontation.
2/. Freya – means lady
Freya is a female version of Frey and they are very similar but Freya also has influence over love and affairs of the heart. She visited the world of men regularly. Some say she was married to Frey but in other myths she is married to Odr in perfect happiness. However she was insatiably lustful and had a passion for jewels. Loki said that she had worked her way through the men of the nine worlds. She had a chariot pulled by cats. She travelled in her chariot to every battle scene. Odin took half of the fallen to Valhalla and Freya took half to Asgard. There is some of the Great Goddess Mythology life and death, responsibility for wnter/spring, creator destroyer.
In the story of Dvalin and his Three Brothers, who were dwarves, she is tricked into buying a beautiful necklace in exchange for marrying each of them for a day. Dwarves were seen as very low status in these myths. When Odr finds this out he leaves and she wanders the world looking for him, shedding tears of pure red gold.
3/. Thor
Thunor the Germanic weather god and Thor the Scandinavian weather god are much the same thing.
Thor is a god of the people and a way of explaining the world around them. He was a huge red haired figure, boaster and drinker, ruler of thunder lightning and storms and by extensions a god of battle. A powerful protector of the gods. Protector of humans, giver of good weather for agriculture.
His chariot was pulled by 2 goats. Thunder rumbled as Thor passed by. He was married to the goddess Sif who had golden hair like a field of corn. If brute force was needed they called on Thor, for cunning Odin and Loki.
He had three treasures, a magic strength doubling belt, iron rock shattering gauntlets and a mighty hammer Mjollnir. If the hammer was thrown it would return to his hand and was his thunderbolt. The hammer was the most important as it kept the universe safe and secure.
The Greeks, Romans and Celtic people viewed oak trees as sacred, in Germanic myths oak trees are linked to Thor.
When people travelled to live in new places they would take soil from beneath his shrine to scatter on the newly tilled fields to ensure a good crop.
There are lots of tales of battles with the Frost Giants. These were not presented as monumental battles, much more down to earth and humorous. We started looking at three tales recorded by Snorri Sturluson’s Prose.
i/ Thor’s Duel with Hrungir where Thor was brought in to use his strength to fight the strongest of all the Frost Giants.
When we re-convene after the covid-19 break we shall look at ii/ Freya the Bride and iii/. Thor’s Visit to Utgard.
References:-
The Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson – A 12 century Icelandic historian – there are translations and reference books of his work available online and good bookshops.
February 2020 – Norse Mythology
The session:
Continued the topic of Odin and Frig in Germanic and Scandinavian mythology.
1/. Odin –
We covered the tale of The Lay of Grimnir in more detail. In this story Odin visited the world of men under one of his many disguise. Odin and his wife Frig were very competitive and Frig warned Gerrod, King of the Goths, to beware of a magician who would visit. This caused Gerrod to seem to break the rules of hospitality and lead to him coming to a bad end but as Gerrod was a cruel and tyrannical king that would have gone down well with the audience.
2/. Frig
Nerthus was venerated as the Earth Mother by the Germanic and Scandinavian peoples. Frig was originally the earth mother worshipped by the Angles and Saxons. Borne of the earth itself and married to the sky god so linked back to creation mythology.
Over time the fertility element moved over to Frey and Freya who started out as the children of the Earth Mother Nerthus. Frig became the goddess of marriage and married love.
The Legend of Baldur
Baldur was the favourite son of Odin and Frig. He was the best of gods, bright, beautiful and shining, kind and wise. He was very happy with his wife Nanna. Baldur had a twin brother called Holder who was the opposite of Baldur to look at; he was dark and blind. They loved each other.
Baldur could tell the future and started to have bad dreams full of dread, of a shadowy world.
Odin went to the Hall of Hel (the goddess who ruled in the Realm of the Dead) to find out what was going on. The Hall was set out for a special guest. Odin was told that Baldur would be killed by Holder.
Frig went to see each and every substance to gain its commitment not to harm Baldur, and this was agreed.
They decided to test Baldur’s new found invincibility and threw things at him, much fun was had and Baldur was unhurt.
Everyone was happy apart from Loki who was consumed with jealousy. He shapeshifted into the form of an old woman and visited Frig to see if there were any flaws in the plan. He checked that everything had been covered by asking lots of questions and identified it covered everything that grows out of the earth so it did not cover mistletoe.
Loki made a dart out of mistletoe, gave it to Holder to use, helped blind Holder sight up and the dart went right through Baldur and killed him.
Frig sent an emissary to Hel to negotiate a ransom for Baldur’s life. The condition of the ransom was that everything must weep for him. Everything wept apart from an old woman (Loki) so Baldur stayed in the hall of Hel.
This shows some evidence of the earlier role of Frig. Baldur has a lot of the characteristics of the spring god, but in this story he does not come back, reflecting that the fertility role had already been taken over by Frey/Freya and the concept of an inescapable fate.
3/. Frey/Freya
We touched very briefly on this and will take it further at the next session.
January 2020 – Norse Mythology
The session:
We agreed an earlier start time of 9:50 to avoid congestion in the car park, with an earlier finish.
Continued Norse Mythology covering Germanic and Scandinavian mythology with the topic of Odin.
1/. Odin –
Odin became the Sky God, creator of the Universe, King of the gods. He provided rules which had to be followed to protect against the chaos which still existed outside the organised world. He visited Midgard, the world of men, to make sure the rules were being followed.
Over time he took on many attributes, physical appearances and roles, and had many aliases. He also had magic skills and was a shape shifter. He was a majestic figure with gravitas and dignity. He was capricious, lustful and quick tempered and a rule breaker when it suited him. He was also arrogant and boastful as related in the Song of Harbard. A god but one with flaws.
He was very successful with women apart from in The Myth of Billing’s Daughter who outsmarted him. She is portrayed as being duplicitous and treacherous for not wanting to have a relationship with him and using her wits to avoid him, a view which is much less acceptable now.
This was all in the context of a world where gods and men are doomed. Great warriors would go to Valhall to await the final battle (Ragnarok), to qualify for this they would need to show their skills to Odin but the Norns (the three Fates) had already set down the fates of the gods and mortals.
We looked at two tales The Myth of Mead of Poetry where Odin gains a magic mead from giants by means of shape shifting, cunning and deceit and The Lay of Grimnir where again he did not reveal who he was.
Oden was married to Frig and they had a tempestuous relationship with neither being faithful to the other.
2/. Frig
Originally Frig was the goddess of fertility but her attributes changed over time too and she became the goddess of the home and protector of women whilst Freya became the goddess of fertility.
In February we shall continue Norse Mythology
Further Reading
There is a lot of information available on the internet by using simple searches. These books are not in print but may be available second hand or from a library.
References:-
Brian Branston ‘The Lost Gods of England’ Thames and Hudson
‘Encyclopaedia of World Mythology’ Octopus Books