After my recent
post about monsters, I realised that lots of supernatural beings are
based on real creatures.
The unicorn has
been said to derive from an ancient rhino or antelope; the horn of the
'narwhal' is claimed by many to be the horn of the unicorn.
The first mention
of fairies came when early settlers in Britain mentioned that the
locals took to the woods in terror when the saw them. They claimed
that they were very small people who would come back in the night and
steal things. They also said that they were scared of iron. This
seems to be where the stories of fairies derives from.
If someone turned up at my door with swords and axes (iron) I don't think I
would be offering them a chocolate hob nob and a cup of tea, either!
You could see why a smaller race of people who were probably still
using stone-age type tools, would run from the much larger and better
equipped invaders.
I have my own
theory on this. They were described as small and hairy and unclothed,
were they actually monkeys? It's a possibility that monkeys were here
at the time, and they would of course steal from the camps, etc.
Before you start
to mock this idea remember that the people of Hartlepool once hung a monkey,
thinking it to be a French spy!
Then we have the
mermaid legend. I have heard it said many times that manatees were
supposed to be the basis for this legend. Now I don't wish to be
cruel here, manatees are cute for an over-weight marine creature, but
just what sort of women were these sailors going with, to mistaken a manatee for a woman? Not just any woman, either; they were said to be a
beautiful women! All I can say is that these guys must have slept
with some butt-ugly women/ men to think this.
And finally, when
I first started to write this blog I decided to only write it for one
year, and it has now been exactly one year since I started.
I wanted to be
free to write about anything I wished, and this, I hope, I have done. I
don't know what anyone would get from my inane rants, but I hope
someone somewhere may have had a smile when reading? If you have
read most of my postings you will have found out that I don't like
politicians, injustice and religion! You will also have found out
that most of my friends are quite strange, and that I can be quite
aggressive but really I'm just a big softy. If this is the first
posting that you have ever read of mine you will, by now, be wondering just
what the hell I'm going on about!
You will have
noticed that I like winding people up, and love the extraordinary!
But it's really the mundane things that I value; family, friends and
and being left alone!
I'm telling you
this because this is my last posting, I have enjoyed writing both the
serious and the stupid postings and have enjoyed the comments and e
mails from people from all over the world. But my time here is up, so
thank you for reading I hope you have enjoyed the blog,
Gez Walsh.
