Mythical Creatures

Have you seen Mother Leeds' 13th child? His presence has supposedly sent cats screeching in terror. He's been known to spoil milk with a mere glance and murder people walking alone in the woods at night. So beware of the sudden snap of a twig behind you. Beware of the Jersey Devil. That's what folklorists, such as Angus Kress Gillespie, a Rutgers University professor of American studies, will tell you. On Saturday afternoon, Gillespie lectured at the Louis Bay 2nd Library. His topic: the Jersey Devil. For 270 years, people in South Jersey have reported seeing the beast with a horse's head, goat's feet, giant bat-like wingsand long serpentine tail.

And like the children's telephone game, the tale has changed as it has passed through generations. "It's not written down in books and it's anonymous. We don't know who the original author is," Gillespie told a group of about 20 people. "There is no one official version of the story, which should come as no surprise." And those who claim to have seen him have never had camera in hand. Nor has he ever been captured, though one Philadelphia man painted green stripes on a kangaroo, attached fake wings and put the animal in a cage, charging admission. The ruse went on for 20 years before the hoax was revealed, Gillespie said. By then, the fellow had made a ton of money and nolonger cared.One version of the legend has it that in the months before Jane Leeds gave birth to her 13th child in 1735, she dropped to her knees one night and prayed that the baby would be the devil's child and not another fathered by her drunkard husband, Daniel.On a stormy night in February, Leeds is said to have delivered a chubby, blonde-haired, blue-eyed baby boy. Within minutes, it evolved before her eyes into a gigantic, horrid creature with razor-sharp nails that slashed the midwife's throat and escaped through the chimney into the 1,164,000-acre Pine Barrens in Burlington and Atlantic counties.Or so the story goes."You hear about it and you just want to know a little bit about the history," said MichelleStrasevicz,. ...

Today the unicorn is legendary, or mythical. But this was not always so. At one time the unicorn existed--or, at least, was thought to exist. As described in ancient scientific writings and depicted in painting and tapestry, the unicorn was a beautiful horse-like creature with a single long horn thought to have medicinal properties. Respected ancient scholars, such as Aristotle and Pliny, mention them existing in their day. But today unicorns have gone the way of fairies, elves, and trolls. Belief in such creatures was abandoned with the 18thcentury Enlightenment.

Oddly enough, however, the unicorn remained a fixture in the Bible until the 19th century. "How could that be?" one may well ask. The Christians who wrote the New Testament did not use the Hebrew Old Testament, but rather its Greek translation, as sacred Scripture. In the Greek Old Testament eight passages describe an animal having only one horn (monokeros) as a translation for the Hebrew word re'em. In the late fourth century, the Old Testament was translated into Latin (the Vulgate) using both the Greek and Hebrew. In some of the passages above the Vulgate translates the Hebrew re'em as "rhinoceros" andothers as "unicorn." All Christians used the Vulgate until the 16th century, at which time Martin Luther translated the Bible into German — the first time the Bible was ever translated into a modern European language. Luther used only the Hebrew, for the Old Testament. Nevertheless, he still translated re'em as unicorn.

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Today the unicorn is legendary, or mythical. But this was not always so. At one time the unicorn existed--or, at least, was thought to exist.As described in ancient scientific writings and depicted in painting and tapestry, the unicorn was a beautiful horse-like creature with a single long horn thought to have medicinal properties. Respected ancient scholars, such as Aristotle and Pliny, mention them existing in their day. But today unicorns have gone the way of fairies, elves, and trolls. Belief in such creatures was abandoned with the 18th century Enlightenment. Oddly enough, however, the unicorn remained a fixture in the Bible until the 19th century."How could that be?" one may well ask. TheChristians who wrote the New Testament did not use the Hebrew Old Testament, but rather its Greek translation, as sacred Scripture. In the Greek Old Testament eight passages describe an animal having only one horn (monokeros) as a translation for the Hebrew word re'em.In the late fourth century, the Old Testament was translated into Latin (the Vulgate) using both the Greek and Hebrew.

In some of the passages above the Vulgate translates the Hebrew re'em as "rhinoceros" and others as "unicorn." All Christians used the Vulgate until the 16th century, at which time Martin Luther translated the Bible into German — the first time the Bible was ever translated into a modern European language. Luther used only the Hebrew, for the Old Testament. Nevertheless, he still translated re'em as unicorn.Later William Tyndale, using only the Hebrew, likewise translated re'em as unicorn, and so did theKing James Version of 1611. In the 19th century, however, scholars decided that the Hebrew re'em did not really mean unicorn, but rather wild buffalo. Thus Christians from the fourth century well into the 19th found the unicorn in the Bible. The first English language edition to read "wild ox" for the Hebrew re'em was the American Standard Version of 1901. Today, "wild ox" has become the accepted English translation for re'em.The Greek Orthodox Church, however, still uses the ancient Greek version of the Jewish Bible as their Holy Scripture. Where it differs from the Hebrew (and it often does), they believe the differences are due to divine inspiration. Unicorns, therefore, still exist in their Bible, as they existed for all Christians until the 19th/20th centuries.So the question boils down to this: Did scholars change re'em to "wild ox" because they knew unicorns were mythicalan......

North Wales film-makers bring ancient monsters and Celtic myths to life in a major new TV series. Celtic Monsters uses animation from Oscar-nominated Joanna Quinn's Beryl Productions to illustrate banshees, dragons, serpents, demons and omens of death including the ankou.The series is produced by Caernarfon-based Cwmni Da and Ireland's Midas Productions.Celtic Monsters was filmed on location in Wales, Ireland, Scotland and Cornwall and features inter-views with experts and storytellers.Cwmni Da producer Dylan Huws, said: "Each of the six programmes has a theme such as dragons, sea monsters,fairies and witches and they cover Wales, Ireland, Scotland, Brittany and Cornwall."There is an element of storytelling.

Some people have had experience of things and recount their stories."There are mythical stories as well. A lot is left to the viewers' imagination."The 46-year-old said one North Wales man believed in the idea of a "corpse candle".Mr Huws added: "It's supposed to be when the spirit of a person takes the form of a glowing light and travels around. He is convinced he has seen things."Both Dylan Huws and Neville Hughes produce Celtic Monsters which will be broadcast in Welsh, English and Irish.The Welsh series is presented by poet Twm Morys, son of travelwriter Jan Morris.Cwmni Da is also working on a children's version of Celtic Monsters for S4C. S4C director of programmes Iona Jones said: "Joanna is a world-class animator and we're delighted to be collaborating with her."The series will be launched at the MIP TV market in France this week alongside two other documentaries.

View: Full Article | Source: IC North Wales