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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 11, 2021 16:46:52 GMT
Isn't the Uffington White Horse wonderful. Because it is so old it sits on its hill outside of recorded time itself. All those people down through the ages scouring it so it survived them, doing it for over 3,000 years, isn't that incredible? What stories do you know that involve hill figures? Perhaps they are real, like the White Horse, or imagined. Why don't you share with us these strange tales.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 11, 2021 16:48:52 GMT
I know one about the White Horse.
The Scouring of the White Horse, by Thomas Hughes. From 1859.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 11, 2021 17:15:19 GMT
Isn't the Uffington White Horse wonderful. Because it is so old it sits on its hill outside of recorded time itself. All those people down through the ages scouring it so it survived them, doing it for over 3,000 years, isn't that incredible? What stories do you know that involve hill figures? Perhaps they are real, like the White Horse, or imagined. Why don't you share with us these strange tales. There are several novels which feature them - the one I've read most recently is The Green Manās Challenge by Juliet E. McKenna. itās the fourth in her series of books with āGreen Manā in the title. I very much enjoyed it. Another good one is John Gordonās The Giant Under the Snow. But at the moment (and Iām worried that youāve been reading my mind - I was planning to ask your question myself here at some point!), Iām on the hunt for short genre stories involving them - for a possible future project. So far Iāve only got three: M.R. Jamesās āAn Eveningās Entertainmentā (the figure in that is based on the Cerne Giant), Mike Chinnās āAll I Ever Seeā in the recent Mammoth Book of Folk Horror (centred around the Uffington White Horse), and Steve Duffyās wonderful āFigures on a Hillsideā in The Night Comes On (inspired by Lethbridgeās work in the Gogmagog Hills). Steveās story has long been a favourite of mine and Iām quite surprised that itās never been reprinted. By the way, some of my ancestors lived in the Vale of the White Horse, so hill figures are kind of in my blood!
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 11, 2021 17:22:15 GMT
Mike Chinn - All I Ever See (The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror; ed. Stephen Jones, 2021). Bryan has been suffering from a mysterious illness for the last few years, and this has put a considerable strain on his marriage to Jen. The squabbling couple visit the Uffington White Horse, and something follows them back down the hill.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 11, 2021 17:23:27 GMT
Mike Chinn - All I Ever See ( The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror; ed. Stephen Jones, 2021). Bryan has been suffering from a mysterious illness for the last few years, and this has put a considerable strain on his marriage to Jen. The squabbling couple visit the Uffington White Horse, and something follows them back down the hill. Itās a good one - my favourite in the book.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 11, 2021 17:31:36 GMT
Just as an aside, the Uffington White Horse features in some scenes in the third series of the brilliance that is Britannia. (I suspect mocked up or CGI rather than the real place, but I could be wrong). Also we see the creation of a new (honestly not too convincing) hill figure.
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 11, 2021 17:45:57 GMT
There is a poem by Dylan Thomas called In the White Giant's Thigh. It's about the Cerne Abbas Giant, and refers to a superstition that if a barren woman makes love in the thigh of the great chalk figure then she will conceive. Through throats where many rivers meet, the curlews cry, Under the conceiving moon, on the high chalk hill, And there this night I walk in the white giant's thigh Where barren as boulders women lie longing still To labour and love though they lay down long ago.
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Post by dem bones on Dec 13, 2021 19:37:51 GMT
Mike Chinn - All I Ever See ( The Mammoth Book of Folk Horror; ed. Stephen Jones, 2021). Bryan has been suffering from a mysterious illness for the last few years, and this has put a considerable strain on his marriage to Jen. The squabbling couple visit the Uffington White Horse, and something follows them back down the hill. Itās a good one - my favourite in the book. How are you both getting on with Mammoth Folk Horror?
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Post by Dr Strange on Dec 13, 2021 20:25:04 GMT
Mixed. I've just been dipping in and out of it while reading other things, and I'm also skipping the ones in it that I've read before (Machen, MRJ, KEW, HPL, Blackwood). Of the new stories, so far, I have liked those by Alison Littlewood (Jenny Greenteeth) and Mike Chinn (All I Ever See). But, as often seems to happen to me with "modern" horror, there's been a couple that I either didn't get or which (IMHO) weren't really horror at all.
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Post by ropardoe on Dec 13, 2021 21:38:42 GMT
Mixed. I've just been dipping in and out of it while reading other things, and I'm also skipping the ones in it that I've read before (Machen, MRJ, KEW, HPL, Blackwood). Of the new stories, so far, I have liked those by Alison Littlewood ( Jenny Greenteeth) and Mike Chinn ( All I Ever See). But, as often seems to happen to me with "modern" horror, there's been a couple that I either didn't get or which (IMHO) weren't really horror at all. Yes, I would say āMixedā too. I really liked the two you mention (I've just read her Cottingley Cuckoo too). Of the others, I really enjoyed Kim Newmanās and that was after nearly giving up on it to start with.
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Post by ripper on Dec 15, 2021 20:08:20 GMT
Isn't the Uffington White Horse wonderful. Because it is so old it sits on its hill outside of recorded time itself. All those people down through the ages scouring it so it survived them, doing it for over 3,000 years, isn't that incredible? What stories do you know that involve hill figures? Perhaps they are real, like the White Horse, or imagined. Why don't you share with us these strange tales. There are several novels which feature them - the one I've read most recently is The Green Manās Challenge by Juliet E. McKenna. itās the fourth in her series of books with āGreen Manā in the title. I very much enjoyed it. Another good one is John Gordonās The Giant Under the Snow. But at the moment (and Iām worried that youāve been reading my mind - I was planning to ask your question myself here at some point!), Iām on the hunt for short genre stories involving them - for a possible future project. So far Iāve only got three: M.R. Jamesās āAn Eveningās Entertainmentā (the figure in that is based on the Cerne Giant), Mike Chinnās āAll I Ever Seeā in the recent Mammoth Book of Folk Horror (centred around the Uffington White Horse), and Steve Duffyās wonderful āFigures on a Hillsideā in The Night Comes On (inspired by Lethbridgeās work in the Gogmagog Hills). Steveās story has long been a favourite of mine and Iām quite surprised that itās never been reprinted. By the way, some of my ancestors lived in the Vale of the White Horse, so hill figures are kind of in my blood! Steve Duffy's story is a good one, and his collection The Night Comes On is possibly my favourite of Jamesian pastiches.
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 15, 2021 20:37:52 GMT
Steve Duffyās wonderful āFigures on a Hillsideā in The Night Comes On (inspired by Lethbridgeās work in the Gogmagog Hills). Steveās story has long been a favourite of mine and Iām quite surprised that itās never been reprinted. By the way, some of my ancestors lived in the Vale of the White Horse, so hill figures are kind of in my blood! Steve Duffy's story is a good one, and his collection The Night Comes On is possibly my favourite of Jamesian pastiches. Same for me!
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Post by dem bones on Nov 15, 2022 14:44:05 GMT
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Post by šrincess šµuvstarr on Dec 15, 2022 15:45:01 GMT
I've been reading Gogmagog: The Buried Gods, and I'm afraid I think the figures T.C. Lethbridge claims to have found seem just wishful thinking. But it's a marvellous fantasy. Apparantly there may have been a figure but, according to the sources from the 17th and 18th century, it was in a different area to these. www.hows.org.uk/personal/hillfigs/lost/cambri.htm
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Post by helrunar on Dec 16, 2022 3:06:06 GMT
Lethbridge's work is really fascinating, but I think he was regarded by the academic establishment as a "crackpot." They dismiss anything that threatens the pristine order of their dominant paradigm as a crackpot until somebody makes an indisputable discovery that forces them to re-calibrate.
Nice photo.
cheers, Hel.
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