Mythology, Legends, and Lore oh my!

[Kouzai]

For some reason that title bothers me and I wrote it.

Anyway, I am fascinated with mythology and legends of all types. From oral tales told around campfires to creatures lurking beneath the waves or floating unseen in the air, I love the detail and the lore about them.

While I don't have a particular solid and hyperfocused group of mythology and creatures, I do have a very wide spread range of knowledge. I know quite a bit about Greek, Roman, Norse, both Irish and Celtic (there is a difference), Egyptian, Scottish, some Native American tribes, Native Hawaiian (only a little), Chinese, and Japanese lore, monsters and deities.

Some of my favorite creatures and beings include: the will of the wisp phenomenon; the Dybbuk, revenants, selkies, kappas, jinn, spirits, yokai, and the trickster gods and beings

I also really like the supernatural and paranormal so that can be discussed as well. Having had several different kinds (including talking to my great grandfather who died before I was even born and somewhat proving his existence as a child) of experience, I am very open-minded about such things.

I started this thread for several reasons (finding others with a similar interest being one of them). I wanted to see if other people had stories passed down through families, had experiences, or like certain myths and the like. I don't know if there is a post like this already. If so sorry.

 

[Adora]

I have a big interest in Greek,Norse,Celtic and Egyptian mythology, have a few favourite myths like Eros and Psyche,Ariadne and Dionysus and also the Trojan war,I am really interested in the gods of mythology and have a few books about them.

 

[Bolletje]

I'm absolutely fond of mythology. When I was a kid I always wanted to play god (wow, that makes me sound like a megalomaniac evil mastermind ) with my friends, usually Greek gods. One of the best days ever for me in high school was when my history teacher asked us to come to school dressed as our favorite Greek gods. Hardly anyone came to school dressed up, but I gleefully bounced around school with my home-made huge bow and arrows and huntress outfit as Artemis. I was relentlessly teased for this, but I didn't care, they were obviously just jealous of my sweet sweet weaponry

My mother had this weird, very enthusiastic and very alcoholic friend (whom I recognize now probably was on the spectrum as well) who was also very much into Egyptian lore and Egyptology, we used to communicate via postcards written in Hieroglyphs up until he died. He went to Egypt twice a year and always brought me back amazing books and souvenirs.

My bookcase as a child was filled with 50% books about ancient civilizations and mythology, 25% books about dinosaurs and 25% books about unsolved mysteries.
I had books about Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Etruscan, Mayan, Incan, Norse, Celtic and Persian mythology. I wanted to be an archaeologist as a kid, actually hung on to that dream and studied archaeology for a bit in university but discovered that about 90% of archeologists end up working as a curator in museums instead of working in the field, so I dropped that field of study after a year. Also, dig sites in the Netherlands are a lot less interesting than abroad. I once spent a month digging in a 15th century dung heap and it still smelled like crap.

 

[Adora]

I'm absolutely fond of mythology. When I was a kid I always wanted to play god (wow, that makes me sound like a megalomaniac evil mastermind ) with my friends, usually Greek gods. One of the best days ever for me in high school was when my history teacher asked us to come to school dressed as our favorite Greek gods. Hardly anyone came to school dressed up, but I gleefully bounced around school with my home-made huge bow and arrows and huntress outfit as Artemis. I was relentlessly teased for this, but I didn't care, they were obviously just jealous of my sweet sweet weaponry

My mother had this weird, very enthusiastic and very alcoholic friend (whom I recognize now probably was on the spectrum as well) who was also very much into Egyptian lore and Egyptology, we used to communicate via postcards written in Hieroglyphs up until he died. He went to Egypt twice a year and always brought me back amazing books and souvenirs.

My bookcase as a child was filled with 50% books about ancient civilizations and mythology, 25% books about dinosaurs and 25% books about unsolved mysteries.
I had books about Greek, Roman, Egyptian, Etruscan, Mayan, Incan, Norse, Celtic and Persian mythology. I wanted to be an archaeologist as a kid, actually hung on to that dream and studied archaeology for a bit in university but discovered that about 90% of archeologists end up working as a curator in museums instead of working in the field, so I dropped that field of study after a year. Also, dig sites in the Netherlands are a lot less interesting than abroad. I once spent a month digging in a 15th century dung heap and it still smelled like crap.

I was alway fascinated by the Greek even when I was younger,I had a lot of mythology books but sadly lost most of them but I'm building up my collection again,I use to love the old Greek mythology movies like Jason and the argonauts and clash of the titans I always wanted to see the 1950s movie of Helen of Troy but it's hard to find.

 

[qwerty]

. I have a deep interest in all mythology legends and stories. There is usually 100 times as much deep allegorical truth in the myths of people than there is truth in the historical accounts.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Is one of my favourite quotes as I believe there is much ,much more to life than what we see on the surface.

 

[Kouzai]

I wanted to be an archaeologist growing up as well, but I found more interest in the culture and how people thought and were shaped by their environment over the idea of dig sites. It's fascinating how civilizations often did things that our current society think is deplorable but back then was not only needed to 'maintain balance' but to control their society from either going extinct or what have you.

Many people think druids of Britain and Ireland never engaged in human sacrifice, serving to to just offer barrels of wine and wheat (among other things). A fairly recent documentary refuted this theory by finding a human male mummified in a barrel that was in a blog which was used for religious purposes. Not only that but it was a young male who was either kin to a chief/ruler or someone raised to be sacrificed.

Stuff like this is all around the world and I am fascinated by how people connect religions, mythology, and creatures throughout time

 

[annannannann]

Some of my favorite creatures and beings include: the will of the wisp phenomenon; the Dybbuk, revenants, selkies, kappas, jinn, spirits, yokai, and the trickster gods and beings

I love these as well, especially will of the wisps, selkies, and yokai. Any and all mythological stories native to the British Isles just fascinates me, and as someone with little personal experience with Asian cultures, I find Japanese and Chinese mythology extremely interesting as well. Yokai in particular are just so diverse. Some are legitimately terrifying while others, like Shirime, are downright hilarious.

 

[qwerty]

Can you guys please link some details to the mythic figures and legends you refer to ? I love the psychological drama of myths and would absolutely love to read a bit about your favourite ones.

 

[dragonwolf]

I'm Heathen, which kind of brings with it an expectation of learning the Norse and Germanic myths and sagas.

Probably one of my favorite sagas as far as supernatural stuff goes is Eyrbyggja Saga, which has all sorts of supernatural stuff (including a random appearance by a ghost seal).

 

[AutumnRed]

I'm interested in 'some' mythology as opposed to fascinated by it, but it has played an important role in my life at various points. When I was a teenager, I read books on Viking and Greek Mythology (to the detriment of school subjects!),
I also read Lord of the Rings when I was 14, enjoying Tolkien's mythos.

I have Jungian analysis every fortnight, and this is where mythology becomes very relevant to me, as myths become related back to the dreams I have and reveal hidden meanings from my unconscious.

I give credit to the assertion that myths are largely spontaneous, autonomous creations of the collective psyche, as opposed to stories people 'make up' to explain things.

I've also been highly interested in occultism/Western Esotericism, was involved in masonry for a while and a few occult orders. I had a ouija board session once that lasted seven hours and was accused of some pretty horrific things from a past life!

For some reason I'm into ghosts at the moment, quite unintentionally I've gone from designing a tee shirt on cafe press with a haunted castle on it with 'Asperger's - A Spectre on the Spectrum' as the text, listening to a metal band called Ghost, Reading 'Haunted' by James Herbert, to watching an episode of 'Great British Ghosts' each day on Youtube - all in the space of a month.

Lastly, and I don't know if this will make much sense, but I'm planning on moving from New Zealand to England in 2020, almost entirely because I need to be around 'old stuff' with depth of meaning. I don't know if a soul can orgasm, but I'm pretty sure mine did when I visited the UK 20 years ago. I didn't care about socialising, but there was almost a myth or legend to go with every edifice there, I was in heaven!

Great topic btw! I'm interested to know about paranormal experiences you've personally had, if you'd care to share them

 

[qwerty]

Great to see another pilgrim from New Zealand here autumnred : )

I am a fellow kiwi and really love the way you said soul orgasm lol
I have much the same reaction to places and things of profound age, I feel a deep ache when I see some images especially from Celtic history, an ache in the form of some unheard perfect musical note. I think because nz is such a young country with bugger all history of its own my soul yearns for some contact with my genetic lineage.

If you ever want to natter about stuff feel free to pm me , I am always exited to meet fellow seekers.