Subject: LL-L: "Folk Beliefs" [E] LOWLANDS-L, 13.JUN.1999 (01)

[Lowlands-L Administrator]

 ==========================================================================
 L O W L A N D S - L * 13.JUN.1999 (01) * ISSN 1089-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
 Posting Address: <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>
 Web Site: <http://www.geocities.com/~sassisch/rhahn/lowlands/>
 User's Manual: <http://www.lsoft.com/manuals/1.8c/userindex.html>
 ==========================================================================
 You have received this because your account has been subscribed upon
 request. To unsubscribe, please send the command "signoff lowlands-l"
 as message text from the same account to
 <listserv at listserv.linguistlist.org> or sign off at
 <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
 ==========================================================================

From: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk>
Subject: Rustic Beliefs

> From: "Sandy Fleming" <sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk>
> Subject: Rustic Beliefs
>
> I came across an actual incident where Atwell's family are out on the
> road and a thunderstorm approaches. His mother is anxious to get them
> all home and prepare the house against the storm:
>
> "We must hurry," urged my mother, "We must git hwome an cover up the
> looken-glasses, 'vore do come on too heavy, an wopen all the doors."
>
> Atwell goes on to explain the logic in this: the mirrors had to be
> covered up because it was thought that they might attract lightening,
> and all the doors had to be opened to let the thunder out. It was
> thought that, since you can hear the thunder in the house, it must
> have come down the chimney and therefore would have to be let out
> through the doors.

I remember that my own mother (from southern Ireland) believed that not
only mirrors, but also window-glass, attracted lightning so you had to
stay away from both during a thunderstorm.

Although this was grossly far-fetched as she practised it, I think it
may nevertheless have some remote basis in fact.

Consider mirrors. The reflective backing of a mirror (old style) was a
sheet of mercury -- a conducting metal. The electric potential at the top
of a tall mirror would be the same as at the bottom, so the mirror has
the effect of shortening the path from the high voltage on the cloud to
the low voltage of the earth. If a lightning-strike in the room is likely
in the first place, then it is particularly likely to be initiated via the
mirror. So it may well be possible that someone in the past experienced a
shattered mirror during a thunderstorm -- or was even struck themselves
when standing near the mirror -- which, it seems to me, could well give
rise to a precautionary myth of this kind.

As for standing near windows -- since for practical purposes a window
is a hole in the wall of a house, if lightning is striking near the house
it is more likely to find a path to earth through a human body standing
near the window, than if the person keeps away from the window. So a
similar myth could arise.

(In case anyone is wondering if lightning ever comes inside a building: I
myself have a vivid memory of being at the top of a staircase during a
thunderstorm, about to go down, when I saw a narrow flash go across the
bottom of the stairs, just above floor level, and into the skirting
board, accomanied by a loud sharp crack. I presume it was a nearly-spent
offshoot of a main strike, finding its way to earth through the mains
cables or a water pipe, since there didn't seem to be any serious damage
afterwards. Nevertheless I still feel thankful I wasn't at the bottom of
the stairs at the time.)

> Now in the light of this, suddenly the Hornblotton story doesn't seem
> as impossible as I once thought! Could it be that in Hornblotton,
> people once felt that you couldn't honestly be sure of a thing unless
> you had been in proper contact with it, hence the need to put your
> hand out of the window in the morning to be absolutely sure that it
> was light?

Can't comment on this one, Sandy -- my experiences don't cover this case!

Ted.

--------------------------------------------------------------------
E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk>
Date: 13-Jun-99                                       Time: 11:07:32
------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------

----------

From: Richard L Turner <fr.andreas at juno.com>
Subject: Rustic Beliefs

Chairete, Kalagathoi!

It is tempting to reply to Sandy's e-mail with the story of how both of
my grandmothers and my mother live in dread of thunderstorms and demand
absolute quiet lest the noise attract lightning. I cannot off-hand say
how widespread this belief was or is, since I was always at home during
the storms. While it is certainly an illogical belief, grounded as so
many are in sympathetic magic, it is not without its classical parallel
in the story of the man who pretended to be Zeus and drove around in a
chariot terrorizing people and making loud thundering noises with the
sheets of tin he had attached to his car. He was struck dead by lightning
on account of his hubris, of course. I read the story as a boy and cannot
recall the unfortunate's name, but I believe the story appears in the
Appendix of Very Minor Myths at the back of Edith Hamilton's book.

Now that I'm a grown-up man and have put off such tales as the stuff and
nonsense that they are, I still keep quiet during the celestial "son et
lumiere". I never carry around a sheet of tin to rattle during a
thunderstorm, either. Or a golf club.

Me thermoi evchoi,
+Fr Andreas Richard Turner.

==================================END=======================================
 * Please submit contributions to <lowlands-l at listserv.linguistlist.org>.
 * Contributions will be displayed unedited in digest form.
 * Please display only the relevant parts of quotes in your replies.
 * Commands for automated functions (including "signoff lowlands-l") are to
   be sent to <listservX-Mozilla-Status: 0009.org> or at
   <http://linguistlist.org/subscribing/sub-lowlands-l.html>.
 * Please use only Plain Text format, not Rich Text (HTML) or any other
   type of format, in your submissions
 ========================================================================