Eldritch: Lineage 027

Sorry, I intended on uploading this last night at midnight… but I’m kind of sick, and had to go to bed early last night.  I doubt having to spend a couple of hours shoveling snow today helped.  But it’s done now, so, I hope you enjoy, and I’ll see you next week!

Well, folks, the next post won’t come until after Christmas… so, a Merry, Happy Christmas to you all.  Or, if you prefer, a Blessed Yule, or a prosperous Winter Solstice… Or maybe a Happy Hanukkah or Kwanzaa.  Or, perhaps, if none of those fit you, a happy Snoggletog or Hogswatch.  Regardless of what you celebrate… Happy Holidays folks.

Now with the important stuff out of the way… let’s talk folklore, shall we?

When I first heard of the Hounds of God, well… let’s just say it wasn’t from a very good source.  Imagine my surprise when I learned it was true!  However… I also found out that the general benandanti formula applied to several different types of folks.  So, when I began outlining Eldritch and had Faith meet the benandanti werewolves, I had to take the other types of benandanti into consideration.  I could simply ignore htme… but, frankly, they’re far too interesting to merely dismiss.  So, while in history the Hounds of God, the benandanti werewolves, don’t seem to have interacted with the typical Agrarian/funerary benandanti, I threw them all into the mix and invented a social order for them.  Is it ‘accurate?’  Oh heck no.  But, I like it.

Now, regarding the ‘leyline gateways…’ that’s a reference to the ‘gates’ of hell the Hounds of God would go through in order to steal the crops back from.  Different translations call them different things, though… for instance, one source referred to the place as the ‘hell-hole-cave.’  However, since I was trying to keep Eldritch vaguely plausible, unless I wanted to implement Hollow Earth theory, I had to put the vast ‘hell’ they visited someplace other than under the earth.  Alternate dimensions made for a decent fix.

Now, about the Caul, yeah, that was a thing too.  Those born with the Caul were said to be benandanti… and according to Slavic tradition, the caul is associated with the werewolf.  For some reason, being born with a bit of amniotic sack stuck around your head was often seen to be a portent of supernatural ability.  I suppose this is because of its general rarity, but I’ll be honest… aside from basic stuff, I don’t yet know much about the caul in folklore, save for what I needed to know for the comic.

Also… while wizards weren’t involved, yes, benandanti could transfer lycanthropy from one to another.  Bu that’s a story for another time.

In addition… Theiss was a real guy.  In fact, if it weren’t for him, our understanding of benandanti werewolves would be far less.

And… I’m tired.  Have some sources or something:

The Night Battles --Carlo Ginzburg

Witches Werewolves and Fairies --Claude Lecouteux

Werewolves --Neigel Suckling

The Nets of Modernism: Henry James, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and Sigmund Freud-- Maud Ellmann

 The Werewolf Handbook -- Dr. Robert Curran

Eldritch: Lineage 025

WHY IS CHRISTMAS SO HARD?  I miss Halloween. Santa, I sure hope I’m on the nice list for once.  I’ve really been trying. 

Anyway… kinda getting the holiday blues.  Kinda feeling drained, in need of a pick-me-up, etc.  Thankfully, I get to see The Hobbit at opening, and that’ll fix eeeeeverything, but I may splurge and find some other film to go to or something after work in the interim.   Or maybe I’ll get to work on the next page first.  Or get around to doing some work on the seasons drawing that I finally got around to posting some of the preproduction sketches for the other day.  I think I’ll draw Tim O’ Leaves first. Gah, so much to do! At least I got to listen to Harry Potter while working on this…

DEAR SANTA, FOR CHRISTMAS THIS YEAR, I WANT A FEW HOURS OF FREE TIME.  It’s a shame you can’t send me some snow or something.

 Love, Nash.

Yet another busy week. I’m tired. And it’s just the beginning of the month, oi. But, I got my Christmas Tree up so I don’t have to worry about it later. One of these days I should get a fake tree… it’d be cheaper and kinder and easier but I do love real trees so… meh.

I hope the holidays are treating you folks well thus far!

Eldritch: Lineage 023

Did you know that some say that werewolves, like witches, cannot cry? (Please see Montague Sumer’s Werewolves of Lore and Legend.)

Guys, I’m tired.  Long, early days.  Lots of holiday stuff to get done.  So… eh, forget it, I’m gonna post this, update a couple of other things, and take the best nap ever.

Eldritch: Lineage 022

Hey everyone, I’m back from my time unplugged!  The break from the internet was very nice.  So, it’s now midnight(ish) on the 21^st, and here’s the update, juts like I promised. :3

Ahh, so maybe there’s more to this guy’s desire to have her as part of the team than it first appeared… or, perhaps he’s still an arrogant nutjob in a position of power.

Also, I know, I know, Jack the Ripper is an obvious kind of guy to be a bad-guy werewolf, given the brutality of his crimes, and admittedly is kind of cliché.  But I like it anyway. 

However, I suspect what more of you may be curious about is the mention of the Rake.  Yes, I do mean THAT Rake.  It was some time after my initial designs were done for the benandanti werewolves that I came across this particular creepypasta character, and personally didn’t file it under ‘werewolf’ stuff until later when I came across a description that read “sitting and facing away from us, there was what appeared to be a naked man, or a large hairless dog of some sort” (from http://creepypasta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Rake)  Given how the majority of the Benandanti werewolves I’ve shown could match this description, I couldn’t resist mentioning it; especially since I find this new form of urban legend to be fascinating.

You see, in nearly all other cases, urban legends spring up in a particular area, and spread by word of mouth, then sometimes print.  However, today, with the internet, people from around the world can exchange these campfire stories instantly, and then add to and embellish them through a variety of creative means, be it written word, audio, visual art, film, and even games.  Never before has this happened, and it opens up so many possibilities.  I can’t wait to see how these change and evolve over the coming years, and I wanted to indicate that even the most modern of urban legends can be canon for this universe.

And yes.  That means that Slenderman just might be lurking around in the Eldritch universe somewhere.

Eldritch: Lineage 021

So, I’m sure you folks are wondering what on earth the Eldritch update is doing on the cusp of Saturday and Sunday… well, truth is, I’m gonna be gone on Wednesday. In fact, I think I’m going to be gone for a week. Maybe a little more. I’d been planning a trip to see some family and get away for a bit, but in light of some of the more recent stuff I’m dealing with, I’ve decided to also outright unplug and spend some time completely away from the internet. So, I’ve been busting my butt-- (which is why I’ve been falling behind on comments so much lately… I have read most of them, but I’ve had no time to reply. I’ll try my best to get to as many of them as possible before I leave.) --to make sure that I was set to post an early update, as well as have an update ready for whenever I get back. I’ll be doing some replies tonight and tomorrow, but after that, you may not see me until the 21st. I just need some time to recharge.

So, with that out of the way, um, more folkloric stuff! Our raving friend here may or may not have all of his facts straight, but it is still derived from my studies…

Saint Ronan of Locronan stands out due to his connection with wolves… and the accusation of lycanthropy lodged against him. A woman named Keban, whose husband often listened to the saint’s gospels, claimed that Saint Ronan could take the form of a wolf! In this shape, she said, he terrorized the countryside, prowling about and going after livestock. She even claimed that her little girl had fallen victim to his lupine appetite. She pointed to his ability to pacify wolves as proof of his lycanthropy, however, the saint convinced others that this was not true, and forgave Keban for her accusations.

Saint Christopher’s folklore is complex, and I cannot do him justice in the small space I’ll have here… But, some things say he was a sort of giant, some say he was a cynocephali, some indicate he was more normal… my way of handling this is by treating him as a shapeshifter (This isn’t too unheard of, really… Saint Guinefort is said to have been a dog at first, but then changed into a man by God). Saint Christopher, while not acknowledged by the Vatican, is one of a couple cynocephalic saints, the other being Saint Andrew Cynocephali. Regardless, Saint Christopher was the patron saint of travelers, which is interesting when also viewed along with Wepwawet.

Wepwawet was the wolf-headed god of Egypt. He was something of a war deity, however, he was “the opener of ways” and is said to have opened the way for victory… He also, it is said, was able to guide the souls of the dead through the Duat (a place sort of like purgatory). His guide-like associations are mirrored in Christopher’s position as the patron saint of travelers, and his association with the realm of the dead is also relevant in the context of in the Hounds of God’s ability to travel down to hell. (As well as the funerary benandanti’s ability to commune with the dead, but that’s a story for another time.)

Also… yeah, the whole thing about the sphinx? It’s actually a proposed theory; a book was written on it. Trippy.

Take care guys, and have a gander at these books:
The Werewolf in Lore and Legend --Montague Summers
Werewolves --Dr. Bob Curran
The lives of the British Saints; the Saints of Wales, Cornwall and Irish Saints V 4 -- S. Baring-Gould and John Fisher
Village France -- Automobile Association (Great Britain)
The Sphinx mystery: the forgotten origins of the sanctuary of Anubis--
Robert Temple, Olivia Temple
The Night Battles --Carlo Ginzburg
Myths of the Dog-Man --David Gordon White