Sheila
Moving
Life is a minestrone served up with parmesan cheese.
Posts: 701
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Post by Sheila on Mar 24, 2006 19:49:46 GMT
I have recently acquired the Russell Harty appearance where Kate performs this video and gets to meet Eric Fenby. I like that Fenby thought Delius would have considered it a brilliant tribute but also found it quite funny that he seemed to really not know what the hell he was looking at or hearing at all. This video is so beautiful it should have been included on one of her compilations although I understand it is not a single. I see she got to re-use one of the suns left over from Breathing. Very beautiful indeed.
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Post by Xanadu on Mar 24, 2006 23:06:26 GMT
I have recently acquired the Russell Harty appearance where Kate performs this video and gets to meet Eric Fenby. I like that Fenby thought Delius would have considered it a brilliant tribute but also found it quite funny that he seemed to really not know what the hell he was looking at or hearing at all. This video is so beautiful it should have been included on one of her compilations although I understand it is not a single. I see she got to re-use one of the suns left over from Breathing. Very beautiful indeed. Oh, I know...It seems like a bit of effort went into making a lovely video. I can't remember what it aired on, or what was it's purpose. Does anyone? Or why wouldn't this have been on the Single File VHS. I haven't seen it for a while. I'll try to watch it again to comment. Seems you obtained one of those highly sought after, ahem, compilations, Sheila. I hope it's good quality and not too expensive.
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Sheila
Moving
Life is a minestrone served up with parmesan cheese.
Posts: 701
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Post by Sheila on Mar 25, 2006 7:34:36 GMT
One for one ain't bad--it was only ten bucks, but the quality is terrible. But that was $10 including postage. It was well worth it. In fact this guy has a Roxy Music tape if you are interested let me know. I don't know but I kind of assumed she did Delius just for the Russell Harty show, seeing that Eric Fenby was there. But it is better than some of her official videos, isn't it?
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Post by margot on Jan 22, 2007 23:39:10 GMT
Wow, I am kind of jealous that you got to meet her. Ah, to be too young and on the wrong continent... not that I would even know what to say if I had the chance.
I really love this song. It's one of the first Kate songs that caught my ear. I remember hearing it for the first time. My sister's boyfriend and I were at a thrift store where someone had unloaded all of their Kate Bush cassettes. My sister's boyfriend has been a Kate fan since Hounds of Love got relatively big in the US, so he snatched them up and the first one we listened to was Never Forever.
Anyway, Babooshka played but I think it was a little too 'out there' for my uninitiated ear. Then there was Delius- catchy, minimal, and the thing I remember most was the male backing vocals. I just thought it was a really ballsy sound and pictured Kate surrounded by a man harem, which was a fantastic mental image. It was really my first listen to Kate Bush and it was just fun to hear this song that was at the same time pretty pop but also very unusual.
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Post by tannis on Mar 12, 2008 13:44:43 GMT
Sources of Inspiration for the Delius (Song of Summer) VideoDelius’s Song of Summer was the swan-song of the aging syphilitic and blind composer."Light and dark, good and bad. Both types of emotions flow out of Kate Bush and into her songs. Visually, it's all there on the sleeve of Never For Ever. Nick Price's Hieronymus Bosch-style cover shows a confused mass of bats and swans. The latter symbolise good, and on their backs ride the bad--all of them billowing out of Kate's dress, which is handsomely decorated with the clouds of her imagination." - gaffa.org/reaching/i80_rm.htmlNick Price, the artist on Never For Ever, is quoted as saying: "She gave me a specific brief. Light and dark creatures coming out from under her skirt. I think the meaning is unequivocal, but I did ask her at the time. She just gave a big grin!" "[Kate Bush] made her own experience of the creative process quite clear with the cover of Never For Ever. A cornucopia of fantastic and real, beautiful and vile creatures -- the products of her imagination -- is shown swirling out from beneath her skirt..." - gaffa.org/reaching/i89_q3.htmlThe NFE cover kinda reminds me of Pandora opening her box! (...and the photo-shoot basis for the album sleeve are of KB wearing a red chintz maternity dress). www.kundavega.com/kate/stickyB.jpggaffa.org/wow/k_b.jpgand see also: gaffa.org/wow/k187.jpgOn the NFE vinyl centre label, KB appears as 'The White Swan'.In Swan Lake, an evil sorcerer, von Rothbart, has captured Odette and used his magic to turn Odette into a swan by day and a woman by night. Once Prince Siegfried knows her story, he takes great pity and falls in love with her. When they realise the spell can never be broken, both Odette and Siegfried drown themselves by leaping into the lake... The Ninth Wave? Ophelia? etc.YOUTUBE: Kate Bush - Delius - Song of Summer- www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP1eYeMKkZEIn the Delius (Song of Summer) video, KB plays the Swan (obviously!) and PB plays the part of Delius, upon the bank, wearing an 'Apollonian sun mask'.- gaffa.org/garden/paddy2.htmlThe sun mask could reference Apollo or an Egyptian solar deity, such as Ra, or Amun-Ra (Amun merged with the sun god Ra)... And the cover of AERIAL repeats the solar disc reference, becoming one big solar mask.The Delius (Song of Summer) video seems very much to reference the ancient world. Sources of inspiration could be:[green] 1) Homeric Hymn 21 to Apollo...[/green] Phoibos [Apollon], of you even the swan sings with clear voice to the beating of his wings, as he alights upon the bank by the eddying river Peneios; and of you the sweet-tongued minstrel, holding his high-pitched lyre, always sings both first and last. And so hail to you lord! I seek your favour with my song.- from Homeric Hymn 21 to ApolloAPOLLO & ARTEMIS: The sun and the moon...
APOLLO was the god of the sun. Each day he drove his chariot of fiery horses across the sky to give light to the world. [Aerial Sky?] Apollo was believed to be one of the best archers. He was the son of Leto and Zeus, and also the twin brother of the virgin huntress Artemis. Apollo was also the Greek god of music and poetry and the hymns that were sung to Apollo were called paeans. Apollo was the leader of the Muses and also the expert director of their choir. Apollo became god of the sun and Artemis became goddess of the moon. ARTEMIS was associated with the moon as her brother the sun. Artemis, goddess of the Moon, is the quintessential female archetype. Artemis is known as the goddess of the night, the huntress, the goddess of fruitfulness, Lady of the Beasts, the woodland goddess, the bull goddess, the personification of the moon. The association between Artemis and the moon is revealed in one of the epithets used to describe the goddess - Phoebe ("the bright one"). 2) Winged Maat Paying Homage to Hathor, Valley of the Queens, Egypt. Dynasty XIX 1270 B.C.www.garone.net/tony/egypt_files/maatisis1.jpgwww.garone.net/tony/egypt.htmlThis scene shows the Goddess Maat kneeling with her wings extended in a pose of paying homage to the Goddess Hathor who is seated on a throne. Maat is the Goddess of Truth and Justice who personifies cosmic order and harmony as established by the Creator-God at the beginning of time. Her symbol is an ostrich feather on her head. Hathor is the great Sky-Goddess often represented as a cow who became known as a universal Mother-Goddess. Hathor was the Goddess of joy and motherhood and the embodiment of all that is best in women. Hathor was also considered the Goddess of music, dance, light-hearted pleasure and love. She was considered the protectress of pregnant women and midwives. The goddess Hathor later became assimilated with the goddess Isis. 3) Relief of the goddess Isis from the Temple Philae.way2egypt.com/img/Philae_Temple_Egypt_Goddess_Isis.jpgway2egypt.com/egypt_mythology.htmlEgyptian goddess Isis protecting a mummified pharaoh, a late Ptolemic relief from the Philae Temple, which was first built in the thirtieth dynasty, c. 380-343 B.C. as a temple to Hathor and later enlarged by Greek and Roman rulers of Ancient Egypt who built temples to Isis and Osiris. In Egyptian mythology, the goddess Isis is the wife and sister of Osiris and the mother of Horus. The goddess Isis, a moon goddess, gave birth to Horus, the god of the sun, and together, Isis and Horus created and sustained all life and were the saviors of their people. Isis was worshipped as the archetypal wife and mother. Her name literally means "she of throne", that is, "Queen of the throne", which was portrayed by the emblem worn on her head, that of a throne. However, the hieroglyph of her name originally meant "she of flesh", i.e. mortal, and she may simply have represented deified, historical queens. She also is known as being the goddess of magic and healing. Ancient Egyptians believed that the Nile flooded every year because of her tears of sorrow for her dead husband, Osiris. He was killed by her other evil brother, Seth, god of chaos and destruction. Seth sliced Osiris into bits and flung them into the Nile River, letting the animals eat the remains of his body. However, all the pieces survived, except for one of them. Throughout the Graeco-Roman world, Isis becomes one of the most significant of the mystery religions, and many classical writers refer to her temples, cults and rites. Temples to Isis were built in Iraq, Greece, Rome, Pompeii. At Philae her worship persisted until the sixth century, long after the wide acceptance of Christianity. Philae was the last of the ancient Egyptian temples to be closed, and its fall is generally accepted to mark the end of ancient Egypt. After her assimilation of Hathor, Isis's headdress is replaced with that of Hathor: the horns of a cow on her head, and the solar disc between them. Usually, she was depicted with her young son, the great god Horus, with a crown and a vulture, and sometimes as a kite flying above Osiris's body or with the dead Osiris across her lap. Some scholars believe that Isis worship in late Roman times was an influence behind Catholic development of the cult of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Oh, I'm in love with Egypt... see more: Kate on The Archers: APOLLO & ARTEMISkatebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=houndsoflove&action=display&n=1&thread=1714&page=2
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Post by rosabelbelieve on Mar 12, 2008 19:26:15 GMT
Isn't the Delius video great? Well, everyone can probably tell I like it from my avatar... I like the idea of it being related to Apollo and sun deities; that seems very fitting. And if Apollo is the god of music, maybe that fits into Delius being a composer? I also found this on the symbolism of swans... Swan Symbolism and Mythology
Because of its pure white colour, the swan is a symbol of light in many parts of the world. Though in some regions it was considered a feminine symbol of the moon, in most it was a masculine symbol of the sun. In ancient Greece, for example, the swan was linked to Apollo, the god of the Sun. The god Zeus took the shape of a swan to get close to Leda, with whom he had fallen in love. And in Celtic myth, a pair of swans steered the Sunboat across heaven. As a feminine symbol, the swan represents intuition and gracefulness, and goddesses such as Aphrodite and Artemis were sometimes accompanied by swans. As a symbol in alchemy, the swan was neither masculine nor feminine, but rather symbolised hermaphroditism or 'the marriage of the opposites', fire and water. It was an emblem of mercury, as it was white and very mobile, because of its wings. In Germanic myth the Valkyries had the power to transform into swans. They were warrior goddesses, bringing victory to one side and defeat to the other, and deciding which warriors could enter Walhalla after death. They would sometimes take off their swan-plumage and appear in human form, but if a man then stole their plumage, they were forced to obey him. However, the Valkyries could also be united with a man through love instead of force. The Valkyrie Kara accompanied her lover Helgi in war, flying over the battlefield in her swan's plumage. She sang a song so soothing that the enemy lost the will to fight. Also in Celtic and Siberian culture stories existed of swans taking off their plumage and turning into maidens. As a dream symbol, the swan can signify self transformation, intuition, sensitivity, and even the soul, the 'higher Self' within each person.Swans In Shamanism In shamanism, the Swan totem is associated with love, inspiration, intuition, self-transformation, gracefulness and beauty, and also with traveling to the Otherworld. As a water bird, it is also connected with emotions. Swan can help you with seeing the inner beauty in yourself and others, developing your intuition, accepting transformations and balancing your emotions. So maybe in the Delius video, the swan is a symbol of Artemis? I'm also reminded of the Swan of Tuonela in Finnish mythology, who glides and sings on the waters of the river that encircles the underworld. I'll have to find more information about that..
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Post by tannis on Mar 12, 2008 21:27:50 GMT
Thank you, Rosa... The Swan of Tuonela in Finnish mythology, who glides and sings on the waters, makes me think of the commentary on how they got Kate to glide like a swan in a BBC studio... - gaffa.org/garden/paddy2.htmlAnd Zeus taking the shape of a swan to get close to Leda is taken up by W. B. Yeats... [purple]Leda and the Swan[/purple] by William Butler YeatsA sudden blow: the great wings beating still Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill, He holds her helpless breast upon his breast. How can those terrified vague fingers push The feathered glory from her loosening thighs? And how can body, laid in that white rush, But feel the strange heart beating where it lies? A shudder in the loins engenders there The broken wall, the burning roof and tower And Agamemnon dead. Being so caught up, So mastered by the brute blood of the air, Did she put on his knowledge with his power Before the indifferent beak could let her drop? "Leda and the Swan" reflects Yeats's relationship with Maud Gonne, with Maud as Leda and Yeats himself as the swan. Indeed, well before the poem was written, Maud Gonne had become an identifiable entity in Yeats's poetry. [green]Both Yeats and Maud considered themselves mystics. They belonged to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, a society in which they attended seances.[/green] Maud desired a "pure" spiritual life and felt that type of life precluded physical contact (sex) with Yeats. Yeats aspired to a like belief system, but was unable to live up to these idealized standards. Under these conditions, Yeats and Maud Gonne entered into a "spiritual" marriage. Bernard Levine explains that "The marriage was based on a communication through dream correspondence and astral vision (controlled release of spiritual tension)". Levine suggests this spiritual marriage was "the background and psychological excuse for the writing of 'Leda and the Swan'"... The soldiers soften, the war is over... [blue]see more: Yeats's Leda and the Swan - Psycho-Sexual Therapy in Action[/blue]www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=15850
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Post by rosabelbelieve on Mar 12, 2008 22:33:08 GMT
I'd never read the story about how the video was made; thank you for pointing that out to me. And I like the poem.
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Post by tannis on May 28, 2008 18:35:59 GMT
Take a look at the following book cover - it is just like PB in the 'Delius (Song of Summer)' video...Ooh, ah, ooh, ah Delius Delius amat Syphilus Deus Genius, ooh...The Black Sun: The Alchemy and Art of Darkness (Marlan, 2005) www.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2005/bigmarlan.jpgBook Description "The black sun, an ages-old image of the darkness in individual lives and in life itself, has not been treated hospitably in the modern world. Modern psychology has seen darkness primarily as a negative force, something to move through and beyond, but it actually has an intrinsic importance to the human psyche... "He draws upon his clinical experiences and on a wide range of literature and art to explore the influence of light and shadow on the fundamental structures of modern thought as well as the contemporary practice of analysis. "An important contribution to the understanding of alchemical psychology, this book draws on a postmodern sensibility to offer insight into modernity, the act of imagination, and the work of analysis in understanding depression, trauma, and transformation of the soul."see more: REVERIES OF THE AERIAL ALCHEMISTkatebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=leaveitopen&thread=1998&page=4
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Post by rosabelbelieve on May 29, 2008 1:25:41 GMT
^ The similarity is striking. Also, sounds like the kind of book I'd pick up, if I saw it in a book store.
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Post by tannis on May 29, 2008 1:53:55 GMT
The similarities are indeed striking! It makes me wonder about the origins of the 'sun-masked man' icon. Maybe the cover was used on another book which the Bush family owned? Maybe the cover is from an old Masonic source. There is what looks like a Palm Tree on the cover, which can be interpreted as a Freemasonry symbol, as can be the sun-disc. And, yes, the book does suggest a very interesting read... SOLAR MONOTHEISM: Reaching Out for the Sun...Man wearing Sun Mask in divination ceremonywww.cubby.net/missalette/missalette12/images/sun_mask.gifThe Black Sunwww.tamu.edu/upress/BOOKS/2005/bigmarlan.jpgKate Bush - Delius (Song Of Summer)www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmADS0sFCGAThe cover to The Black Sun is so like the Kate and Paddy Bush 'Delius' video, and very much suggests solar worship. The Sun is prominently featured on the AERIAL cover. The back cover to TKI and NFE both feature sunset with moon; and LIONHEART features a solar lion moving its slow thighs...Reaching out for the Star Reaching out for the Star that explodes Reaching out for Mama See how the flower leans instinctively Toward the light...see more: SOLAR MONOTHEISM: Reaching Out for the Sunkatebush.proboards6.com/index.cgi?board=leaveitopen&action=display&thread=1998&page=5Delius was profoundly engaged in the contemplation of nature and disliked religion, though Koanga displays an interest in voodooism. He admired the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche, and his choice of Nietzsche texts for A Mass of Life, the determinism evident in Irmelin and the Village Romeo and Juliet, and the living metempsychosis of the boy and the seagull in Sea Drift have prompted some to see in his work a form of pantheism. (wiki)
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Post by tannis on Jun 18, 2008 16:21:05 GMT
What was also intriguing was that the YouTube search results had turned up this young girl called Kate Bush who'd written a song about Delius. Her name was familiar to me since the 1970s, but I didn't know any of her work. I thought she was a folk singer of some sort. The clip I found was the Russell Harty interview which included a mimed performance of the song. It perplexed me at first, since it bore no obvious relation to Delius musically, but I was amused to find that the scene that had struck me from the film had also struck her the same way. She has the back-up singer going "tuh tuh-tuh...tuh tuh-tuh..." in the same tuneless drone. (I also worked out that she couldn't have been more than ten or eleven when she'd seen it.) But I did something of a double-take with the last line that goes "...to be sung of a summer night on the water". Because it would have a special resonance for Delius fans. The piece heard briefly in the film, the eponymous Song of Summer, is not a song as such, but an orchestral piece. But, as it happens, in 1917 Delius wrote two (true) songs for choir called "Songs to be Sung of a Summer Night on the Water". It occurred to me then that this girl was no fake, and probably knew the entire Delius catalogue. Hello and welcome, ketman. Thank you for continuing with the long version of how you discovered Kate Bush. Very interesting comments on 'Delius (Song of Summer)' and Delius the composer, especially the "tuh tuh-tuh...tuh tuh-tuh..." connection. Hence my responding from the 'Delius' thread. Kate is very much a real fan:KB: "I've never even seen a Madonna video and I don't like pop music much. Radio One infuriates me. I'd rather listen to the silly programmes on Radio Four, or to classical music like Delius, Bach and Satie." "What Kate Did Next", 1985gaffa.org/reaching/i85_what.htmlAnd you're right that she couldn't have been more than ten or eleven when she saw the film, so it must have made a real impression:[At the end of 1980 Paul Gambaccini, host of a BBC Radio 1 music programme, invited Kate Bush to join him for two programmes, on which she would have complete discretion as to the music playlist... She later said that she had greatly enjoyed the chance to introduce some of her own favourites to a large audience...] I'm wondering if this next composer was one that you were introduced to by your family, and this of course is Delius. And you've written a song about him on your 'Never For Ever' album. You are a fan of several of his pieces. KB: "Yes. Um, Delius was really introduced to me by Ken Russell, um, on television. Um, I think people have probably heard about, um Song of Summer that was shown--a beautiful piece of film, about Delius's later life." How old were you when you saw that? KB: "I must have been about ten. But the imagery was just so beautiful, you just don't forget it. It's the most incredible film. And if I could make a plea, um, I really wish the BBC could show it again. There are so many people that could benefit greatly from seeing it. The piece that we're going to play next is called Song to be Sung of a Summer's Night on the Water. Um, this is a line I used, in fact, in the song on the album. And, uh, there's a quote from Delius as to his favourite retreat, that he imagined, and I thought it would tie in rather nicely, going into the music. Um, he says: 'White butterflies flitting from petal to petal, and golden brown bees murmuring in the warm, quivering summer air. Beneath the shade of the old trees flows a quiet river with water-lilies, and in a boat, almost hidden, two people. A thrush is singing in the distance.'" Paul Gambaccini Radio Programme, Part 1, December 30, 1980gaffa.org/reaching/ir80_pg1.html
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Post by ketman on Jun 18, 2008 21:09:48 GMT
Thanks, tannis. I realize now I should have posted my message here in the first place, since it's so song-specific, and the site is (sensibly) structured that way. So I'll just post it again below. It'll look as if you replied before I posted, but never mind. Thanks also for the links. That gaffa.org seems like a mine of information. I've browsed it a bit, but I'll give it a longer go in the next few days.
(Transferred post follows)
I was heavily into pop as a teenager in the 1960s, and had played lead guitar in an amateur (and not good) band. But in 1968-9 when I was 21, I suddenly got interested in classical music, which I knew hardly anything about. Sometime earlier, I can't remember how long, I had seen a TV film about a composer who had gone blind. I hadn't paid much attention, but I remembered a couple of scenes from it. One was where the composer was singing the notes of his composition to a young man who had the impossible task of trying to write it down. It was comical in the extreme, because it was the most tuneless sound you could imagine - "ta ta-ta...ta ta-ta....ta ta-ta...." - and you can imagine the despairing look on the young man's face, who hadn't a clue what notes were being sung.
Later, I got to know the music of the composer, who was called Frederick Delius, and I have been listening to him for nearly 40 years now. But after all that time, the memory of that film became very vague, and I never heard it mentioned by anyone, and the few people I asked had never heard of it. I actually wondered if I'd conjured up a non-existent film out of my imagination. Maybe I'd dreamed it. So when I got to know YouTube, I immediately searched for this film - and found it. It was quite a relief to know it did exist. It was called "A Song of Summer", and it was a bonus to find out it was a Ken Russell film, because I'd admired his work for years.
What was also intriguing was that the YouTube search results had turned up this young girl called Kate Bush who'd written a song about Delius. Her name was familiar to me since the 1970s, but I didn't know any of her work. I thought she was a folk singer of some sort. The clip I found was the Russell Harty interview which included a mimed performance of the song. It perplexed me at first, since it bore no obvious relation to Delius musically, but I was amused to find that the scene that had struck me from the film had also struck her the same way. She has the back-up singer going "tuh tuh-tuh...tuh tuh-tuh..." in the same tuneless drone. (I also worked out that she couldn't have been more than ten or eleven when she'd seen it.) But I did something of a double-take with the last line that goes "...to be sung of a summer night on the water". Because it would have a special resonance for Delius fans. The piece heard briefly in the film, the eponymous Song of Summer, is not a song as such, but an orchestral piece. But, as it happens, in 1917 Delius wrote two (true) songs for choir called "Songs to be Sung of a Summer Night on the Water". It occurred to me then that this girl was no fake, and probably knew the entire Delius catalogue.
I was impressed enough to investigate more of Kate Bush's own music. And the more I hear, the more impressed I become. But I have a lot of catching up to do.
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Post by tannis on Apr 11, 2009 14:27:19 GMT
Gods of the Third Reich: The Valkyries ~ Fredrik Sander's 1893 edition of the Poetic Edda. The three swan-maidens / valkyries of Völundarkviða with their swan-cloaks off. In the poem, they're spinning linen, not bathing nude.In Germanic mythology, Wayland (Old English) or Völundr (Old Norse) is a legendary smith. In Old Norse sources, Völundr appears in Völundarkviða (Völundr's poem), a poem in the Poetic Edda. There was a king in Sweden named Nithuth. He had two sons and one daughter; her name was Bothvild. There were three brothers, sons of a king of the Finns: one was called Slagfith, another Egil, the third Völund. They went on snowshoes and hunted wild beasts. They came into Ulfdalir and there they built themselves a house; there was a lake there which is called Ulfsjar. Early one morning they found on the shore of the lake three women, who were spinning flax. Near them were their swan garments, for they were Valkyries. Two of them were daughters of King Hlothver, Hlathguth the Swan-White and Hervor the All-Wise, and the third was Olrun, daughter of Kjar from Valland. These did they bring home to their hall with them. Egil took Olrun, and Slagfith Swan-White, and Völund All-Wise. There they dwelt seven winters; but then they flew away to find battles, and came back no more. Then Egil set forth on his snowshoes to follow Olrun, and Slagfith followed Swan White, but Völund stayed in Ulfdalir. He was a most skillful man, as men know from old tales. King Nithuth had him taken by force, as the poem here tells.So could KaTe's swan-feather attire in the 'Delius' video represent the Valkyries of Völundarkviða... Called 'battle-maids' or 'swan-maids' because of their swan-feather attire, the Valkyries were women/spirits that gathered the slain in battle and placed them in attendance to the Gods. The premier Valkyrie was Brynhild, who married a valiant mortal upon coercion because had allowed a wrong king to be slain. Again the war nature of the mythology is forefront, focusing on the powers that win war and cause failure and defeat such as disease, ice, 'giants' or great opponents, etc. Given the events of WWII especially toward the end, the war-mythology of Norse mysticism would have been easily assimilated. [Hence, Valkyrie (2008).] www.shoaheducation.com/thor.html
Midway between the third and eleventh centuries, the Valkyries begin assuming a more benign aspect. Small amulets and pictures on memorial stones begin to depict the figure of the beautiful woman welcoming the deceased hero with a horn of mead to the afterlife. By this later time, the Valkyries as demigoddesses of death had their legend conflated with the folklore motif of the swan maiden (young girls who are able to take on the form of a swan, sometimes as the result of a curse). In her role as swan-maiden, the valkyrie can travel rida lopt ok log, "through air and through water." It is known that the swan was popularly associated with the concept of augury. See, for instance, the phrase, es scwant mir, (it swans me, meaning "I have a premonition or a foreboding"). If one could capture and hold a swan maiden, or her feathered cloak (alftarham), one could extract a wish from her. This may be why sometimes valkyries are known as swan maidens or oskmey (wish maidens), or perhaps they take this name from Odinn's appelations, Oski or Wunsc (wish). The motif of the swan-maiden appears in the earliest strata in the sagas. In Helreid Brynhildar, a man named Agnar forced Brynhildr and her seven sisters into his service by hiding as they bathed and then stealing their swan-shifts. In Volundarkvida, the saga tells of three Valkyries who put their swan-shifts aside to sit on the shore spinning flax, and who consequently were wooed and won by three brothers -- here the oskmeyjar stay seven years with the brothers, only to fly away at the end of that time, never to return. In Hromundars saga Greipssonar, the valkyrie Kara appears in swan shape flying above a battle, shapechanged by the wearing of a alftarham (swan-shift). However in time, the valkyrie/swan-maiden evolves into a marchen character, Dornroschen, Sleeping Beauty, the wunschelweib.www.vikinganswerlady.com/valkyrie.shtmlsee more: Völuspá (The vision of the Seeress) katebush.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=leaveitopen&thread=1998&page=6 KATE BUSH and TWO SUNSkatebush.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=neverforever&thread=1701&page=2THE POETIC EDDA: VÖLUNDARKVITHA, The Lay of Völundwww.sacred-texts.com/neu/poe/poe17.htm
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Post by tannis on Jan 17, 2010 22:27:17 GMT
The Swan Princess Mikhail Vrubel. Swan Princess. 1900. Oil on canvas. The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia. His canvases strike one by their harmony and contrast. Actuality is turned into fantasy, while the power of his brush gives fantasy a tangible validity. Form in Vrubel’s paintings is not only voluminous, but is “diamond-cut” like precious stones. Vrubel’s “diamond-cutting” is intended to expose in-depth essence of the subject, revealed to the painter’s prophetic vision. A specific twilight color scheme blankets the world of his pictures in the haze of unraveled mystery.
Erasing the difference between the natural and the magic, the real and the imaginary, Mikhail Vrubel endows his images, inspired by poetry, legends and fairytales, with a new, universal and at times cosmic meaning. His strongly symbolic canvases appear at times as revelations.
The Swan Princess (1900) is evasively and inexpressibly beautiful in her glimmering garments shining with mother-of-pearl and sparkling with precious stones.
The composition is so constructed as to give the impression of glancing into a fairy-tale world where a magic swan-maiden has just appeared and is about to disappear again, floating away towards a distant mysterious shore. The last beams of sunshine play on her snowy white feathers, producing a rainbow of colours. The maiden is turning, her delicate face looks sad, and there is a mysterious mixture of melancholy and loneliness in her eyes. The Swan Princess is one of Vrubel's most enticing and heartfelt feminine images.
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