The Wild Hunt is an ancient folk myth prevalent across Northern, Western and Central Europe. The fundamental premise in all instances is the same: a phantasmal, spectral group of huntsmen with the accoutrements of hunting, with horses and hounds in mad pursuit across the skies or along the ground, or just above it.
The hunters may be the dead or the fairies (often in folklore connected with the dead). The hunter may be an unidentified lost soul, a deity or spirit of either gender, or may be a historical or legendary figure like Theodoric the Great, the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag, the Welsh psychopomp Gwyn ap Nudd or the Germanic Woden (or other reflections of the same god, such as Alemannic Wuodan in Wuotis Heer (“Wuodan’s Army”) of Central Switzerland, Swabia etc.)
The Beasts of battle is a poetic trope in Old English and Old Norse literature. It consists of the wolf, the raven, and the eagle, traditional animals accompanying the warriors to feast on the bodies of the slain. It occurs in eight Old English poems and in the Old Norse Poetic Edda.
The term originates with Francis Peabody Magoun, who first used it in 1955, although the combination of the three animals was first considered a theme by Maurice Bowra, in 1952.
The beasts of battle presumably date from an earlier, Germanic tradition; the animals are well known for eating carrion. A mythological connection may be presumed as well, though it is clear that at the time that the Old English manuscripts were produced, in a Christianized England, there was no connection between for instance the raven and Huginn and Muninn or the wolf and Geri and Freki. This mythological and/or religious connection survived for much longer in Scandinavia.
Oceanographer Dr. Edith Widder talks about how she invented the camera rig designed to attract and film the giant squid recently filmed and shown in the Discover documentary.
Dr. Widder is the president, senior scientist and CEO of the Ocean Research and Conservation Association. And she is a total bad ass. A really cool example of women doing important and fun stuff.
She actually fights Nazis in this video, which is supposed to be her thing, unlike today where she’s just fighting greek mythology or some such. And her boots are really cool.
For the last few months, a talented university teacher named Christy Blanch has been putting together a college-level course called “Gender Through Comic Books”–but it’s not limited to college students. It’s the world’s first comics-related Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)–meaning that it will be FREELY AVAILABLE to ANYONE across the world who has web access and who’s interested in comics and in the creative process. There’s no obligation, NO COST, and all you have to do is take thirty seconds to enroll at the following site:
It’s about comic books, gender and women’s issues, writing. Boy is this up my alley. I signed up for it. If you’re interested in similar topics, you should too.
Posting in case Stephanie hasn’t seen this awesomesauce yet… Kristen Chenoweth and Anna Kendrick singing “for Good” at the Trevor Projects‘ Trevor Live benefit.
Not only is the song really good, the reactions of the women filming the song are pretty adorable, too.
(Stephanie has a crush on Anna Kendrick. Kirsten Chenoweth is on my short list.)
The dreadful pseudo science of evolutionary psychology is founded upon concepts such as survival of the fittest, selfish genes, inherited instincts and mind modules. It has shot to prominence in science and societies’ thinking, and found many a willing ear.
I have a folder on my hard drive titled “random cool” that contains images I’ve collected over the years that don’t seem to lend themselves to obvious categorization. Occasionally I’ll flip through it if I want to decoupage something, or if I want design ideas, but mostly I keep it to entertain myself. Today I feel like I should share… so presented for your amusement: horse fight.
(NOTE: I think they’re only play fighting, not real fighting. I’m sure.)
