I have a habit of getting really focused on certain topics and then reading about them voraciously. Fortunately, my local library being part of a network that includes a large metropolitan area means I can find many wonderful books for check out. Still, there are always some themes that require extensive note taking, tabbing, underlining and dogearing.
This is my current cache of new books. The four books on the right are from one author, Claude Lecouteux a former professor of medieval literature and civilizations. Upon purchasing these books Amazon wanted to tie me to a post and declare me a witch. I was offered a statue of Hecate, cedar smudges and overpriced culinary herbs in fancy tins. When it comes to the businesses of retail and spiritualism, few people can tell the difference between a hippie and a witch.
I don't call myself a witch. I don't call myself much of anything. I detest labels and regularly defy them. We are all multi-fractal beings. You are free to define yourself as you choose and reveal or hide what you will. I accept people as they present themselves to be, but don't mistake my easygoing nature for stupidity. I will drag things out of the shadows and burn them with candescence if I think them a real threat.
The Dictionary of the Strange, Curious and lovely is all that the title claims to be. A good gift for the word lovers in your life.
Here's a sample just from the "A's"
We are all born altricial (helpless and food dependent.)
Some of us are agerasia (looking noticeably younger than one actually is.)
If we are now longtime friends, you may call me acushla (term of address similar to darling; [Irish a chuisle (O Pulse)]
These books add to my already robust collections of collected myths, legends and folklore.
Some of my favorites include Akutagawa Ryunosuke. In fact, as I read Claude Lecouteux books and mentions of the Christian church's suppression of Pagan beliefs I am reminded of one of my favorite stories, The Faint Smile of the Gods. This story can be found in The Essential Akutagawa.
Kappa is a great story for anyone who appreciates social satire.
I am following the threads of our ancient psyches in regard to society, nature and the "otherworld" (the spirit realm.) Is this where I should confess that my gallbladder and appendix aren't the only things missing from this body? Part of my spirit is on the other side too. So, if you accused me of being "Not all here." that would be an accurate assessment that I could not argue otherwise. It has its perks. It makes it easier to talk to dead people.
Back in Europe....
Also, yes, one more thing. Youtube recommended this song to me and yes, I like it very much. The band name comes from the movie "Rosemary's Baby" at some point in the movie there is a book on a table titled: All Them Witches. Well, I suppose that's one way to come up with a band name. This video was done when they came to Seattle to perform for KEXP. I love KEXP and I have a friend who works there. They have lots of great music and in studio concerts. Checkout their "Tiny Desk concerts" for more great music. Enjoy!
not my meme, but relatable......
Oh my.....we we in a dark mood lately? Lmao. I too get like you. I get fixatited on a subject and then consume all I can on it.
ReplyDeleteHello, Mistress Maddie! Not a dark mood at all, just a dark exploration. I love your Mood boards! It's such a clever way to pull content together like a nice outfit. I'm a bit of a chaotic mess most of the time, this is my attempt to follow a common theme, but I can't say I pulled it together very well. My brain is a six-lane freeway. I go temporarily catatonic when lanes crash together sometimes. Hahaha.
DeleteSupernatural tales, the Brothers Grimm AND philology? Marvellous!
ReplyDeleteYou can keep the music, though... Jx
Thank you, Jon. I should be writing the actual stories I'm working on, but it gets lonely so I'm sharing some of the research and thoughts with you here. I know the music won't be everyone's cup of tea. Did you see the link to The Zombies, "She's not there?" Maybe you don't like that song either? I didn't imbed it as a video as a stylistic choice. I also don't get why the women are standing around like pieces of furniture. It's funny if it's satire, but I can't tell if it is or not because the sixties are not my era.
DeleteI did indeed miss the link to The Zombies - I do love that song! Mr Blunstone at the very peak of his talents, methinks. Jx
DeleteBooks on a chair!!!! Yay!!!
ReplyDeleteI seem to have lost the ability to be absorb by a subject - I hope I get it back. Maybe i should get stuck into some myths and legends?
Sx
Yes, books on a chair! You should try the Strange, Curious and lovely Dictionary. Maybe it will inspire some new calligraphy projects or other subjects to ponder.
DeleteNow that is a collection of books I could get lost in too!
ReplyDeleteI quite liked All Them Witches, but I love The Zombies! And that meme is just far too realistic to be easily believed ;)
P.S. I wonder if that Book of Yokai might give any indication of which ones are susceptible to becoming Fatty Lardy Lump-Blobbles?
I was wondering if you might have heard of Claude Lecouteux, as Amazon would have one believe he is essential reading for Witches. He has a book about Reading Runes that I am most certainly going to avoid.
DeleteI'm glad you like All Them Witches, that really seems to be their best song.
I've studied Yokai for a long time, they are not so different from Europe's unseen brethren as you've likely guessed. You know I'm quite fond of Kitsune. Your post a bout the Fatty Lardy Lump bubbles is funny! Ironically enough, I was given some Ferrero Rocher as a recovery gift and of course it made me think of you! I like it well enough, but I never seek it out on my own.
JAcob & Wilhelm were born 1785 and 1786 into a very protestant family. The cultural mainstream was romanticism. The revolution was 1789, and their formative years (let's say from ten to twenty) they spent through the revolutionary wars, culminating in Napoleon's rule. And the end of the Holy Roman Reich - so their youth was a time of fundamental change in Europe. "natio" was all the rage, Nationalismus seemed to be the answer to all political & societal problems. This is a "Nationalismus" that is not what the nazis meant, a national chauvinism combined with racism - and, because Adolf, antisemitism. What the intellectuals around 1800 meant was "das freie Selbstbestimmungsrecht der Völker", the right of free self-rule of nations - btw you see here that there is a nice payne ita regarding the words / wording : "Nation" is not necessarily "nation", "Volk" is not necessarily "people"
ReplyDeleteBoth brothers would have left Germany in 1933 latest - simply because they were democrats. They had to leave their positions as librarians (later professors) at Göttingen in the late 1830s ("Göttinger Sieben"), literally over night, because they refused to swear an oath on the newly installed king, because they already had sworn an oath to the constitution (sounds familiar in a way ?).
And it was Prussia that shielded them from Hannoverian persecutions - they both were not young men anymore, but well in their advanced fifties when they had to start anew in Berlin.
BTW one of the great ironies in history is that one of the sources for the KInder- und Hausmärchen was a lady huguenottish background - that is French refugies. And of course she told the fairy tales she was told as child in France - here starts the discussion whether there are specific motifs to specific people ("Volk") that grow out of the earth in one place and then are carried around by individuals - or whether motifs are of a general nature, so they can evolve in any cultural frame. The 19th century of course wanted "teutsche" Märchen. The nazis wanted "germanische Mären". All that is bollocks.
I knew you could really add to the conversation about the Grimm brothers! It is too bad we cannot discuss such things over tea. Some stories are carried, but having studied the elements of folklore from Europe, North American Indigenous tribes and Asia, I find that there are core elements to these stories that are intrinsic to being human in a world we know so little about. All people struggle with defining their identity, both as individuals and groups. Hunger, greed, diseases, predation by animals and other humans, and natural disasters have always been of concern. In the end, I'm grateful that anyone who could put ink to paper cared enough to share these oral traditions before they died.
DeleteBetter late than never, right? I looove your reading list, it's like the bibliography for Ron Hutton's Triumph of the Moon, a history of modern pagan [whisper it] witchcraft. 😵💫😉
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry for such a late response to both your comments! Blogger was afraid to post this ones because I found it "Awaiting Moderation" and yet the other one was not. It must have been that last word that put it in a tizzy. Hahaha
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