Wotcha!
Once again we've got a few real gods and a couple of fakers. Finding 'Y' gods has been a bit of a tricky one. I made my first trawl and didn't find many that sparked anything in my brain, so I kinda improvised, dragging other myths that don't really fall into the 'Y' category to bulk up the blog (you'll see what I mean when you read it.) I discovered more on my second trawl but have decided to keep everything in (wild digressions included) so if it's a bit long then it's a bit long. Unfortunately my brain spew has no on/off tap. God-miles are extremely high this time 'round because we're going to be travelling to India via Australia, Scandinavia, the North of England, New England and Wales. See you at customs!
We'll start with Giants and just to get you in the mood here's a song to listen to whilst you read.
(Be warned the following song by the band Gentle Giant does fit into the dreaded category of Prog Rock, but it's a bonkers tune and the aforementioned band was one of Frank Zappa's favourites. Nuff said!)
Ysbaddaden Bencawr (I'm not going to give a phonetic way of pronouncing the name. Either you can say it or you can't)
Ysbaddaden Bencawr appears in the Mabinogi tale Culhwch and Olwen. Culhwch's stepmother insisted that Culhwch married her daughter. When Culhwch refused she puts a curse on him which stated that he could only marry Olwen. So far so blah! The only problem was that Olwen's father Ysbaddaden Bencawr, a fearsome Giant, was a tad reluctant to let anyone marry his daughter as he had been cursed to die the second Olwen was married. (There's a lot of cursing in Welsh mythology) Rather than kill Culhwch (which would make the Giant's life a lot easier but would make for a much shorter story) Ysbaddaden decided to give Culhwch an insanely difficult set of tasks...
(Forgive me while I digress for a few moment. This part of the story reminds me of when Bond Villains explain to 007 the elaborate ways they have devised to kill him rather than just finish him off there and then. This clip from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is a good illustration of why talk is cheap.)
Back to our story. Culhwch, with the help of some of King Arthur's Knights managed to complete all the tasks. When they arrived back at Ysbaddaden's Castle (which of course is a magic castle – it moves farther away the nearer you get to it) Caw of Pryden, one of Arthur's Knights gave Ysbaddaden a shave. Quite a close one. In fact a very close one. So close that he shaved off both of Ysbaddaden's ears. Beaten and earless Ysbaddaden conceded defeat and allowed Culhwch to marry Olwen. Culhwch and Olwen got married and as a wedding gift Goreu, the son of Custennin, took Ysbaddeden outside and chopped off his head. (I've sort of glossed over most of the story but I'll cover it in more detail when I get to 'C' – it also gives me a chance to read the story properly)
Interesting parallels spring from this story. When it comes to myths and legends there seems to be a lot of Giants having their heads chopped off. One of the most famous decapitations appears in the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. A film version was made and stars Sean Connery as the Green Knight. It is another example of why Sean Connery's agent in the 1970s and 1980s should have be shot.
There is also a Scandinavian Creation myth concerning a Frost Giant called Ymir. Ymir created Man and Woman from the sweat from his armpit. I was going to show a video of a sweaty armpit but this clip from a forthcoming Norwegian Film 'Trolls' is more exiting (but only fractionally).
Yrlunggur
In Murngin Aborigine mythology Yrlunggur is the Great Rainbow Serpent (Most Aboriginal tribes have a Creator myth concerning Great Rainbow Serpents though their gender seems to change from tribe to tribe). Yrlunggur (who was a male of the species) is of interest because of the rituals that have sprung from his story. Yrlunggur was fast asleep but was woken from his slumber by the stench emanating from the Wawalug sisters who happened to be passing by. What was the smell? Some say it was menstrual blood, others say placental blood. Either way Yrlunggur was so displeased by the smell that he swallowed up the sisters in one angry gulp. Unfortunately news of his chow-down reached the Serpent Council and he was chastised for bringing the good name of snakes into disrepute and ordered to regurgitate the sisters. A sheepish Yrlunggur disgorged the sisters in front of the council. Bizarrely in Murngin ceremonies the vomiting symbolises a young boys journey into manhood. (There is evidence that vomiting and entering manhood can be considered an universal cultural meme as most young boys' journey to manhood involves vomiting, usually after drinking two and half bottles of Archer's Peach Schnapps at a school-friend's party.) Though the next clip has nothing to do with snakes or Australian Aborigines it does touch on one major theme of the story.
Yog Sothoth
Yog Sothoth is a cosmic entity that is part of the Cthulhu Mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft in the 1920s. It is said to take the form of a conglomeration of glowing spheres. Here's how Lovecraft described it:-
The Cthulhu Mythos writings of H.P Lovecraft are a bit of guilty pleasure. They are the kind of horror stories that you should have grown out of when you were 15 but for me they are the greatest horror stories ever written. Weirdly the mythos has taken on a life of its own. Many practitioners of the Dark Arts regularly summon these fictitious gods for whatever lurid reasons. If all this talk of Dark Arts and Cosmic horror spooks you out following Yog Sothoth related song should cheer you up.
Yama
Yama is the Hindu Lord of Death. Traditionally he is believed to be the first person who ever died and because of this got the honour of being made the Lord of Death. He is usually portrayed as having blue skin and rides around on a buffalo. The word Yama means twin and sometimes he is accompanied on his travels by his twin sister Yami.
Yama has become the Eastern equivalent of the Grim Reaper, and in the same way as the Reaper has been embraced by modern Pop Culture, so has the Hindu Lord of Death.
That's it for now. Sorry for waffling on for so long, but I did warn you.
Same time? Same place?
Hell Yeah!
Once again we've got a few real gods and a couple of fakers. Finding 'Y' gods has been a bit of a tricky one. I made my first trawl and didn't find many that sparked anything in my brain, so I kinda improvised, dragging other myths that don't really fall into the 'Y' category to bulk up the blog (you'll see what I mean when you read it.) I discovered more on my second trawl but have decided to keep everything in (wild digressions included) so if it's a bit long then it's a bit long. Unfortunately my brain spew has no on/off tap. God-miles are extremely high this time 'round because we're going to be travelling to India via Australia, Scandinavia, the North of England, New England and Wales. See you at customs!
We'll start with Giants and just to get you in the mood here's a song to listen to whilst you read.
(Be warned the following song by the band Gentle Giant does fit into the dreaded category of Prog Rock, but it's a bonkers tune and the aforementioned band was one of Frank Zappa's favourites. Nuff said!)
Ysbaddaden Bencawr (I'm not going to give a phonetic way of pronouncing the name. Either you can say it or you can't)
Ysbaddaden Bencawr appears in the Mabinogi tale Culhwch and Olwen. Culhwch's stepmother insisted that Culhwch married her daughter. When Culhwch refused she puts a curse on him which stated that he could only marry Olwen. So far so blah! The only problem was that Olwen's father Ysbaddaden Bencawr, a fearsome Giant, was a tad reluctant to let anyone marry his daughter as he had been cursed to die the second Olwen was married. (There's a lot of cursing in Welsh mythology) Rather than kill Culhwch (which would make the Giant's life a lot easier but would make for a much shorter story) Ysbaddaden decided to give Culhwch an insanely difficult set of tasks...
(Forgive me while I digress for a few moment. This part of the story reminds me of when Bond Villains explain to 007 the elaborate ways they have devised to kill him rather than just finish him off there and then. This clip from The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is a good illustration of why talk is cheap.)
Back to our story. Culhwch, with the help of some of King Arthur's Knights managed to complete all the tasks. When they arrived back at Ysbaddaden's Castle (which of course is a magic castle – it moves farther away the nearer you get to it) Caw of Pryden, one of Arthur's Knights gave Ysbaddaden a shave. Quite a close one. In fact a very close one. So close that he shaved off both of Ysbaddaden's ears. Beaten and earless Ysbaddaden conceded defeat and allowed Culhwch to marry Olwen. Culhwch and Olwen got married and as a wedding gift Goreu, the son of Custennin, took Ysbaddeden outside and chopped off his head. (I've sort of glossed over most of the story but I'll cover it in more detail when I get to 'C' – it also gives me a chance to read the story properly)
Interesting parallels spring from this story. When it comes to myths and legends there seems to be a lot of Giants having their heads chopped off. One of the most famous decapitations appears in the story of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. A film version was made and stars Sean Connery as the Green Knight. It is another example of why Sean Connery's agent in the 1970s and 1980s should have be shot.
There is also a Scandinavian Creation myth concerning a Frost Giant called Ymir. Ymir created Man and Woman from the sweat from his armpit. I was going to show a video of a sweaty armpit but this clip from a forthcoming Norwegian Film 'Trolls' is more exiting (but only fractionally).
Yrlunggur
In Murngin Aborigine mythology Yrlunggur is the Great Rainbow Serpent (Most Aboriginal tribes have a Creator myth concerning Great Rainbow Serpents though their gender seems to change from tribe to tribe). Yrlunggur (who was a male of the species) is of interest because of the rituals that have sprung from his story. Yrlunggur was fast asleep but was woken from his slumber by the stench emanating from the Wawalug sisters who happened to be passing by. What was the smell? Some say it was menstrual blood, others say placental blood. Either way Yrlunggur was so displeased by the smell that he swallowed up the sisters in one angry gulp. Unfortunately news of his chow-down reached the Serpent Council and he was chastised for bringing the good name of snakes into disrepute and ordered to regurgitate the sisters. A sheepish Yrlunggur disgorged the sisters in front of the council. Bizarrely in Murngin ceremonies the vomiting symbolises a young boys journey into manhood. (There is evidence that vomiting and entering manhood can be considered an universal cultural meme as most young boys' journey to manhood involves vomiting, usually after drinking two and half bottles of Archer's Peach Schnapps at a school-friend's party.) Though the next clip has nothing to do with snakes or Australian Aborigines it does touch on one major theme of the story.
Yog Sothoth
Yog Sothoth is a cosmic entity that is part of the Cthulhu Mythos created by H.P. Lovecraft in the 1920s. It is said to take the form of a conglomeration of glowing spheres. Here's how Lovecraft described it:-
It was an All-in-One and One-in-All of limitless being and self — not merely a thing of one Space-Time continuum, but allied to the ultimate animating essence of existence's whole unbounded sweep — the last, utter sweep which has no confines and which outreaches fancy and mathematics alike. It was perhaps that which certain secret cults of earth have whispered of as YOG-SOTHOTH, and which has been a deity under other names; that which the crustaceans of Yuggoth worship as the Beyond-One, and which the vapourous brains of the spiral nebulae know by an untranslatable Sign...Shit-Your-Pants kinda stuff!
The Cthulhu Mythos writings of H.P Lovecraft are a bit of guilty pleasure. They are the kind of horror stories that you should have grown out of when you were 15 but for me they are the greatest horror stories ever written. Weirdly the mythos has taken on a life of its own. Many practitioners of the Dark Arts regularly summon these fictitious gods for whatever lurid reasons. If all this talk of Dark Arts and Cosmic horror spooks you out following Yog Sothoth related song should cheer you up.
Yama
Yama is the Hindu Lord of Death. Traditionally he is believed to be the first person who ever died and because of this got the honour of being made the Lord of Death. He is usually portrayed as having blue skin and rides around on a buffalo. The word Yama means twin and sometimes he is accompanied on his travels by his twin sister Yami.
Yama has become the Eastern equivalent of the Grim Reaper, and in the same way as the Reaper has been embraced by modern Pop Culture, so has the Hindu Lord of Death.
That's it for now. Sorry for waffling on for so long, but I did warn you.
Same time? Same place?
Hell Yeah!
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