Southern
history is full of semi-legendary figures – from explorers and settlers like
John Smith and Daniel Boone to unconquerable warriors like Francis Marion and
Bedford Forrest to centaur-cavalrymen like J.E.B. Stuart. But what are we doing with these riches? Unfortunately, not a lot.
Johnny Cash
shows what is possible. His ballad ‘The Legend of John Henry’s Hammer’ about the half-mythical
folk hero John Henry is one of his finest
works.
The graphic
novel recounting the deeds of General Patrick Cleburne is also praiseworthy.
And there
are some excellent poems scattered here and yonder.
But more
needs to be done. Dixie’s young folks
especially are ‘gobbling poison’, in C. S. Lewis’s words, for lack of true
sustenance, turning in increasing
numbers to alternative sexual identities to try to give meaning to their lives. They need the Gospel first of all, of course,
but mankind has been constituted in such a way that he also needs roots,
stability in a place and in a tradition, in order to be a whole, healthy
person, body and soul. We need to find
new ways to pass on the Southern inheritance to our children and to Southrons
of all other ages.
This
inheritance is being suppressed, but Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who spent years in
the Soviet gulag and witnessed the unbelievable destruction of Russia’s
thousand-year-old Christian culture, gives us reason for hope. While Russia was living in the midst of that
nightmare, he was able to say, ‘When “the overly straight shoots of Truth and
Goodness have been crushed, cut down, or not permitted to grow,” then perhaps
the “whimsical, unpredictable, and ever surprising shoots of Beauty will force
their way through and soar up to that very spot, thereby fulfilling the
task of all three”’ (The Solzhenitsyn Reader, Wilmington, Del., ISI
Books, 2006, p. xxxvi). And that is what
has happened in Russia, where Communism has been overthrown and a return to
tradition is well underway. Through new
works of beauty, the South can also preserve and renew her heritage. It is to Mr Solzhenitsyn’s fellow Russian Christians
that Southerners can turn for a remarkable example of how this has been
accomplished in another country, of how the influence of folk legends can
remain strong over an extraordinarily long period of time.
Several
hundred years ago, Ilya (Elijah) Muromets lived and died. He is recognized as a saint by the Orthodox
Church,
and the legends about his life form a wonderful tapestry that extend into many
fields of the arts. An encyclopedist has written,
For nearly a millennium, tales of Ilya
Muromets have been passed on from generation to generation. In traditional
fables he is a wise elder, whereas in the most recent cartoon – Vladimir
Toropchin's “Ilya Muromets and Nightingale the Robber” – he is a dynamic
and rather muscular young man, determined to gain the favours of a voluptuous
blonde (a princess, of course). Films, cartoons and even video games have been
dedicated to his eventful legendary life. All of these unlikely representations
are united by one determining feature: physical and spiritual integrity,
dedicated to the protection of the Homeland and People.
. .
. Over the centuries, Ilya Muromets' canonical image has been preserved, yet he
has also gained popular acknowledgement in new, adapted forms. He is the
protagonist of many literary works, the hero of numerous movies (e.g. Aleksandr
Ptushko's film Ilya Muromets), paintings (e.g. bogatyr s and Ilya Muromets
by Viktor
Vasnetsov),
monuments and cartoons. There’s even an aircraft named after Ilya Muromets.
Designed by Igor
Sikorsky it
was Russia's and the world's first four-engine strategic bomber.
We do not
have to confine depictions of our Southern heroes to traditional mediums. Films, cartoons, video games, internet videos
– any canvas should be welcomed, as it is with St Ilya in Russia.
The
encyclopedist goes on to say,
. . .
The rest is
at https://www.reckonin.com/walt-garlington/southern-myths-and-legends.
--
Holy Ælfred
the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to
the Union!
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