[tmbchr]™

Ancient “Urban Myths”



Ran sent me an interesting human-interest news item from the Shetland Today. It’s an article about the folkloric traditions of the region, and gives a few examples of some of the types of “hidden folk” and other mythological entities that we’ve been discussing here lately.

He pointed out a particularly telling line in this article:

This aspect of the trows [a type of elf] is mirrored in a great many societies and in more than a few countries and it is interesting to speculate on the existence of ancient ‘urban myths’ with regard to such abductions.

Rather than trying to paraphrase him, I’ll just quote Ran directly, as I think he said it particularly well:

isn’t that more properly called a MYTH? or is it? i understand what the article is trying to do — make ancient mythology more accessible by saying it’s just the ancient version of our urban myths. but i think
they’re wrong. mythology and folklore are not ancient urban myth but ancient religion and paranormal investigation.

I tend to agree. It seems that people write off myths and legends (and even religion) as sort of a “curiousity” for people living in other times and cultures - because that’s often what they’ve become for us. I’m much more inclined to think that in cultures with these types of beliefs that this was a deeply-ingrained part of everyday life. If the amount of people who today grudgingly admit to experiencing strange entities firsthand is anything to go by, then in all likelihood, people back in the “old days” were also experiencing something which formed the basis of these folklore accounts. And if they weren’t experiencing it, then perhaps their friends, family or neighbors had. And if they hadn’t then it was still woven into their culture and customs and was likely more than just a curiousity or an “ancient urban legend.”







6 Reader Responses

  1. Rev max Says:
    September 20th, 2005 at 3:58 am

    its like that jukian jaynes book about the breakdown of the bicameral mind. We lost the ability to hear the gods, to see their messengers. We are impoverished for this loss. But they are still all around us.

  2. Tim Boucher Says:
    September 20th, 2005 at 11:28 am

    Yeah thats a cool book. I wish that he went the route of saying that our minds are naturally polytheistic, and that we at some point made this monotheistically organized around the ego. It seems like a more realistic explanation to me than that its a strictly biological brain hemisphere issue.

  3. rev max Says:
    September 20th, 2005 at 1:15 pm

    I wish that he went the route of saying that our minds are naturally polytheistic, and that we at some point made this monotheistically organized around the ego.

    FUck thats an amazing point

  4. Whizz Click Says:
    September 20th, 2005 at 2:21 pm

    “If the amount of people who today grudgingly admit to experiencing strange entities firsthand is anything to go by, then in all likelihood, people back in the “old days” were also experiencing something which formed the basis of these folklore accounts.”

    Yes. They were experiencing/encountering Homo Floresiensis (and/or her cousins)! Isn’t the empirical realm just wonderous?

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3948165.stm

  5. Anonymous Says:
    September 20th, 2005 at 10:04 pm

    Isn’t the empirical realm just wonderous?

    yes it is. from your link:

    “The whole idea that you need a particular brain size to do anything intelligent is completely blown away by this find,” Dr Gee commented.

    question: what are our large brains for?

    crazy speculation? detecting crazy speculation?

  6. Anonymous Says:
    September 21st, 2005 at 11:21 pm

    question: what are our large brains for?

    crazy speculation? detecting crazy speculation?

    Although I like the speculation idea, I’d rather ask: Why are our brains the size they are? (Large being a relative concept and there being such variety in actual size.)

    I’m seriously tempted to take the Silesian approach and say “The rose is without why”. But “just because” never does much for a discussion, so I’ll say : to accommodate the imagination and the accumulation of memories and lived experience.



SURROUND YOURSELF WITH STRENGTH.