500words

 The Banshee ‘An aged desolation, She sits by old Shannon’s flowing, A mother of many children, Of children exiled and dead, In her home, with bent head, homeless, Clasping her knees she sits, Keening, keening!’ - John Todhunter The ‘aged desolation’ John Todhunter was talking about in this rather grim poem is the banshee; a female spirit in Irish folklore. First accounts of the banshee date from as far back as 1380, and her name is derived from the Irish bean sí. In Irish, bean means woman, and the word sí comes from the mythologically important mounds which can be found in the Irish countryside, known as side in Old Irish. So, taken literally, the banshee’s name means “woman of the fairy mound”. This may initially make the banshee sound quite nice and sweet, but that’s not really the case. Descriptions of the banshee vary, with some people reporting seeing a beautiful, young woman with long, flowing hair, and others seeing an old woman in rags with dirty hair, long fingernails,...

  A dark Christmas in Iceland - Folklore   Deep within a dark cave, made from the lava set stones in Dimmuborgir, adjacent to the Mývatn area of north Iceland, lives a terrifying giantess named Grýla. She is thought to be half-troll, half-ogre, and her thirst for the blood of children is insatiable. Grýla doesn’t often roam from her cave, taking only an annual excursion to stock up on her feast for the year - a silent Christmas killer. Much like Santa, Grýla keeps note of which children have been naughty, however Grýla’s list is much more of an actual hit list. Whispers of naughty children are collected throughout the year, and when Christmas time comes around again she goes on the hunt, collecting the misbehaving youths in a sack and subsequently cooking them in a pot, creating a pot of stew of such great volumes that it sustains her for the entire year. Grýla’s latest husband is named Leppalúði, also a troll. Leppalúði is seemingly terrified of his wife and her homicid...

  From folklore to pharmaceuticals Jeanie 21/09/20   I f folklore is the traditional customs, beliefs and stories of a community, passed down through generations by word of mouth , folk remedies are the traditional medical practices that have  developed and been passed down orally, over many generations.     Folk medicine is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as "the sum total of the knowledge, skills, and practices based on the theories, beliefs, and experiences indigenous to different cultures, whether explicable or not, used in the maintenance of health as well as in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illness”.   The written record of the study of herbs dates back 5,000 years to the Sumerians who wrote of well-established medicinal uses for plants and an Egyptian papyrus, from c1552 BC, lists folk remedies and magical medical practices. That however is the written record and is taking us...

  THE OAK TREE AND MISTLETOE There are stories of the supernatural power of trees from many countries and throughout history worldwide.   We will look at mysteries surrounding the oak tree and its association with the semi-parasitic plant mistletoe and try to distinguish fact from fiction. In all the major European cultures the oak tree is held in high esteem. It is a venerated tree and associated with the supreme god in the pantheons sacred to Zeus(Greek), Jupiter(Roman), Dagda(Celtic), Perun(Slavic) and Thor(Norse).   These gods also had domain over rain and thunder and lightening. The oak’s connection with rainfall survives to this day in the rhyme: If the oak before the ash          Then we’ll only have a splash If the ash before the oak        Then we’ll surely have a soak This old folk rhyme has scientific basis relating to the moisture content of the soil.   In a wet period the ash wit...

They are two of the biggest celebrities in the world of children's fiction. Both are beloved, neither wears trousers. One somehow survives on a diet of just hunny and presumably has no teeth, the other has a slightly more varied diet consisting of marmalade sandwiches but is likely still suffering from the bear version of rickets due to an extreme aversion to foods with any real nutritional value. Yes, you guessed it, they are Winnie the Pooh and Paddington Brown. Everyone knows who they are, or at least thinks they do, but the real question here is this - who would win in a fight? Let's first consider age. Both are rather old men, with Pooh born (created) in 1926 and Paddington entering this world on 13 October 1958. That makes our first competitor a whooping 94, with the younger bear a sprightly 61. This would seemingly give Paddington a pretty good advantage. But we have to remember that Paddington is a lone bear, whereas Pooh has a pretty sizeable group of friends for backu...

  Panda Diplomacy The big black patches giving a starry wide-eyed illusion, their giant heads which seem too big for any creature to carry, their tumbling about like toddlers and, of course, the fluffiness which makes you just want to give them a hug, are some of the many reasons why humans can’t help but think, ‘ah they are just soo cute.’ This overwhelming combination of ‘hedonic mechanisms,’ makes a visit to the zoo to witness an adorable panda bear in person irresistible to many, plus the purchase of a cuddly toy as a memoir from the gift shop at the end – obviously. However, with pandas being native only to China, why is it becoming increasingly easy to visit these furry friends in various locations around the world? Let’s take a quick trip through three panda phases of history. It began during the Tang dynasty in China, when reigning Empress Wu Zeitan gifted a pair of pandas to the Japanese Emperor, Tenmu. However, modern ‘panda diplomacy’ didn’t begin until the 1950’s. F...

  A Big Bear and A Little Bear     See those stars up in the night, Twinkling from their heavenly height? They form a plough, perhaps a pan? Nope.   Seems they’re bears, chased there by man.   Or jealous Juno in a huff, In her rage she’d had enough, She changed Callisto to a bear Then Jupiter chucked her, way up there!                                                   Bears wandering the northern sky? You’d really have to wonder why, So read this blog and you will see, Why two bears shine, eternally!     By Jeanie   Ursa Major, the “great she bear” in Latin, shines in the northern sky.    It is the largest  northern constellation  and third large...

  ART - THE IRISH BEAR   by Margaret   There is evidence that in Ireland during the Iron Age (800BC - 43AD), the bear was admired for its strength and ferocity. It was thought to have much in common with humans as it walked on two legs, was omnivorous and liked the same foods, honey, salmon, fruit, nuts and meat.   Bones of bears dating back over 10,000 years have been found in caves in counties Clare and Leitrim. Recent work by researchers from the Institute of Technology, Sligo and Queens University, Belfast has dated two distinct sets of bones found in the Aillwee cave Co Clare in 1976 to 10,400 years ago and 4,600 years ago. The bones of the more recent bear show butchery marks which suggests that bears were hunted, or at least that carcasses of bears dying of natural causes were exploited for their valuable skins, fat and meat. In the Alice and Gwendoline cave in Co Clare ancient bones were discovered in 1902, recently, researchers analysing these bones have dis...

There are many types of bear, of the family Ursidae, including brown bears, polar bears and pandas; there are also koala bears, which are no relation to the family Ursidae, and an American football team. The word bear is believed to derive from the Proto-Indo-European word for ‘brown’ – Proto-Indian-European appears to be a made-up language, which I knew about because my niece is studying linguistics. Ursidae bears are found in North and South America, Europe and Asia. Koalas are native species of Australia. The American football team is only in Chicago, North America. The Latin word for bear is Ursa – and most will recognise this term from the constellations Ursa Major (the great bear) and Ursa Minor (the lesser bear). It’s unclear why Ptolemy considered the star formations to be bear like. These days Ursa Major is also likely to be referred to as ‘the saucepan’, or ‘the big dipper’ – neither of these relate to bears at all. Bears are omnivores, although polar bears eat only m...