Upon first entering my home, many will find my selection of art rather strange, or even lacking a general theme or genre. Among the paintings that adorn the walls, you’ll see everything from reprints of classical pieces, to original works by various artists depicting grand sailing vessels and epic battles, modern impressionist pieces, wildlife scenes, and even faerie gatherings.
That’s right, my living room features a rather large painting where a group of faeries are gathered around a small pond, which I’ve monuted just adjacent to the entryway. What is less obvious to most about the purpose of this image (aside from a possible interest in faeries?) is that it is actually an original painting my mother, a very talented artist, procured more than a decade ago. The painting was featured in the family home for a number of years, until my mother eventually decided to ask if I would care to feature it on my wall for a while. Thus, the painting and its faerie folk now take residence within my living room.
So while the focus of my interest doesn’t have to do with faeries in particular, there are a number of classic fantasy images that I’ve nonetheless taken a liking to over the years, primarily because they have a slightly creepy feel to them. Edward Robert Hughes’ famous “Oh What’s That in the Hollow” (featured above) has been a personal favorite for a number of years, ever since I bought a paperback edition of Bram Stoker’s Dracula that featured the image on its cover. While it may not be that the image depicts an actual vampire, the slightly macabre overtone of the man with thorns and dog-roses growing over him did serve as a nod at a classic poem by Christina Rossetti called ‘Amor Mundi’, published in 1865, which features the lines, “Oh, what’s that in the hollow, so pale I quake to follow? Oh, that’s a thin dead body which waits the eternal term’.” With it’s haunting undertones that bear the mild musk of death, apparently the publishers must have thought it would also serve as a good representation for Dracula, too.
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Within various Medieval literature detailing history and folklore throughout Europe, one who looks hard enough won’t have to struggle to find references to hairy, manlike beasts, variously referred to as orcs, ogres, trolls, woodwoses, and wild men in various documents from England and its surrounding countries.
The Konungs skuggsjá, or “King’s Mirror” is one such document, written around 1250 in Norway. Though various translations exist today, the one available here was translated from the Old Norwegian by Laurence Marcellus Larson in 1917. There are many curiosities and “wonders” referred to throughout various portions of the text. One of these sections, subtitled “The Natural Wonders of Ireland,” features a rather strange account of a manlike beast allegedly captured some time prior to authorship of the document.
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In the days since the tremendous 8.9 magnitude earthquake that rocked Japan late last week, mounting concerns over complications at Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear reactor have begun to eclipse the quake’s general devastation. The effort to prevent release of harmful radiation into the surrounding area has resulted in fears elsewhere around the world just as well, presenting a number of unpleasant economic consequences. For instance, the Dow Jones dropped by 1.15% today, as concerns about economic stability in the East increased around the globe.
Writing for Politomatic.com earlier today, I noted that according to France’s nuclear watchdog, as well as info released by the IAEA, “a third explosion at Japan’s Fukushima power plant, the result of damages incurred during last week’s tremendous 8.9 magnitude earthquake in the region, has caused a nuclear crisis that is ‘second to Chernobyl’.” Similar comparisons have been made of the Japanese crisis to the 1979 Three Mile Island incident, and much the same, a number of Fortean parallels have begun to emerge also, especially those which equate strange winged phenomena with forebodings of disaster.
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What do the now somewhat infamous Betelgeuse star and 2012 doomsday prophecies have in common? Furthermore, what do each of these have to do with George Lucas’ Star Wars films?
In his recent post “Betelgeuse, Star Wars & 2012: The Hero’s Journey Begins?” over at the Daily Grail website, my friend Red Pill Junkie has undertaken the monumental task of making just these sorts of associations… and with an eloquent eye cast toward the artistic beauty represented in the Star Wars films, as well as how some of that imagery relates to people’s claims that the Betelgeuse explosion “will be so bright that… it will still turn night into day and appear like there are two suns in the sky for a few weeks.”
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