On Mythology And Place

Random thoughts today about culture and place. I'm a Druid, so I'm heavy into Celtic history and myth. And I got to thinking about how different these things are in different parts of the world, and how people perceive the myths from parts of the world where they are not. Today's example: Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales.

When someone NOT from there imagines such places, speaking from an American perspective, we might imagine castles, London, Stonehenge, some panoramic views from movies like Highlander or Braveheart, Newgrange, or the Giant's Causeway. Pretty, scenic, where you go to take photos for your Instagram, right?

We KNOW there are all these stories about faeries absconding with people and Ladies of the Lake throwing swords at people who want to wield supreme executive power, but they're relegated to some Disney-esque silly cartoonish shit in our heads, because, well, we live in a very different place.

either me or one of my friends took this photo during a road trip

What Otherworldy creature is going to roll up on you on the prairie? Nothing, that's what, unless you count tornadoes as Otherworldy. Where's it going to hide? Behind the big rock off the interstate in western Kansas? 68% of locals know exactly what I'm talking about when I say that, because "big rock off the interstate in western Kansas" is like the only goddamn landmark for 100 miles. There is grass and cows and corn and sunflowers and a big ass rock and roads. That's it.

Not all Americans live on the prairie, of course. Where is Neil DeGrasse Tyson from, who famously doesn't believe in shit if it can't be measured with a scientific instrument of some kind?

grid plans image from Wikipedia; modern day image from the New York Times. Wiki image info¹

New York, where the streets are laid out on a grid so logical and geometrically pleasing, you could see across Manhattan down the corridor between buildings on a clear day if there weren't hills and shit.

What I'm saying is, your place dictates a lot about your perception of the world.

Now let's get back to the aforementioned Celtic islands, shall we?

The Dark Hedges in Northern Ireland, absconded with from a FB page, I don't know who snapped the photo because they didn't say, sorry

HOLY SHIT. There could be 397 faeries hiding in this picture, and you would never know. The trees might eat you, and someone would happen along in the morning and find just your shoe that one of them burped out and not know wtf happened.

Devon, England from the BBC Earth FB page

I estimate that there is a mist that appears in this wood twice daily that is comprised of 97.3% ghosts.

same

And these trees, specifically, are going to reach out and grab you. That one on the right is a dragon with a glamour over it.

America has a couple of places with "eerie" feels to them, too. Where? Rainy places with trees and swamps. There's a reason why Anne Rice's vampires are from New Orleans. Once, some friends and I were off the map near Shreveport, Louisiana, and I swear to the Goddess on a road where the trees linked up overhead from both sides of the street so it blocked out the stars, we came across a sign informing us that it was a dead end, and when we went to turn around, we saw that the road ended in a graveyard. I shit you not. It was the 90s, so I didn't have a smartphone in my pocket to get a photo, or I'd have a viral sensation on my hands. Dead end ---> graveyard? You cannot make this stuff up.

Where else are American vampires from? The PNW. Where is Sasquatch from? The PNW. Which looks like this:

Your ass is about to be led away by the fae to the Otherworld, where you will fight and kill but never die, and feast to your heart's content, until you get lonely for human company and return to this world after what to you felt like a month only to find that it's 900 years later and everyone you have ever known is dead and a new religion has sprung up that doesn't believe in faeries, and your body suddenly withers away and rots, because your ass is 900 years old now, you fool.

I'm not sayin' ...I'm just sayin'.

Stay spooky, Steemit! <3

That minnow your mama always warned you about

¹ By James S. Kemp (as "Jas. S. Kemp") - Janvier, Thomas A. (June 1893). "The Evolution of New York: Second Part". Harper's New Monthly Magazine 87 (542): 23.Harper's Weekly Magazine, 26 (European Edition ed.), London: James R. Osgood, McIlvaine & Co. European edition vol. 26; American edition vol. 87. Book copy signed "E.D. Sturtevant" at David O. McKay Library, Brigham Young University, Idaho.https://archive.org/details/harpersnew087various/page/23single page processed JPEG2000 file downloaded from harpersnew087various_0037.jp2 via harpersnew087various_jp2.zipreduced to 16-level greyscale and cleaned by User:Closeapple with The GIMPoptimized by User:Closeapple with en:OptiPNG and PNGOUT, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5887042