Editorial note

The Lore of the Land by Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson (2005) contains a substantial selection of English local legends. This paper describes the aims and methods of the authors, and highlights some aspects they found of interest: how English legends fit international patterns, how they relate to their locality, how they develop over time, how some have literary origins that can be dated. The local legend is a widespread and significant form of narrative, deserving further study.     

The Golden Cradle Quest: Internationalizing a Contemporary Legend

This article analyses the popular Crimean legend ‘The Golden Cradle Quest’. The article examines its transformation from an ancient folk legend to a widespread contemporary legend which mixes two different traditions: Western stories about the Holy Grail and Crimean legends about the Golden Cradle. Finally, the article traces how these legends have reached a global audience.     

"Have I Got a Monster for You!": Some Thoughts on the Golem,The X-Files and the Jewish Horror Movie

The figure of the golem, the Jewish "mud man," has persisted not only in folklore, but in popular culture as well; not only in Jewish tradition, but in Gentile too; it has inspired not only horror writers, but also scientists, who see in this legend a metaphor for humanity's quest for the creation of life. One particular variation of this story is the focus of this paper: in February 1997, Fox Television's highly acclaimed weekly television show The X-Files told the story of the golem, but with certain new features added. These additions annoyed a number of fans, and they expressed their concerns on the Internet newsgroup, alt.tv.x-files. Not all of the problems identified by these tuned-in vernacular theorists were errors, I think; instead, they point to a number of issues concerning the nature of "monstrosity" and "horror." In this case, those issues are framed within a Jewish context. This paper will begin with a brief overview of the legend of the golem, which, like most folk legends, exists in multiple forms. I hope to demonstrate that The X-Files episode should be regarded as one further variant of this legend. I also outline the objections many of the show's fans had to that particular episode, specifically the variance between The X-Files version and Jewish tradition. Finally, I will say why I feel these "errors" are not mistakes, but perhaps operate to define the monstrous within Jewish culture. "Go ahead … make my mitzvah!" (Dennis Terrell, on alt.tv.x-files)     

Traitana und Θraēta(o)na

An attempt is made to reconstruct a Proto-Indo-Iranian legend, mainly on the basis of a passage in the Avestan Ardvsr-Yast (Yt. 5,61 f.) and a so far misinterpreted RVedic verse (1,115,5). The legend seems to involve a hero named *Traitana/*Tritana who rescues a devout mortal from water by killing a hostile creature (*dsa-). By comparing this legend with a set of closely related RVedic legends, in which mortals are rescued at sea or from imprisonment by Indra or the Avin, it is assumed that the story of *Traitana/*Tritana belonged to a genre once forming a part of an otherwise lost heroic poetry of Indo-Iranian age.     

The Transformations of Biddy Early: From Local Reports of Magical Healing to Globalised New Age Fantasies

The literatures dealing with legends and vernacular narratives, on the one hand, and collective memory, on the other, are rarely brought to bear on each other. Following a discussion of the classificatory focus of the legend literature, and the lack of agreement about classification in that literature, this paper draws on the collective memory literature to suggest a focus on process. In particular, it suggests that we should pay attention to a historical process during which local reports of “known” people and happenings may be transformed, in the course of their incorporation into wider spheres of discourse, into legends, which may, through further chronological and spatial distancing from their original context, become fantasies. This tentative framework is used to analyse how the local reputation of Biddy Early, a well-known nineteenth-century “wise woman” of County Clare, Ireland, spread—originally through the work of Lady Gregory, in particular—to become first national, then international and, finally, in the age of the Internet, global. In the course of this long process, first-hand reports of her skills and powers eventually became transformed into free-floating marketing devices and New Age fantasies.     

Suffolk Leechcraft

Inspired by The Lore of the Land, published by Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson in 2005, a Dutch version of this book, comprising local and regional legends, was published in the Netherlands in 2010 by Willem de Blécourt, Ruben Koman, Jurjen van der Kooi, and Theo Meder. The editors selected over three hundred and fifty legends, representative of the twelve provinces of the Netherlands, for the volume. Some were real ecotypes, having been appropriated by local communities and having led to the erection of associated statues, often for touristic and commercial purposes, as well as for shaping collective identities, while others were almost forgotten tales. The editors also found, somewhat unexpectedly, that quite a number of popular legends had been composed and constructed by romantic writers in the nineteenth century, and that these older legends were much more popular than the recently-invented ones. As the editors also included a number of contemporary legends, they discovered that one such legend had already become popular enough to have a statue erected and a song composed in its honour.     

民间的“正统”:明清时期姜太公风物传说的时空结构

姜太公的传说存在两种类型,一种是"役神"类传说,另一种是风物传说,两种类型来自不同传统。明清时期姜太公传说发生了重要变化,"役神"传说伴随明初礼仪改革经过从"礼"到"俗"的转变,逐渐发展为"封神"传说。然而,对明代姜太公传说的历史地理统计却显示,风物传说中几乎没有"役神"情节。在普通百姓尤其是渔民的想象中,姜太公"渔夫"形象突出。免课一说依托姜太公的图像,在明代江南渔户中流传。清代,两种传说类型融合,并形成了新的传说结构和"家神"信仰。围绕文字、图像和家宅讲述的风物传说成为新的民间"正统"。     

From the Land of the Pure,in Search of the Lost Origin: An Interview with Bahram Beyzaie on Siyavush-Khani (Siyavush Recitation) and its Mythological and Literary Roots

The interview was conducted in 1997 after the publication of Beyzaie's extraordinary engagement with the legend of Siyavush in Siyavush-Khani (Siyavush Recitation). Beyzaie's experiments with Shahnameh legends are not adaptations in the strict sense of the term. This is primarily because their stories are often different from what appears in the Shahnameh, mix the narratives with other mythical sources and place them in contemporary templates with an inter-paradigmatic gaze that reflects on the meaning and the history of the present. The interview is significant in that, as it has been conducted by a leading playwright and scholar of Iranian performing arts, it enables the reader to have firsthand experience of working in Iran as a playwright and reveals some of the methods Beyzaie uses to handle his subjects.     

关于元杂剧《灰阑记》的来源问题

《灰阑记》引起了世界的关注,国内有学论及了它的来源和世界性影响问题,这有意义。但学关于《灰阑记》题材来源的说法是不正确的。《灰阑记》虽在内容上与佛教、基督教、伊斯兰教所记的故事有相似之处,但李行道却不是从这三个宗教故事中取材。一,三个宗教虽在唐代以前就传入中国,但其时除了佛教有关故事已翻译过来以外,其他两个同类故事是不是已经翻译过来,难以确定;二．李行道是中国的隐士,不是宗教信徒,他受中国传统化的影响,《风俗通义》是宋元习见之书,他见到的可能性更大;三,元杂剧创作中普遍存在着吸取历史故事、小说等材料进行创作的倾向．李行道所在的平阳是当时杂剧创作的中心之一,他当然会受到这个倾向的影响。因此,我们认为,他是从中国本土的故事受到启发,创作了《灰阑记》。中国本土故事就是见载于《风俗通义》中的黄霸断两妇人争子的故事。《灰阑记》的故事情节、宗旨．与之极为一致。世界几种化中都存在着《灰阑记》式的故事,这一情形值得深入研究。用比较的方法研究中外化及学的相互影响及异同,是有意义的,但应注重事实,不应轻言袭用而贬低一个民族创造化的努力和对世界化的贡献。     

Lead Use on Roman Ships and its Environmental Effects

Underwater surveys along the Israeli coast have yielded numerous lead artefacts recovered from Roman shipwrecks, found due to sand shortage caused by nature and man. Unique site-formation processes resulted in intact and preserved assemblages of lead artefacts unaffected by prior salvage. These included hull sheathing, anchors, fishing gear, cooking equipment and containers. Most lead was in objects intended only for nautical use. The finds indicate that people on board ships were exposed to more lead than the general Roman population. Thus the Roman ship was a mobile source of lead pollution contaminating people and the marine environment.
© 2007 The Authors     

Historical Development of Asian Anchors,as Evidenced by Two Wooden Anchors Found in Northern Vietnam

This article presents the result of research on two large wooden anchors recently identified in Hanoi, Vietnam. Some features of the anchors show similarities with anchors originating from East Asian regions, but the research demonstrates that they are probably from ships locally constructed in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the attempt to clarify the origin of these anchors, it was discovered that there has been little discussion on the historical development of anchors in East and Southeast Asia. Therefore, this article will also assess the significance of the two anchors in the regional evolvement of anchors. © 2010 The Authors     

Performance and the politics of gender: transgender performance in contemporary Chinese films

This article focuses on two different genres of gender transitivity or impersonation. First, male actors who impersonate female characters. The two examples used to examine these impersonations are Chinese films Farewell My Concubine (Ba Wang Bie Ji 1993) and Forever Enthralled (Mei Lanfang 2009). Both films are based on the historical practice of dan in Peking Opera. Second, women who cross-dress as men for the sake of transgressing into the public sphere that had traditionally been forbidden for women. The main example of this is Hua Mulan (2009), a live action movie based on a Chinese legend of a female warrior called Hua Mulan, who disguises herself as a man to replace her father in the military service. Based on my close reading of the transgender performance in these Chinese films, the article will engage discussions of Western gender theories by Garber, Butler and Halberstam to examine the discourse and politics of gender and sexuality in contemporary China. To be more specific, a critical analysis will be carried out in the following three aspects: first, gender performativity is not necessarily subversive, but only suggests that heterosexual norms are arbitrary and unnatural. Second, rather than challenging heterosexism and gender binarism in contemporary China, the three films seem to support and consolidate the gender hierarchy. Thirdly, the category of transgender is intersected with art, identity and ideology in the specific social and historical settings. The contextualized analysis not only sheds new light on the implications of transgender in contemporary Chinese culture and politics but also questions the universalism of Western gender theories in cross-cultural contexts.     

In situ corrosion studies on the submarine Resurgam: A preliminary assessment of her state of preservation

Abstract

The submarine Resurgam was the world's first mechanically powered submarine, built in 1879 and lost in 1880 off the north coast of Wales. She was discovered 116 years later in 1996 and as part of an initial survey the corrosion characteristics and state of preservation of the hull were investigated.

The results showed that the hull was actively corroding, although the corrosion mechanism was such that the corrosion products formed were likely to be of a protective nature. The present corrosion rate of the wrought-iron hull of the submarine was hard to quantify based on established means, as the profile of 116 years of corrosion products had not been retained over the entire hull due to spalling of the corrosion products. Where the concretion profile was retained it was possible to calculate an average corrosion rate of 0.1 mm per year. This, coupled with the knowledge of the corrosion rate of freshly exposed wrought iron in sea water, enabled a ‘worst case’ corrosion rate of between 0.1–0.2 mm per year to be estimated.

Two arrays of sacrificial anodes were attached to the hull to test the feasibility of using this method to slow the corrosion rate and stabilize the submarine In situ. It is too early to say how successful these will be in the long term, yet initial results were encouraging as the corrosion potential was seen to shift to a more cathodic and thus less corrosive potential after their attachment.     

A Spanish Man‐o‐War in New Zealand? The 1864 wreck of Grafton and its lessons for pre‐Cook shipwreck claims

This paper considers the 1864 wreck of Grafton in the Auckland Islands, and its implications for wreck analysis and pre‐Cook exploration claims. The captain of Grafton, Thomas Musgrave, stated that the schooner was built from the wreck of a Spanish man‐o‐war, and archaeological analysis of the wreck found that the timbers are a tropical South American species, and had possibly been reused. The implications of this are clear; it is possible that timbers that originated in pre‐Cook (1769) ships lie in New Zealand, but without a full understanding of the historical and archaeological context of any such timbers, including their reuse in later ships, it is not possible to claim proof of pre‐Cook European exploration of New Zealand.     

陈独秀海权观初探

陈独秀认为一个国家要想成为世界上第一强国必定要有海上权力,若一国没有海权便像人没有手足无法行动,并以此为指导对中国近代有关海权的丧失和维护国家海权问题发表了自己深刻的见解,这对唤起当时国人关注海权的收回,增强海权意识具有重要作用.     

Francis Slade on Political Forms and Their Formation

The task of the article is to introduce the reader to one of the essential teachings of Francis Slade's understanding of political philosophy. After a brief presentation of why Slade examines political philosophy through the lens of form and what the principal political forms are, this article presents the form of premodern political philosophy by explicating what of its fundamental teachings modern political philosophy rejects and denies. The remainder of the work presents the modern form of the political by means of tracing the essential moments of the genesis of this form in Machiavelli's Prince and in Hobbes’ Leviathan. The argument focuses primarily on their revolutionary understanding of the human condition and its need to be transformed, or how man is no longer understood as a political animal and has necessarily become the subject of the state.     

Indo-Arabian stone anchors in the western Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea

This paper describes the current state of knowledge in the study of Indo-Arabian stone anchors in the western Indian Ocean, Red Sea and Arabian Gulf, and speculates on what they may be able to tell us about the provenance, size and handling of Arab and Indian ships and shipping during the period sixth-sixteenth centuries AD.     

The Return of the Dead: Revenants in Flemish Traditional and Contemporary Legends

In Flemish modern revenant legends the dead are no longer presented as poor souls who need the help of the living. These legends focus on the living rather than on the dead, and possibly reflect our doubts and fears about death, which is no longer the exclusive territory of the Church.     

Nemesiosstudien

A group of three fragments from a metope of temple C at Selinus, one of which has not previously been connected with the others, can be joined to reconstruct a metope showing a naked, vigorous man attacking a probably enthroned woman. It is argued that this is an early representation of Orestes killing Clytaimnestra, in a composition created for this temple decoration with the element of the enthroned woman taken from earlier representations of Orestes killing Aigisthos, and that it refers to a tradition where Clytaimnestra bore principal responsibility for Agamemnon's death; the same tradition is reflected in a few earlier illustrations, going back to the early seventh century, and foreshadows the treatment of the legend in Aeschylos’ Choephoroi.