Let's step away from piracy a little bit and talk about mythology!
     Today I read about the Celtic god Sucellus. He is described as the god of forests, agriculture and alcoholic beverages from the Roman province of Lusitania (which included approximately all of modern Portugal, south of the Douro river, and part of modern Spain). Historians claim that it is another name for the Celtic god Dis Pater, from whom, according to Julius Caesar, the Gauls descended. He was represented clothed in wolf furs and, actually, was originally a wolf.
    So, if you recall a little bit about Roman history, you'll remeber that they also considered themselves wolf descendants (Romulus and Remus). That led the Averni (one of the most powerful Gallic tribes who lived in what is now the Auvergne region of France, during the last centuries BC) to declair themselves brothers of the Latins.

~Ally

      Ancient pirates were awesome. If you haven't read much about it, check out my post from yesterday.
      Plutarch tells that, in 75 B.C.E., a 25-years-old Julius Caesar was captured by Cilician pirates, and they demanded a ramson of 20 talents (1,300 pounds) of silver for his release. Caesar, by then a private citizen, complained that this amount wasn't high enough (!) and insisted that the pirates double their demand. As you might have guessed, they happily agreed to.
      The sum took 38 days to arrive and, during this time, Caesar seemed to enjoy his time with the pirates: he joined their games, wrote poetry and threatened to hang and have them crucified - but the men assumed it was a joke. But it wasn't. Soon after his release, Caesar came back with a Roman fleet and fought against the pirates, who were, in the end, crucified.
      So what do we learn from this? That you don't mess with a future Roman emperor. He doesn't know "parley"!

~Ally

      Long before Black Beard and co. made their famous debuts in the seven seas, many pirates roamed around.
     According to Discovery News, the earliest pirates used the advantageous environments of the Aegean and Mediterranean seas to hide and wait for ambushes or to relax after a successful theft, given their great number of small islands. In fact, the word "pirate" has a Greek root in the word "peiran", which means "to atack, make a hostile attempt on, try".
    This whole daring, back in those days, evolved into an occupation, which in turn formed a community, and those people passed their traditions across generations! Referred as "Sea Peoples", ancient pirates were basically groups of people from various backgrounds, and usually targeted vessels from the dominant naval power at the time, a.k.a. Egypt. How do we now that? Because of references to piracy in ancient Egyptian tablets!
     Those raids continued until the Egyptian empire faced its sunset, but there was some resistance...
     Oh, and the famous "pirate speak" we love nowadays? Apparently comes from the portrayal of Long John Silver in Disney's adaptation of Robert Newton's Treasure Island. Sorry to burst your bubble on that.

~Ally

     By now, if you follow this blog, you must have noticed that I've got a thing for maps and monsters. When the two come together, you can imagine how excited I get! Yesterday I wrote about a couple of monsters that appear in Olaus Magnus' Carta Marina, and, today, I'll discuss it a little bit further.
     For startes, the complete name of the map is Carta marina et descriptio septemtrionalium terrarum ac mirabilium rerum in eis contentarum diligentissime eleborata anno dni 1539, which can be translated as "A marine map and description of the northern countries and their remarkable features, meticulously made in the year 1539." It represents the beggining of Swedish cartography, and the representations of the Nordic countries were quite accurate!
     Magnus was a Swede church man and he worked in the map for 12 years (!) before it was finally printed in Venice in 1539 with the title Carta Marina. You can see in the picture above that there are commentaries in the bottom left-hand corner. Those are in Latin, but there were also Italian and German commentaries printed separately.
     The map itself consists in 9 separate sheets of black and white paper (the color is a modern addendum, I believe), each one measuring 55 x 40 cm and printed separately. Arranged in 3 x 3, the sheets form the map, which is 125 cm high and 170 cm wide.
     The Carta Marina can be considered the predecessor of Magnus' great work: Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus (A History of the Nordic people), printed in Rome in 1555. That was the first description of the Nordic peoples and their countries. It is directly connected with Carta Marina, and some historians regard it as a comprehensive commentary to the map.

~Ally

     You just gotta love ancient mariners when you find something like this! I'm a big fan of sea monsters, but this was the first time I heard about an owl whale. Which - you might have figured out just by looking to the picture above - is a whale with an owl's head. Don't ask me why.
     This critter is also called Ziphius, from the Greek word "xiphias", which means sword. It allegedly swashbuckled its way over the seas, cutting vessels open with its sword-like dorsal fin, "doing mischief" (Loki-d, anyone? Teehee).
     And, before you go, please take note of the Ziphius' face expression: "Oh, crap." Seriously, Olaus, you're killing me.

~Ally

      This morning I watched my first Marx Brothers movie: "Monkey Business" (1931)! Despite the silliness that accompanies them in a lot of the movie, I had a great time. The next one from them on my list is "Duck Soup".
      They were originally a Vaudeville (I wrote about it just yesterday, remember?) family comic act from New York, and enjoyed success in Broadway and feature films from 1905 to 1949. The funniest ones were the older brothers: Chico, Harpo and Groucho. Each one developed an unique shtick or stage persona. Chico butchered the English language with his fake clumsy Italian accent, which gave rise to many unintended jokes. Harpo was a silent comedian and used his habilities to entertain the croud without speaking (he used a horn sometimes, and its nearly duck sound also helped the gags). Groucho, with his charactheristic eyebros, eyeglasses and mustache, made sarcastic and hilarious jokes about anything and everything. Zeppo, the younger brother, wasn't so funny and usually played straight roles, but historians say that he could imitate his brothers perfectly. He only appeared in the brothers' first five films. There was also another brother, Gummo, who didn't appear in any of the movies and is also remembered as not being so funny either.
      If you'd like to know more about the entire family, visit their official site!

~Ally

      Today, while I was learning about silent and early talking movies, I heard the expression "Vaudeville theater" and realised I didn't know anything about it. But no more!
      Well, Vaudeville or Variety theaters were the main entertainment in Canada and the USA in the early 1880's and late 1930's. It consisted in a show of many acts (often non related to each other) performed on stage, such as imitators of both genders, dancers, musicians (classical and popular), trained animals, comedians, acrobats, magicians, single act plays or a couple of scenes from a play, athletes, street singers, short films and even lectures given by celebrities! There could also be freak shows, horror circus, cheap museums and burlesque literature readings.
      In France, however, Vaudeville was a very popular poetry and dramatical composition gender.
    1929's Great Depression, the rise of radio and television contributed to the decline and, finally, the disappearance of the Vaudeville.

~Ally

      Watching "Ocean's Twelve" has got me wondering about thieves this past weekend.
     Arsène Lupin, for my disappointment, is a fictional character from a book series of detective fiction/crime fiction novels by French writer Maurice Leblanc. Lupin is described as a gentleman thief that acts as a force for good sometimes, even though he is operating in the wrong side of the law. The men defeated by Lupin are often worse villains than him. In Francophone countries, he has enjoyed a popularity as long-lasting and considerable as Sherlock Holmes in the English-speaking world.
      Leblanc was a contemporary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and, in some stories, Sherlock Holmes appears, only to be challenged by Lupin! However, legal objections from Conan Doyle back in those days forced Leblanc to change the character's name to Herlock Sholmes. Yeah, you didn't fool anyone with that one, dude. With the expiration of copyright protection many years later, Holmes and Lupin showed up together again in the 2008 PC 3D adventure game "Sherlock Holmes versus Arsène Lupin". In this game Holmes (and occasionally others) are attempting to stop Lupin from stealing five British valuable items. Lupin wants to steal the items in order to humiliate Britain, but he also admires Holmes and thus challenges him to try to stop him.

~Ally

    ... Happened in the Knightsbridge storehouse in London in 1987. Two men entered the money deposit claiming they wanted to rent a safe and no one noticed they carried pistols. With those, the men had an easy time dominating the manager and the security guards and took 112,9 million dolars (current quotation) away. In order not to be disturbed during the robbery, they hanged plates saying the storehouse was temporarily closed. The head of the crime, an Italian man named Valerio Viccei was found by the Brittish Police, thanks to his fingerprints.

~Ally

      If you saw his concert in Rock in Rio tonight, you know what I'm talking about. Enough said.

~Ally