Dearest Foxy,

Oy. Myths and legends and fairy tales are not necessarily true. They are 'explanations' of the unknown or dangerous that people have to come up with on the basis of incomplete or faulty information and understandings. Of course, they fit together because, over time, that's precisely how myths are re-worked, elaborated, modified and re-fashioned.

The Greek myths fit together, but it doesn't necessarily make what Zeus or Heracles or Odysseus were supposed to have done, true. The stories in the bible are pretty plausible, but I don't believe a single one of them as fact - as useful parables, yes; as moral guides, yes. But not as factual records.

There is so much documentation about real events in the world that one does not have to rely on yarns. Pick any topic and look it up on Wikipedia: oodles of stuff, usually verifiable independently and amply.

One can usually find some solid evidence that renders a yarn suspect, or impossible, and therefore revisable. The Hindmarsh Island scam was one of those, every aspect of it. However, what I don't enjoy is that good, decent people may feel the need, through lack of what they think is anything to the contrary, to make up stories - as happened in this case. Lying is corrupting, it destroys genuine community. And often is so pathetically transparent.

And finding one crook story makes one suspicious of other stories, such as the rabbit-proof fence yarn. One suspends belief until one has evidence, but if all the evidence that one can find renders a story impossible or implausible, then you move on.

Love,

Joe

Foxy: For even before the birth of Arthur, Merlin the prophet and messenger had foretold the coming of one that was greater than he.

The story of King Arthur is an Allegory. There are three stories in on. One for the people, one for the history of the Christian Church & one for the initiated in a Secret Society. I even knew that at School.

Jayb,

What, King Arthur is just an allegory ?! But what about the sword in the lake stuff, isn't that obviously true ?! No ? Well, what about Robin Hood ? Isn't that all true ? I want it all to be true !

Not the slightest evidence of any of it ? Okay, life has become that much more mundane.

I'm just reading a book about the Muhammad myth - it seems nothing was written about him, anywhere, for around 120 years after he was supposed to have died. Nothing, except written records of an Arab chieftain, possibly a Christian, devastating Palestine and Mesopotamia and the Persian Empire. Written records were, of course, available, by Coptic Christians, Jews, Byzantine Romans, Persians, Syrians, etc. But as the years passed, biographies of him, whoever he/they was/were, got more and more elaborate and detailed. So there you go, that's how legends get created.

Joe

Loudmouth: Isn't that all true ? I want it all to be true !

Ok, It's Ok, there, there now.

It's a collection of story myths taken from throughout Europe & Britain. Parsifal was French or Percival. Geoffrey de Monmouth gathered them up into one book.

Of course it's all true.

Myth and legend, folk and fairy tales are eloquent
and arresting stories and prototypes for modern
literature as we know it, they are a source of
linguistic, psychological and emotional satisfaction
and points of cultural contact, yet points of
departure for a lifetime's study of story.

If the blue of the Aegean deepens and intensifies as
Icarus and Daedalus fly overhead, and if at Delphi the
Oracle still speaks to men of imagination, then the
bora ring or a fish carved into rock can point to an
ordering of life's chaos, the possibility of
reconciling the present with the past and of personal
harmony in a world threatened with disintegration.

Every Myth started with some reality. Then the story tellers got involved. The Myths moved from peoples to peoples, so their myths were added to the original story line. They became the background for Codes of behaviour, Why things happen, Why some things are as they are.

Besides, no TV, what do you do around a fire on School Camp. Tell (round) stories. Great fun & the story gets weirder & weirder as everyone has their turn & the night goes on. Jolly good fun. Eh.

Oh, Is mise, <the Sikhs don't carry a dagger; just so we all know that of which we are writing.>

Let me remind you of the Topic here.
<Should Sikhs be allowed to carry ceremonial daggers ?>

Shakes head in disgust.