THE TOWER OF THE WHITE CHEVALIER.THE TOWER OF THE WHITE CHEVALIER.
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whom my father had saved only to be murdered by him. “ Come on! Who cares for ghost or devil 1 ’’ There was a rush into the room, then a cry from those nearest the door. “ Take care ! The floor ! ” But it was too late. The loosened boards gave way, and down went a dozen men, Michaud among them, through a yawning gulf clear to the ground-floor. “ Back ! back ! The tower is falling ! ” was the
cry, while the shrieks of the men below added to the confusion. The tower was at once deserted, %nd we presently heard sounds which told us that flie fallen men were being rescued from amid the ruins of the floor. “ To the cellars ! ” cried now the voice of Pierre Le Febre. “ Let us taste the old chevalier’s wine and brandy.” “ Good, Pierre 1 ” said Andrew. “ Once let them get among the casks and bottles and we are safe. But it is time we were stirring. Aunt, can you walk ? ” “ Oh, yes 1 I can do anything you wish,” answered my mother in the same calm way. She seemed to have all her wits about her, but she did not speak unless we spoke to her. “ Come, then,” and he opened the door of the secret passage into which pussy led the way, majestically waving his tail and looking back as if to say, “Come on, and fear nothing! You are under my protection.” I went first, after I had lighted the lantern, then came my mother, and lastly Andrew. We had just reached the level of the chapel, and were about passing the door which led into it, when Blanchon, the cat, stopped, growling fiercely. In another moment a light shone through the opened door; the next Blanchon sprang forward with his wild, unearthly yell of onset, and flung himself into the face of a man who had just put his head through the opening. There was a scream of quite another character, and the man fled stumbling and falling on his way out, while Blanchon came back to us with the loud purr which was his way of expressing complacency. “Good cat,” said Andrew. “That man won’t find his way back in a hurry, but someone else may. Hold up the light, Vevette.” I held up the light while Andrew pulled to the door, and with a stone smashed the spring lock. “ Nobody will open that, even if anyone dares try,” said he. “Now for all the haste we can make.” I caught up Blanchon and carried him, to which he made no objection. We were soon in the open air, and walking quickly down the course of the stream which had scooped out the valley, we found ourselves in the little hamlet. It seemed to be deserted. Not a man was to be seen, nor a light save in Isabeau’s cottage. The night had grown wild and stormy, but it was not very dark, and we could see the mast of the boat, which lay at the end of the little pier. “Now if Pierre has been true,” said Andrew, and at that moment we heard his voice. “Monsieur and madame, is that you! All is ready; but we shall have a wild night.” “Never mind, so long as the wind is fair,” returned Andrew in the same whisper. “ I would
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whom my father had saved only to be murdered by him. “ Come on! Who cares for ghost or devil 1 ’’ There was a rush into the room, then a cry from those nearest the door. “ Take care ! The floor ! ” But it was too late. The loosened boards gave way, and down went a dozen men, Michaud among them, through a yawning gulf clear to the ground-floor. “ Back ! back ! The tower is falling ! ” was the
cry, while the shrieks of the men below added to the confusion. The tower was at once deserted, %nd we presently heard sounds which told us that flie fallen men were being rescued from amid the ruins of the floor. “ To the cellars ! ” cried now the voice of Pierre Le Febre. “ Let us taste the old chevalier’s wine and brandy.” “ Good, Pierre 1 ” said Andrew. “ Once let them get among the casks and bottles and we are safe. But it is time we were stirring. Aunt, can you walk ? ” “ Oh, yes 1 I can do anything you wish,” answered my mother in the same calm way. She seemed to have all her wits about her, but she did not speak unless we spoke to her. “ Come, then,” and he opened the door of the secret passage into which pussy led the way, majestically waving his tail and looking back as if to say, “Come on, and fear nothing! You are under my protection.” I went first, after I had lighted the lantern, then came my mother, and lastly Andrew. We had just reached the level of the chapel, and were about passing the door which led into it, when Blanchon, the cat, stopped, growling fiercely. In another moment a light shone through the opened door; the next Blanchon sprang forward with his wild, unearthly yell of onset, and flung himself into the face of a man who had just put his head through the opening. There was a scream of quite another character, and the man fled stumbling and falling on his way out, while Blanchon came back to us with the loud purr which was his way of expressing complacency. “Good cat,” said Andrew. “That man won’t find his way back in a hurry, but someone else may. Hold up the light, Vevette.” I held up the light while Andrew pulled to the door, and with a stone smashed the spring lock. “ Nobody will open that, even if anyone dares try,” said he. “Now for all the haste we can make.” I caught up Blanchon and carried him, to which he made no objection. We were soon in the open air, and walking quickly down the course of the stream which had scooped out the valley, we found ourselves in the little hamlet. It seemed to be deserted. Not a man was to be seen, nor a light save in Isabeau’s cottage. The night had grown wild and stormy, but it was not very dark, and we could see the mast of the boat, which lay at the end of the little pier. “Now if Pierre has been true,” said Andrew, and at that moment we heard his voice. “Monsieur and madame, is that you! All is ready; but we shall have a wild night.” “Never mind, so long as the wind is fair,” returned Andrew in the same whisper. “ I would
The British nobles in an attempt to prevent the total dissolution of the
state and to end the civil war. gathered in an assembly and agreed on a
compromise whereby Godrich. the Earl (Duke/King) of
Cornwall, would reign as regent and hold the Kingdom of Britain in trust for
the English heiress. Goldborough. the daughter of the late Anglican
heir, Cymen. and his wife. Adela. the Saxon heiress, only child and daughter
of England’s first Bretwalda. Aella of Sussex Thus, preserving the fiction of
centralized rule which was accepted only because the alternative
was unthinkable
. Prince-Regent. Earl (Duke/King) of Cornwall, reigned as regent of
Britain in the absence of a national-kmg during the interregnum that followed
the murder of the boy-king, Huai, and his mother. Queen Lonle (Lenore,
Lunette] There were civil wars throughout Britain dunng his regency The
episode of Havelock “The Dane* takes place dunng the regency of Earl
Godrich X. CADROD (CATRAUT), the Arthunan heir, established his headquarters
at a castle (site unsure] called “CALCHVYNYDD” (‘hill of chalk or lime”],
which name came to be his epithet, somewhere in the Bntish midlands between
the Thames and the Trent rivers. He fights the Cerdicite heir Cynnc “of
Wessex” X. CYNRIC (CUNORIX). the Cerdicite heir, the other claimant to the
Bntish throne, held sway south of the Thames in Wessex with his headquarters
at Winchester One of the surviving ex-tnumvirs. Riwal of Dumnoma
(Devonshire), meanwhile, was expelled from Bntam by Caradoc ‘Strong-Arm”.
Count of the Saxon Shore, in another regional-war. and fled to Armohca
(Bnttany] where he established himself at St. Bneoc. circa 552 Riwal was
killed fighting Cynvawr II of Cornwall, circa 555. and his widow married King
Cynvawr Prmce ludwal of Domnonee (son of Riwal. the ex-thumvir] fled his
murderous step-father (Cynvawr II of ComwaH-Brittany] and found refuge at the
court of King Childebert I of France (534-558), in 558. Prince ludwal of
Domnonee retook his throne Cynvawr II withdrew back to Cornwall, area 558,
and. circa 560. was murdered along with his wife (name] and son (St. Tremeur]
St Brieoc is attacked by King Childebert of France, and King Canao II leads
the resistance Meantime, the civil war between the House of Arthur and the
House of Cerdic continued to rage Cynnc repulsed Cadrod’s offensive at Old
Sarum (Salisbury] in 552. and slew him in battle at Bart>ury Castle, near
Swindon. Wiltshire, in 556 King Erp (Urban) of Gwent was killed in the battle
(fighting for the Arthurian heir]; and his kingdom was divided in halves, called
Gwent and Ergyng Cadrod ‘Calchvynydd” was survived by seven sons and three
daughters His eldest son. Cyndywyn. was murdered following
his fathers death in battle Another son. Cyndeym “Wledic*. rallied his father
s old supporters and earned on the struggle He slew Cynrtc in battle in 560
and set himself up as an anti-king although technically the throne was vacant
while the country was governed by Godhch. the Earl of Cornwall, who
officially reigned as regent of Bntain in the absence of a legitimate
‘national” king Cynric was survived by three sons Coelm (Ceawim). Cutha. and
Cwichelm. of whom the eldest Ceawlin (Coelin) succeeded to the
Wessex kingdom The name Ceawlin (Coelin) is Celtic, but the names of his
brothers, possibly half-brothers, have a Saxon favor to them Their mother may
have been a Saxon princess; or perhaps by this time the influence of Saxon
culture was beginning to show itself in the Wessex royal house 560-565 9.
HAVELOK ‘THE DANE”, barbarian-king. not usually numbered in the regnal-lists.
however, remembered in tradition, legend, and folklore, reigned for three years
as King of Bntain. or England. 560-562 The legend of Havelock “The Dane’
begins when he was a boy and tells us that a fisherman was ordered by
Denmark’s usurper-kmg to murder the true heir to the Danish throne. Havelock,
then a youth about age eleven, but instead the fisherman allowed the young
pnnce to escape to England Later, when Havelock had come of age. he
found employment with an English ealdorman He soon became famous for his
prowess at sports, and
The Cataclysm That Erased History 12,000 Years Ago | Beyond Science
The Younger Dryas stadial, also referred to as the Big Freeze, was a geologically brief (1,300 ± 70 years) period of cold climatic conditions and drought which occurred between approximately 12,800 and 11,500 years BP. The Younger Dryas stadial is thought to have been caused by the collapse of the North American ice sheets, although rival theories have been proposed
The Younger Dryas impact event is a contested hypothesis that an air burst from a purported comet above or even into the Laurentide Ice Sheet north of the Great Lakes set all of the North American continent ablaze around 12,900 years ago. The hypothesis attempts to explain the extinction of many of the large animals in North America and the unproven population decreases in the North American stone age Clovis culture about at the end of the Pleistocene epoch. Proponents claim the existence of a charred carbon-rich layer of soil found at some 50 Clovis-age sites across the continent. It has been criticized for not being consistent with paleoindian population estimates. Impact specialists have studied the claim and concluded that there never was such an impact, in particular because various physical signs of such an impact cannot be found. Evidence supporting the theory however has been further suggested by the 2012 paper presented to the PNAS (T.E. Bunch et al.) which looked at apparent high temperature impact melt products found in multiple sites of the ‘black mat’ across three continents dating to 12 900 years ago, This is further indicated by the discovery (Kurbatov et al. 2010) of the presence of a rich layer of nanodiamonds in the Greenland ice sheet coinciding with this date The Younger Dryas stadial, also referred to as the Big Freeze, was a geologically brief (1,300 ± 70 years) period of cold climatic conditions and drought which occurred between approximately 12,800 and 11,500 years BP. The Younger Dryas stadial is thought to have been caused by the collapse of the North American ice sheets, although rival theories have been proposed. http://khemitology.com/ The Younger Dryas impact event is a contested hypothesis that an air burst from a purported comet
Fomalhaut (Haftorang/Hastorang) – winter solstice (Watcher of the South)
The four dominant stars have an apparent magnitude of 1.5 or less.[4] The reason why they are called “Royal” is that they appear to stand aside from the other stars in the sky. The four stars, Aldebaran, Regulus, Antares, Fomalhaut, are the brightest stars in their constellations, as well as being part of the twenty five brightest stars in the sky, and were considered the four guardians of the heavens.[3] They marked the seasonal changes of the year and marked the equinoxes and solstices. Aldebaran watched the Eastern sky and was the dominant star in the Taurus constellation, Regulus watched the North and was the dominant star in the Leo constellation, Antares watched the West and was the alpha star in Scorpio, and Fomalhaut watched the Southern sky and was the brightest star in Piscis Austrinus (sharing the same longitude with the star Sadalmelik which is the predominant star in Aquarius). Aldebaran marked the vernal equinox and Antares marked the autumnal equinox, while Regulus marked the Summer Solstice and Fomalhaut the Winter Solstice. While watching the sky, the dominant star would appear in its season, each having a time of the year when most noticeable. Regulus was seen as the main star because it was in the constellation of Leo, giving it the power of the lion, signifying the strength of kings with large implications.[5] The constellations of the Royal Stars were said to be fixed because their positions were close to the four fixed points of the sun’s path.[5] The sun was then surrounded by four bright stars at the beginning of every season.[6] From this observation individuals began to denote them the Royal Stars.[6] By 700 BCE the Nineveh and Assyrians had essentially mapped the ecliptic cycle because of the four stars and were in result able to map the constellations, distinguishing them from the planets and the fixed stars.[5] From this, in 747 BCE the Babylonian King Nabu-nasir adopted a calendar derived from information based on the four stars, one following an eight-year cycle and one a nineteen-year cycle (later adopting the nineteen-year calendar as standard).[7] The Royal Stars were used primarily for navigation.They were also believed to govern events in the world. Major disasters, breakthroughs, and historical phenomenons were seen as caused by the stars and their alignment in the sky during the time in which the event occurred.[5] When the stars were aligned accordingly, favourable conditions followed, and when they were negatively aligned, disaster was predicted. Because Regulus was the most influential of the Royal Stars, events that took place while Regulus was in dominance were amplified and grave, foreshadowing destruction.
MYSTERY OF STONEHENGE AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH TIME
GROUP 8-POWER
for over 400,000 years. With the knowledge they amassed concerning the sun’s apparent path through the heavens, they worked back and verified, to within a few
and the period that elapsed before they were included in the modern method of measuring time is a piece of striking evidence in support of the claims of the
THE MYSTERY OF STONEHENGE AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH TIME This picture-diagram shows how the sun’s rays fell on the sacrificial stone at Stonehenge on midsummer morn 4000 years ago and in the beginning of the twentieth century. Sir Norman Lockyer roughly calculated that Stonehenge was erected 1700 years B.C., by calculating the divergence of the sun’s rays from the centre line through the Friar’s Heel Stone and the axis of the temple, the sun having shifted his apparent position, due to the tilting of the earth, which is known tq^be 48 seconds of an arc every century.
Babylonian star-gazers. There is even years, the solar position, such as would be
some truth in their contention that their indicated on a sun-dial.
astronomical calculations extended back The invention of a proper sun-dial was
3721
D 66
E
Below are listed the 93 brightest individual stars in order of their average apparent magnitudes. For comparison, the non-stellar objects in our Solar System with maximum visible magnitudes below +2.50 are the Moon (−12.92), Venus (−4.89), Jupiter (−2.94), Mars (−2.91), Mercury (−2.45), and Saturn (−0.49). An exact order of the visual brightness of stars is not perfectly defined for the following reasons:
The brightnesses of all stars were traditionally based on the apparent visual magnitude as perceived by the human eye, from the brightest stars of 1st magnitude to the faintest at 6th magnitude. The invention of the telescope and the discovery of double or binary stars meant that star brightness could be individual (separate) or total (combined).
More and more accurate instrumental photometry differentiated stellar magnitudes, often changing the order of lists of brighter stars.
Stellar magnitude is sometimes listed by the apparent brightness of stars as seen to the naked eye as if they were single stars, as it is here. Other examples include Norton’s Star Atlas 18th Edition pg. 136.[2]
Other stellar magnitude lists report individual stars, differentiating those in binary stars or double star systems. Often, the differences apply to the ten or hundred brightest stars. For example, the total or combined magnitude of Capella is 0.08, while Capella A and B have magnitudes of 0.76 and 0.91.
A third kind includes the Sun as first in the magnitude listings, making Sirius 2nd, Canopus 3rd, etc. Some, like this list, place the Sun at zero, as it is not a nighttime star.
There are sometimes small statistical variations in measured magnitudes; however, for most of the brightest stars, accurate photometry means brightness stays unchanged. These particular stars are sometimes called standard stars, which appear in the Catalogues of Fundamental Stars like the FK4, FK5 or FK6.
Some stars, like Betelgeuse and Antares, are variable stars, changing their magnitude over days, months or years. (In the table, these are indicated with var.)
Aldebaran is one of the easiest stars to find in the night sky, partly due to its brightness and partly due to its spatial relation to one of the more noticeable asterisms in the sky. If one follows the three stars of Orion‘s belt from left to right (in the Northern Hemisphere) or right to left (in the Southern), the first bright star found by continuing that line is Aldebaran. Since the star is located (by chance) in the line of sight between the Earth and the Hyades, it has the appearance of being the brightest member of the more scattered Hyadesopen star cluster that makes up the bull’s-head-shaped asterism; however, the star cluster is actually more than twice as far away, at about 150 light years. In this predawn occultation, Aldebaran has just reappeared on the dark limb of the waning crescent Moon (July 1997 still frame captured from video). Aldebaran is close enough to the ecliptic to be occulted by the Moon. Such occultations occur when the Moon’s ascending node is near the autumnal equinox. This event will next occur around 2015. A reasonably accurate estimate for the diameter of Aldebaran was obtained during the September 22, 1978 occultation.[11] Aldebaran is in conjunction with the Sun around June 1 of each year.[
– ‘a little below the elephant in size’ | Cardiff sciSCREEN
Article topic: Beasts of the Southern Wild Author: Dr Jacqui Mulville Link: Cardiff School of History, Archaeology and Religion In the film Beasts of the Southern Wild, the aurochs (plural aurochsen) is a strange hybrid wild boar/bull armed with both horns and tusks that comes to symbolise the disasters that looms over Hushpuppy, her family and her community. Early image of cave art depiction of the Aurochs The species of animals depicted in the film are a convergence of fact, film fiction and necessity as the film makers decided that only pigs and dogs could be trained to perform to such a high standard. The pig was chosen and when merged with characteristic of the real aurochs a somewhat ambiguous animal emerged. In reality aurochsen (latin name Bos primigenius) were wild cattle, now extinct, that once roamed across Eurasia, India, and North Africa. The last recorded aurochs died in 1627 in Poland’s Jaktorów Forest. The aurochs was far larger than most modern domestic cattle with a shoulder height of 2 metres and weighing in the region of 1,000 kilograms. To compare large domesticated cattle today are about 1.5 metres tall. Aurochs had several features rarely seen in modern cattle, such as lyre-shaped horns set at a forward angle whilst depictions and historic accounts indicate that they had a pale stripe down the spine, and sexual dimorphism of coat color. Males were black with a pale eel stripe or ‘finching’ down the spine, while females and calves were reddish. These animals were domesticated during the Neolithic, the period when farming was invented, and gave rise to our modern domestic cattle. There were at least two domestication events one gave rise to the European cattle (known as taurine cattle) and another that gave rise to the Indian subspecies, the Zebu cattle. Other species of wild cattle, the water buffalo, the Gaur and the Banteng were also domesticated. Recent work suggests that all Eurasian cattle were descended from as few as 80 animals that were domesticated in the Near East some 10,500 years ago (Bollongino et al 2012). These animals featured extensively in the human psyche over millennia. They are the creatures most often depicted by ancient hunters in the earliest stone age (Paleolithic) cave across Europe (e.g at Altamira and Lascaux) and were later worshipped by early farmers with their horns and skulls adorning shrines and homes (e.g. at Çatalhöyük in Turkey). The farming site of Catalhoyuk Aurochs are the bull that the god Zeus became, the inspiration for the Minotaur and they feature in depictions of bull leaping in ancient Crete. They were described by Julius Caesar as “a little below the elephant in size,” wrote, “and of the appearance, color, and shape of a bull. Their strength and speed are extraordinary; they spare neither man nor wild beast which they have espied.” Welsh aurochs dating to the Mesolithic (c. 100th to 40th century BC) have been recovered from Goldcliff, with their hoof prints, and those of their human hunters along with deer, wolves and birds, found preserved in the mud of the Severn Estuary. Finds of bones attributed to aurochs on archaeological sites in England are relatively rare after the Neolithic, recent work by archaeologists at Cardiff has confirmed that the first domestic cattle (as well as sheep, pottery and monument building) appeared in Britain in the 40th to 39th century BC. The clearance of woodland, competition with domestic stock and their diseases, as well as hunting lead to the species extinction by the 10th century BC (Yalden 1999). Auroch remains are often found in marshy ground (e.g. the Porlock Auroch in Somerset) and chemical analysis has suggested that wetlands were their preferred habitat (Lynch et al 2008). To see an aurochs in Cardiff just pop down the National Museum, where they have a skull on display. Aurochs persisted in Europe but by the 13th century A.D., their range was restricted to Poland, Lithuania, Moldavia, Transylvania and East Prussia. Their final refuge was the forests of modern day Poland, where by 1564 royal gamekeepers knew of only 38 animals. The last recorded live aurochs, a female, died in 1627 in the Jaktorów Forest from natural causes. The skull was later taken by the Swedish Army during the Swedish invasion of Poland (1655–1660) and is now the property of Livrustkammaren in Stockholm. These animals still hold a fascination for us and there have been two notable attempts to recreate aurochs. The Heck brothers in the early 20th century merged a variety of cattle breeds, including Spanish fighting bulls to create a large, and aggressive bovid. These experiments coincided with strain of Nazi thought that sought to apply ‘pseudo-Darwinian theories in support of a racialized conception of the state’ (see the article in cabinet magazine) and eventually resulted in the reintroduction of Aurochs to Poland. Bialowieza (including one of the Heck brothers and Goring) More recently the Stichting Taurus (Taurus Foundation), a private Dutch organization, is leading a selective breeding program in order to recreate the extinct aurochs through a combination of modern genetic expertise and old-fashioned breeding and return the Aurochs to the mountains of Central Europe. Rather than just selecting animals that look like aurochs this project is using modern DNA analysis to characteristic the aurochs genetic identity and then run a breeding program using modern animals that contain larger quantities of aurochs DNA. To do this the project leaders have begun to argue that the reported aggressive nature of the Aurochs has been exaggerated. Like other large bovids they are unlikely to be aggressive to humans unless threatened, an important characteristic if their re-introduction to inhabited areas is being planned. Thus the aurochs, although no longer physically present in our world, remains at large in our imagination. Their mythological status is enhanced by the early images on cave and house walls where they are painstakingly recreated with greater skill that the accompanying stick-like humans figures. In the film this imagery is drawn upon and they symbolize a threat to the human way of life. In reality it was us, the scrawny hunters, who exterminated them.
Aurochs – ‘a little below the elephant in size’ | Cardiff sciSCREEN
