Sir Francis Drake: The Construction of a Hero

KING ARTHUR IN HISTORY AND LEGEND. By W. LEWIS JONES. Cambridge: Univ. Press, 1911. 16mo, pp. vi + 145. Reviewed by Jessie L. Weston.

SIR PERCEVAL OF GALLES. A Study of the Sources of the Legend. By REGINALD HARVEY GRIFFITH. Chicago: University Press, 1911. 8vo, pp. viii + 131. Reviewed by Jessie L. Weston.

THE BLEEDING LANCE. By A.C.I. BROWN. Modern Language Association of America, 1911. 8vo, pp. 59. Reviewed by Jessie L. Weston.

THE TWO KNIGHTS OF THE SWAN, LOHENGRIN AND HELYAS. By ROBERT JAFFRAY. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1910. 8vo, pp. ix + 123. Ill. Reviewed by Jessie L. Weston.

ANCIENT HUNTERS AND THEIR MODERN REPRESENTATIVES. By W. J. SOLLAS. Macmillan &; Co., 1911. 8vo, pp. xvi + 416. Ill. Reviewed by W. Crooke.

ANTHROPOLOGY. By R. R. MARETT. (Home University Library). Williams &; Norgate, n.d. 16mo, pp. 256. Reviewed by W. Crooke.

PREHISTORIC MAN. By W. L. H. DUCKWORTH. (Cambridge Manuals of Science and Literature). Cambridge: Univ. Press, 1912. 16mo, pp. 156. Reviewed by W. Crooke.

THE THUNDERWEAPON IN RELIGION AND FOLKLORE. A Study in Comparative Archaeology. By CHR. BLINKENBERG. Cambridge: Univ. Press, 1911. Demy 8vo, pp. xii + 122. Ill. Reviewed by A. R. Wright.

THE WORLD OF DREAMS. By HAVELOCK ELLIS. Constable &; Co., 1911. 8vo, pp. xii + 288.

SURVIVALS IN BELIEF AMONG THE CELTS. By GEORGE HENDERSON. Glasgow: James MacLehose &; Sons. 8vo, pp. xi + 346. 1911. Reviewed by Eleanor Hull.

COSTUMES, TRADITIONS AND SONGS OF SAVOY. By ESTELLA CANZIANI. Chatto and Windus, 1911. 4to, pp. xiii + 180. Col. pl. and text ill. Reviewed by W. F. Kirby.

VOLKSLIEDER AUS DEM KANTON AARGAU. Gesammelt von SIGMUND GROLIMUND. (Schriften der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Volkskunde, No. 8). Basel: Augustinergasse 8, 1911. 8vo, pp. vi + 279. Reviewed by Lucy E. Broadwood.

THE BAGANDA. An Account of their Native Customs and Beliefs. By the Rev. JOHN ROSCOE. Macmillan &; Co., 1911. 8vo, pp. xix + 547. Ill. Reviewed by E. Sidney Hartland.

CASTES AND TRIBES OF SOUTHERN INDIA. By E. THURSTON, assisted by K. Rangachari. 7 vols. Madras: Government Press, 1909. 8vo. Ill. Reviewed by M. Longworth Dames.

GRUNDLINIEN EINER VERGLEICHUNG DER RELIGIONEN UND MYTHOLOGIEN DER AUSTRONESISCHEN VÖLKER. Von P. W. SCHMIDT. In Denkschriften d. K. Akademie d. Wissenschaften in Wien, 1910. 4to, pp. viii + 142. Reviewed by B. Malinowski.

DIE MYTHOLOGIE DER AUSTRONESISCHEN VÖLKER. Von P. W. SCHMIDT. (Reprint from Mittteil. d. Anthrop. Ges. in Wien, vol. xxxix.) Reviewed by B. Malinowski.     

The age of the Drake Passage

The distribution of benthic foraminifera in Miocene deposits of the continental margin of southeastern South America is compared with that in the Recent. The comparison indicates that Miocene zoogeographic boundaries were located in higher latitudes than at present, suggesting that the climate at that time was warmer than now. In the Pliocene, temperatures were lower than at present. This signifies that a considerable decrease in water temperature took place in the latest Miocene or at the Miocene/Pliocene boundary in the southwestern Atlantic. The main reason for this drop in temperature was the opening of the Drake Passage and the establishment of the Circumpolar Antarctic Current and a branch — the Malvin Current. The opening resulted from strong orogenic movements, in the latest Miocene, which created the main part of the Andes. Prior to the opening of the passage, the anticyclonic (counterclockwise) gyre of surface currents in the South Atlantic was much larger and warm Brazilian waters reached higher latitudes. The Austral Strait, connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, may have existed from the Cretaceous in the southern part of South America, but its location and character did not permit the establishment of the true Circumpolar Antarctic Current. The Austral Strait was closed simultaneously with the opening of the Drake Passage.     

Mongolian Hero Harnesses a Tiger

AllmonasteriesoftheGelugSectandhousesofGelugsectmembersarepaintedwithaDortraitdepictingaMongolianheroharnessingafiercetigerwithironchains.Thereisastorybehindthisfresco.Duringthetimeofthe3rdDalaiLamaSoinamGyaco(1543-1588),theGelugwasthenweakinTibetbutworke…     

The Roman Hero in Livy

The use of pseudonyms was a common practice among the ever-growing number of women writers in the nineteenth century, although the elusive nature of the phenomenon makes it difficult to ascertain its importance and frequency. A comparative analysis of the discourse on authorship and identity in the personal writings of four women novelists and memoirists—George Sand, Marie d'Agoult, Delphine de Girardin, and the Comtesse Dash, all of whom adopted, at least temporarily, a masculine nom de plume—reveals conflicted and often contradictory representations of the pseudonymic figure. While some authors, like Sand, Agoult, and to a certain extent Girardin, clearly saw the pseudonym as a means to achieve literary legitimacy and agency, others like the Comtesse Dash remained under the “cover” of their pseudonyms, as they fell into a form of anonymity while struggling to make a name for themselves.     

李自成传说的英雄叙事

明末农民起义领袖李自成是在中国历史上产生过重大影响的英雄人物。李自成及其领导的农民起义引起了上中下三个阶层的关注,在正史、文人俗文学和民间口承文学里均有记述。本文以民间流传的口承文本资料为依据,以李自成传说的英雄叙事为论述中心,概括了李自成传说的分布,勾勒出陕西、京晋豫、鄂湘三个传说圈,将其总结为三类八种类型,进而在与正史、俗文学比较的视野中,解读民众眼中的农民英雄,总结民间英雄人物传说的叙事艺术,评析不同的叙事文本所蕴含的史评、史观与思想观念。     

The Structure of Significant Lives*

A human life is not made up of measurable equal increments. There are crises, setbacks and advances, obstacles and pathways, highs and lows. The prevailing methods for the study of significant lives, insofar as there is any interest at all in the subject, are hampered by scientism and materialism. The means for understanding how we progress as individuals in relation to society and to the future of humankind cannot be found in the standard disciplines of psychology or sociology, which are looking for measurable results and are dominated by the quest for objectivity. Guided primarily by the thought of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy, we observe here the patterns in the life of two pioneering physicians, centuries apart, Theophrastus von Hohenheim, known as Paracelsus, and Sigmund Freud. Inspiration, revelation, conversion, orientation, grace are at the center, but none of these terms is reducible to material measurement. A new approach is suggested that better informs us about what makes the world go ‘round, the grammatical imperative, which subsumes even love.     

Francis Weston,F.S.A.

Abstract

The subject of tile-tombs is one not often discussed in archaeological journals. From time to time amongst the quantities of tiles which are excavated, enigmatic fragments are found which can be interpreted as grave markers, in the manner of a memorial brass. Sometimes referred to as ‘tile-tombs’, the available evidence indicates that such memorials were a part of the floor, not raised above it. This factor, and also the inherent fragility of the tile-tombs themselves, has meant that only a very few such monuments have survived in any reasonable state of preservation. Owing to their scarcity they have often been denied a place within a general monumental history of the medieval period, let alone that of later times. A major exception to this is a study published in this Journal of the collection of tile-tombs once at the abbey of jumièges (Seine-Maritime), France, which have been convincingly attributed by Christopher Norton to the abbacy of Guillaume III de Rauçon (1213–39). Dr Norton places this cohesive series of tombs within the context of technical and stylistic developments of the floor-tile industry of Normandy, drawing parallels in Britain. The concentration of such tile-tombs is overwhelmingly medieval. In this paper the chronology of tile-tombs is enlarged by studying two recently noted early modern examples, also in the département of Seine-Maritime. In addition, the paper supports Dr Norton's study, in that he assesses the jumièges tile-tombs to ‘stand at the start of a tradition which was to continue in Normandy for a period of some five centuries.’