Hitodama 人魂

The other title of this post: ‘fun tidbits from books’.

Hitodama are the visible souls of humans detached from their host bodies. They appear as red, orange, or blue-white orbs . . .

Hitodama can be distinguished from other hi no tama by the distinctive tails of light which trail behind them.

— Matthew Meyer: The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons

“Now, some one is dying,” thought the little girl, for she had been told by her old grandmother, the only person she had ever loved, and who was now dead, that when a star falls a soul goes up to Heaven.

— Hans Christian Andersen: The Little Match Girl

And indeed, there is a similar belief in Serbia and Mongolia that a falling star symbolises someone who is dying.

Huh, actually, upon reflection, that makes sense.

. . . appeared the star that men in book-Latin call “cometa”: some men say that in English it may be termed “hairy star”; for that there standeth off from it a long gleam of light, whilom on one side, whilom on each.

— The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

As usual, you may make of that what you will.

Part 7: CE 1102 – 1154

The man that had any property, was bereaved of it by violent guilds and violent moots. The man that had not, was starved with hunger.

∞

Now we will relate in part what happened in King Stephen’s time. In his reign the Jews of Norwich bought a Christian child before Easter, and tortured him after the same manner as our Lord was tortured; and on Long-Friday hanged him on a rood, in mockery of our Lord, and afterwards buried him.

∞

. . . but ever the more he gave them, the worse they were to him.

⋅ Nota Bene ⋅

(I wonder if that part about the jews of Norwich is true.)

Part 6: CE 1070 – 1101

The more men spake about right law, the more unlawfully they acted.

∞

If any churl lay with a woman against her will, he soon lost the limb that he played with.

∞

He made many deer-parks; and he established laws therewith; so that whosoever slew a hart, or a hind, should be deprived of his eyesight. As he forbade men to kill the harts, so also the boars; and he loved the tall deer as if he were their father. Likewise he decreed by the hares, that they should go free.

Part 2: CE 750 – 919

“The Voyages and the Slayings of the Danes.”

I really don’t know why I keep reading this, but it has the occasional interesting tidbit. Such as that Charles, king of the Franks, was slain by a boar. If you know how huge wild boars are, you wouldn’t be surprised. I thought Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin exaggerated their size because the proportions in the anime weren’t always exactly anatomically correct — for example, there is this one scene where a bear stomps three dogs to death at the same time with one paw, and we laughed a lot at this with my sister — but I guess not.

Also, this:

“And the same year after Easter, about the gang-days or before, appeared the star that men in book-Latin call “cometa”: some men say that in English it may be termed “hairy star”; for that there standeth off from it a long gleam of light, whilom on one side, whilom on each.”

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

Somehow I ended up reading this. I just finished part one: CE 1 – 748. (The Chronicle uses A.D. but we don’t abide by that.) It’s really boring and dry; so far it reads like “The Glorious Days of Slaying the Welsh and Britons,” by Saxons. The Chronicle divided the Welsh and the Britons into separate tribes but the Welsh say:

“They were the British people, and nobody ever heard the German name, “Wales,” which means a foreign land; or the word “Welsh,” which refers to foreigners, until men who were themselves outsiders came into Britain.”

So, you know, as usual, you can make of that what you will.

Anyhow, there was a lot of slaying of the Welsh since they landed on Britain at Vortigern’s invitation in 449 CE. As we learned from The Art of War and The Prince, leaving your national defence to mercenaries is never a good idea since the Saxons didn’t leave, they also invited everybody else along because:

“They described the worthlessness of the Britons, and the richness of the land.”

Curiously, the Jutes don’t get any other mention. Maybe they were peaceful.

When the Saxons weren’t busy slaying the Welsh, they were busy converting to christianity. Related:

And Ethelfrith led his army to Chester; where he slew an innumerable host of the Welsh; and so was fulfilled the prophecy of Augustine, wherein he saith “If the Welsh will not have peace with us, they shall perish at the hands of the Saxons.” 

The Saxons also fought against each other quite a bit — maybe because they ran out of Welsh to kill?

The funniest names I encountered were: Esc (self-explanatory) and Geta which also means the Japanese clogs.

I feel bad for the Britons, honestly. First the Picts, then the Scots, then the Romans, then the Saxons, then the Angles and Jutes, then the Normans and who else. Evidently living on an island doesn’t help much.