Offsite Post: ‘Southern Myths and Legends’

 

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.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!