Pub Crawl

[macausland]

Dwelly has an interesting 'incantation' once used to invite lads in the Uists to play a game of shinty. This includes the raven and holy men.

'The following is an invitation to shinty: Thugainn a dh’iomain. Dé ’n iomain? Iomain chaman. Dé ’n caman? Caman iubhair. Dé ’n iubhar? Iubhar adhair. Dé ’n adhar? Adhar ian. Dé ’n t-ian? Ian air iteig. Dé ’n iteag? Iteag fithich. Dé ’m fitheach? Fitheach feòla. Dé ’n fheòil? Feòil dhaoine. Dé na daoine? Daoine naomh. Dé naomh? Naomh eich.

'The translation is as follows: Come to play a ball game. What ball game? Shinty. What club? A yew club. What yew? Yew of the sky. What sky? Sky of the birds. What bird? Bird on the wing. What wing? Raven’s wing. What raven? A raven of flesh. What flesh? Flesh of men. What men? Holy men. (Saints) What holy man? (Saint) Saint of horse.'

[hvered]

Ravens frequently feature in the 'history' of saints and holy hermits as bringers of nourishment.

The legend of St Cuthbert who settled on the Farne Islands nearly on the Scottish border relates that a raven brought him lard. Whether for eating or fuel isn't entirely clear. Another miracle connects him to a horse with whom he shared bread the horse found hidden in a roof. A winged horse? I wonder if his biographer or hagiographer knew the Uist incantation.

The Farne Islands are a bird hotspot, a sanctuary for cormorants as well as gannets and the famous cuddies.

St Cuthbert's Isle is accessible from Holy Island or Lindisfarne, a tidal causewayed island, at low tide.



He built a cell and chapel on Inner Farne which were surrounded by a high wall so that he could only see the sky, supposedly for spiritual purposes. Sounds rather like a mariner looking at a patch of sky through the 'eye' of an ankh. Perhaps it was an observatory.

N.B. Cuthbert is said to have been healed of lameness by an angel.

[hvered]

Thanks to Mark Cocker (Birds Britannia) I've learnt that archaeologists have found burials dated to the Mesolithic where human infants were buried with their heads resting on a swan's wing.

The association between angelic messengers and swans goes back a very long way in northern Europe.

[macausland]

And then there are the legends of the Swan Maidens and such like.

http://www.primitivism.com/swan-maidens.htm

There's even a reference to Volund, the 'original Wayland Smith' in one of the stories. Also suggestions of a reference to stars and the moon.

[macausland]

Speaking of stars here's Durdle Door with the Milky Way.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/spac ... avens.html

[hvered]

Gozo, just to the north of Malta, is best known for the temple complex at Ġgantija. It also has some interesting geology, completely natural according to Wiki.

The Inland Sea, sometimes called Qawra in Maltese, is a lagoon of seawater on the island of Gozo linked to the Mediterranean Sea through an opening formed by a narrow natural arch.

Nearby is a larger rock arch called the Azure Window, popular with divers. It used to be perfectly oblong prior to rocks collapsing from the archway. Also deemed entirely natural.



Another landmark is the Fungus Rock, a huge lump of limestone rock at the entrance to an almost circular black lagoon



The Knights Hospitaller called the reddish plant growing there 'Maltese Fungus' (official name Cynomorium coccineum). It's a parasitic salt tolerant tuber with multiple medical attributes and as the name suggests used for dyeing as well as feeding camels and considered so important by the Knights that the rock was permanently guarded.

The islands of Gozo and Malta are renowned for ancient salt pans. [Salini in the north-east of Malta means salt pan in Maltese.]

The nickname for Gozo is the Island of Calypso. In the Odyssey Calypso imprisons Odysseus and his men on the Island of Ogygia for seven years; the etymology of her name according to scholars means 'concealing the knowledge'. The gigantic structures on Gozo classed as temples are located in an enormous salt producing area; it would presumably be sensible to establish a trading centre for the salt which also has to be stored and guarded.

[macausland]

Many years ago I came across a book written by a Frenchman who was a yachtsman, mainly in the Mediterranean. He claimed that the 'Odyssey' was not so much a work of fiction but an encoded navigational text which could be used to sail through the Med and up to Britain. I can't remember the name of the book but it seemed convincing.

An American archaeologist has posted a lecture on youtube about very early finds of spearheads similar to those found in France and Spain. One of them, right at the end of the video, was taken from a mammoth bone dredged up several miles out to sea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLV9A8P0 ... =endscreen

If he is correct it looks like early people were very skilled at sailing amongst other things.

[hvered]

Speaking of stars here's Durdle Door with the Milky Way.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/spac ... avens.html

Talking of stars, the Arc de Triomphe in Paris is in the Place d'Etoile



Whole books seem to have been written about the astronomical alignments of various Paris monuments including l'Arc de Triomphe as, literally, a 'star gate'. Perhaps the genesis of Roman triumphal arches is in Megalithic rock arches?

[hvered]

Many years ago I came across a book written by a Frenchman who was a yachtsman, mainly in the Mediterranean. He claimed that the 'Odyssey' was not so much a work of fiction but an encoded navigational text which could be used to sail through the Med and up to Britain. I can't remember the name of the book but it seemed convincing.

Sounds fascinating! I think it's The Secret Code of the Odyssey: Did the Greeks Sail the Atlantic? by Gilbert Pillot.

The blurb says Pillot maintains that Ancient Greeks were sailing from the Canaries to Iceland which becomes even more interesting when thinking about meridians. Iceland is the same longitude as the Isla del Meridiano (Isla de Hierro), the furthest west and south of the Canary Islands, and the only piece of land between it and the north pole.

[macausland]

Thanks for reminding me of the title and appropriately named author.

Paris is also the City of Light so it seems appropriate to have a Place d'Etoile. That photograph looks like a giant clock face with the Arc de Triomphe acting as the gnomon on a sundial.

Regarding Pillot apparently he was not the only one to think of the Odyssey in such terms, although he was eminently qualified to put his theories into practice because of his navigational skills and where he lived in Tunisia at Carthage.

Here's a review of other such theories.

http://codexceltica.blogspot.co.uk/2009 ... yssey.html