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Death Superstitions
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 1941
If you read a book, say by Hemingway, and a gun is mentioned in the first few pages we can surmise that someone will die by the end of the story. It's foreshadowing, and authors have a host of means to hint at or foreshadow the death of their characters.
Life, however, isn't usually so tidy as a novel. Which hasn't stopped people from arranging a host of superstitions which foreshadow the death of someone near or within the family. Take, for example, the Irish Banshee, the sight or sound of which foretells the death of someone near and dear. Or the Barguest, who if he doesn't directly cause your death may foreshadow it. Then there are the hosts of superstitions (some actually remarkably commonsensical) that virtually guarantee that no death goes unforshadowed. A few of which I've listed below:
- A live adder on the doorstep (I'd argue this is common sense, get rid of the adder and you'll probably live longer)
- If your dog becomes rabid it foretells the death of someone in your family (if your rabid dog bites someone it almost guarantees it)
- Fleas leaving a body foreshadow the death of the host (possibly a sign of ill health)
- Rats leaving your house (someone inside will die)
- 3 knocks heard on the door, then when answered no one is there (Usually means someone close to you has already died)
- A beetle walking over your shoe (foretells your own death)
- A broken clock suddenly chimes
- A single magpie circling the house, a dove circling, an eagles cry or a jackdaw settling on the house are all omens of death
- A bird (especially a robin) flies into the house (foreshadows death in the household)
- A Nightjar or Whippoorwill heard after dark foreshadows death
- A dog howling three times in the night or early morning
- To dream of birth or hares foreshadows death
- A white moth in the house or trying to enter or to see a butterfly at night foreshadows impending death
- If 13 sit at a table, one will be dead before the year is out
- If there is a corpse in the house all mirrors should be covered, otherwise anyone who views himself in one will die
- To point at a funeral will cause one to die within a month
- A funeral on a Friday will mean there's another death within the family before the year is out
There are of course many, many more and this is but the briefest of lists.
Read more here or start here on Wikipedia (sorry, they're not so tidily arranged but a bit of searching will lead you to a few).
Ned Kelly
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 1625
OK, I've already mentioned it but thought I'd mention it again. "The True Story of the Kelly Gang" is a great book. But, doing a slight bit of research, it's almost entirely true and Peter Carey had to make surprisingly little up. It was an damned interesting subject before he tackled it.
Now if you want to read more about Ned Kelly, Australian bushranger and folk hero, start here. If you'd like to read Ned as spoken by Ned read The Jerilderie Letter. Neither of which articles are as long as the book, but the facts and testimony are remarkably consistent.
Or just pick up the Peter Carey book.
True History of the Kelly Gang
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Lost
- Hits: 2058
Reading "The True History of the Kelly Gang" by Peter Carey, told in the first person (narrated) by Ned Kelley. Which goes marvelously and hardly needs my recommendation (it won the Booker Prize which is almost as good anyways).
I'll take the liberty of repeating one of the passages - it's the standard deal with the devil, Whitty has been given a bag full of marbles, and each time he throws one through a church window one of his wishes comes true. But the time for collection is almost nigh, and Whitty still has his final wish:
"Said Whitty to the Devil I want you to make honest men of lawyers
Now as you know the Devil is a coal black thing he does not have skin but scales so when he hears what Whiity asks those scales turn pale the colour of this ash here. I can't do that says the Devil. Oh you must says Whitty. I can't says the Devil if I did that I would be idle from one week's end to the next and never a coal to warm myself."
Ned Kelly figures highly in Australian mythology and folklore, so highly that an abstract painting of him by Sydney Nolan set records at auction.
But this is not a review...It's a speculation on what became of the loot of the bush rangers. Surely there must be a few unrecovered treasures Down Under? And a bit of Googling and what do I find....
Some links to get you started: facebook (tale of Ben Hall), Weddin Mountains Treasure Hunt, Australian Bush Tales.
One - Ghost River Theatre
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Theatre
- Hits: 1815
While I disagreed with the interpretation - It's a retelling of the Orpheus myth - the staging was beautiful. Worth it for that alone.
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