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Episode 1: Death Omens
37 Plays3 years ago
For our inaugural episode we chat omens, death foretelling and Kelsey gives us the lowdown on the strangest signs of doom from around the world. Alanna rips into a story from Norse mythology that tells one version of the death of the world and one big bad wolf.
linktr.ee/castlesandcryptids Website: castlesandcryptidspod.squarespace.com
Tags: Fenrir, Norse mythology, Odin, Loki, death omens, death knocks, portents of doom, superstitions
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Transcript
Introduction to Haunted Castles and Cryptids
00:00:20
Speaker
You are listening to Castles Encrypted, where the castles are haunted and the cryptids are cryptic as fuck.
00:00:28
Speaker
And I'm Kelsey. All right, sorry. And today we're going to talk about drumroll. Death omens.
Technical Issues and Death Omens
00:00:39
Speaker
Death omens. That was pretty good, though. It's even rehearsed. No, not at all. And not a real drum. No. Yeah. Giggling out. Oh my god.
00:00:58
Speaker
Okay, that's all men. Yeah, for it. Yeah. So this is our we had some technical issues the first time. So this is our second time trying to record my segment. So keep that in mind. We have already been through my segment once. So we both know what I'm going to say at all. Yeah, definitely.
00:01:27
Speaker
not remembering all of it, and it was pretty cool. Perfect. Sounds good.
Understanding Omens and Presages
00:01:34
Speaker
All right, so to start us off, I have some general information about death omens. Lots of people just refer to these as omens. So a lot of the research is just attributed to omens or kind of mist tidings, things like that. Plain old omens. Yeah, but not the movie.
00:01:55
Speaker
Not the movie. Yeah, not the movie, Owens. That's a different day. And no Owens. No Owens. No Owens, no Owens. No, no demons. Yeah. Oh, no demons. No. That'll also be another day. All right.
00:02:15
Speaker
So an omen? An omen. Like an almond. Oh no. In the French way. An omen. An omen, also called portent or presage, is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change. It was commonly believed in ancient times, and by some today,
00:02:44
Speaker
I had a question. Oh, Miss Kelsey. Yes. Like the pre-sage, is it just one word? Yeah. P-R-E-S-A-E. Okay. Yeah, exactly like it sounds. Really before, so it's like... It's straight from Wikipedia. Copied and pasted. That's the definition. The first paragraph of an omen from Wikipedia.
00:03:12
Speaker
Cool, cool, cool. Okay, so it's also just, yeah, something like something a-perman-ish-ish. Yeah, I, it kept being referred to as portent or presage. I don't really know, had never heard either of those words before, which was interesting. Yeah, no, that is cool. So there are commonly believed in ancient times and by many, many today that omens bring divine messages from the gods.
Cultural Interpretations of Death Omens
00:03:39
Speaker
Omens are in folklore and foretell of a person's impending death. Nearly every culture has its own unique death omens. Historically, death omens were more common before the age of medicine and biology because death was simply more common in that time. And today they're just often seen as just superstitions, as well in the Victorian- People were superstitious back then, sorry. Oh yeah.
00:04:10
Speaker
um because they just didn't know how to explain things like they were like science what yeah they just didn't know what was going on with like a lot of stuff so it was just a good way to explain it yeah yeah exactly and in the victorian era it rose to a peak uh due to their obsession with the occult at the time
00:04:33
Speaker
Oh, the Victorian. Yeah, they love their calls. As well, in ancient Greece and ancient Rome, they used the direction of flight and a bird's cries to attempt to predict the future. Oh, so like, depending on where your aim is flying, that meant something's gonna happen or not happen or whatever. Yeah, like certain directions, I guess meant certain things and like,
00:05:02
Speaker
birds probably calling or making sounds in certain ways or with certain prompts and things like that, they probably just attached meaning to virtually everything. Yeah, this would be terrible if the bird got drunk and just started zigzagging all over the place. Right. A foggy day and it can't see and it's just like, oh, now, where'd the bird go? What does it mean? Yeah.
00:05:32
Speaker
So death omens can be signs of nature, such as cloud formations or storms, and as well as signs that occur naturally, such as the way wax drips from a candle, or the appearance of coffin shaped cinders in a fireplace.
00:05:49
Speaker
Um, so people, I guess, I, I like staring at fire. I feel like it's, it's a great way to pass the time. I don't sit there and try and use it to predict the future, whether or not I'm going to die, but I do like looking at fire. Shall we call you Melisandre? Sure. But I'm not going to like burn anybody at the stake. So, no, but it's like healy breeding and stuff like that. Yeah.
00:06:18
Speaker
So death omens can even be attributed from accidental things such as a chair falling over backwards if a person rises from it too quickly. Oh god. Yeah. We all have done that before. Oh yeah, most of these people have done and probably didn't know.
Nature and Animals as Death Omens
00:06:38
Speaker
Death is foretold by the appearance as well by certain animals, insects or birds that are associated with death, the underworld and spirits of the dead.
00:06:48
Speaker
Blackbirds and nightbirds such as rooks, ravens, owls and crows are widely regarded as death omens. That makes sense black. Yeah, black everything is bad. Another common omen is a phantom death coach. Oh no. Drawn by phantom black horses and driven by a headless man that stops at the houses where someone will die the next day. Other phantom vehicles such as boats, cars and trains are also death omens.
00:07:18
Speaker
their appearances may mean that they have come to take away the souls of the dead. So you don't want to see no like headless man driving a carriage with black horses on it. No, then don't get in if he. Yeah, if he appears don't get in the vehicle.
00:07:42
Speaker
Don't get in the vehicle with strangers that are headless, okay? PSA. PSA. All right, so it's specific omens and death omens. One of the more popular ones are crows. So seeing a single crow is considered an omen of bad luck. Finding two crows, however, means good luck. Three crows means good health. And four crows means wealth.
00:08:11
Speaker
Yet spotting five protein sicknesses coming and witnessing six crows or a murder of crows means death is nearby. So crows are gonna go back and forth depending how many of them there are. Some crows- What if I just don't count them? Right, just one crow and just immediately close your eyes. I guess like count two, count two or three.
00:08:37
Speaker
Um, or four and then stop counting. If you see one, just close your eyes. If you see two, three, or four, then stop counting. And if you count more than four, just leave. Cause well, five and six mean bad things. Yeah. Yeah. I've definitely heard versions of that one. Yeah. Uh, like, yeah, like little rhymes and stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
00:09:01
Speaker
So some cultures believe crows are messengers between this world and the next. And in the middle ages, people believed witches used crows to cast death spells. Oh, they like anything, any black animals, I guess. Yeah. On to the next one here is black cats. So they're one of the most famous omens around the world. They're a sign of approaching death for you or someone you love.
00:09:31
Speaker
And they're not choosing. What? They're not that choosy. No, just you or someone you love. Everyone be on the lookout, please. I saw my friend's black cat. Actually, that's true, because she sent me the text this morning when her black cat got stuck up in the tree. Does that count? I don't think pictures count. It's off the record, right?
00:09:59
Speaker
uh there's a german superstition that a black cat will sit at the bedside of a person uh who is sick as a sign of their approaching death oh uh black cat meowing at midnight is also an omen so when you gotta get the hell up and deal with it yeah just yell at it go away go back to sleep marbles
00:10:29
Speaker
So black cats crossing the path of a funeral is also an omen that a family member of the deceased will also die soon. Oh, lovely. Yeah. And because of all these many superstitions around surrounding black cats, they're adopted significantly less than other colors of cats. So go out and adopt a black cat. Because they're adorable.
00:10:56
Speaker
and then you're probably not going to die any sooner than you would if you didn't in fact that you have an animal so you're probably going to live longer yes that's scientifically proven that an animal makes you less stressed i know i know my cat made me less stressed during covid because i just got to
00:11:16
Speaker
annoy her a whole bunch when I was sitting at home. And she's like, why are you here all day? And I literally would just like, poke her wake her up from sleep like constantly, just because it was fun. And I was bored. And so she probably got real annoyed. But then she became severely attached to me. And now like, when I leave for work or anything, she's like at the door to greet me. It's just like, you're back. And oh, yeah, well, she never did before. Yeah.
00:11:46
Speaker
Aww, that feeling like you're just their favorite person. Yeah. They just can't believe you're home. Yeah, you're finally here, my human. Yeah. Oh, I know, my dog gallops towards me. I don't know what he thinks he's gonna do because I'm just gonna sidestep him like a bullfighter guy. Yeah, and just be like, I have stuff to put down, my arms are full. Basically. Oh, yeah, they're so good. Yeah, cats are the best.
00:12:17
Speaker
He's a little puppy. He's not a little puppy. He's so mad. No, that's true. It's true. I just kept saying that because I've been watching too much Parks and Rec. Oh, he's just a little puppy. Yeah, Tom Haverford. He's just a little puppy. And that dog is just flicking Ron Swanson's face. He's just a little puppy. I know. Didn't you introduce me to that show? I have so much to say. I'm pretty sure I did. I'm pretty sure I gave you my box set of it.
00:12:45
Speaker
It's on Netflix now, Netflix Canada, Parks and Rec. Not sponsored by Parks and Rec. Or Netflix. All right, so move back to death opens. Another one is called a Death Watch Beetle. So they are a pest known for damaging wood furniture and houses.
00:13:10
Speaker
So they- Not good. Very bad. They hit their head on wood to attract mates and the tapping and knocking sounds heard are often heard at night in the dark and are associated with sleepless nights because it can be quite loud. This is an omen of misfortune as well as death.
Household Superstitions and Death Omens
00:13:33
Speaker
Oh, because you're going to be so enraged that you're going to kill your spouse or vice versa. Right. Yeah, because you're just tired. Yeah. It's more just a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yeah. A similar one here is death knocks. So it's an old superstition that three knocks at your door. If you check it and no one is there, death is coming for you. They're also called the knocks of doom.
00:14:02
Speaker
and many different cultures such as Irish, Scottish, and Native American communities have this death knock superstition and it's been used in many horror movies. So one of the most interesting ones I've found here is also the doppelganger death omen.
00:14:23
Speaker
So doppelganger is a German word. Yeah, meaning double goer and refers to an exact replica of someone born to different parents. It's in German and Irish folklore that seeing your own doppelganger is a sign of your own imminent death. No, that would just freak me right out. I don't like it. I never want to see my own. That would just creep me out.
00:14:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's like even just even when someone just you meet that someone's like, Oh, yeah, you got to meet this person. Like they look like you I had someone like that in high school where people would almost get us mixed up. And even that was creepy. Yeah. And we weren't like, obviously identical or anything, but it was just like, Whoa. Yeah, that's creepy.
00:15:11
Speaker
Yeah. So doppelgangers are commonly called an evil twin and talking to your doppelganger can plant sinister or evil ideas inside your own head. So don't talk to them if you see your own evil twin or doppelganger. Yeah, it doesn't attach to regular twins. Oh, good. Yeah. This has to be somebody born of different parents.
00:15:40
Speaker
Ooh, evil twins though. Good idea for them. Yeah. Celtic folklore has legends of a fairy creature known as a changeling who steals children and replaces them with doubles who would become sick and die. This meant the parents could hope that their real children were alive with the fairies when in actuality their children had just actually become sick and died. So it is kind of a way of coping.
00:16:10
Speaker
Yeah, if they could just tell themselves that at least it wasn't their child. Yeah, which I don't know. No. And then like, I guess I don't know, maybe it's not I haven't seen a lot in folklore, but I did watch an episode of lore the other day, which is a podcast heard also TV show if you ever seen it on like, I don't know, Netflix or Prime or whatever it was. And it was like it was an Irish man. And
00:16:40
Speaker
And the husband thought his wife was a changeling after you come home one night or something. Oh, wow. I don't know. It was also like she was being like I don't know what to say more like aggressive and like
00:16:57
Speaker
It was the century, this like 17th century or whatever. And so it was just the 18th century. And so it was like, well, you must be, you can't be my wife. You're talking back and what the hell? And like, it was creepy, weird. Like where he's like, kills her. And then you're like, okay, that escalated quickly. Yeah. Yeah, not cool. No. So there are two, uh,
00:17:27
Speaker
cases where somebody did see their own doppelganger that are recorded in history, which are kind of interesting. So Queen Elizabeth I was rumored to have seen her own doppelganger reclining in her bed looking pale and lifeless just a few days before her own passing. As well as, yeah, that would be creepy, just like walking into your room and just like, you're already in bed, just staring at yourself, but you looked dead. That would be so creepy.
00:17:56
Speaker
It can't be good. You're like, that can't be great. Yeah, not good. Just leaves a room. As well as Abraham Lincoln, who told his wife that he saw two reflections in the mirror as soon as he had been elected president. And his wife accurately predicted that this apparition meant that Abraham Lincoln would be elected a second term, but he would not survive the second term, which we all know is true.
00:18:24
Speaker
And if you didn't know that, spoiler. Spoiler, kids. And we haven't got to that class yet. Yeah, spoiler alert. It's history. That is creepily, like, specific, though. Yeah. We predicted the second term. Yeah. We've seen that stuff twice with it? Yeah. Yeah, he looked in the mirror reflection, and he saw two reflections looking back at him. So.
00:18:54
Speaker
They didn't say if it was, you can probably do more research. I don't know if it was beside him or behind him or what the other one looked like. They just said that he saw two reflections. Yeah. Well, maybe there isn't a lot written about it or whatever. Yeah. That's just like well-known historical figures. There's probably more. Oh yeah. And like normal everyday people that saw their own as well.
00:19:24
Speaker
Yeah.
Celestial Events as Omens
00:19:26
Speaker
Another naturally occurring one here is solar eclipses. So in ancient Greece, an eclipse was believed to be caused by angry gods and signals impending danger or death. Even today, it's seen as an omen of death and disasters. And some cultures believe eclipses are dangerous to pregnant women and children. Oh.
00:19:51
Speaker
Yeah, weird flex, but okay. Right. Well, it's dangerous to anybody if you look directly at it. So I mean, not just pregnant women and children. So in many parts of India, people fast during an eclipse, as it is believed that food cooked during an eclipse is poisonous. Not really sure what the reasoning on that one is. Eat a salad.
00:20:21
Speaker
Eat a salad. And the passing of King Henry I was believed to be predicted by an eclipse as well. What? Yeah. That I didn't have much information on. I just had that statement. I'm sure you could do more research just like Abraham Lincoln and Queen Elizabeth I.
00:20:49
Speaker
Yeah, I'm sure there's more information out there. Lots about doppelgangers, I'm sure. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it's they're very cool. Yeah. Yeah, many horror movies as well with doppelgangers and evil twins. It's interesting. Another interesting one here is Phantom funerals.
00:21:12
Speaker
So phantom funeral is when a person witnesses a ghostly procession. So that's a funeral walking along the route of an actual funeral that will take place in the future. And details such as the participants of the funeral, what they were wearing are often later observed at the real funeral. And it said that peeking into the casket of the phantom funeral, you will see your own dead body and death will inevitably follow.
00:21:44
Speaker
Just don't do it. Yeah, I never see one of those. Right. So crossing in front of a real funeral procession invites death to your family. So if you see a funeral going by or a procession or people going just wait or walk around them, don't go in front of them. Say something, say something. Yeah. Say, everybody, look out!
00:22:13
Speaker
And so Welsh folklore has its own saying for this. So in Welsh folklore, phantom funerals are known as toleth before the burying. Witnesses can hear songs, hear the marching, crying, or sobbing of mourners. And it is said that only one sense can be affected at a time. So you may be able to see it, but not hear it or hear it, but you can't see it.
00:22:41
Speaker
or ones that you have heard it, you'll stop being able to see it, but you'll be able to hear it. It's back and forth. So if you see it, you can't hear it. And if you can hear it, you can't see it. But one person could experience both being able to see and hear it. You just wouldn't be able to experience those at the same time. It may go from one to the other.
00:23:06
Speaker
which would be quite weird, like being able to hear something and then suddenly stop being able to hear it and it just appears in front of you out of nowhere. That would be like weird. Yeah, that's very, again, like specific, oddly. Yeah. Like a bad TV reception or something. Yeah, where it's just like something's cutting out. Like sometimes the signal cuts out, but you can still hear it or you can see it, but your sound isn't working.
00:23:34
Speaker
Yeah, give that computer a kick and it starts back up. Yeah, adjust your TV antenna. Please, Dan. Please, we are experiencing technical difficulties. Just like we were when we first tried recording this, but now I think we're good.
00:23:56
Speaker
Yeah. All right. And so I have some miscellaneous death omens here. I don't have much background on most of them. So we're just kind of going to run through with some of them here before we get to the last one. Cool, cool, cool. Because I only have one story. Yeah, that's why I'm going first. I kind of have like general information. So yeah.
00:24:22
Speaker
Another common death omen is black dogs. So they're primarily found in folklore of the British Isles and throughout European mythology. And they're seen as a symbol of death and often viewed as the guardians of the underworld. The grim. Yeah, the grim. That's what everything came up as when I tried to look up blacked up all the grim. Favorite. Yeah.
00:24:49
Speaker
And according to Celts, black butterflies are the souls of deceased people who fail to find their way in the afterlife. So that's kind of sad. Oh, and also what about monarchs? Like totally black? Because I've never seen a totally black butterfly. That's weird. I don't know how common fully black butterflies are. I feel like there has to be them because there's pretty much like every combination of butterfly out there. There's probably one that's all black.
00:25:19
Speaker
Mm hmm. Likely. Yeah. And so a example of death omens causing something that like how they build things is burying the dead facing east. So the layouts of most cemeteries are so that the dead can see the new world rising in the east or the sun.
00:25:45
Speaker
So most cemeteries and things like that are bearing the dead so they're facing east so they can see the sunrise which is quite interesting because you wouldn't expect cemeteries even today that are being built to be a very superstitious place. Yeah that is a weird superstition. Yeah. I have heard somewhat different ones about graveyards though but like
00:26:08
Speaker
I think there's a Scottish one where like the last person buried there like guards it until the next person's buried there. But what if it's one that's out of use? And so examples of some animals here again. So owls, if you walk under a tree at night and you hear an owl, it means a family member will die soon.
00:26:37
Speaker
Oh, I found myself looking for owls. Like fake ones in their yards and stuff. But like, I do remember you saying that and I was just like, oh, damn, that's when you can look for like all the time. Yeah. An owl perched on a roof of a house is also a sign of death to someone that you know.
00:27:04
Speaker
Wait, what was the first one again? If it was not the root? It's walking under a tree at night and you hear the owl. Oh, walking under a tree and if it's on the root. Great. Yes. Don't believe deathly. Yeah, just owls in general, I guess. Freaky creatures. Broken dishes or family pitchers also can foretell death. Oh, gross.
00:27:35
Speaker
Yeah. I'm like, I've broken a lot of my dishes. I don't have a dishwasher, so I have to wash them by hand. So a lot of mine are chipped. Is that why, don't the Greeks say like, Opa, after they break something? Is that like worn away? I think it's a sign of good luck to them, but it goes against the research I found on here.
00:28:00
Speaker
We'll go with the Greeks on that one. Yeah. As well as peach trees that bloom early can foretell death of a family member. That's peach trees, I guess. Oh, no. That one seems so strange to me. Yeah, not so peachy. No. I'm not Peter Keene on that one.
00:28:26
Speaker
as well as this one. I don't really understand this one. So they're corpse candles or willow wisps or balls of light. So they just kind of look like misty, kind of like a firefly in the fog I would attribute it to. It kind of just looks like a little light. So it's just kind of will the wisp, will of the wisp.
00:28:50
Speaker
something like that, willow whisks. They're balls of green light that hover over swamps and marshes at night. And if one flies by your house, then I guess someone will die. Oh, cool. Cool, cool, cool.
00:29:09
Speaker
In parts of England, if the first lamb born to a farmer is black, it foretells a family death within a year. And this is be just in general, the colour black has been associated with Satan since the 15th century. So that's why a bunch of black animals are the most common ones to be death omens or people have superstitions about. Yes, like the black sheep of the family.
00:29:39
Speaker
Oh yeah, this is the black lamb. Interesting. It's so similar though. I wonder where it comes from maybe. Maybe it could be along the same time. It came about probably in England too. Farm animals. Yeah. White animals are also bad. Oh great.
00:30:09
Speaker
Yeah, no. White horses are associated with war warrior heroes, saviors and magic. They also represent death and bad luck. Oh, yeah. So because you know, why not? Yeah, exactly. Why not be both? They're counterintuitive. Yeah.
00:30:35
Speaker
One here is the white lady. So the white lady who appears in a home where a family member will perish is an omen around the world.
00:30:45
Speaker
Many names around the world. You're a white lady. I'm a white lady too. I'm in a house right now. I'm in a house right now. I'm in a house right now. Me too. I'm haunting this house. We're recording a podcast. We're two ghosts. We're the first ghosts to record a podcast. Oh, but I did hear something. I can't remember who said it or what. Maybe it was on a podcast. Then they were like,
00:31:15
Speaker
as someone I think maybe wrote into the podcast like I never feel more like a ghost like when I'm yelling at a podcast because like you scare me when you're like telling me you're saying that wrong or whatever oh my god I just yell at horror movies when people make bad decisions well you have to I get I get most often mad at the white lady in the horror movie who's acting like an idiot yeah or she
00:31:44
Speaker
hits the guy that's trying to kill her over the head with his own weapon and then throws, like leaves the weapon on the ground and runs away. Like take that weapon. This is a gun. Not like it has any more bullets. Don't take it with me. Or don't shoot the guy in the head after you knock him unconscious with it. Shoot him in the head. Shoot him in the head until the cartridge is empty. And then you sit there and you make sure he don't move.
00:32:12
Speaker
like exactly double tap that shit yeah double tap double tap triple tap all the taps make sure he can't get up those are the rules from that zombie land movie yeah the second one double and the first one double tap and wear your seat belt oh yes yeah i brought that one i i love that movie
00:32:40
Speaker
All right, so back, the white lady. So names and omens here around the world. So there's Dama Branca in Brazil, and she is a woman who died in childbirth. There's Lesdame Blanches, and she is a supernatural being in France.
00:33:01
Speaker
Well, in Germany, she was the wife of a stately prince. So most of the stories of the white lady in age culture have kind of a difference in what her background is, things like that, and why she is a haunting figure. It's my favorite theme. Yeah, to probably do a whole episode on just her. There's a lot. There's always a white lady.
00:33:29
Speaker
ride lady. Yeah, even just people when they talk about, I can't remember what city it is. But I heard through something there is a city, I think it's in the US where there was so many ghosts that took rides in taxis that disappeared halfway through and then the cab drivers were left like footing the bill.
00:33:58
Speaker
for the fact that they just drove a ghost around, that there was literally a thing put in place that they wouldn't pick up these people, or they had to pay first after a certain time of night. It's crazy, yeah, because they'd just be driving to the destination, and then they'd one time just glance into the mirror and realize partway through the drive that their fare had disappeared, which would be messed up.
00:34:29
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. They're like, you're looking a little see through there, buddy. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my god. I'll have to look that up. Where's where's the most haunted rideshare city? Yeah, there's there's one it had a huge problem. Like all the cabbies banded together and had to make this thing like passed through their local government or something. It was like ridiculous.
00:34:57
Speaker
Cause so many people had it, like all the cabbies banded together and have this put in as a rule. Yeah. Cause it was like that. I've got to go inside. I left my wallet in the house. I'm going to transport there. Yeah. So as another one here, which I think is just weird. So in Appalachia, there's a thing called death crowns and they can be found inside the pillow of a sick person.
00:35:25
Speaker
They're essentially just created by feathers clumping together in kind of a circular shape. I guess you could put it on your head and consider it a crown. And it's believed to be caused by a person's tossing and turning and sleep. So that I guess causes the feathers to move and kind of weave together in a circle. Yeah, what do you do to open up your pillow anyway? Yeah, it literally just said rip open your pillow and it's like what? Like don't wreck the person's pillow. They're already sick.
00:35:54
Speaker
Yeah, I don't need that to see what's happening here. Yeah. Interesting here, in Japanese culture, sleeping with your head facing north can be seen as a bad omen, as their dead are laid to rest facing north. While in Africa, it is the west that is the bad omen, and their dead are laid to rest facing the west. So kind of same kind of superstition, just a different direction.
00:36:25
Speaker
Okay. This one, I found funny, you could use it as a great excuse. During the medieval era, brooms should not be used during the month of May, because it would invite death into your home, as well as a broom falling over also meant death was on its way. So you can use the medieval superstition to avoid sweeping your house in the month of May.
00:36:49
Speaker
And ever picking up your broom lest it should fall over. Yeah, just leave it there. Just buy a new one. Mop that shit. I don't know. That's really weird. Just vacuum from now on. During the Victorian era, umbrellas being opened inside meant a family member would be murdered. Not even just die, but be murdered. And that's still a common superstition today.
00:37:18
Speaker
Oh, yeah, I always thought I heard it was unlucky. Yeah, so that's where it comes from. We don't hear that you'll be murdered, though. We just know it's unlucky. Like walking under a ladder. I'm surprised that didn't come up in my research, actually. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah. And then that seems to be explainable by the sheer logic of like something might fall on you if people are working overhead. So it's just more likely, it's more probability. Probably.
00:37:47
Speaker
Uh, this one I found funny. So in Korean culture, it is believed that sleeping in a room with a fan going while your windows are closed will result in immediate death. And fans are often sold with timers to prevent them from being accidentally left on during the night. So they have a timer that shuts them off at a certain time of night. So you can't accidentally leave them on. So, right.
00:38:15
Speaker
I thought I find strange that like commercially their fans are available with this feature because it's such a prevalent superstition. The Asian superstitions are very permeating. Yeah. Every aspect of their culture, their hotels won't have, you know, certain number of floors because they're unlucky. Just yeah, same with like airlines. Airlines won't have like a 13th row and
00:38:46
Speaker
That's just. Yeah, they don't. Just the dekafobians. So people often associate there's a lot of things with mirrors, or call looking glasses. So common. Everybody knows if you break a mirror, it's seven years of bad luck.
00:39:07
Speaker
As well in the US, if you hold the baby in front of a mirror or it sees its reflection in the first year of its life, it apparently will die. Oh. Yeah. What sees its own selfie? Yeah. That's essentially where a camera is. It involves some mirrors and glass.
00:39:31
Speaker
That's not great. Covering mirrors in the home of a deceased person was first recorded in Northern England in the late 1700s, so that's also common. Okay. Yeah, it was said that not covering the mirrors allowed people that were in mourning and things like that, seeing their own reflection, that they would be
00:40:00
Speaker
forced to like look at themselves and think about themselves when they should be mourning the person that passed away and focusing on that instead of how they look, whether or not they're crying, things like that. Oh yeah, that was kind of interesting.
00:40:20
Speaker
Opals are viewed as vessels of evil and are associated with witches, sorcerers, due to their likeness of the eyes of cats, toads, and snakes. During the Black Death, it was realized that the opal would change colors due to the warmth when somebody had a fever, as well as changing to a different color when the person died because of the cooling of their body.
00:40:48
Speaker
Uh, this is associated with mood rings and how those also change colors. That's fucked up. Yeah, right. Just be like a mood ring, a death mood ring. Yeah, it foretells the death in that they're cold. They got nothing left in there. Yeah. And then so if you got, I guess if like the, the opal changed to a certain shade, it meant you had a fever.
00:41:17
Speaker
So I guess it's like a thermometer. Oh yeah. It's still crazy though, because it's like, there are different types of opals. They call them fire opals, black opals, whatever, you know, so there, it's not like an opal is just one shade. So it's still, it's really neat. Yeah. I didn't see anything talking about like specifically which ones. So I'm not sure if it's all of them or like what type it just said opals.
00:41:48
Speaker
they all bad yeah don't worry i've been wearing one i'm still alive right yeah all right are we good to go back yep all right we're back from our break all right so last but certainly not least my favorite uh
00:42:16
Speaker
death omen that I came across during my research is something I'm super excited about. Oh, it is called Halley's Comet. Halley pronounced like valley. It should rhyme. Okay, I got a little confused about that when I was younger because I thought there was one called Halley's Comet too and I just didn't even know if maybe there was two and I wasn't sure. I don't really know.
00:42:45
Speaker
Yeah, not our expertise, I guess. I'm not a scientist. I do science, please, like that little penguin meme. I would like to purchase one science, please. All right, continue. So Halley's Comets orbits the sun every 75 to 76 years.
00:43:13
Speaker
and it is believed to have orbited the sun for at least for the last 200,000 years with horse historical references dating back to ancient worlds. That's pretty damn old. Yeah, I find it really interesting. So one of the first sightings was in 466 BC
00:43:35
Speaker
And it was stated that it was visible for approximately 75 days over Greece, and they described it as wagon sized. So how it looks, it is believed to just be like ice, mostly. Wagon sized. Sorry. Yeah. Sorry, sorry, sorry.
00:43:57
Speaker
thought it was like a wagon in the sky, just because of how it's kind of shaped. So it's like a ball of ice. And when it goes in front of the sun, it kind of reflects the sun. So it looks pretty like fiery. And then it's said to have kind of like three tails coming off of it. So the two are just like the atmosphere around it being
00:44:22
Speaker
And the gases it's giving off are two of the tails, and then the middle one is the actual comet itself. So I can see how they kind of think it's a wagon because it is kind of like U-shaped. Yeah, and distorted around it by the sun. Yeah. Yeah. So that was in 466 BC. But one of the first confirmed sightings ever was recorded by Chinese astronomers in 240 BC.
00:44:52
Speaker
when they called Halley's Comet a room star. Halley's Comet has been blamed for earthquakes, illness, red rain, birth of two-headed animals, as well as the Black Death in England. So there's a lot of bad things that have been associated with it. Oops, I did it again. Bad Comet. Yeah. Just like, oh, damn.
00:45:20
Speaker
So taking all the blame. Yeah, you could blame pretty much anything on this thing. In 66 BC, the comet was described as a star resembling a sword and was considered to foretell of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. 66 BC. Yeah.
00:45:48
Speaker
How do we know it wasn't older? And it just was like, we didn't have recorded, you know what I mean? Records. Well, so how the BCAD works is up until there's no zero. So there's one BC, which is one year before one AD. So one AD leads up until now. So up until like, so we'd be like, 2021 AD. That's what we're in right now. So up until then.
00:46:19
Speaker
You could think it maybe was around before. The oldest is 466 BC. That's pretty fucking old. Yeah. I put these in order of the oldest. So because there's no 0, BC kind of works like negative 1, negative 2, as the number gets bigger. No, no, I know. Yeah. Yeah. I just thought because I just am more saying it could be even older than we know. Oh, yeah. We haven't been recording.
00:46:49
Speaker
things that as long as maybe it's been around. Yeah, because they'd be what this would be like 2000 and about 500 years we'd be looking at for historical records from the first time it was ever seen. And they were saying they believe it's approximately 200,000 years old. So we have 2500 years worth of sightings of it. But they think it's about 200,000 years old.
00:47:16
Speaker
Wow, Dallas Neil deGrasse Tyson. That'd be very interesting. I would love to hear more about this thing. It was so interesting when I was looking up and it's actually quite pretty and the tapestries and everything it's shown in, it's actually quite cool. And to think that that was around before really even possibly history could be documented.
00:47:44
Speaker
and stuff, it's been around that long and you're seeing it and it's pretty much exactly the same, like that you're seeing what they saw like 2000 years ago, I think is amazing. Like time traveling. Yeah. Yeah, I think the sky because the sky like doesn't change. So the sky is like one thing that anytime you look up the stars and stuff like that, it's all like the same.
00:48:13
Speaker
That's what everybody's seen, at least with the naked eye. That's what everybody's seen always when they look up, which is very cool. Right, because we aren't even alive long enough to appreciate how slow changes would happen. Yeah, exactly. Extremely slow when you're talking about space. Yeah.
00:48:36
Speaker
So possible sightings by Babylonians who recorded the comment on clay tablets in 164 BC and 87 BC, as well as Romans recording it in 12 BC. So those ones are not verified, but I think online they do have pictures of the tablets of these recordings, which is kind of interesting.
00:49:00
Speaker
cool carbon aliens I guess. It's just the alien spaceship visiting us every 74 to 76 years and then passing us by and be like, no thanks, we'll come around next time. Oh no, I guess I don't have time to get into that rabbit hole, but you're like, yeah, it's like how they say on like the ancient aliens show that they just didn't know what space ships looked like or like halos, you know, could have been the spacesuit helmets and just like it's representing
00:49:30
Speaker
of things they didn't understand yet. But anyway, that's a whole nother template. So getting into some of the sightings that have negative things attached to it, in June of 451, sightings then saw Attila the Hun invading Roman France and subsequently defeating, or his subsequent defeat in the Battle of Catalou- Catalayan Plains. Nice.
00:50:00
Speaker
Google it. I don't know. In 837, a Roman Emperor, Louise Lapuis, feared that the comet signaled... Lapuis? Lapuis? I don't know. P-I-O-U-S. Lapuis. Sure. Oh, can we pause? Like, please.
00:50:22
Speaker
Yeah. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Feared the comet signaled his downfall and he tried to protect his family by fasting, praying and doing alms to the poor. Um, so he tried to kind of give penance and everything. Um, cause he was afraid of the comet, which I mean, back then they wouldn't have
00:50:47
Speaker
like studies and everything on it. It would probably be viewed as something scary to see that, like a fiery ball just flying through the sky. Yeah, you can't hurt his karma any though. Exactly. Yeah. In 1066, Halley's Comet is attributed to King Harold II of England's death as he witnessed the comet before his final battle.
00:51:13
Speaker
Um, on the flip side, it was actually a good omen for William the Conqueror, who's the one that defeated King Harold. Um, so that's an example of one, William the Conqueror was happy. Uh, that's an example of the comet being viewed two different ways at the same sighting. So one viewed it as their downfall, one viewed it as their success.
00:51:40
Speaker
Right, right, right. Pally's comet is depicted in the famed Bayou tapestry showing King Harold and a crowd of fearful Englishmen watching it streak through the sky. It's actually a pretty nice tapestry. And you can see how they talk about the three prongs that you see in the sky that's really depicted in it. That's why they believe this is the same comet.
00:52:08
Speaker
Yeah, because the sightings of it are described quite similarly. In 1222, Genghis Khan believed that the star was his star, so he believes that the comet was his, and that it was a sign he should follow the trajectory of the comet and invade the western world. So that ended poorly for everybody.
00:52:34
Speaker
Oh, he must have been real high when he saw that star talking to him. Yeah, right. I should follow the star. What are you smoking? What is the opium? Where is the opium? Oh yeah, lots of opium, I'm sure.
00:52:48
Speaker
In 1301, it is believed that it is the Star of Bethlehem, as it is depicted as the first colored comet. And that's in the Nativity section of Guilloteau de Bondon's painting, which is another colored picture of it. It's beautiful. And looks pretty much the same, which is interesting that the Star of Bethlehem that would be
00:53:16
Speaker
followed in the activity would actually be a comet. It wouldn't just be a star sitting there, like a solitary object that was seen. It's a comet streaking through the sky. So they're saying that it was seen like the year that Christ was actually born? No, but was depicted in 1301 in replace of the Star of Bethlehem.
00:53:44
Speaker
So instead of painting like the star and painting like a star or like a sun type star in the sky, the comet was painted in its place. Oh, a little artistic license. I follow. I got you. And that's one of the first recorded pictures of the comet in color. Cool. So that would be a neat one to see. Yeah.
00:54:11
Speaker
In 1456, there was a sighting overlapping with the Ottoman Empire's invasion of the Balkans. Oh no. Got blamed for that. Yeah. In 1705, so this was a, I don't have his name, but he was an astronomer.
00:54:33
Speaker
astronomer astronomer uh and he was the first one to predict at this time that the comet was a small body just orbiting the solar system um and he actually connected three sightings in history um i don't have which ones um but they were fair
00:54:58
Speaker
The problem with his is they are closer together than the 74 to 76 year range. So I kind of had conflict with that. So he believed that those three sightings were the same comet instead of different ones, just because how they were described.
00:55:21
Speaker
uh so he predicted that this and he is the one that figured out the life cycle of 74 to 76 years um but his his sightings didn't match up with the the 76th time yeah yeah it was kind of confusing some of the other sightings i also excluded some of them happened like 10 years after other sightings um so some of those i excluded
00:55:50
Speaker
um because that doesn't fit with what science has taught us about this comet. Science says yeah so it is the only short period comet um that is visible from earth to the naked eye that's why there's so many sightings of it going back so long um and it is the only naked eye comet that you can see without assistance that could be visible
00:56:18
Speaker
twice in one person's lifetime because of its 74 to 76 year circuit. So if you lived older than that, you could possibly see it twice, which would be kind of interesting. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so to get at us. Have you seen it? Yeah. Uh, and as recent
00:56:48
Speaker
No. Pardon? I'm just telling Grandma. Grandma goes, what's a podcast? No. It's like a radio show. Yeah. They would be all up in podcasts. They'd be sitting there with their knitting. That's what they did when the radio was on, wasn't it? They were knitting, and everybody would sit around and listen to the radio all evening. That's what they should do with podcasts. And as recent.
00:57:17
Speaker
circle. Yeah, as recent as 1910. So the sighting in 1910, citizens sealed up their homes, many wore gas masks, and prayed in churches for salvation. Some even purchased anti-comet pills that were sold at the time. Oh, great. How'd those work out for them? I mean, nothing actually happens when the comet goes past, you can just see it.
00:57:45
Speaker
Um, so yeah, that was the second last sighting we've had currently. So it was last seen in 1986. And Halley's comment will be visible next in 2061. So I'm excited and looking forward to that. 2061. Yeah. I will be like in my age. That could happen.
00:58:15
Speaker
I will be 66 in 2061. Yeah. I find it interesting that I did try and look up how long it's typically visible for, cause that's really only referenced once in any of the research I could find saying it was 75 days. So two and a half months, like seeing.
00:58:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's yeah well as the earth's rotating I I'm sure it's only really visible Yeah, and then so I I don't exactly know what time of day it's best seen at probably at night and I wonder I just wonder how big it looks. Yeah, but yeah, it can actually look up and
00:59:11
Speaker
the Guilloteau de Bondon painting of it or Google Halley's comment and probably click images on Google. It looks pretty, pretty cool. I'd be excited to see it. And then it last being in 1986. There's probably many pictures of that. Cool. Yeah. So that's my part. That's some death omens from around the world.
00:59:41
Speaker
Yay. Your turn. I really enjoyed. Thank you. Yes. Mine, we put it with the death omens for sure, for sure. But it definitely is something that holds a special place in my heart. That's good. Talking about something from the Norse mythology.
01:00:10
Speaker
And you'll see does qualify as a death omen. Yeah. Or omens in general. For the whole world. So, and it's close to my heart because well, we have, you know, Scandinavian in our family and our dog is named Benrear. Yeah. So that tells you enough right there. Yes.
01:00:37
Speaker
So we've got to start with meeting these people called the, I'm going to say Aesir.
Norse Mythology: Creation and Key Figures
01:00:45
Speaker
Aesir. Yeah. I looked up how to pronounce it, like live on those little video things. And it was kind of like, Aesir. And I was like, I don't sound Scandinavian enough to know how to really pronounce that well. But they are the gods.
01:01:03
Speaker
of the old Norse mythology. And of course, Norse mythology is like, you know, from, from the Scandinavian region, like Norway, Sweden, Sweden and Finland. Yes. In Denmark. Yeah, really cool. Probably everybody knows a little bit from Marvel, like, like they know who Loki is and maybe, you know, Thor and Odin. Yeah.
01:01:32
Speaker
So we'll just learn a little bit more about those guys. Sounds good. They were one of two groups of gods, or deities, recognized by the Norse people. The other group, or the other tribe, whatever you want to call them, was called the Vanir. So you got the A-steer and the Vanir. OK. It did say that, however, A-steer is commonly used to refer to both of them.
01:02:03
Speaker
Oh, that's cool. They were led by Odin, which you may know. He is called the Allfather. And some other notable ones are like Thor, Frank, and Tyr. Where they live is in Asgard. It's one of the Nine Worlds, located in the highest branches of the world three, which is called Yggdrasil, which my man has Yggdrasil tattooed on his arms. I don't know if you know that. No.
01:02:32
Speaker
He does, I'll have to show you. Okay, yeah, you have to walk me through all of his tattoos on time. Patreon exclusive. Sorry, Tan. Or Patreon exclusive, just pictures of your dog, Fenrir. Yes, he's pretty darn cute. Yeah, he's adorable.
01:02:59
Speaker
Uh, but we will learn more about that. He's also a lot like his namesake. Okay. So the Norse creation story, the Norse creation story. The first world to exist of the nine worlds was called Muspell. I think time is announcing that, right? Maybe? There's no way to know. Yeah. Don't at me. Muspell was a hot, bright place that visitors could not go enter or they would burn.
01:03:29
Speaker
uh i don't know sounds kind of like hell but uh we'll go with it yeah and cert is the guard of this world he guards it with a flaming sword and it is said that at the end of the world he will vanquish all the gods and burn the world to ash so he sounds great yeah that doesn't sound good the second world niffleheim niffleheim was dark and cold
01:03:59
Speaker
The space for the first and second world's meet was the yawning boiled called Yinnen Gagap. I don't know. Yinnen Gagap. That's the way it looks and that's the way I'm gonna say it. Good. Just so... Yinnen Gagap.
01:04:22
Speaker
So in the yawning void, this yawning void between the first and second worlds, the heat in the cold met and thawed the ice water which grew into a frost diet named Emir. Why am I our Emir? Emir slept and as he slept he sweated, which tends to happen. I will admit. Yeah.
01:04:41
Speaker
From his armpit, this next part, maybe not so much, is not so common. From his left armpit, from all the sweating, came a man and a woman. And one of his legs had a son with the other leg. And that was the beginning of the frost giant. Is that incest if your leg has a child with another leg? It's in themes. No, I don't know. Is that self-cest?
01:05:10
Speaker
The first ever recorded example of asexual reproduction. Like having a child. It's a pretty cool. It's a pretty cool. Yeah, they definitely have some interesting ways of reproducing. Yeah. And as it did so, it became a cow called
01:05:40
Speaker
odd humla. Four rivers of milk flowed from her teeth. From these she fed emir. The cow licked some salty ice blocks. To her surprise, after a day of licking the salt lick, she found hair in her mouth, the hair of a man. After two days of licking, his whole head emerged. By the third day, his entire body was revealed. His name was...
01:06:07
Speaker
Bury. His name was Bury and he was tall and handsome. And probably literally salty from public. Bury had a son named Bohr. Bohr marries Bessela, the daughter of a giant. Bohr and Bessela had three sons, Odin, Villy, and V. Just V. So I'm gonna go with pronounced V.
01:06:32
Speaker
Odin is known as the ruler of heaven and earth. He and his brothers killed the giant Ymir. Ymir bled so much that all the frost giants drowned. One giant escaped this extinction. Burgomir and his wife climbed onto a lure, a hollowed out free trunk. Their descendants are the frost ogres. Are you with me? I think so, yeah.
01:07:01
Speaker
Oh, it's like you need to cast the characters. Right. I need a family tree in front of me right now. There was some frost giants and now we have Odin. Okay. So the sons of Bohr, Odin, Billy and Vey, then carried Ymir, the giant, to the middle of Ginnungagap and made the world from him.
01:07:24
Speaker
With his blood, they made the seas and all the lakes. His flesh became the earth, his hair the trees, and his bones the mountain. Rocks and pebbles were created out of his teeth, jaws, and broken bones. That's beautiful, isn't it? Yeah. Waste not. They use every part of this diet. Yeah. Yeah. OK, so dwarves came next.
01:07:49
Speaker
Maggots and Ymir's flesh came to life. The gods gave them human understanding and the appearance of men. They made their homes in the earth and the rock. From Ymir's skull, they made the sky and placed it over the earth. Under each corner of the skull, they put a dwarf. Their names were east, west, north, and south. They fly west, north, and south, Kardashian.
01:08:18
Speaker
What is the Northwest, whatever Kim's last name is. Northwest, that's it. Oh, we should leave them alone. I just hear they're getting divorced. Yeah. They're both, they're both crazy. I don't know. I know. I thought they had found their purse. Their purse. That's neither North nor West. They flood. I'm sorry. They flood numerous rains into the air and we had clouds.
01:08:49
Speaker
They then took burning embers that had floated up from Muspell and placed them in Ginunga Gap to give light to the world. They told the stars where to go and what path to follow. The earth was totally surrounded by a great sea, so they gave the giants lands near the sea to settle. The sons of Bohr created a stronghold using Ymir's eyebrow. They named it Midgard. Midgard. That one I recognize.
01:09:18
Speaker
Yeah, they mention it more because I want to say Midgard, is Midgard Earth? I think so. I should know. We'll get to it. No. Watch a Marvel movie. Yeah. That's going to just like kill me. He's like, I get you all the Norse mythology books. I have books. I have bookshelf of books for you to read. And you're talking about Marvel right now.
01:09:48
Speaker
There's so much. Oh, my God, actually, and there we have a Neil Guyman does a nice Norse God. Yeah. Yeah, it's good. Yeah, I love the okay. Yeah, yeah, gaming. Okay, the baton. Boris found two trees while walking along the seashore and from them created man and woman. Odin gave them spirit and light.
01:10:14
Speaker
Billy gave them movement and B gave them clothing and name. Man was named F. Man was named F. I guess old Norse means Ash tree. So I think his name means Ash tree. Okay. And the woman wasn't, yeah.
01:10:36
Speaker
The woman was named Embla, thought to mean elm or vine. They are essentially the, yeah, they're like Adam and Eve of this origin. So from them came all the races of men in Midgard. The sons of four built another stronghold for themselves in the middle of the world and they called it Asgard. Later generations apparently called it Troy. Maybe Brad Pitt was involved.
01:11:06
Speaker
I don't know. The gods lived there. And there was a great hall named. I have so many hard leads to pronounce. I did not look that one up. I don't even, and I took, I've, I've actually taken on Duolingo, Swedish for a little while. Yeah. I remember that. Oh my goodness. What is it? Turtle.
01:11:36
Speaker
Olpada. Like ridiculously complicated sometimes. Yeah. There was a great hall named something that starts with an H, where Odin would sit and see the whole world. He understood everything he saw. Odin married Frigg, the daughter of Jorgvin. I've also heard that his wife is named Freya, where we get the name for Friday. Oh, really?
01:12:04
Speaker
Yeah, and I've also heard that Thor Thursday comes from Thor. Oh, cause I knew from watching American Gods mentioning Neil Gaiman, what Odin is Wednesday?
01:12:21
Speaker
yes because it was like it's like from the old way to spell it or something like warden's day or wouldn't say yeah yeah i think that's why there's the random d in it yeah wednesday that's very cool it's pretty cool yeah the influence they've had yeah yeah um so yeah i guess some like his wife's name freya
01:12:43
Speaker
sort of interchangeable from what I can find. You might see Freya, you might say like her name's freak. And sometimes you'll even see Odin just referred to as Ode. Ode, odd. Okay. So from their union came all the Aesir and all their Davies. All the kindred that lived in Asgard and those kingdoms that belonged to it came from this family. This is why Odin is called the Allfather. Okay.
01:13:12
Speaker
births all of the tribes. The earth was both a daughter and a wife of Odin, somehow. I totally get it. I was not smoking what they were smoking, whatever. Yeah. Just a regular old weed. That's all I have. So, Thor was born of this union as Odin's daddy.
01:13:38
Speaker
Thor is obviously the strongest. Yeah. And the hottest. He's got his long hair. Long, beautiful hair. The gods also built a bridge from heaven to earth called the bifrost or the rainbow bridge. Yeah. Although I also read it has three colors, which isn't all that rainbow. No, that's not a rainbow. You need at least like five colors for a rainbow.
01:14:08
Speaker
It's rainbowy in the Marvel movies. It's super rainbowy and like that on the immigrant song plays when you... Oh my god. Exactly. How does it go? Oh, anyway.
01:14:33
Speaker
Okay, so the Rainbow Bridge, it has three colors, not that rainbowy. As strong as it is, it will break when the Sons of Muspell ride out upon it. It is known that when this happens, it will break. I said that. Okay. Yggdrasil is the sanctuary for the gods. It is a giant ash tree where they hold their daily cord. It's branch of peace. It's branch of peace. It's a branch of peace. Canopy?
01:15:01
Speaker
its branches canopy over the climb above heaven. Van Rijer is old Norse for he who dwells in the marshes. He who is my pup. Okay, he is still depicted on many surviving runestones to this day. Van Rijer was the son of Loki and a giantess named Angrboda.
01:15:29
Speaker
His siblings were Jormungand, Giant Snake, Hell, literally the Lady of Hell. Oh, I think I heard about that. I feel like they made me call that they kind of have a hella in the Marvel movies.
01:15:50
Speaker
Um, then there's that eight legged horse named Slepnir. Everybody's got one of those for a sibling. Apparently for the family, the eight legged horse. I know, I actually only knew about the snake and the hella or hell before, but I didn't know he had Slepnir apparently and Narfi and someone named Vali.
01:16:13
Speaker
So Fenrir is like the baby, even though he's a giant wolf. Like mine's a giant Akito. Yeah, he's so clumsy. I love him. Okay. Okay, so Fenrir.
Role of Fenrir in Norse Prophecy
01:16:30
Speaker
He started out tiny, but as he grew rapidly, the gods grew fearful. They heard prophecies about Fenrir bringing about death and destruction at Ragnarok.
01:16:41
Speaker
In fact, they were afraid of all three of Loki's sons. Jormungand is prophesied to kill Thor. Yeah, so the Norse culturally really placed a high value on fate, so they really believed in any prophecies or things that were fated to happen.
01:17:02
Speaker
So for Fenrir, they decided to test his test, quote unquote, his strength by binding him with different chains, all of which he was able to break one after another. They hoped one would finally be able to actually contain him. Okay. But they want him to know what they were up to at the same time. They were like, Yeah, we want to see how strong that makes sense. So when they couldn't
01:17:27
Speaker
figure it out. They reached out to the dwarves. So the dwarves were extremely skilled smiths and crafts people. They created Mjolnir, which is Thor's hammer, and Gungnir, Gungnam Style. Oh, but Gungnam Style. Gungnir is Odin's spear. Okay. All right. Mm hmm.
01:17:57
Speaker
And one of the dwarves in the Whichever Avengers movie. And game whatever is played by Peter Dinklage. So that's all. Yes. Yes. Peter Dinklage. Peter Dinklage. Peter Dinklage. Peter Dinklage. He gets to be such a giant dwarf and it's awesome. It's awesome.
01:18:21
Speaker
And of course he's got the big forge, yeah. So they are fucking, they know what they're about, son, when it comes to forging. So the dwarves made the strongest chain ever built, though it appeared very lightweight and flexible. They called it glipnir. Here's what it was made of, are you ready? The sound of a cat's footsteps, the beard of a woman,
01:18:47
Speaker
the breath of fish, the roots of a mountain, the nervousness of a bear. And this is the reason that none of those things exist anymore. Oh, because they like used it all up. Yes, that's why you can't hear cats footsteps. Women don't have beards unless you can't chin hair. The roots of a mountain and nervousness of a bear.
01:19:15
Speaker
So Fenrir is starting to get a little sus. He's like, what is going on? The spectators almost seem kind of afraid. They're watching this, but like everybody seems a little nervous. So he's like, no.
01:19:31
Speaker
I'm gonna like do something so that they can't have this their way. So he would not consent to his binding with these new ropes without some sort of safeguard. So he asked for a show of strength and bravery from the gods in return. He would let them put the chains on if one of the gods would place their hand in his mouth. Also sounds like my dog. He constantly just tries to gingerly hold your hand in his mouth.
01:19:59
Speaker
he does that all the time he's like i just will gently hold this we named him yeah it's like you guys knew i remember when he was a puppy he was like the size of a cat but his feet were like the size of like a puma it was just like don't don't don't you just had like oh
01:20:21
Speaker
Yeah. He was so cute. He like almost tumbled down the stairs every time he tried to go down the stairs because his legs were so long. But he was just... My mom says he's dainty because you've got to like feed him something you put it right by his mouth like through his mouth and he's just like so gently. He is a very gentle dog. Yeah. Any accidents that happen are just because he's trying to play and he doesn't realize his size. It's true.
01:20:50
Speaker
big hairy toddler. So that's what he said. He said, someone gotta put their hand in the towel. Fear the god of war. Fear the god of war. He volunteered. They laid the chains upon him and he struggled against them. He twisted and writhed. He could not break free though.
01:21:18
Speaker
They quickly tied the chains that bound Fenrir to a boulder. He looked at Tyr, Tyr nods back at him. He knew what this would come to. And he bit off Tyr's hand. They then forced a sword into his mouth to prop it open. He howled and drooled and frothed at the mouth. This froth formed a river which they called XH. I don't know why.
01:21:47
Speaker
They just name everything apparently. I'm shocked. Home river. So he sits there. He's got the sword in his mouth. River from the frost. He's bound. He got to his hand, but now he can't even eat it because there's a sword in his mouth. I don't know if he was going to eat
01:22:11
Speaker
But what they believe, it's that at Ragnarok, which is like, you know, the end of days in the Norse mythology, he will break free and take his revenge running across the land with his upper jaw in the sky and his lower jaw along the ground, fire blasting from his eye. Okay. So, oh, shit's gonna go bad. He's gonna like eat everything? Yeah. Okay. Just it.
01:22:42
Speaker
Yeah, I would be if I had like a sword in my mouth for how many years? Oh yeah, probably like millennia. Odin grabs all the humans he's kept back in Valhalla for the final fight. They all fight Fenrir, but it's not enough to bring down the beast. Fenrir swallows Odin whole along with all his humans.
01:23:05
Speaker
So Odin's son, Vidar, will charge forward to avenge his father. On one foot is a shoe that has been crafted for this very occasion made from all the scraps of leather that human shoemakers have ever discarded. Again, waist knot. I don't know why that's supposed to happen. They are about that, like those Ikea commercials when somebody rescues the lamp that's sitting by the garbage pickup and someone takes it home and loves it, puts a new
01:23:34
Speaker
What's in it? Yeah. I love those. So Vida, loading the sun here. He uses the shoe to hold open Fenrir's mouth while Vida... Did I say Vida? Vida, yeah. Vida stabs him in the throat. So after that, it's a bit murky in one story. It's Fenrir that swallows the sun. In another, it's a wolf called Skoll that does this.
01:24:03
Speaker
And another poem has a garm as the wolf who breaks free of the chains at Ragnarök. But for the most part, I've always heard it was Fenrir. So it's just this, you know, little lots of translation over the years.
01:24:20
Speaker
Um, according to herditis history blog dot wordpress.com. Ben rare has two wolves thought to be his son. They are named skull and Haiti. Goal means treachery and Haiti means hate. They are said to chase the sun and moon across the sky, giving us day and night. Oh, I think I've heard that part before. It almost sounds like a native American. Yeah. Very similar.
01:24:49
Speaker
So in the last part is that Ragnarok, they will finally devour their prey and leave the world in darkness. Not good. Sorry. Not good. No. Yeah. You know, it's Ragnarok. So everything's dead. Everything's dust. That sucks. Damn. So he does. Yeah. Yeah. He's the best.
01:25:25
Speaker
So catch us next time on castles encrypted. Please rate and review because we love you even though we don't know you. No, no, not yet anyway. We look forward to getting to know you.
01:25:47
Speaker
And next week, next time, we are doing it. We're going to go back and forth between kind of different things like lore and mythology and superstitions, things like that.
01:26:04
Speaker
And then our alternating weeks, we're going to be covering true crime. So like murders, different cases, both solved, unsolved, a bunch of different topics there, not always murders. Yeah, so we're just kind of covering a bunch of different stuff because we find all this kind of stuff interesting and we couldn't bring ourselves to pick just one topic. So we didn't limit ourselves that way.
01:26:32
Speaker
So we're hoping that if you're coming to listen to us for like the mythology kind of type of stuff that maybe you'll give the true crime stuff a chance and vice versa. It's nice to have a mix. Yeah, we don't always want to fuck up murder and crime scenes and stuff like that every week. So sometimes fictional murder is good. Yeah.
01:26:58
Speaker
murder or just conspiracy theories unsolved. I believe our next true it was true crime. Yes, we did Canadian. I did a Canadian serial killer. Yeah, I did one from my neck of the woods and I'm really fucking excited. Okay, I did.
01:27:24
Speaker
near the west coast here. And if you can't tell, we are Canadian. I think we mentioned that in our trailer. We didn't mention it again. We are Canadian. We currently live in Canada. We live in the same city, but because of COVID, we're recording in separate locations. We are in the west now, yes. We're bird-eye girls.
01:27:49
Speaker
Well, OG, originally from the East Coast. I am an OG Berta girl. I'm an OG Berta girl, the Texas of Canada, as I like to call it. That's what it feels like. It's just a bunch of trucks. I'm from the Maine of Canada because we are literally right next to Maine, so we're pretty similar.
01:28:19
Speaker
So we hope you check us out next week. You can send us a message, which we're hoping. Tell us what you liked, maybe what you didn't like, maybe some topic ideas. Yeah, please be nice. Be nice. Yeah, this is our first time trying to do this. So we're not professionals. We don't have professional setups. We're
01:28:50
Speaker
doing this part-time. Homegrown. Homegrown shoulders. Don't you know? Doing it. I will boot that. I will boot it. I do not say a boot or a daily. Okay, my issue with people saying A in Canada, and I've always believed this is, in my life, I say, I know, hey, H-E-Y, like, hey, how are you? I know, hey.
01:29:18
Speaker
And the amount of times that people have only heard, I know A, so it's my belief that all Canadians are just saying the word, hey, but nobody can hear the H or we're saying the H too quietly. And now we have this stereotype that we say A all the time, even though I say, I know, hey, or like, hey. But you know what?
01:29:40
Speaker
West coasters say hey more often and east coasters I find say a and that's what I notice after moving out here okay so I am partially right and we all go yeah no yeah yeah no yeah no means no no no yeah means yeah yeah I know I've seen those tick tock like that I said I know hey but you probably just heard I know a
01:30:11
Speaker
What a gay horse is he? Hey! Hey! Alright, bye!
01:30:41
Speaker
Thank you for bearing with us through our first episode of Castles Encrypteds. Our music is by Koby Offair, and our cover art is coming soon. We appreciate any reviews and recommendations, so anywhere you can rate, review, and subscribe. Thank you. Catch you next time on Castles Encrypteds. Bye bye.