ye-grene-chapelle

[ye-grene-chapelle]

A hand of glory on display at Whitby Museum 

(via Hand of Glory - Wikipedia)

[ye-grene-chapelle]

"Dunluce Castle, perched dramatically on the edge of a basalt cliff on the Antrim coast of Northern Ireland, has a storied past dating back to the 13th century."

[ye-grene-chapelle]

Vojtěch Hynais - Goldilocks (1904)

[ye-grene-chapelle]

“Through the witch — in fiction and fashion — you can engage in a kind of fantasy feminism, role-playing standing up to the mob. In this sense, “Witch Lit” corresponds to a psychological need that cannot be met in the real world, where fear of rejection and ostracism tempers rebellious urges.”

— The hypocrisy of Witch Lit - UnHerd

[ye-grene-chapelle]

R Aquarii: a symbiotic star in the Aquarius constellation. It is thought to contain both a white dwarf and a red giant. Original photography from ESO

[ye-grene-chapelle]

[ye-grene-chapelle]

Wandervogel (1932)

[ye-grene-chapelle]

The Sacred Tree of Takeo Shrine (Takeo’s Okusu Tree)                         Location: Outside Mifuneyama Rakuen Garden

Over 3000 years old, this camphor tree is the 7th largest tree in Japan. It is 30m tall with a trunk circumference of 20m, its branches span 30m wide from east to west, and 33m wide from north to south. This is the sacred tree of Takeo Shrine, which was built in the Nara period (735 CE). The roots of the tree resemble the feet of elephants and are wrapped in rough bark, with their central section split open near the surface of the ground. Inside is a gaping cavity with an area of 12 tatami mats, which houses a stone shrine deep within.

[ye-grene-chapelle]

Keith Henderson, “The Romaunt of the Rose” (1908)

[ye-grene-chapelle]

[ye-grene-chapelle]

Die Heilige Stunde (The Holy Hour) by Ludwig Fahrenkrog (1911)

[ye-grene-chapelle]

Metal Detectorist Discovers Medieval Wedding Ring  

Every metal detectorist dreams of unearthing something valuable. For one man the English countryside yielded an incredible find when he stumbled upon a medieval diamond wedding ring in “almost perfect condition” near Thorncombe, in the South West of the country.

Now the item is expected to fetch between £30,000 and £40,000 (Sold For: £38,000) when it goes on auction later this month.

David Board, 69, found the “stunning” ring on his second attempt at becoming a metal detectorist after a stint in the 1970s in which he scoured local beaches but found nothing of much consequence, a press release from auction house Noonans said earlier this week.

Board called the ring “a once-in-a-lifetime” find.

During a recent interview, he said: “There will probably never be another one like it. Back then, each ring was individual and unique, not mass produced like today. It’s stunning.”

Board took up metal detecting again in 2019. During the second day of a field search, he had almost given up when he got a signal on his metal detector by a footpath.

Initially, the culprit looked like a sweet wrapper but Board soon realized that it was a gold ring.

When he dug it up all covered in mud, Board said he thought it was just “scrap metal” and popped it into his pocket.

“It was once I got home and washed it off that we realized it was a lot better than we thought,” he explained.

The ring is in “almost perfect condition,” Nigel Mills, a consultant in coins and antiquities at Noonans, said in the release. The jewelery has a golden hoop of two entwined bands to symbolize marital union and an inverted diamond set into it.

Inside the band is a medieval French inscription that reads, “Ieo vos tien foi tenes le moy,” translating as, “I hold your faith, hold mine,” according to the auction house.

Due to the location of the find and the quality of the ring, Noonans’ experts surmised that it’s the wedding ring of Joan Brook, given to her by her husband, Thomas Brook.

Their marriage in 1388 brought great wealth to the Brook family, the release said, as Joan was the widow of Robert Cheddar, a wealthy cloth merchant and twice mayor of Bristol – a city in western England.

It was at a time when medieval notions of chivalry and courtly love were at their zenith, concepts which the ring reflects, Noonans said.

Now known as The Lady Brook Medieval diamond ring, the item will be auctioned on November 29.

Board goes out three times a week, weather permitting, in hope of uncovering another great relic among the musket balls and King George I coins. “It will be amazing if I did,” he responded, adding “you never know what the next signal is going to bring.”

The discovery adds to a list of incredible finds by detectorists in the UK.

One amateur uncovered a haul of Bronze Age objects in a Scottish field in 2020, in what experts at the time called a “nationally significant” discovery.

And last year it was reported that a huge hoard of Iron Age gold artifacts had been found by a rookie detectorist in Denmark.

By Hafsa Khalil.

[ye-grene-chapelle]

Isle of the Dead: Arnold Böcklin, 1880.

[ye-grene-chapelle]

by Chaitanya Deshpande

[ye-grene-chapelle]

[ye-grene-chapelle]

“A snake came crawling, it bit a man. Then Woden took nine glory-twigs, Smote the serpent so that it flew into nine parts. There apple brought this pass against poison, That she nevermore would enter her house.”

— Nine Herbs Charm - Wikipedia