Category Archives: Folklore

Guy Fawkes Day: “Remember, remember the 5th of November!”

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In the 2005 film “V for Vendetta,” Hugo Weaving’s character wears a Guy Fawkes mask.

November 5 is celebrated as Guy Fawkes’ Day in Britain. It is the anniversary of the failed “Gunpowder Plot” to blow up the Houses of Parliament and King James I in 1605.

Guy Fawkes was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics. He travelled to Spain to seek support for a Catholic rebellion in England without success. He later met Thomas Wintour, with whom he returned to England. Wintour introduced Fawkes to Robert Catesby, who planned to assassinate King James I and restore a Catholic monarch to the throne. The plotters leased an undercroft beneath the House of Lords and Fawkes was placed in charge of the gunpowder they stockpiled there. Prompted by the receipt of an anonymous letter, the authorities searched Westminster Palace during the early hours of 5 November and found Fawkes guarding the explosives. Over the next few days, he was questioned and tortured and eventually confessed. Immediately before his execution on 31 January, Fawkes jumped from the scaffold where he was to be hanged and broke his neck, thus avoiding the agony of the mutilation that would have followed.

The night of November 5 is celebrated with bonfires and fireworks. Every year people throw scarecrow-like effigies of Guy Fawkes onto bonfires, and each year new effigies reappear only to be consumed by fire as well. Is it possible that the witty author of the Harry Potter books, J.K. Rowling, named Professor Dumbledore’s pet phoenix Fawkes after Guy Fawkes? For legend has it that each year the phoenix bird bursts into flames only to be reborn out of the ashes.

Aachen and the Figs

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The royal chapel of Charlemagne at Aachen is an octagon as many early chapels designed to be used for baptisms were.

October 21, 1944 — During World War II in Europe, American troops captured Aachen in western Germany after a week of hard fighting. It was the first large German city taken by the allies.

Aachen first developed from a Roman settlement and spa. It became the preferred medieval Imperial residence of Charlemagne and served as his capital. It was also the place where 31 Holy Roman Emperors were crowned Kings of the Germans from AD 936-1531. Charlemagne ordered the construction of the cathedral there in 796 AD and when it was completed in AD 798, it was the largest cathedral north of the Alps. On his death, Charlemagne’s remains were interred in the cathedral and can be seen there to this day. After Frederick Barbarossa canonized Charlemagne in AD 1165, the chapel became a destination for pilgrims. For 600 years Aachen Cathedral was the church of coronation for 30 German kings and 12 queens.

Legends developed that either Charlemagne or Frederic Barbarossa would eventually rise from their tombs just before the End of the World to combat the Antichrist. Both Charlemagne and Frederick were thought to be the personification of the “Good King” who cared for and protected his people, bringing law and order to areas torn apart by chaos and violence. They are very similar to King Arthur in this regard, who was also expected to return to save Britain in its time of greatest need.

Another legend states that when Frederick was in the process of seizing Milan in AD 1158, his wife, the Empress Beatrice, was taken captive by the enraged Milanese and forced to ride through the city on a donkey in a humiliating manner. Frederick took his revenge for this insult by forcing the magistrates of the city to remove a fig from the anus of a donkey using only their teeth. To add to this debasement, they were made to announce, “Ecco la fica!” (meaning, “Behold the fig!”), with the fig still in their mouths. It used to be said that the insulting gesture called fico), of holding one’s fist with the thumb in between the middle and forefinger (which was also a way to curse one’s enemies),came by its origin from this event.

Figs and fig leaves were important in folklore and magic. Adam and Eve used fig leaves to clothe themselves when they realized that they were naked. Fig leaves also protected Romulus and Remus as infants so that they could grow up to found the city of Rome. The Pharaohs took dried figs to their graves in order to sustain their souls on their journey into the afterlife. They thought the goddess Hathor would emerge from a fig tree to welcome them into heaven.

Scallop Shells and Saints

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A scallop shell marks the pilgrimage route to Santiago.

The scallop shell is the traditional emblem of St James the Great and is popular with pilgrims returning from the Way of St James (Camino de Santiago) and the apostle’s shrine at Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain. Medieval Christians would collect a scallop shell while at Compostela as evidence of having made the journey. The association of Saint James with the scallop can most likely be traced to the legend that the apostle once rescued a knight covered in scallops. An alternative version of the legend holds that while St. James’ remains were being transported to Galicia (Spain) from Jerusalem, the horse of a knight fell into the water, and emerged covered in the shells.

In French the animal (as well as a popular meal of it in cream sauce) is called coquille St. Jacques. In German, they are Jakobsmuscheln – literally “James’ mussels”. When referring to St James, a scallop shell is displayed with its convex outer surface showing. In contrast, when the shell refers to the goddess Venus (who stepped out from the sea on a scallop shell), it is displayed with its concave interior surface showing.

Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus (c. 1484-86). Tempera on canvas. Uffizi, Florence