Fact versus Fantasy

The illustrations for this article were provided by yours truly.
I bet you didn’t realise I was so talented :)

“To explode a myth is accordingly not to deny the facts
but to reallocate them.”
Gilbert Ryle

In the midst of every myth is a tiny particle of truth, like a flake of gold hidden in the rubble of a streambed. Every real folktale has started off as a history, with the reality deeply hidden somewhere and sometime in the musty eons, with the more fantastic elements stitched into the story with greater detail at every retelling. I have previously investigated the possible origins behind the myths of werewolves and vampires.

As my Christmas present to the readers of the Purple Zone, I’m going to investigate more of the facts behind the fantasy.

The Fey
“Do you believe in fairies? Say quick that you believe!
If you believe, clap your hands”
J.M.Barrie

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, there were small tribes of people whose lives were ruled by natural forces. Too much rain, or too little, would create a famine. An earthquake could throw an entire community into the sea. A severe winter would bring a burden of austerity and heartbreak. A brilliant summer might reward their hard work with prosperity.

These people could not see any rhyme or reason to the sequences of good fortune and disaster. But human beings are seekers of patterns, and have a tendency to anthropomorphise anything (animals, cars, cyclones…). So the people would try to placate these forces, seeing them as fickle gods and goddesses; the sun and the wind and the blossoming of the spring were entities that needed to be praised, and who would supply favours after appropriate ceremonies.

Soon, everything seems to have its own small, localised god. There were tree spirits, river gods, and the like, with great and powerful entities to rule over them, such as Zeus, Jupiter, Odin and Quetzalcoatl. As these small groups of people organised themselves into societies and civilizations, similar gods merged into each other and became even larger and more important to their worshippers.

With time, as the people grew more sophisticated in their religions, these pantheons of gods and goddesses fell into disfavour. They dwindled in the memory of the very same people who used to fear and worship them. And as they dwindled in importance, they also dwindled in the size they were supposed to be. Whereas a god could hold a world upon his shoulders, a fairy was human-sized or smaller. By the Victorian Age, they had shrunk enough to fit into flowers and ride moths.

The sound of bells tolling is supposed to drive fairies away. This old wives’ tale came about in a complicated manner. Partly, this myth is due to Christianity, which favours bells in its churches; as the belief in Christ replaced a belief in pagan gods, the old religions degenerated into folktales and superstitions. And, the Iron Age gods were definitely more powerful than the Bronze Age gods…as an iron sword can certainly shatter a similar weapon made of bronze.

I still have a sneaking belief in fairies. I’d like to think the local benevolent spirits have found new homes, with dryads living in refrigerators and televisions now that so many tree have been cleared, and as the natural streams have be converted into concrete culverts & drains, naiads have adapted to their new circumstances.

Of course, we all know that tiny humans don’t sleep in the gumnuts and sip dew…

I could go into a list of the scientific reasons why, but I might leave that for another time.

“Nobody loves a fairy when she’s forty”
Arthur D. W. Henley

Here be Dragons
“O to be a dragon,
a symbol of the power of Heaven – of silkworm
size or immense; at times invisible,
Felicitous phenomenon!”
Marianne Moore

Of all the mythological beasts, dragons seem to generate far-and-away the most interest. The image of the wyrm, or the fire-breathing, bewinged reptile seems to be buried deep into our psyche.

This may be due to a tiny part of our mammal brain that is imprinted with the idea that big lizards are predators…so RUN! This may seem unlikely, but the human brain is built around the remnants of outdated instincts and urges. We might think that modern human beings are ruled by our intellect, but the sneaky hindbrain still has a say in the day-to-day routine of our lives. A good example of this is the ‘fight or flight’ instincts, which will still flush adrenaline through our systems when we are stressed.

Some of the belief may have been generated by fossils. Even though fossils have only gained scientific importance in recent times (The last two hundred years), they haven’t been hiding away all through history, just waiting for present times so they would be dug up and discovered. Enormous fossil bones would have impressed our ancestors, and given rise to the idea of the existence of giant lizards. But instead of theorising about dinosaurs, they thought the bones were recent remains, and poof…it must have been a dragon that consumed our lost sheep or kidnapped our wandering toddler.

You have to remember, for most of our history, human beings have lived and died in the villages they were born in. Travel was a rare and dangerous exercise. Most of the population was illiterate. They had cultural backgrounds which supplied a flourishing number of dangers, monsters and disasters, all lurking just beyond the fields they knew – kind of paranoid, when you think about it.

Dragons and unicorns were just as likely to exist as elephants and giraffes.
In Asia, particularly China, dragons were seen as powerful and generally beneficial spirits. Most rivers and streams had their own dragon king; each dragon carried a lucky pearl under its chin. The Imperial Dragon of the Emperor had five claws, very like a human hand in appearance. Much of the cultural artefacts exported from Asia had representations of fantastic beasts, such as Ki-Lins and dragons, and this helped maintain the belief in such creatures in India and Europe.

As well, in these more sophisticated and modern times, dragons are often considered to represent the chaotic part of our psyche. Hence, they’re fascinating on many levels.

I love whole mythos of dragons. They can be ugly, ravenous monsters that breathe fire, collect treasure and eat humans, or they can be elegant, civilised serpents blessed with grace and intellect. It’s a clever trick; I wish that I could be so versatile.

The Kraken Wakes
“The dragon-green, the luminous, the dark, the serpent-haunted sea.”
James Elroy Flecker

Sea serpents and the ilk come close to existing. There really are monsters in the deep, such as humungous squid and sharks and an enormous number of venomous creatures. In less credulous times, the sea was a mysterious entity in its own right, fickle and powerful, well able to fill the graveyard of Davey Jones’s Locker.

Mermaids and serpents were based on superstitions bundled around half-glimpsed visions and deep-seated fears.

Dugongs and manatee are thought to have given rise to the mermaid fiction. They breastfeed their young in a similar manner to human beings…though it is hard to imagine how the characteristic faces of these gorgeous animals were mistaken for beauteous maidens. I guess you have to be at sea a really long time…

As well, the sea seems to have analogues for most of the land creatures. There are dogfish, catfish, parrot fish; it wasn’t that big an assumption that there were analogues for mankind hidden in the ocean’s depths.

The belief in sea serpents is even easier to understand. I, personally, have seen great strands of seaweed twisting the water in such a manner that you would easily mistake it for a living creature. And the sea can be a very scary place, when you are trapped in a storm or a squall, and the wind in the waves gives rise to weird sounds, and the water heaves into ever more bizarre shapes.

Sea serpents are those nebulous fears given shape and form. And you wouldn’t even need a good dose of rum to help your imagination along. It is the same process that created monsters in the forests.

The Perfect Beast
He maketh them also to skip like a calf: Libanus also, and Sirion, like a young unicorn.
The Book of Common Prayer

I collect unicorns. No, really. I have a whole cabinet full of unicorn ornaments and figurines, as well as posters, books, etc. So, I might not be the best person to chat about the unicorn, as they are so close to my heart – but I’ll give it a go.

Unicorns are mentioned in the Bible. And the Bible tells only the truth, right? But the Bible has been written in many different languages, and sometimes the translators could only make a best guess at the more obscure words. And unicorns have turned up in various medieval bestiaries and travel texts. Most of you would know – or have guessed – that the unicorn is most probably the garbled recollection of a rhinoceros. As well, narwhale horns have helped to perpetuate the lore, and were often collected as true unicorn horns.

The unicorn is meant to be the perfect beast. It is so pure that it can cleanse water and food, and sickness from flesh. As such, it is attracted to other forms for purity, like-to-like, such as virgins. Because of this folk belief, many wealthy people have used purported unicorn horn to protect them from poisons. Unsuccessfully…

The unicorn is often associated with the Virgin Mary in Christian Art, symbolising her purity of faith and spirit. Sometimes, the unicorn is also used to represent Jesus.

And, at this time of year, it is that purity of spirit that we celebrate.

***

“There never was a merry world since the fairies left off dancing…”
John Selden

I hope all the readers of the Purple Zone have a very happy and safe holiday, no matter what religion they may follow. See you all in the New Year.