Stonehenge is an old monument in the south of England. We don’t know exactly what it is. Is it a temple? Is it an astronomical observatory? Is it from the times of Merlin and King Arthur?
STONEHENGE FACT-FILE
Where: It is near Salisbury in the south of England.
When: No one knows exactly periods:
1. In 3000 BC there is a circular ditch with a diameter of 100 metres.
2. In 2500 BC there is the original monument. It is made of wood.
3. Between 2500 and 1500 BC people built the stone monument.
Who: There are a lots of interesting theories-druids, people from Atlantis, Merlin the magician, aliens-probably primitive British people were the architects.
Why: No one knows but here are some ideas…
* Perhaps people used Stonehenge to study the sky. They wanted to see the changes in the sun, the moon and the stars. Whit this information they could understand the seasons and the weather.
* Perhaps Stonehenge was an enormous calendar, an observatory or a computer.
* Perhaps it was a magic temple to an ancient god…or the tomb of an important king.
How: This is a mystery too. The stones are very big and they are very heavy. Some stones are bluestones from the Preseli Mountains in South Wales, 385 kilometres away. No one knows how the people moved them.
We have found the legend of the Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill. Have you ever heard about this legend? Now you can read it…
The Giant’s Causeway is an area of about 40,000 interlocking basalt columns, the result of an ancient volcanic eruption. It is located on the northeast coast of Ireland, about two miles (3 km) north of the town of Bushmills. It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986, and a National Nature Reserve in 1987 by the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland. In a 2005 poll of Radio Times readers, the Giant’s Causeway was named as the fourth greatest natural wonder in the United Kingdom. The tops of the columns form stepping stones that lead from the cliff foot and disappear under the sea. Most of the columns are hexagonal, although there are also some with four, five, seven and eight sides. The tallest are about 12 metres (36 ft) high, and the solidified lava in the cliffs is 28 metres thick in places.
Legend has it that the Irish warrior Fionn mac Cumhaill (Finn McCool) built the causeway to walk to Scotland to fight his Scottish counterpart Benandonner. One version of the legend tells that Fionn fell asleep before he got to Scotland. When he did not arrive, the much larger Benandonner crossed the bridge looking for him. To protect Fionn, his wife Oonagh laid a blanket over him so he could pretend that he was actually their baby son. In a variation, Fionn fled after seeing Benandonner’s great bulk, and asked his wife to disguise him as the baby. In both versions, when Benandonner saw the size of the ‘infant’, he assumed the alleged father, Fionn, must be gigantic indeed. Therefore, Benandonner fled home in terror, ripping up the Causeway in case he was followed by Fionn.
Another variation is that Oonagh painted a rock shaped like a steak and gave it to Benandonner, whilst giving the baby (Fionn) a normal steak. When Benandonner saw that the baby was able to eat it so easily, he ran away, tearing up the causeway.
The “causeway” legend corresponds with geological history in as much as there are similar basalt formations (a part of the same ancient lava flow) at the site of Fingal’s Cave on the isle of Staffa in Scotland.
Crop circles are one of the most mysterious phenomenons of the modern age They’re patterns created by the flattening of crops such as grain, barley, rye and oats. Some scientists state they’re made by UFO’s, but many circles are famous to be man-made principally by John Lundberg.
Their apparition begun in 17th Century, and almost 10,000 cases have been reported till nowadays. The 90% of these circles, is based in Southern England. Crop circles are not perfectly round but elliptical and their areas create a floor in mathematical proportions based on Euclidian geometry snd often they have the capacity to alter the local electromagnetic field so that compasses cannot locate north; cameras, cellular phones and batteries fail to operate, and aircraft equipment fails whilst flying over them. For example, at Stonehenge in 1996, a pilot reported seeing nothing while flying above the monument, yet 15 minutes later. Cases are often accompanied by sightings of incandescent or brightly-coloured balls of light, shafts of light or structured flying craft accompanied by trilling sounds. Serious attention was given to the simple circles in 1980 in America and Europe.
After 1990, the designs complicated. In fact, also their sizes have also increased, some occupying areas as large as 200,000 metres. Governments, during above during the Cold War, generate a method of disinformation called ‘debunking’, very effective also because of the media. According to TV documentaries made principally by important companies such as British Columbia, all crop circles to 1992 were made by two elderly men called Doug and Dave. It has been discovered by the researchers George Wingfield and Armen Victorian. When they were claimed from British Ministry of Defense D&D changed their story, they simply remained silent or said sentences like this: “Er, no, we didn’t do those either,”. This has baffled scientists and researchers. Spring: “ A brief education of crop circles” by Freddy Silva.
Exercise
Watch this video and write as a comment what you think about:
This is the frightening story of Jack the Ripper
Has he really existed?
Let’s read together…
August 1888. The Whitechapel area. A woman, Mary Ann Nichols returned with the other prostitutes but she met on her way a tall dark man… It’s the beginning of the case “Jack the Ripper
The first interesting point in my opinion is the choice for Jack the Ripper of prostitutes. Why are they all prostites and in the same age? Why Mary Jane Kelly’s murder is so different and so young than the other? These all questions have different answers but for me, the murder of Mary Jane Kelly is different simply because Jack the Ripper wanted to mark forever his murders. The choice of the prostitutes is perhaps linked to for women (perhaps he was homosexual). But il could be to catch a secret like in “From Hell” where the prostitutes were killed because they knew the relation between the son of the queen and an ex-prostitute…
Then, the horror, the mean the victims were discovered is an other important point of the case. These murders have inspired the terror in london. For another time, Jack the Ripper wanted to mark his time and his name. The victims were discovered with incisions, intestines out of her body, female organs removed, throat cut, mutilated… Jack the Ripper was surely the first very bloody serial killer.
The suspects are an other mysterious part of the case. So, the characteristic of this case is that we don’t know surely who was the murderer… (or the murderers). Police have suspected lots of people (lawyer, doctor, sailor, mentally ill person…). But according to the doctors who have examined the corpses, the precision of the incisions should be made by a person who have study medecine, so a doctor. That’s why i think the theory of the royal conspiraty is the most probable because murders mhave made by several people and especially by doctor(s).
And the final and interesting point of the case is the Jack Ripper’s letters. Why has he write these letters ? Perhaps he wanted to justify his murders ? The letters intriged lots of people and different theories were born to answer this mystery.
So, this case have a particular focus because the idea of a serial killer is new for most people (the murders, the cruauty, the victims…) The fact we don’t know now who was the murderer strike people too and finally the different letters of Jack the Ripper.
Document 5 : The Ripper letters
The police and local press have received lots of letters during the horror ofJack the Ripper. Lots of experts think allof them are false but many of them have another opinion and believe three letters are authentic : the Dear Boss letter, the Saucy Jacky postcard and the From Hell letter. I would talk about just these three letters.
The first letter is received on September 27th, 1888 and was believed to be a joke. But several elements in the letters,as the choice to Jack the Ripper to cut off ear from her victims, make a reference to Jack the Ripper. We know that the name of Jack the Ripper appeared in the letter because the author want the people to call him Jack the Ripper and not Leather Apron.
The second letter was received on October 1st, 1888 and the handwriting is similar than the first one, the dear boss letter. There were lots of reference about the last letter and about the last crimes. But as th murders and the letters were publish on newspaper, the authenticity are not attest.
It is the last one, the from hell letter on October 16th. This letter is one of a scene in the fim “From Hell”, directly inspired from this letter. George Lusk, the president of the Withechapel Vigilance Committee, received a cardboard box with a human kidney inside. The Dr. Openshaw thank that this kidney was perhaps one of Catherine Eddowes organs because the other is very similar.
Document 4 : FROM HELL, the movie
The movie “From Hell” is very interesting.
The story of Jack the Ripper here connects the murderer(s) to a royal conspiration. It’s one of the different theories the police and contemporan advance. The scandal is around the Prince “Eddy” Albert Victor who’s the grandson of queen Victoria and the heir to the throne. The prince may have been married in a secret ceremony a prostitute, Annie Crouck and had have a daughter with her. Moreover she’s the heir to the throne of Protestant England althought her mother was a Catholic. The authority take away the couple and Annie was take in a “psychologic” hospital where she lost memory. But there are other witness : the friend’s prostitutes of Annie…
So, they were killed in order to silence them and cover the royal scandal. But to the murder, the only difference is the last murder because Catherine Eddowes is killed instead of Mary Jane Kelly (this one went away by train with the chidren of Annie in order to wait the Lieutenant Abberline, the detective on the Jack Ripper’s case).
Lots of elements are true.
The main character, the Scotland Yard detective Abberline was a real policeman in this case. But his character is romanticized by a man who “chase the dragon” (he’s an opium addict) and who have premonitions on the murders.
The different murders are respected (the order, the name of the victims) except perhaps the end of the film because it’s not Mary Jane Kelly who’s killed but Catherine Eddowes… Moreover the life of the prostitutes is presented like gruesome and dark, always under threats (pimps, violent men,street criinals, disease and addictions).
Lots of characters are similar of the time of the murder, of the story. First, the murderers in the film are suspects in the reality (Sir William Gull, the dictor of the queen and intimate friend of her, Ben Kidney, a policeman and Netley, the cabman).
And finnaly, there is a compare between the title of the film and the signature of a letter Jack the Ripper wrote to someone. Indeed,on October 16th, George Lusk, the president of the Whitechapel Vigilance Committee, received a cardboard box in his mail and inside there was a half human kidney preserved in wine… surely on the Catherine’s corpse…
Document 3 : The suspects
A list of suspects has been made. We see the different theories the police and authors advance. There are contemporary theories according to the police, suspects named by authors and further theories
According to the police opinion, the murder could be a respectable lawyer and teacher (Montague John Druitt) who committed suicide after mutilated the women. But his death is too near of the last crime (Mary Jane Kelly’s crime). In the list of suspects, there were men who have already committed crime (George Chapman who have poisoned women, John Pizer who have committed assaults on prostitutes, William Henry Bury who have killed his wife after mutilate her) . There were respectable men like Montague John Druitt and moreover doctors who were connected with the deaths of their patients (Dr Francis Tumblety and Dr Thomas Neill Cream). There were too people who were near the murders and during the period (a sailor, a mentally ill person and other suspects
In the years after the murders, several authors showed their theories and introduce their suspects. Thus, very respectable men were accused by the authors : recently for example Sir John Williams, a friends of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert Victor, duke of Clarence…. but mentally ill person too, poet, painter, merchant, ……
The theories are numerous and all different. We are allowed to say that Jack the Ripper’s story is a mystery and will last a mystery.
Document 2 : The victims
This document deals with the victim of Jack the Ripper (her common points, who where there…). The author is an historical fiction author. She also researches historical figures shrouded in mystery.
We know the story of Jack the Ripper especially with the books written about him. But on the side of the case, the only element we know is his victims who were killing and mutilating. Jack probably charms his victims and use several stratagems to convince women to follow him. As the victims showed no evidence of struggle or defensive wounds, the killer should be an inoffensive and respectable looking man (according to the FBI…).
The five victims had common points. They were all alcoholic and they had been one time in their life streetwalkers. However, the crime was different for any girls. Mary Ann Nichols had incisions in her abdomen ; Annie Chapman had incisions on her neck, her abdomen ravaged (with intestines placed on her shoulder) and her female organs removed and missing ; Elisabeth had just her throat cut ; Catherine had her entrails flung, her neck and throat cut, her intestines under her body and her face mutilated ; and at last, Mary Jane Kelly had her throat cut, her abdomen sliced, her face mutilated and her internal organs had been removed.
We surmise that Jack the Ripper had the passion for killing and as the need of a drug, the crime increased and accelerated.
Have you ever heard about the giant’s causeway?Do you believe in giants??You can read this interesting article we have found surfing the net…
Giant’s causeway
Along the coast of Northern Ireland, there is an unusual place called “The Giant’s Causeway.” According to a local story, a big man, or “giant,” made it. Scientists, however, have a different story. How was this unusual place made? Was there really a giant?
The causeway was formed during the early Tertiary period some 62 – 65 million years ago over a long period of igneous activity. Three lava outflows occurred known as the Lower, Middle and Upper Basaltic. Lulls occurred between the outflows as is evident in the deep inter-basaltic layer of reddish brown ‘lithomarge’ which is rich in clay, iron and aluminium oxides from weathering of the underlying basalt. The hexagonal columns of the causeway occur in the middle basalt layer, the same formations can be seen at Staffa in Scotland (Fingal’s Cave) and they also occurs in the the surrounding landscape of North Antrim and in fact many other parts of the world.
What about legends??
There are also many heroic legends surrounding Finn MacCool, comparisons have been drawn between him and the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Finn was reputed as being the leader of the Fianna, the guardians of the King of Ireland whom he formed from a rough bunch of warriors in an elite group of men who transformed under his command into the manifestation of justice and honour, they were the people’s heroes. Finn’s famous son whose mother was the goddess Sadb, is said to be buried in Glenaan. It is worth noting that many of the great legends of Ireland are based or linked to the north coast of Ulster, There must be some correlation between this and the fact that Whitepark Bay was where man first settled in Ireland.
However in this section we will concentrate on his role in building the Giants Causeway. The story goes thus:
Finn a renown warrior was going about his daily duties on the north coast when one of his adversary, a Scottish giant called Benandonner started shouting and ridiculing Finn’s fighting prowess. This angered Finn who lifted a lump of earth and pelted it to Scotland as a challenge to this giant. The Scottish giant retaliated with a rock back to Finn shouting that if he could get his hand on him, he would make sure that Finn would never fight again adding that unfortunately he could not swim the short distance across the Channel, so Finn would be spared that fate. Finn got enraged by this and tore large pieces from the cliffs, he worked for over a week pushing these into the ocean bed and made a sturdy causeway to Scotland, when he had finished he shouted ‘Now you’ll had no excuse’ to come over and do your best. Fearing to lose his own reputation and pride the Scottish giant had no alternative but come over the causeway. Finn was tired, having not slept for the week he worked on the causeway and did not feel ready for fighting. He thought about how he could buy some time and recuperate to face the Scottish giant and came up with an ingenious plan. Quickly he made a large cot and disguised himself as a baby …… and waited. The Scottish giant arrived at Finn’s house shouting, ‘Where is that coward MacCool’, Finn’s wife said the he was away but sure sit down and have a cup of tea, he’ll not be long. the tea arrived with a cake in which Finn’s wife had placed some stones. Benandonner took a bite and broke one of his teeth, and thought to himself, this Finn must be a tough boyo to eat cakes like this, not to be outdone, he finished off the cake and tea, breaking two more teeth in the process. He noticed the baby cot and the baby inside it and his eyes widened in fear, he thought to himself, my goodness if this is the size of the baby? What size is the Father? He reached his hand in to touch the sleeping baby, half out of curiosity and half as a sign of affection, Finn bit the tip of his finger off. Benandonner was shocked by this and thought to himself, if this is what the baby is capable of, what must the father be capable of and what could he not do! This thought terrified him, the fear got the better of him and took to his heels and ran like he had never ran before, back across the causeway to Scotland destroying it as he went.
One of the most interesting legends of England is the legend of the Holy Grail. Do you believe in its existence? We have been curious about this legend and we have found these information on Internet. Are you as curious as us? Let’s read together
The Tradition: King Arthur was the central figure in the mythology of Great Britain.His story is mixed with historical truths and exaggerated fiction. But did he really exist? Many believe he did, but he was a type of military leader who fought Germanic invaders in the 6th century. And there were many legends about him. Just like teenagers today, people in Medieval times liked listening to stories about superheroes. The Deeds of these heroes were exaggerated, as the stories were passed by word of mouth from person to person. But their superheroes were knights who sat at a round table in the beautiful castle of Camelot and a great king who wanted peace and justice. King Arthur’s story include magic. A vision of the Holy Grail, the cup which gives eternal life, appears to Arthur and his Knights. Besides the legend says that only the best knight in the land can re-discover it. And so the knights leave on their quest of the Grail and they have many adventures.
The Name: The word is probably derived from the Old French word graal meaning a “broad and capacious dish or salver”.
The details of Arthur’s story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and his historical existence is debated and disputed by modern historians. Arthur appears either as a great warrior defending Britain from human and supernatural enemies or as a magical figure of folklore, sometimes associated with the Welsh Otherworld, Annwn.
The Arthurian legend varied widely from text to text, and there is no one canonical version, Geoffrey’s version of events often served as the starting point for later stories. Geoffrey depicted Arthur as a king of Britain who defeated the Saxons and established an empire over Britain, Ireland, Norway and Gaul. In fact, many elements and incidents that are now an integral part of the Arthurian story appear in Geoffrey’s Historia, including Arthur’s father Uther Pendragon, the wizard Merlin, the sword Excalibur, Arthur’s birth at Tintagel, his final battle against Mordred at Camlann and final rest in Avalon. The 12th-century French writer Chrétien de Troyes, who added Lancelot and the Holy Grail to the story, began the genre of Arthurian romance that became a significant strand of medieval literature. In these French stories, the narrative focus often shifts from King Arthur himself to other characters, such as various Knights of the Round Table.
One of the most interesting legends of England is the legend of the Holy Grail. Do you believe in its existence? We have been curious about this legend and we have found these information on Internet. Are you as curious as us? Let’s read together
