Sirens-2013

Sirens

In this blog I am going to continue my subject on magical creatures. I have always been curious with the mythology of the Siren. There has been two very different legends on this creatures in history.  I myself have heard mostly of the mermaid siren myself. But as I did a little research and I found that the mermaid creature of the siren is not your classic mythology siren. The mermaid siren is from a later period in mythology in European legend, which most folks are familiar with. 

In Russia Folklore, the Siren is a bird -woman with the body of a brightly plumaged bird and the head of a women. It descended from heaven to sing wonderful melodies to the souls who were in a state of grace. This song would enable them to pass from earthly life and be received into heaven. It is clear that this siren ultimately derives from the classic Siren. I found this interpretation much more enlighten in a divine kinda way, then the Mermaid European legend myself.
Sirens in the Classic Tale
This is what I found out about the true classic tale of the Siren. First a siren that I believe was a woman who has the lower half and the wings of a bird. Some say the the Siren were turned into their current shape because they had been playing with Kore, the maiden Persephone, when she was abducted by Hades and Demeter, Persephone's Mother was angered by this because they had not helped her daughter, so Persephone Mother (Demeter) cursed them, by saying "Begone and search for my daughter the world over". 
But of course there is another story and this one tells how Aphrodite turned them into bird-woman because the Sirens stubbornly clung to their virginity and would refused to submit to any Man or God.

The Sirens flightless because they were defeated in a music contest by the Muses - The Muses pulled out the Sirens wings feathers to make themselves beautiful crowns from their feathers. And this is why the sirens sing in a meadow among the bleached bones of the sailors whom they have lure to their deaths. They are first cousins to the Harpies, that live in a green island of their own. And when the wind drops a midday, this is the time that people are the most succumb to the sirens.
It is said in Odysseus great journey on his return to Troy, he wanted to meet the sirens, but he was forewarned by a friend Circe, who said, ' that you must plug your ears and all your men with bees wax on your journey so that the sirens cannot overcome you with their song. 
But of course in this story - Odysseus wishes to hear their beautiful song. But did not want to succumb to it, so he asked his men to blind him at the mast of his ship and told his crew to refuse to untie him until they had passed their lands. for which you have to read up to find out the end of that story...
In old times they would carve Sirens upon tombstones as much as angels were. They were shown lamenting and singing dirges to the music of the lyre. But it is also possible that they have designs on the bodies of heroes buried in the tombs since the souls were believed to leave the body in the form of a bird and the sirens stood by waiting to catch the fleeting souls.

Wendy 

Drows- Escape From the life of the Spider Queen & from life of theUnderdark Caverns- 2013

Drows-Escape From the life of the Spider Queen & from life of the Underdark Caverns 2013-

There are many different writings of the Drow, as I've learned in my fascination with the Fae world. In this blog I'm going to give my ideas and the history known as the Drow. 
As all Drow's - they too had started as one race of elves centuries ago. They lived a very peaceful life between our planet and theirs world. Mostly living in the deep forests, Mountain tops, lust valleys and deep caves with some. Like all elves they all could speak to the animals, the spirit trees and faerie trees as well. They all had Fae magick and all lived for many centuries and their children & their children's children too. Living between our world and their own realm, in the early days of the elves. During that time it would be very easy for them to walk through their borders of the parallel worlds and different planes back to our earth.
As generations of elves continued to come to our earth through their different borders of parallel  planes, back and forth to our world to theirs. They start forming different races of elves. Some of these are: Moon elves, Silver elves, Shadow elves, Snow elves, Wild elves, Wing elves, Star elves, dark elves, light elves and of course there were half~breed elves too. The more common were; Moon elf-human, Drow-demon ( Shur-drow's), Dark elves-human (are not as common but are quite beautiful  when the two are together). This was the being of when the elves started their own territories on the earth but since there were so many of them now, they were deciding who would be the higher in power you might say. This is when all the problems started with the new race of elves.  

The Coming of the Elves Gods & Goddesses - Goddess Meness ~ 

The elves of every different race and territories were starting to squabble, if you could believe that... Yes the dignified and intelligent elves  were fighting among themselves which has never ever happen before in time. It was probably more like many towns hearings between the different territories of the elves. There was probably a high leader at this point for each of their towns.
Then there was the coming of THE STARS, THE MOON & BELAIDEN... These are the Elves Gods. They came because their children were acting like lords of the earth and were causing all kinds of trouble between their world and ours...
The elves were being to think that they were all Gods and they all should rule the world as their own. This included the forest's, mountains, valleys, oceans, the underworld of earth, jungles, and the icy lands of Iceland. 
So the their Gods decided to send them a message. The STARS were placed in the sky, illuminating the dark world for the fist time in centuries. "Thinking that would work, by taking the light away and bringing the dark world for the first time in ages. Well instead, the elves were in awe of the cold serene beauty of the starry dark nights with no days of the light. The elves used the constellations in the sky for naming their kin and the different events within the different territories they had claimed.
In other words they dominated over the darkness and the stars that their Gods illuminated to put a stop to their dispute over the land that was full of life and beauty. And now they were urging over it... to claim it, even now in the dark world for the fist time in centuries. 
Of course this trouble their Gods even more. That generations of their elven children would react in this way. They wondered how their ancient Kin would have reacted to their children's behavior too... 
So the Gods  felt something had to be done. They decided to reveal themselves to their first children. One of the MAKERS, the GODDESS MENESS, had long watched over the elves. And a great love that she has always had for her children, had grown into her heart and soul. So she offered to reveal herself to her children - the elves. 

So The Goddess Meness appeared high in the darken skies and as she rise over the highest mountain tops in the first early morning,  all the many different Kingdoms of the elves saw their Goddess Meness enormous white orb that opened the darken skies for the first time again. But the other happened again! When the elves first got sight of her enormous white orb that lighten up the skies, many of the elves flee the light, hide or run away form the beauty of the Glowing Splendor of the Goddess that love them so much. Slowly as the elves came to listen to the Goddess of the light & learn again of their Gods, they started to come out from hiding. They came closer to their Goddess and didn't fear her anymore and came to love her light.
Although there were some elves that never over came the huge presence of how their Goddess Meness opened up the darkened skies with her large white Orb of light. They had gotten used to the darken world, they like the stars and the dark places in the world. They didn't like hearing that the world wasn't theirs to rule as their OWN! and to do with what they pleased. They were the children of the Gods and with this a bitter chill grew through these  elves.
It remains that way to present Day! Some of the elves that resided to remain in the dark places of the earth for a time, until the different realms of worlds & parallel worlds remained open~ 
But there were the others that resented to remain in the glowing splendor of the Orb of the light of their Goddess Meness . 
Eleven Nations - Dark Elves - The Drow & Goddess Lolth~

At this time, it was when the Eleven Nations grew to their greatest strengths all around the world. They became wiser-physically, & stronger in larger groups of Kin. Magick was stronger and taught by the Fae and by their Goddess Meness.
But of course this would not last to long - the coming of the dwarves and the doom that came to the dark elves...
The Dark elves - Descendants of the Drow~
The dark elves and their nation as you know at the time were descendants of the DROW.
The dark elves were cursed by the good Goddess Meness of light and then banished them all to the Underdark.
This was the being of the end, of the once happy world of the elves that roamed our earth thousands of years before them, when there were Gods and Goddesses, life was good. Now it was a whole different life style...
There were elves who lived in many different territories and the dark elves became the Drow's who lived deep down in the earth, in caves and vast caverns. The blood elves and night elves were also descendants of the drows too.
The Drow History - Society - Culture & Underdark~

The Drow are very much like most elves as far as it comes to their body types and size. Usually they are just a bit smaller and thinner then the average elf. But it really depends on what they do as far as their type of jobs in the Underdark in which they live. 
There are: Higher Monarchy, Warriors, Assassins, Bodyguards, Slaves, Monarchy - families -Powerful families - Poor families, Single men/women, Homeless. 
The vast majority of the drow live in the Underworld to which they were driven to after many Crown Wars (At some point I will cover the interesting history of the crown wars of the drow).  The drow cities and states are spread throughout the underworld world-wide on our earth. This is in caves and caverns bastions, that are full of evil and demonic dealing of the Mother of Evil who started the Crown Wars The Spider Queen~
From what I have figured out, its not evil and such all the time, you just have to know how to get around The Spider Queen. Its a bit tricky but not impossible and from what I've found out about the Drow, they do find their way around their Evil Queen. And there are some that find their way out of the underdark.



The Dragon Coast - East Rift~
Not all drows dwell in the underdark, however while most of the race that flees the dark civilization

they were born into or die trying to reach the surface world, other escape the dark recesses of the earth to see daylight. Most Drows that don't live in the underdark dwell within the lands of the Dragon Coast or The East Rift. 
When a drow has been able to escape from the claws of The Spider Queen's Underdark world, they head for the Dragon Coast or the East Rift. These Drows are typically less apologetic about their past and simply seek a place away from the Lilith's & Lolth's  corruption, where there is few questions and their highly crafted skills in building beautiful architecture and crafting works of art is all that matters.  
Many of those who do dwell in the East Rift are refugees of the catastrophe wrought on the neighboring regions of the underdark by the spell - plague and the draining of the Sea of Fallen Stars~
They speak a version of elvish known that is suitable to use in which they live at the Dragon Coast - East Rift too. They are also very veritable in different languages such as Draconian, goblin, dwarf,

abyssal, and Shur-drow are a few. It is quite common for a drow to learn the language spoken on the surface beneath which they lived. 
Drows can also do sign language too, which is actually a commonly used language among the drow. It is a silent language that uses hand signals and facial expression, which comes very handy when they were in the underdark even in the very low light. This way they could speak without anyone knowing what they were saying. The drow have use this language for thousands of years. Also there is no equivalent written form of this language that the drows know of.   Wendy 

Note; Images are not Mine. They are beautiful drow images, in which 
how I became to love the drow... Wendy.. 

Cynthia's blog - fairies and me

Fire Dragons-2013

The Fire Dragon~

Today I thought I would do, the not so friendly Fire Dragon. Unlike the White & Silver Dragons who are friendly toward the humans. The the fire dragons are probably the worst of them all, even the Green dragon that I did about 4 weeks ago. Besides being a very unfriendly dragon, these fire dragons are the rarest of the three species - Draco flameus. 
History of the Fire Dragon~   
These dragons are virtually unknown probably do to the fact that they live inside active volcanoes and their natural surrounding are the great rivers of lava and fiery caverns in the belly of the earth. In their world of fire and incandescent molten rock this is where the (father) fire dragon dwells. This is where courtship and mating takes place. Interesting mating in a volcano... Well that's a dragon for ya! Apparently this is also where the fire dragons have their rituals too.
Fire dragons spend their infancies in theses suffocating surroundings, only venturing outside when reaching maturity and only for brief hunting expeditions. These nocturnal creatures, usually sadly forth enveloped in the flames when darkness reigns, but only if the weather is very dry and the sky is clear. Water and humidity are a great threat to these great creatures since these elements can cause a disease caused by scale corrosion, which is a fatal  and very painful in all Red - fire dragons. This horrible disease will cause the dragons scales to flake off slowly at first from the dragons body, then coming off in large quantities at a time. This then leaves the dragon very sensitive skin exposed and vulnerable. This exposure not only causes dreadful burns, that is produced from the red hot lava, but also total dehydration too.
 On their excursions into the outside world. Fire dragons set vast expanses of land a flame, scorching everything in their path. They avidly devour the charred remaids of many animals left in the ashes.
The life style of the Fire Dragon~  

The fire dragons mouth breathe fire, which is formed from a mixture of Phosphorus and methane which is produced and stored in a second stomach of these dragons. Then the mixture ignites on contact with the oxygen immediately after it leaves the dragons mouth. 
The Fire dragons favorite food is composed of hydrocarbons such as oil and bitumen which it consumes in huge quantities. They also use these substances to clean and shine their scaly armor an occupation to which fire dragons devote many hours - in taking great care of every single scale and are always on the look-out for any suspicious looking blemishes on any of their scales. Now this is not a question of vanity in the case of the Fire dragon. Although there are a bit vain and conceited at times. This is strictly do to what I was talking about earlier in this blog about the fire dragons dreadful disease - that they can get from water and high humidity area's called - scale corrosion, which is fatal. So you can see why the fire dragon would take, much of his life time taking care of his armor or his scales. 
His scales, which cover him head to tail are made up of a type of metal and asbestos. The scales of the fire dragon can range from a wide variety - from bright golden yellow to red, copper and black. These iridescent type scales are the dragons only from of protection against their fiery breathe when they belt out those fiery breathe.  When they do, the fire will consume their body. So this is the reason why they take such care of their armor. Makes since to me! There is alot more to the fire dragon then I thought, when I first started reading and researching about the fire dragons. I found this part about their scales fascinating and how such a dragon that is  portrayed  as a evil dragon to be humble in a weird kinda way. 
Areas of Sighting of the Fire Dragon~  
It has been reported that dragons of this species used to be abundant in the volcanoes of Iceland. They would venture as far as Ireland and Northern Britain too. In Italy a small colony of this charming species of dragons has survived in Sicily. These mysterious but fascinating beast have large families of servant made up of mainly of salamanders and other igneous creatures.

I have always loved and been fascinated with dragons whether they be good or evil. I believe in my heart that there are dragons that still exist today, it's just that they are hidden deeply in the un-touched forest and deep caverns of the earth... Wendy

  

The Banshee-2013

The Banshee
From the Irish the word Banshee has two meanings, one 'bean sidhe', which means ~ women of the faeries. And the other meaning of the banshee is 'the gaelic', which means ~ ban sith. They both describe a spirit whose screeching and howling under the windowsills at night foretells that a death of a member of the household. This is how the legend is told.

Throughout time, mankind has looked for omens that portended doom, both on a societal as well as a personal level. 

The Roman augurs were soothsayers who claimed to be able to predict the future by examining the entrails of sacrificial victims, studying the flight of birds, the timing and location of the thunder storms. And even by a throw of the dice...

In Celtic Traditions, if a clock chimed at an inappropriate time or stopped. If a swarm of bee's were seen at the door. And if a rooster crowed at night, it had an ominous significance that death was not far
way. And one way to confirmation would be sought by keeping an eye out for anything unusual, like a bird, especially the rook or raven perched on a windowsill.

In Scotland, a 'bean nighe,'who is said to be a ghost of a women, who had died in childbirth could be seen wailing and crying, washing the shrouds in the nearest Ioch of those who were to die. 

As you can see there, is quite a bit of folklore in many different country's and cultures too. We have Ireland, Scotland, the traditions of the Romans and Celtic too. And we have only just began. 

The Banshee was thought to belong to the fairy world and dwell in a fairy mounds, but to shun the society of other fairies.

She is described many different ways. So many in fact you will find that, I have quite a few different pictures, of different artist that have depicted their versions of what the banshee would look like. Some would say she is described as a smallish woman, others as a more larger. The banshee has been been described to have white, black, gray, brown and even pale blonde tresse in their hair. Their complexions range for waxy white, bluest hue's, blackest swampiest look , ghostly like, to even almost human looking. 

She would appear in the birthplace of the man or woman who was about to die. Mostly in the early morning to the late evening. She could be heard wailing from as far as she approached the house. Sometimes though not always she came right up to the windowpanes. When she went away, there was often a fluttering sound as if a bird was flapping it's wings nearby...

 In Celtic folklore the banshee only ever warned families of pure Celtic Blood and wouldn't accompany them overseas if they had emigrated but could be heard in their homes if misfortune's had befallen upon them on the other side of the world... She also attached herself to places, such as crossroads and certain trees or streams, which then became imbued with an eerie atmosphere. 
Many morality tales have sprung up around the myth of the banshee,  especially regarding men who have offender her.
Perhaps these old wives tales were told to young boys to make them respect women and to live temperate lives. 
It is interesting to note that the banshee is always portrayed as a female spirit and it makes for a certain symmetry that mankind is brought forth into the world and ushered form it by women.

The christian version of the banshee paints her as a demon wailing for the souls that ascend to heaven and thus escape her master's clutches. 
She is also sometimes considered to be the soul of a unbaptized child or a woman who was too proud too surrender herself to God-
Interesting thought- Another interesting theory about the 
banshee is that the myth of her is evolved form the professional
mourners who were paid to wail at the funerals of important
people. They were often wise old crones, dressed in black and 
paid in drink. Perhaps they found no respite in death and were
condemned to continue this offering as a punishment for their 
insincerity. 
Wendy 

Human looking banshee

 Ghostly banshee 

Swampy banshee

 Ghostly banshee

Demon banshee

Demon banshee

 Spirit banshee

Enticing Elves-2013

Enticing Elves~
These Mischievous Elves spirits take pleasure in deluding travelers who step into territory or their forest. They might remove signs or turn them to another path towards their forest, that goes deep in the woods where the path will at some point vanish. These Enticing Elves take pleasure in watching humans going through their forest and thinking they are going to have a nice day walk then return to their camp site on the edge of their forest. So they watch for the perfect moment to remove the signs that were put up by the human park rangers which of course drive them crazy too. Neither campers nor park rangers would ever know, in ancient times and present if their signs were lost do to mischievous Enticing elves.

These elves might adopt more magical means by urging mortals to venture beyond what they would normally go and by getting them to get deeper and deeper into the unknown of their realm. 

These tiny elves are able to shape-shift into any different kinda animals, vegetables and even minerals as they move through the vegetation in the forest and lust valley's that surround the forests. There are faeries too that might even manifest as a familiar tree, a fellow traveler with useful directions, or as an alluring sound.

These Elves are very mischievous creatures you might say. They have been know to use a friends call in distress in a human voice or use mysterious musical tones to draw humans deeper into their forest so they will n ever find their way out.

This is an trick of the West Malaysia's Orange Bunyi Elves. Zaire's Elaka are human  devouring dwarves, they use tinkling bells which can be heard for miles in the trembling air, which will distorted any man's senses and sense of time, space and mind. For the woodland elves, they use seduction as a temptation to the humans for which they cannot resist. In Greek mythology, the woodland elves were dominating the woods of the deity pan, ruler of the lustful and pursuit and unwanted advances that led humans to the state of alarm named after him PANIC...

 The sexual charge of the forest motivates many of its denizens were the Sweden's wood caretaker's (Skagsro) or a woman of the forest which may materialize as a tiny beautiful woman, in an elegantly dress that is showing her shapely naked body thought very thin white linen type of material. Being that she is in the deep woods her clothes wood be a bit damp to so that would add to the seduction. It could also be a exquisitely naked woman all but for her long auburn locks. She will approached the hunters and woodsmen beckoning them away from their safety of their campfire, to come with her into the woods. Once the men are smitten, they are forever at her beck and call, enticed into the trysts depths of the forest after dark.  Thus the men are then entrapped, they lose their way, many lose their minds.

But though she is an tricky elf and disruptive; she is a respectful dalliance with a (Skagsro), an may be worth a gamble, even today, since she can reward on a hunted if well pleased by tributes. Other forest spirits live, and give. They also take life on the edge of our world - by drown into the human habitation for food and other sustenance, physical or emotional. A German Holzfrouen , wood - wives, similar to the Skagsro, are enticed by the scent of baking bread and may turn up in a kitchen to borrow something or ask in the woods for a barrow to be mended. To give of time and skills willing is to be rewarded with wood chips, which may turn into Gold....

So next time you go wondering off in the woods don't

go to far and always bring your own directions. Don't 
listen to soft voices in the breeze and beware of the talking animals. And for all you men out there. Beware of the Sweden's or Skagsro Elf. Who is the woman of the forest who can be very alluring without much clothing. It might sound like a lot of fun at first. But as she has you in her grips you might find your self so deep in the forest that you may never will see the light of the sun again or any of your friends or family. So beware. Of the Enticing Elves & Faeries.
Wendy

   Cynthia Blog