The island of dragons

Isle of Wight feature

There is a small islet off the coast of South England and it's called the Isle of Wight. Despite it's smallness, the island has got the most dinosaur bones ever found in Europe! It's considered the most haunted island in Europe altogether.

Background 

Located in the English Channel, the island is diamond shaped and about 380km across. There are spiralling and twisting roads around hills and forests. The island is the warmest and sunniest part of the United Kingdom and it's climate is almost similar to that of France and northern Spain. It's got the oldest dinosaur attraction in the world, and the island holds annual music festivals.

In history, the island once belonged to the wealthy Durotriges Celtic people, who left behind treasure hoardes consisting of jewels and coins. The Romans later invaded the island and named it Vectis, and after they left the island it became dominated by the Jute's. It attracted many royals, poets and scientists. Queen Victoria made the island her home for a while. During WWII it was bombed regularly but then used as a station and engineering defense called Operation Pluto. Now the island is a popular holiday destination with fantastic theme parks, dinosaur displays and idyllic beaches. 

Dinosaur island


The Isle of Wight is nicknamed "dinosaur island" because of the record number of dinosaur fossils found there. The erosion of the island's wealdon clay cliffs show new fossils every day. Once upon a time during the age of the dinosaurs, the Isle of Wight was part of mainland Europe. The latest dinosaur find on the island is pretty hot as it was a large predator called Eotyrannus, a European cousin of Tyrannosaurus Rex. There are plenty more theropod carnivores found. For more on the dinosaurs found on the island click here.

Besides the dinosaurs, there have been fossils of the winged Pterasaurs, Iguanadon, prehistoric crocodiles, plesiosaurs, sharks, turtles and many other primitive species.

Giant sauropods like the Angloposeidon, similar to the Brachiosaurus, is the biggest dinosaur found on the island and in Britain as a whole.

Many Velociraptor type fossils have been found too. Other non listed dinosaurs and creatures have been discovered, not to mention a new species found by a bright little girl called Daisy, and the dinosaur was named after her, Vectidraco Daisymorriso.

Dinosaur footprints are all over the place, mainly at the coastal walls at Hanover Point. Some of the other footprints closest to the sea have eroded. While the natural erosions of mud reveal the footprints, nature also washes them out. 

The island itself is the largest dinosaur graveyard in Europe.  

The dragons

It's my view that dragons are really dinosaurs. The topic of how humans ever knew about them is a different subject for a furture post. Beside the physical evidence of dinosaurs (dragons) having existed, lived and died on the island, all across different eras, there is a an esoteric, spiritual make-up of dragons there. The dragons that the ancient peoples of Europe and China believed in were the elemental dragons, or guardians. These dragon guardians have left a long lasting track on the Isle of Wight.

The Isle of Wight is home to three dragons. The Firedrake, a scaly quadroped that breathes fire. The Wyvern, a biped theropod-looking dragon with a dangerous swishing tail and nasty great teeth. And the Amphiptere, a winged dragon that appears to have a fiery vapour trail. There are legends of sea dragons around the English Channel and North Sea but those are not a part of the trio of dragons connected to the island.

The three elemental dragons form a triple amount of dragon energy. This energy is static and magnetic. The dragons blazing territorial energetic paths on the island meet up and form a single vast line, the beginning of an enormous track. The three dragons use this larger magnetic field to travel along northwards to the rest of the country and it's called the Spine of Albion or the Berlinus Line. It begins on the Isle of Wight and stretches over the sea, to mainland Britain, across England and up to Scotland. The druids know that this magificent line belongs to the dragons.

Leylines and dragon lines have often been blamed for paranormal activities. There might be a reason for this, because the lines act as power grids, spiritual roads and freeways. People's beliefs in the laws of physics are thrown aside when time and dimensions are confused. Ghosts, UFO's, time warps, mysterious creatures and monsters, unknown phenomena that science can't explain happen near and around ley lines.

My childhood trip

Me age 6 with grandad, at Isle of Wight

On a personal note, I visited the Isle of Wight a few times. The first time I went there, I was six years old and suffering a terrible disease knowned as whooping cough. I was taken by my family to Blackgang Chine and there I sat on a dinosaur. The island's mysterious ancient magic and dragon energy cured my whooping cough. By the time I went home on the ferry, I was feeling a lot better. I've since been back there and loved it. The island is one of the most beautiful and amazing places in the country.  

Links:

Visit Isle of Wight dinosaur island   

Adventure Girls: Red

This series called "Adventure Girls" are about different heroines from fairytales, story books, folklore and legends. They're girls who've been on exciting adventures, and many of them had to survive or overcome their fears. Tough girls, and always seeking quests. Some have been led down scary sinister paths, or taken to other lands outside of their control, but soon regained their courage to get what they want. Many of these girls are pretty famous favourite characters from fairy stories. Others are not so well known but whose stories of adventure and magic have been around for a long time.

Adventure Girl Part 6 = Red
Name - Little Red
Appears in - "Little Red Riding Hood" (traditional fairytale).
Friends - Woodsman/Hunter
Other info - Healer

This story is about a victim, as well as the cunning and dangerous wolf, who lurks in the forest. As all might be very familiar with the story, a little girl walks alone through the forest, on her way to see her sick grandmother. The forest is full of predators, but she carries nothing except a basket of food and wears a bright red hooded cloak. This colour makes her a moving target. However, it must be worth mentioning that we now understand that wolves (and other canids) are not able to see the colour red.

The redness of her cloak is then symbolic and not as some fairytale psychologists think because of human sacrifice to wild animals. Red is a colour of blood, and the redness of the story means that there is going to be a death of the heroine. As in "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", the colour red often emerges, especially on the features of princess Snow White who is "killed" after eating a poisoned apple. The colour of the magical shoes worn by a girl named Karen were red, and they wouldn't come off her feet. She was forced to dance and became very distressed, so her feet were chopped off. Despite the fact everyone believes Dorothy wore a pair of red shoes, or ruby slippers, as in the 1939 film adaption, her original shoes were really made of silver.

Death is a motif in many fairytales. The colour red is always associated with death in fiction and fantasy stories. In the gothic tale "Masque of the Red Death,"by Edgar Allan Poe, the idea was based upon death, disease and blood. Poe's wife suffered a horrible illness before he wrote the story.

The colour red is often linked with death and mourning in Africa. It's the colour of blood and fire. Some people have SSS (scotopic sensitivity syndrome) or visual stress, who react badly to certain lights and spectrum colours like red. A red flashing colour will bring on a bad epileptic fit in some people with conditions. Red is the strongest and most painful colour to humans. For wolves, red is almost grey and these animals are spared visual pain and photosensitivity.   

Getting back to the fairytale, Red has often changed. Perrault and Grimm brothers, plus various narrators over history, altered the appearance and storyline to suit their audiences. The Grimm brothers made Red into a sweet little child. They introduced the woodsman, the hero who became hunter and rescued Red and her grandmother. Yet they said she wore a little red cap. Before them, Charles Perrault didn't include the woodsman. Little Red was a young woman dressed in a long hooded red cloak. The wolf behaved like a man, who invited the heroine to get into bed with him. She was killed by the wolf at the end of his story. Both stories had an unfortunate grandmother, a sick old woman devoured by a cruel vicious werewolf. I say werewolf because that creature doesn't have the normal characteristics of a wolf and many stories used animals to emphasise human traits. 

The story is much older and can be traced back to a lot of fragments in the Dark Ages, from "La Finta Nonna" in France about a young woman in red that is tricked by a man-wolf, who kills her grandmother and disguises himself as her. Red has been unknowingly eating the remains and drinking blood of her dead grandmother, while the man-wolf (in costume) plays pretend. Some of the earliest versions of the story are horrible and Angela Carter's own take on Red Riding Hood in her story "A Company of Wolves" is so similar to how it was centuries ago. And the story "Lon Po Po" is a Chinese version about a ferocious wolf dressed up as a sick elderly woman who wants to trick a girl into eating her. There is another Far Eastern version with a tiger instead of a wolf.

Who is Red? Is she just an innocent? Or was there more to her? The girl sets out to cure her ill grandmother, and along the way she picks some flowers. The robe/cloak/attire is red, maybe to symbolise blood and death, or even fire, but the story doesn't include the element of fire. Sun priestesses like those at the Oracle of Delphi wore long red hooded robes. Was Little Red a budding priestess or good witch? It's open to interpretation.

By She Wolf Night

Actresses who played Little Red:
Amanda Seifried
Meghan Ory
Anne Hathaway
Danielle Ferland
Molly Ephraim
Suzie Toase
Sarah Stiles
Sarah Patterson
Christina Ricci


Links related to the post:
Dog vision
Brother's Grimm "Little Red Riding Hood"
Charles Perrault "Little Red Riding Hood"

"Red Riding Hood" picture by http://sneznybars.deviantart.com/

Sisters of the Valkyrie? (part II) The Morrigan

There are Valkyrie-like goddesses and demi goddesses in other belief systems, who resemble the characteristics of the Northern Valkyries. It makes you wonder if they belong to the same species or come from the same root legend. I plan to make several entries about the subject, starting with individuals and then perhaps go onto research different aspects of the Valkyrie.

The first post on this new subject is about the Morrigan. Her name means "The Phantom Queen". Her name is also Morrigu and Morgan.  The name also suggests plural and that there might've been more than one Morrigan. The Morrigna.

She is a Celtic goddess in Irish mythology, associated with war and death. She visits battlefields and takes on the form of a crow, who flies over the fighting and dying warriors. She is often said to be wearing a cloak of black feathers or that her wings are made of black feathers. Her eyes are bright violet and her hair is long. It's not clear exactly what colour her hair was supposed to be as some believe that it's raven coloured, while others think that her hair was fiery red or amber. She has also been considered ash blonde.

It's been written that Morrigan rides on a black stallion to carry away souls of the dead to the afterlife. She's regarded as a chooser of the slain because she uses magic to determine who lives and who dies. A task that the Valkyrie also have.

The Morrigan is also like a shadow that makes thunder and lightning to frighten people at the very moment of death. As in the form of a crow she feeds on the corpses scattered over the battle fields.

She has two sisters named Badb and Nemain. Morrigan is the dark fearful one. She resembles a beautiful woman with dark feathers, and her transformations take the form of other animals including a crow, falcon, wolf, cow, fox, deer and hare. In the Ulster Cycle and Mythological Cycle, she's said to transform briefly into an old woman to carry out deeds. A mother firgure also linked with milk and fertility, the lunar cycle, the triad, triquestra, sensuality, wisdom and magic.

The goddess was of the Tuatha de Danann, a race of godlike people, similar to the Vanir. These people were not simply mortals, as they possessed long lifespans, immortality even, and had the ability to shapeshift and create power. Much linked to the Earth and the nature spirits, these human gods were selected to rule the prehistoric ancient world. Morrigan is not only similar to the Valkyries but she has much in common with powerful sorceresses in Arthurian legends and fairytales, from Morgan le Fay to the enchantress queen, such as the magical (step)mother of Snow White. She represents death and magic. Her reputation seemed tarnished by the church, who sought to demonise a powerful goddess, and reduce her as a figure of evil and spite.


Links:
Morrigan


Art by Selina Fenech

Orbs

Orbs of light. I've seen them countless times. Sometimes indoors, and other times outside. They're not reflections of light, as these orbs are not confined to any surface such as reflected light.  Most of them are very small and cloudy and others are a little bigger like the size of a football. They have different colours. I chased one in a house many years ago and it disappeared. It wasn't a bubble or an insect or a piece of fluff. It was just a light grey ball, dancing and skipping around like Tinkerbell. It was right beside me when I first noticed it, so I went after it and it quickly floated down to the floor and was gone. This year I've woken up in the middle of the night and saw a bright pale blue orb, the size of a tennis ball, next to me and it whizzed away, leaving a silvery trail.

Lights have been reported by many other observers. The most favourite places that mystery light orbs cluster around is over farmland, fields and woodlands. People say that orbs are spirits of the dead or even some are UFO's. Orbs have been photographed by the dozen. I'm not going to guess if orbs of light are either UFO or ghosts. I don't think all of them are the same and not all of them behave the same. 

It takes me to the subject of nature spirits, as I believe this is probably the likeliest answer. People may call them something scientific and fancy but they don't know what unusual lights are. Now if anyone has watched the feature animation film "Princess Mononoke", it touches on nature spirits, particularly forest dwelling spirits and gods. The gods resembled animals, and the tree spirits were tiny little rattling ghosts called the Kodama. They are actually legendary creatures of Japanese folklore, and they're similar to the dryads, huldra, hidden people, wights, elves, will o' the wisps and fairy folk.

Some think that the mysterious orbs of light could be fairies, will o' the wisps and land wights. Many people accept that the orbs are ball lightning, luminous fungi, plasma, triboelectric effects and biogas. But even the phenomena of ball lightning is not explainable to science. It's just a matter-of-fact description of what could/might be an intelligence spirit. The strange light shows called the Hessdalen Lights, in Norway, is still not explainable either but it's known and recorded. Other locations, like the Marfa Lights in Texas, U.S.A., and Gurdon Light in Arkansas, are confusing to the serious minded.

More stuff on the topic:

Hessdalen lights
Will o' the wisp
St Elmo's Fire
Kodama
Fairy folk
Orbs
Marfa Lights
Gurdon Light
     

  

The Hound of Mons

During the First World War, many lost their lives in bloodshed and carnage in a terrible battle. The whole concept of war was changed forever. It was the first time modern machines (machine guns, explosives, ect) and modern weapons was used. British soldiers used archaic tactics that were centuries old. So many men were killed and so many horror stories come from that period. Beside the terrible bloody events, were mysterious new legends that emerged, from angel sightings to phantom knights and hell hounds.

Who was this hound?
One of the hell hound legends is called "Hound of Mons" because it took place during the Battle of Mons in a place called No Man's Land. This is an unoccupied space between the trenches of warring enemies, divided with barbed wire fences, land mines and armed guards. Germans were present in Belgium and the British soldiers had arrived with boosted morale. It ended up as a very bloody battle with enormous casualties.

The nightmare
From this came the legend of a huge wolflike hound that stalked both German and British soldiers, devouring the dead and creating an added supernatural terror to the everyday horrors of war. A Canadian called F.J.Newhouse, a soldier, first brought this story to the public's attention in 1919 after publishing it in a newspaper. Some believe there is "truth" behind the legend as a patrol of London Fusiliers vanished into thin air, and showed up dead a week later. Whatever killed them wasn't ammo or bullets. They were half eaten. Shortly after this particular gruesome event, both Germans and British often heard chilling howls at night. More patrols disappeared and were found dead later, in the same way as the others. Throats and bodied ripped as if soemthing with razor sharp teeth and claws ravaged them. It wasn't just the British who were losing soldiers in this way. German soldiers suffered similar fates.

The howls became more frequent and the terrified soldiers kept down. Many witnessed glimpses of a large greyish wolf, or a massive light coloured dog with enermous fangs in No Man's Land. It's something that frightened the men so much that they didn't go out, and it wasn't just to avoid being shot at. Something else besides the battle, which had been otherworldly, scared them senseless. This mysterious hound haunted the trenches and No Mans Land for two more years. Then it was gone when the war was about to end.

This was no regular dog, or wolf
It's possible that there was a real vicious and frightening hound in the trenches. The war resulted in devastation, bodies, hunger and imagine how this would've impacted on the wildlife. Wolves have only strayed into human territory at times of disaster, and when there are no people left in a village. It's unusual for a lone wolf to intrude amongst humans and so more incredible for a lone wolf to appear in the middle of a battle. A regular dog would've been killed instantly, and so would a hungry wolf, if it ever ventured near them. This doesn't seem to be normal for a dog and wolf to behave like the mysterious Hound of Mons. A pack of wolves may strike someone but not attack a number of men with guns. This is where the legend makes no sense with the natural world.

My final Opinion
It's either a legend or based on something else. Some say the hound was a scientific monstrosity but I don't think so due to the fact such a thing would've been impossible for the era to successfully make. And even so (a big "if") the thing would've been put down instantly in No Mans Land or not survived the walkies. I believe that the Hound of Mons was a supernatural creature, and perhaps more than one of them. The battle ground was a hunting ground.