crazy (NEW CONCEPTS)

[nemesis8]

N8 can sense some thunderbolts heading in his direction.

Not only has he already been told that creation myths have been done to death, and there is nothing new to say.....

He also failed to persuade the top table that were talking nonsense about the obelisks.

Still, he still has a simple crazy idea. The idea has lodged in his brain and won't go away, that is....... until N8 posts it.

[nemesis8]

N8 couldn't help thinking was there a surviving English creation myth.

N8 has proven on numerous occasions that he doesn't do the classics... he lets the AE university trained brigade handle these.

So let's concentrate on those good folks the English.

[nemesis8]

I guess we are looking for a story that everybody knows.....

[nemesis8]

Any ideas?

[nemesis8]

Maybe you now should abandon?

N8 is most often wrong.....

But there again you suddenly realise an English creation myth might make sense.

Nope..... this is totally bonkers.....CRAZY......CRAZY......

[Ishmael]

Get on with it man.

[nemesis8]

Errr I hate to admit this...I know you hoping for Gawain and the Green Knight....but its.....(duck the thunderbolts)....

[Grant]

We didn't win the World Cup in 1966?

[nemesis8]

An exciting line of enquiry....Grant.....In fact N8 reckons its almost as exciting as when KMSpot posted on the merits of Astrolube.....

which sadly Mick edited out.....wrongly assuming a typo......

[nemesis8]

No.....the English creation story is ......Jack and the beanstalk....

Has to be....note the obelisk.

Obvious when you think about it eh.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_and_the_Beanstalk

Or there again maybe N8 has lost his Johnny Marbles.......

[Hatty]

Ancient Britain was once inhabited by a giant race. I would've included a mini-thesis on Jack and the Beanstalk but after consulting with Mick it got reduced to a rather lame footnote about the 'tree of knowledge' being esoteric. BTW it was me not Mick who edited astrolube, sorry to spoil the joke.

Apparently Pythagoreans were not allowed to eat beans because they contained the souls of the dead. Since my 'Classical' education is based on Messrs. Crisp, Graves and Wiki it's a bit sketchy but reminds me of your 'bone-fire' taboo. When someone gives away a secret, they spill the beans. The presence of big stones are often said in folklore to have been spilled from the lap or apron of a giant's wife with or without astrolube.

[nemesis8]

Thanks for all the unseen work that goes on.

Hopefully you get the odd nugget in return....

If it's as good as the rest of the book, I am sure most people would like to read the thesis.... is it already posted?

[Hatty]

Your 'nugget' on Guy and gambling was very illuminating as I'd wondered if Guy = Jack some time back but it never went anywhere. Jack-as-hero outwitting an ogre is the same as Jack the trickster (cf. 'jack rabbit', rabbits being notorious tricksters in folklore). We haven't posted up 'Folklore', it's a bit rambling but Mick tidies things up nicely.

Jack the lad going up a ladder is rather apt don't you think? Lad is used for a standing stone in Yorkshire as in the Lanshaw Lad, a marker on the highest point of Rombald's Moor.

In view of your insights into 'sacred bones', "I'll grind your bones to make my bread" seems not just threatening but almost sacrilegious.

[Very little editing involved, just a light touch and people manage fine anyway (actually threads appear that I wasn't even aware of).]

[nemesis8]

Ok, it's always a tad embarrassing, you are busy ducking thunderbolts, then somebody skips round you.... whilst enquiring why your arse is in the air.

You might have to spell it out to poor old N8, I sort of had Jack and the Beanstalk= Jacobs ladder... you are now saying = Jack the lad/ladder= both?

[Hatty]

I'm sure you're right in seeing an analogy with Jacob's Ladder (Jacob rested his head on a stone pillow or maybe omphalos?). There are Megalithic resonances a-plenty, the twisting green beanstalk resembles a caduceus or even a dragon, but why is this a 'creation myth'?