The cultural exchange thread.

[Lalaith_Elf]

THE LEGEND OF THE LAMBTON WORM

Penshaw Hill and the nearby Worm Hill are closely associated with one of the North East's best known folk tales; The Legend of the Lambton Worm. The hero of this legend was a certain young man called John Lambton, who on one particular Sunday morning decided to go fishing in the River Wear rather than attend the local church, as he was expected to do. His truancy was rather a waste of time, as he did not have a very succesful morning's sport. The only thing he had been able to catch, was a tiny worm-like creature which he despondently threw into a nearby well, before returning home for lunch. In later life John Lambton became a brave knight and crusader and left England to fight in the Middle East, where he soon forgot about the strange little worm caught on that otherwise uneventful Sunday morning. Unbeknown to John, while he was away abroad, this tiny creature had grown into an enormous hideous serpent, that began to terrorise the local neighbourhood. It is said that the worm would feed off the udders of cows and swallow little children alive and after feasting, would fall asleep and lazily lap its tail around the crest of Penshaw Hill.

Naturally, many attempts were made to slaughter this beast, but even when it was cut into many pieces the parts would rejoin and the worm remained alive. John Lambton, perhaps feeling partly responsible for the activities of the worm, decided to return home to England, where he consulted the advice of a wise old witch. He asked her how he should go about killing such a creature. The old lady explained that the only way to kill the beast was by standing in the middle of the River Wear, wearing a suit of armour coated with blades of steel, and wait patiently for the worm to arrive. However a warning was given to Lambton, that upon defeating the worm, he must then kill the first living thing he set eyes upon. Otherwise a curse would be placed upon nine generations of the Lambtons so that none would die in their bed. Lambton, obeying the words of the old lady put on the appropriate armour and instructed his father to send one of the family hounds to him, so he could complete the deed in accordance with her wishes. Making his way to the banks of the Wear he stood in the centre of the river, where he didn't have to wait for long. The worm came darting towards its adversary of long ago and proceeded to visciously wrap itself around the armoured knight. After a short struggle the creature was gradually sliced up into many tiny pieces by the steel blades of Lambton's armour. Bit by bit each piece of the worm was carried away by the current of the river before they had time to rejoin.

At last the worm was dead. The victorious but exhausted Lambton, made his way back to the bank of the river, remembering that he must now kill the first living thing he set eyes upon. As he emerged from the river he looked up with shock and horror to see his excited father, who had evidently forgotten the hound. Lambton could not kill his own Dad !. Would the curse prove true ?. Well history seems to suggest it did. Several Lambtons met violent deaths and indeed one General Lambton, confined to his bed by a terrible illness, pleaded and pleaded with his servants to release him. When they finally lifted him from his bed - he died.

[Beren3000]

Very interesting story, Lalaith!

Here's another one from Ancient Egypt. This time, it's documented history not myth.

Monotheism in Ancient Egypt

The first pharaoh to preach monotheism (the worship of one god only) was called Amenhoteph IV. He preached the existence of only one god: Atoon* (the god of the midday sun). Thereupon, he called himself Akhenatoon (the servant of Atoon). This put the priests of all the other gods out of business, and (naturally) made them feel rebellious. One particularly feisty bunch were the priests of Amoon (god of the setting sun; yes Egyptians had gods for different phases of the sun!). The priests of Amoon rebelled openly and finally managed to dethrone Akhenatoon, setting on the throne one of his relatives (I can't recall how he was related to this new pharaoh). The new pharaoh, only 9 years old then, named himself Tutankhamoon (a.k.a King Tut); which means "long live Amoon". For reasons unknown to this day, Tutankhamoon was found dead in his palace when he was about 16. The mystery of Tutankamoon's murder remains to this day and is used proverbially when talking about a particularly tough police investigation!

*Intersting side note: in Arabic "atoon" means "oven"; figures!

[Lief Erikson]

I always thought the first pharoah to spread monotheism was Josar. Imhotep brought a large number of religious changes to Egypt, including the belief that all the gods were reflections of one God, the God Ptah. Was I incorrect in this?

I certainly won't argue against Amenhotep IV having spread monotheism in Egypt though. In fact, I won't argue at all. No matter what you answer . This is not an arguing thread.

[Beren3000]

You know what, LE, you just might be right. I'm not that savvy when it comes to Pharaonic mythology (shame, I know ) but even if Amenhotep wasn't the first to preach monotheism, I'm sure he was the most convincing

[Lief Erikson]

Okay. Great thread you've started here, by the way . Looking forward to thinking of something proper to post in here. I read a story that Sitting Bull attacked a row of cavalry soldiers, they opened fire and the bullets wouldn't touch him. Or maybe they bounced off of him. Wish I could find the story .

[Beren3000]

Thanks for the compliment, Lief. I'm looking forward to your post, too.

Another "quickie": In Ancient Egyptian mythology, the dead were judged by weighing their hearts in a scale balance against a feather. If the feather tipped the balance, it means that this person's heart is clear and pure and this person goes to Heaven. If the heart tipped the balance, it means that this person's heart is full of evil and therfore this person goes to Hell!

[Lalaith_Elf]

Originally Posted by Beren3000

Very interesting story, Lalaith!

Got another 'worm' myth as well, I'll have to find the story again. We seem to like our 'worm' myths around here.....

This is one of my favourites:

The Dirty Bottles
As an important coaching stop on the Great North Road, between London and Edinburgh, ******* (Edited out the name of the town, because it's a myth from my home town. I don't really want people on the net knowing where I live) had a good share of inns for the traveller. Today many of these remain, including the Old Cross Inn in Narrowgate which is famous for the dirty bottles in the window. The dirty bottles have been here for two centuries, since the day the innkeeper died while placing them there.

Superstition has it, that whoever tries to move these dirty bottles, will be cursed with bad luck and the widow of the poor man who put the bottles in the window claimed that whoever touched them would be sure to die soon after. For this reason the window has never been cleaned.


(That is until a couple of months ago, when some drunken guy broke the window.... )

[Lief Erikson]

Some less then 100% savory individual busted the window to my bedroom too. Sorry- rather wrecks the coolness of the moment . . . uh . . . (gets off the thread, until he can contribute something worthwhile )

[sun-star]

Legends about terrifying phantom dogs are found in many places, but this is a story about one which seems to be a guardian of treasure (I went to Lyme Regis on holiday this year, which is why I chose this story; it's in Devon, btw).


Near to Lyme Regis there was a farmhouse, which once formed part of a large mansion house destroyed during the English Civil War. The chimney, hearth and part of the roof of the farmhouse were part of the surviving structure of the old mansion.

Some time ago, probably in the 18th century, the apparition of a black dog started to appear by the hearth while the occupier was sitting next to the fire. The dog appeared almost every night and in time the farm owner got used to its presence.

One day, after taunts from his neighbours about the phantom, he came home drunk, grabbed a poker and chased the dog into the attic. The dog disappeared through the attic ceiling and he lunged at it with the poker. The poker went straight through the roof, and an old-fashioned box fell down from its hiding hole.

Inside the box were a great number of golden coins dating from the reign of Charles I. The farmer used the coins to purchase a house nearby, which he converted into a pub, naming it The Black Dog Inn after the phantom.

From that time the dog never appeared in the house but haunted a lane by the farm at midnight, now known as Dog Lane. It is said the dog was seen in 1856 and also in the 1950's. There is a warning not to allow dogs to stray around the area as many are supposed to have disappeared in mysterious circumstances.



And once I've worked out how to tell the tale of the saint of Whitchurch Canonicorum, I'll be back

[Beren3000]

Wow! Great stories, Lalaith and sun-star, I can't wait till you post the other ones you promised.
I'll later post the legend of "The Hollering woman" which is a rural folktale in Egypt. Pretty creepy but interesting to hear.

EDIT: Just found some time on my hands, so I figured I'd post the legend now.

The Legend of the Hollering Woman

This is a rural folktale in Egypt that tells of a being, very much like a siren of Greek mythology, that haunts the fields at night. The Hollering Woman is supposed to be a ghoul who takes on the guise of a very beautiful woman. She only appears in the dead of the night and longingly calls out to one of the male villagers in whichever village she choses to haunt. For the next few days, the person "hollered at" is entranced, he can't speak and he won't eat or drink. And then, in another night, the ghoul calls out to him again, whereupon the man goes to the ghoul and (needless to say) is never seen again. The supposed explanation: the ghoul feeds on these men!

[Earniel]

Okay, that's it! I'm not coming back here until I've got a decent story to tell you.

[Linaewen]

Wonderful idea, Beren. I've been thinking of some things to write about.

In Australia we have our own share of monsters of legends. Lakes, rivers and swamps in the Outback may be the haunts of feared creatures called Bunyips (from an Aboriginal word meaning 'devil' or spirit').

Bunyips of Aboriginal legend are supernatural creatures that may bring disease. Malicious man-killers, they may also bring humans down into their lakes and rivers to their death. Common features in most Aboriginal drawings of Bunyips are a horse-like tail, flippers, and walrus-like tusks.

European settlers have, however, sighted Bunyips differently. Some have looked humanoid, others like hippopotami. They tend to be seen as herbivorous grazing animals. Reports have generally been of two types of Bunyips, namely the Dog-faced Bunyip (the more common one) and the Long-Necked Bunyip.

[Linaewen]

And here's something you may recognise, Eärniel:

The Rainbow Snake- an Aboriginal Dreamtime myth

There was a time when all the earth was sleeping- the animals, humans and birds were all asleep underneath the ground. One day the Rainbow Snake woke up and started wandering all over the earth. She rested, then woke up the frogs with their bellies full of water. The water came gushing out and filled the paths made by the Rainbow snake across the land- these became lakes and rivers. Then all the creatures woke up and began living in their own tribes- kangaroos with kangaroos, frogs with frogs and so forth. They hunted, ate and rested with their tribes.

The Rainbow Serpent gave them all rules to follow. Most creatures followed these, but not all. The Rainbow snake told them that she would turn the law-breakers into stone, and these became the mountains etc. Those who followed the laws, she made into humans. Each tribe had their own totem to remind them of where they had come from- i.e. those who were frogs had the totems of frogs. To ensure that everyone had food and no one would go starving, the Rainbow Serpent forbade each tribe from eating their totem animal.

Oh, and thank you everyone else for your great stories.

[Earniel]

Originally Posted by Linaewen

And here's something you may recognise, Eärniel

That I do. Your bunyip story reminded me of a story that may be suitable here. Mythologywise Belgium isn't a gold mine as some countries, we're too young for that. So I'll take a story that is fairly recent, it started at the autumn of 2000. It's the story of the "Wase Wolf" or also called Waaslandwolf. It's perhaps a trivial story compared to most myths and it may be one of those 'you had to be there-stories' but here it is anyway.

Now Belgium has no big wild predators left, nothing bigger than foxes anyway. Except if you perhaps count those few rare lynxes that cross our border from time to time out of Germany. Wolves have been extinct here in the wild for over a century. Except for a very short period in which Belgium had a wolf, or a supposed wolf in any case which is always better than none I guess. But I'm running ahead of the story.

The Waaslandwolf first showed up in the region at the border between Belgium and the Netherlands in september. He warned us of his presence with a trail of massacred sheep. His path led him into Belgium, in the region Waasland, where he earned his name. Until the end of December he continued to kill sheep and chickens but remained uncatchable and ever elusive.

Desperate sheepowners offered rewards for the one who could kill the Waaslandwolf or threatened to kill him themselves. The debate started whether it was a wolf or a dog. If it was a real wolf, it was automatically protected by law as an endangered and rare animal. You shouldn't even consider trying to shoot it then! If it was a dog, it should be put down as it showed itself as a dangerous animal and a sheep killer. Environmental and nature organisations did their best to track the animal and capture it. Whole theories about from which zoo or private owner the wolf had escaped, sprung up. Some thought it was the work of a maniac that had trained his dog to kill sheep. The police itself hunted the wolf and held with the nature organisations vigilance at the sheep pens in the area where the wolf was last sighted. Large sound installations emitted wolf howls and calls to lure the wolf. Without result.

Some people claimed to have seen the animal and said it was a large dog, others saw it too and swore it was a real European wolf but none of this sightings could be confirmed to be the Waaslandwolf. And so the mystery remained. The wolf held the attention of Belgium in its paws, his exploits nearly dayly on the national news. Every 48 hours at least a victim was discovered. And all we had from the wolf were some large paw prints, a few plucks of hair and an amateur video of a wolf-like animal leaving a field and disappearing in a group of trees.

But around new year 2001 the wolf vanished and never was heard of again. During his 'reign' he had killed over 35 sheep and many chickens. One anonymous call (that remained unconfirmed) stated that the wolf was shot by sheepowners. The whereabouts of the carcass were never disclosed and the many mysteries surrounding the wolf, where did it come from, was it a wolf or a dog, ..., remain unanswered to this day. And so the Waaslandwolf lives on in a sort of modernday myth... and a beer that was named after him.

[Beren3000]

Originally Posted by Eärniel

It's perhaps a trivial story compared to most myths and it may be one of those 'you had to be there-stories' but here it is anyway.

Don't let that stop you, any story is welcome here and I find your story a good one, for that matter.

Originally Posted by Eärniel

The wolf held the attention of Belgium in its paws

I love that sentence !!

We had an occurence like the Waaslandwolf in Egypt around 6-7 years ago. But the difference is, this creature preferred human prey. It attacked a region on the outskirts of Cairo (our capital city) and terrorized the people there for months on end (it was never established for sure if it was just ONE creature, it could've been many creatures of the same species). People debated whether this was a "normal" wolf (because incidents showed that the thing attacked its prey ferociously and enjoyed a certain amount of intelligence). Many thoughts sprang up to the effect that the wolf is a hybrid (either natural or genetically engendered). There was this story I read about it once in a local newspaper, but I think it's a bit farfetched. The story says that a girl was awarded a medal for her extraordinary courage against that creature. As the report said, the girl was home alone with her younger sister when they heard some strange noise at the door (like scratching of paws ) and they opened it to find the thing standing in the hallway. Now the creature tried to attack the younger girl and so the older one took some heavy object from inside (can't remember what it was) and banged the "wolf" on the head several times. Now I can't remember if she just injured it and drove it away or if she killed it. I'd go with injured it because if we had its cadavre, there would have probably been a million researches into its nature.

That's a lot of "I can't remember"s, but the story happened 6-7 years ago, and my memory isn't that strong.

[Earniel]

I'm glad you liked it.

I guess we're lucky the Waaslandwolf stuck to sheep and chickens and wasn't so ferocious as the beast in your last tale. That one sounded like a modern Beast of Gevaudan!

[Beren3000]

I'd like to hear the story of this beast of Gevaudan (sorry if it's common knowledge to you, but I don't know it).

[Earniel]

Don't be sorry, I probably should be sorry for assuming.

It's a French historical story, so I don't really have the right to tell as it belongs to another country. But seen we don't have any French mooters (at least to my knowlegde) I'll tell it anyway. I know the large stoylines but I'm going to do a little research to get the timing and details right. It won't take long.

[Earniel]

The beast of Gévaudan

The legend of the Beast of Gévaudan is a popular legend in France, or so I’m told. It’s a chilling tale, I can tell you that. It takes place in Gévaudan, a town in the Auvergne province, somewhere in the middle of France.

The tale of ‘la Bête du Gévaudan’ begins in the summer of 1764, when the Beast kills it first victim. During the next three years the Beast has established a true reign of terror. It is said to have killed about a 100 people, and attacked many more, mostly women and children. Sometimes he left barely enough to give a decent burial and that is saying something. It usually attacked in daylight and favoured ambushes. It was said to have no fear of people, dogs or fire, but seemed to be weary of cattle.( Interestingly, in nearly all I’ve read about the Beast, it is referred to as she. But that may simply be because the French word for ‘beast’ is female.)

The French made a report of every reported killing or attack. Thus much information on the sightings, with descriptions of the beast, circumstance of the attack, survived. There are many tales of people who were attacked or killed attached to the legend of the Beast, some people can still be named with name, age and circumstance. Most attacks were very brutal and the wounds often gruesome.

There are even many reports on the hunts that were kept. But every attempt to capture or kill it failed. They dug deep traps or tried to lure and kill the Beast with poisoned remains of victims. The Beast didn't fall for it. Soldiers and nobles came to Gévaudan to hunt the Beast on the King’s orders; they often proved to be more of a trial on the people than the Beast itself!

Several wolves were thought to be the Beast and killed but the Beast always proved itself uncaught by leaving yet another victim. At times when hunters managed to come face to face with the Beast and shot it, it always escaped, even after been hit repeatedly by bullets. People grew so afraid of the Beast that they did not dare to tend to their flocks and fields anymore; the Beast nearly destroyed the economy of the region.

Unfortunately, nothing tangible of the Beast itself remained. The Beast’s last definite kill was in 1767. Then the killing spree stopped. The tales I’ve read differ on its end. One thing I read was that the beast was killed by a King’s soldier with a silver bullet. Another source claims it just disappeared. It’s difficult to tell just how the Beast met its end because other wolves (at one instance even a strange deformed one) had been killed and were said to be the Beast.

The identity of the Beast has never been successfully established, some said it was a wolf, others said it was a whole pack of them. Others described a bear-like or wild boar-like creature. Still others claimed it was an imported exotic animal, such as a hyena. Another theory was that of ‘un loupe garou’, a werewolf, because some people claimed a man in a wolf skin had attacked them and because the Beast seemed so scarily intelligent and to possess a sick sense of humour. Some considered the Beast a punishment of God.

There is an interesting (if somewhat unrealistic at times) movie about the Beast of Gévaudan called ‘Le pacte du loupe’ or ‘The brotherhood of the wolf’ in English. The gloomy scenery relays the setting of the legend very well IMO.

[Beren3000]

Wow! Great story, thanks for taking the time to type it

Originally Posted by Eärniel

One thing I read was that the beast was killed by a King’s soldier with a silver bullet.

So is that the source of the belief that werewolves only die with a silver bullet?

Originally Posted by Eärniel

There is an interesting (if somewhat unrealistic at times) movie about the Beast of Gévaudan called ‘Le pacte du loupe’ or ‘The brotherhood of the wolf’ in English. The gloomy scenery relays the setting of the legend very well IMO.

I remember watching that movie's trailers, I wanted to see it then but never managed to. Now I definitely gotta rent it or something.
Thanks, Eärniel