While reading the book series "The Mortal Instruments", I stumbled upon the word "Nephilim", which in the books means the race of the Shadow Hunters - a mix of humans with the blood of an Angel. You can than imagine my surprise when I saw this word while I read about fallen Angels for yesterday's post!
     According to traditional religious belief, Nephilim can be considered the offspring of the "Sons of God" (the Angels) and the "Daughters of Men" (human women) before the Deluge according to Genesis 6:4. The name is also used in reference to giants who inhabited Canaan at the time of the Israelite conquest of Canaan according to Numbers 13:33. A similar biblical Hebrew word with different vowel-sounds is used in Ezekiel 32:27 to refer to dead Philistine warriors.
     This became a very complicated subject, and it can be analyzed through many angles: for example, the New American Bible draws a parallel to the Epistle of Jude and the statements set forth in Genesis, suggesting that the Epistle refers implicitly to the paternity of nephilim as heavenly beings who came to earth and had sexual intercourse with women. The footnotes of the Jerusalem Bible suggest that the Biblical author intended the nephilim to be an "anecdote of a superhuman race". Some Christian commentators have argued against this view, citing Jesus's statement that angels do not marry. Others believe that Jesus was only referring to angels in heaven.
     What about you? What do you think the Nephilim are? As for me, I think I'll continue with the Shadow Hunters view, at least until I gather more information about this subject!

~Ally

      If Leatherface had a mania for libraries and books in general, this would better explain the reason behind binding books with human flesh. But no, it had to be creepy humans! - I'm not complaining, I just like stranger and non-existing explanations.
     Harvard University made a nasty discovery: a few years ago, three separate books were found in Harvard University's library that had particularly strange-looking leather covers. Upon further inspection, it was discovered that the smooth binding was actually human flesh... And, in one case, skin allegedly harvested from a man who was flayed alive. Yaiks.
     As it turns out, the practice of using human skin to bind books was actually pretty popular during the 17th century (!). It's referred to as Anthropodermic bibliopegy and proved pretty common when it came to anatomical textbooks (there's a hidden pun there, see if you can find it!). Medical professionals would often use the flesh of cadavers they'd dissected during their research. "Let us not waste that corpse, says I!"
     Harvard's creepy books deal with Roman poetry, French philosophy,  and a treatise on medieval Spanish law for which the above mentioned flayed skin was supposedly used. The book, Practicarum quaestionum circa leges regias… has a very interesting inscription inside, check it out:

     "The book’s 794th and final page includes an inscription in purple cursive: ‘the bynding of this booke is all that remains of my dear friende Jonas Wright, who was flayed alive by the Wavuma on the Fourth Day of August, 1632. King Mbesa did give me the book, it being one of poore Jonas chiefe possessions, together with ample of his skin to bynd it. Requiescat in pace."

      Years later, the infamous "flayed skin book" had garnered so much attention on campus that Harvard went ahead and had the thing tested, concluding that it was likely a morbid 17th century joke. Despite the creepy inscription, their tests showed that the book's cover was actually made out of a mixture of "cattle and pig collagen". Hey, two genuine flesh-books out of three ain't bad.
      According to Director of University Libraries Sidney Verba '53, there are almost certainly more of the human flesh-books out there, but while it's possible to touch the two identified skin-books in Harvard's rare book room, the librarians aren't exactly fond of all the attention they've received lately. In fact, they've made it a point to downplay their ownership of the real flesh-bound books in favor of reminding the media that one of them is fake.

~Ally

      This week I finally watched the animation "The Book of Kells" and was fascinated by its art and music. One thing that got me hooked was the adoption of elements who actually ARE in the real Book of Kells and their incorporation in the movie. So you can guess how happy I was when I found out that the cat called Pangur Bán in the movie was also present in the Book! In it, one of the monks wrote a poem about his little white cat Pangur Bán, making comparisons between writing and mouse hunting. He even scribbled the poem down in the margin of the book and drew pictures of the cat! Below you can find the entire poem. Enjoy!

Pangur Bán

"I and Pangur Bán, my cat,
'Tis a like task we are at;
Hunting mice is his delight,
Hunting words I sit all night.

Better Far than praise of men
'Tis to sit with books and pen;
Pangur bears me no ill will,
He too plies his simple skill.

'Tis a merry thing to see
At our tasks how glad are we,
When at home we sit and find
Entertainment to our mind.

Oftentimes a mouse will stray
In the hero Pangur's way;
Oftentimes my keen thought set
Takes a meaning in its net.

'Gainst the wall he sets his eye
Full and fierce and sharp and sly;
'Gainst the wall of knowledge I
All my little wisdom try.

When a mouse darts from its den,
O how glad is Pangur then!
O what gladness I do prove
When I solve the doubts I love!

So in peace our tasks we ply,
Pangur Bán, my cat and I;
In our arts we find our bliss,
I have mine and he has his.

Practise every day has made
Pangur perfect in his trade;
I get wisdom day and night
Turning darkness into light."


~Ally

     I got a little carried away yesterday when I wrote about our dear Smeagol and decided to find out if other people had used our favorite ringbearer in other media that not literary fiction. And turns out someone did!
     "Smeagol" is the name of a genus of sea slugs of the family of mollusks called Smeagolidae. They exist in New Zeeland and Australia. The first of the species was discovered in 1971 and in 1980 it was named Smeagol manneringi after you know who. F. M. Climo, who named the new order, family and species, wrote this in the New Zealand Journal of Zoology in 1980:
     “The genus takes its name from the pallid, sometimes subterranean Tolkien character Smeagol (whose alternative name is Gollum), a pitiable humanoid who ultimately played a very important role in saving ‘Middle earth’ from evil forces. The slug described below is far more significant, phylogenetically, than its drab exterior indicates – hence the analogy.”
     And if you think that that was the only biologic occurrence of Tolkien characters, you're wrong! Biologist Leigh Van Valen named 20 (!) fossil mammals he discovered after characters from Tolkien’s works. Among them are Bomburia, Mimatuta morgoth and Earendil, to name a few.
     So there you have it, fellow biologists, a new reason to discover species: to name them after your favorite literary characters!

~Ally

     Yup. Seriously. I mean, not exaaaaactly schizophrenic, but a bearer of schizoid personality disorder, according to a research by six medical students and a lecturer in old age psychiatrypublished in 2004 in the British Medical Journal.
     The article first examines Gollum’s mental state and notes that while “he shows no evidence of clinical depression, although he subjectively feels sad and is anxious to be reunited with his ‘precious’” there are ”features of dissociation”. They also note that he suffers from paranoia, especially when it comes to Sauron and Samwise Gamgee.
     The authors consider several possible diagnoses and begin with possible reasons to his physical symptoms. A brain tumor is seen as unlikely due to his longstanding symptoms. They go on to suggest that due to his limited diet he could suffer from B-12 deficiency, which can cause delusions as well as paranoia, and iron deficiency anaemia, causing loss of hair and weight. Wow, where's my B-12 supplement?!
     Finally, the authors note that Gollum does not fulfill the criteria for schizophrenia but that “he fulfils seven of the nine criteria for schizoid personality disorder (ICD F60.1), and, if we must label Gollum’s problems, we believe that this is the most likely diagnosis.” Poor Smeagol!
     .:. Oh, and a late Happy Tolkien Reading Day for all my precious readers!!! .:.

~Ally

     (SCREAMING INTERNALLY A-OOO! A-OOO!!!)
     I can't believe I've been posting and running this blog for 300 days. Some days it seems like it's been forever since I started it, and some days it feels like it was just yesterday. Anyway, today I want to show you a poem that has kept me going - as it did with the incredible Nelson Mandela - and giving me strengh and energy to accomplish all my duties.
     It is a short Victorian poem by the English poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903). It was written in 1875 and published in 1888 in his first volume of poems, Book of Verses, where it is the fourth poem in the section Life and Death (Echoes). It originally had no title.
     I hope it inspires you too. And many thanks to my friend Leo who showed me this marvelous poem!

 Invictus
by William Ernest Henley

"Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."

~Ally

     If you're fond of fairytales as I am, then you should definetely look up Spenser's The Faerie Queene, one of the masterpieces of English poetry, and certainly part of the literary pedigree that culminated in Tolkien. However, the original text is very difficult to follow for modern readers because of the archaic language and spelling - not to mention that not all of us are fluent in English. But don't worry: to our rescue comes Mary Macleod! Her late Victorian retelling in straightforward modern English allows one to plow through Spenser's intricate and allegorical plot. So I thought we sould start with the fist chapter of the tale of "The Red Cross Knight" ("Right faithful true he was in deed and word"), called

The Court of the Queen

     "ONCE upon a time, in the days when there were still such things as giants and dragons, there lived a great Queen. She reigned over a rich and beautiful country, and because she was good and noble every one loved her, and tried also to be good. Her court was the most splendid one in the world, for all her knights were brave and gallant, and each one thought only of what heroic things he could do, and how best he could serve his royal lady. The name of the Queen was Gloriana, and each of her twelve chief knights was known as the Champion of some virtue. Thus Sir Guyon was the representative of Temperance, Sir Artegall of Justice, Sir Calidore of Courtesy, and others took up the cause of Friendship, Constancy, and so on.

Every year the Queen held a great feast, which lasted twelve days. Once, on the first day of the feast, a stranger in poor clothes came to the court, and, falling before the Queen, begged a favour of her. It was always the custom at these feasts that the Queen should refuse nothing that was asked, so she bade the stranger say what it was he wished. Then he besought that, if any cause arose which called for knightly aid, the adventure might be entrusted to him.

When the Queen had given her promise he stood quietly on one side, and did not try to mix with the other guests who were feasting at the splendid tables. Although he was so brave, he was very gentle and modest, and he had never yet proved his valour in fight, therefore he did not think himself worthy of a place among the knights who had already won for themselves honour and renown.

Soon after this there rode into the city a fair lady on a white ass. Behind her came her servant, a dwarf, leading a warlike horse that bore the armour of a knight. The face of the lady was lovely, but it was very sorrowful.

Making her way to the palace, she fell before Queen Gloriana, and implored her help. She said that her name was Una; she was the daughter of a king and queen who formerly ruled over a mighty country; but, many years ago, a huge dragon came and wasted all the land, and shut the king and queen up in a brazen castle, from which they might never come out. The Lady Una therefore besought Queen Gloriana to grant her one of her knights to fight and kill this terrible dragon.

Then the stranger sprang forward, and reminded the Queen of the promise she had given. At first she was unwilling to consent, for the Knight was young, and, moreover, he had no armour of his own to fight with.

Then said the Lady Una to him, "Will you wear the armour that I bring you, for unless you do you will never succeed in the enterprise, nor kill the horrible monster of Evil? The armour is not new, it is scratched and dinted with many a hard-fought battle, but if you wear it rightly no armour that ever was made will serve you so well."

Then the stranger bade them bring the armour and put it on him, and Una said, "Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take

 the helmet of salvation and the sword of the SPIRIT, which is the word of GOD."

And when the stranger had put off his own rough clothes and was clad in this armour, straightway he seemed the goodliest man in all that company, and the Lady Una was well pleased with her champion; and, because of the red cross which he wore on his breastplate and on his silver shield, henceforth he was known always as "the Red Cross Knight." But his real name was Holiness, and the name of the lady for whom he was to do battle was Truth.

So these two rode forth into the world together, while a little way behind followed their faithful attendant, Prudence. And now you shall hear some of the adventures that befell the Red Cross Knight and his two companions.

~Ally

     I remember hearing about folios a long time ago, but couldn't quite recall what they were... So it's time to dig!
    The term "folio", from the Latin folium (leaf), apparently has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing. It is firstly a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book made in this way. Secondly it is a general term for a sheet, leaf or page in (especially) manuscripts and old books, and thirdly an approximate term for the size of a book, and for a book of this size.
     Firstly a folio (abbreviated fo or 2°) is a book or pamphlet made up of one or more full sheets of paper, on each of which four pages of text are printed, two on each side; each sheet is then folded once to produce two leaves. Each leaf of a folio book thus is one half the size of the original sheet. Ordinarily, additional printed folio sheets would be inserted inside one another to form a group or "gathering" of leaves prior to binding the book.
     Secondly "folio" is used in terms of page numbering for some books and most manuscripts that are bound but without page numbers as an equivalent of "page" (both sides), "sheet" or "leaf", using recto and verso to designate the first and second sides, and (unlike the usage in printing) disregarding whether the leaf concerned is actually physically still joined with another leaf. This usually appears abbreviated: "f26r." means the first side of the 26th leaf in a book. This will be on the right hand side of the opening of any book composed in a script that is read from left-to-right, such as Latin (as used in English), Cyrillic, or Greek, and will be opposite for books composed in a script that is read from right-to-left, such as Hebrew and Arabic.
    Thirdly folio is also used as an approximate term for a size of book, typically about 15 inches (38 cm) tall, and as such does not necessarily indicate the actual printing format of the books, which may even be unknown as is the case for many modern books. Other common book formats are quarto and octavo, which are both also printing formats, involving two and three folds in the sheet respectively. Famous folios (in both senses) include the Gutenberg Bible, printed in about 1455, and the First Folio collected edition of Shakespeare's plays, printed in 1623; however their actual size is rather different.

~Ally

      If you're familiar with Lewis Carrol's "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass" you've most certainly already stumbled upon the marvelous drawings of John Tenniel. But one thing I didn't know about him is that he was blind in one eye! So here are a couple more facts about him.
    John Tenniel was the third son of John Baptist Tenniel (1793–1879), a dancing-master, was born in London on 28th February, 1820. His biographer, Lewis Perry Curtis, has pointed out: "Living in genteel poverty in Kensington, his parents could not afford much formal education for their six children. Tenniel, the third son, attended a local primary school and then became the pupil of his athletic father, who taught him fencing, dancing, riding, and other gentlemanly arts. At the age of twenty, while fencing with his father, the button of his opponent's foil fell off and he suffered a cut that blinded his right eye - an injury that he concealed from his father for the rest of his life in order to spare him any pangs of guilt."
    Tenniel attended the Royal Academy but left in disgust at the quantity of teaching he received. When Tenniel was sixteen he began having his paintings exhibited at the Suffolk Street Galleries. He was soon recognised as a talented artist and he received several commissions, including the production of a fresco for the House of Lords.
     He also had a photographic memory and never used models or photographs when drawing. He wrote: "I have a wonderful memory of observation - not for dates, but anything I see I remember. Well, I get my subject on Wednesday night; I think it out carefully on Thursday, and make my rough sketch; on Friday morning I begin, and stick to it all day, with my nose well down on the block. By means of tracing-paper I transfer my design to the wood and draw on that. Well, the block being finished, it is handed over to Swain's boy (Joseph Swain was the engraver) at about 6.30 to 7 o'clock, who has been waiting for it for an hour or so, and at 7.30 it is put in hand for engraving. That is completed on the following night, and on Monday night I receive by post the copy of next Wednesday's paper. Although I have never the courage to open the packet. I always leave it to my sister, who opens it and hands it across to me, when I just take a glance at it, and receive my weekly pang." When possible, he arranged meetings with the leading politicians so that he could obtain a close look at the subjects of his drawings.

~Ally

     When I researched about books of hours I stumbled upon a term I had never read before: Cumdach. So I decided to do a little more digging in my beloved bookworm world and found out some pretty interesting things about it!
     A cumdach or book shrine is an elaborate ornamented box or case used as a reliquary to enshrine books regarded as relics of the saints who had used them in Early Medieval Ireland. They are normally later than the book they contain, often by several centuries, typically the book comes from the heroic age of Irish monasticism before 800, and the surviving cumdachs date from after 1000, although it is clear the form dates from considerably earlier.
     The usual form is a design based on a cross on the main face, with use of large gems of rock crystal or other semi-precious stones, leaving the spaces between the arms of the cross for more varied decoration. Several were carried on a chain or cord, often suspended round the neck, which by placing them next to the heart was believed to bring spiritual and perhaps medical benefits. They were also used to witness contracts. Many had hereditary lay keepers from among the chiefly families who had formed links with monasteries. Most surviving examples are now in the National Museum of Ireland.
     Only five early examples survive, including those of the Book of Dimma and Book of Mulling at Trinity College, Dublin, and the Cathach of St. Columba and Stowe Missal at the Royal Irish Academy. Only the cumdach for the Gospels of St Molaise survives, while the book is lost, but more often the reverse is the case. Other books such as the Book of Kells, Book of Armagh and Book of Durrow are known to have once had either cumdachs or treasure bindings, or both, but with their valuable precious metals they were a natural target for looters and thieves. The church in Ireland emphasised relics that were, or were thought to be, objects frequently used by monastic saints, rather than the body parts preferred by most of the church, although these were also kept in local versions of the house-shaped chasse form, such as the Scottish Monymusk Reliquary. Another Irish speciality was the bell-shrine, encasing the hand bells used to summon the community to services or meals, and one of the earliest reliquaries enshrined the belt of an unknown saint, and was probably worn as a test of truthfulness and to cure illness. It probably dates to the 8th century and was found in a peat bog near Moylough, County Sligo.
     Cumdachs are to be distinguished from the metalwork treasure bindings that probably covered most grand liturgical books of the period. However the designs may well have been very similar; the best surviving Insular example, the lower cover of the Lindau Gospels in the Morgan Library in New York, is also centred on a large cross, surrounded by interlace panels. Treasure bindings were metalwork assemblies tacked onto the wooden boards of a conventional bookbinding, so essentially the same technically as the faces of many cumdachs, which are also attached with tacks to a core wooden box.

~Ally