Related Myths
One of the origins postulated for the modern Harlequin is Hellequin, a stock character in French passion plays. Hellequin, a black-faced emissary of the devil, is said to have roamed the countryside with a group of demons chasing the damned souls of evil people to Hell. The physical appearance of Hellequin offers an explanation for the traditional colours of Harlequin's mask (red and black).
It can be compared to other ghostly troops, such as the Santa Compaña in Galicia, a procession of the dead that recruits those who meet it; and the chasse-galerie, or bewitched canoe, of Québec.
In Flanders, Belgium, the wild hunt is rarely seen, but there are accounts of feasts in the fields, most often held by alvermannen (singular form: alverman) of elves. One would be invited to sit at the table if the banquet was approached decently; then you could eat and drink and sit there for eternity, unless you ask for salt, then the party disappears instantly. If the party was dissrupted, there would be a punishment; usually the light in your eyes would be blown out.
Karaçay version of Nart Epos calls Narts (deities of Caucasian Mythology) "gök atlıla" (Tr: Gök Atlıları, En: Celestial Horsemen, Horsemen of the Sky) and in cırs (Cır: Poem in Karaçay, Tr: Yır, English: Folk Ballad) dedicated to Sosuruk (Karaçay equivalent of Circassian Sosruquo) it is clearly mentioned that Sosruko leads the host of the skies, who ride horses, and their yells are heard when they encounter their enemies in the sky and start a battle.
Read more about this topic: Oskoreien
Famous quotes containing the words related and/or myths:
“So universal and widely related is any transcendent moral greatness, and so nearly identical with greatness everywhere and in every age,—as a pyramid contracts the nearer you approach its apex,—that, when I look over my commonplace-book of poetry, I find that the best of it is oftenest applicable, in part or wholly, to the case of Captain Brown.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“What passes for identity in America is a series of myths about one’s heroic ancestors. It’s astounding to me, for example, that so many people really seem to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true. What happened was that some people left Europe because they couldn’t stay there any longer and had to go someplace else to make it. They were hungry, they were poor, they were convicts.”
—James Baldwin (1924–1987)