The Vikings believed in magic. I used one of their beliefs in my "Viking and the Pictish Princess," the idea of a cursing pole.
Called a Nithing pole (in old Norse this means Scorn Pole), this was a long staff or pole, set into the earth and topped with a horse's head. It was meant to bring bad luck, and along with runes, was intended to create malice and trouble.
Such rituals and poles are recorded in the Viking Sagas, as in Egil's Saga. You can see what he did in this excerpt on Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nithing_pole
My Viking warrior Olaf also uses a Nithing pole. Instead of a horse's head he uses a deer's head, to placate the spirits and gods of the Pictish kingdom that he and his new wife are striving to protect from invaders and rival ruler Constantine.
Excerpt.
Up on the moor, beside the old ring of stones and facing
east, he had set up a cursing pole to anger and offend the spirits
of Constantine’s land, to give himself and his folk good
luck and to force bad luck onto Mongfind and her ilk. He had
slammed the newly felled and trimmed ash sapling into the
earth and snow, driving it down in his fury and frustration,
and topped the pole with the head of the roe deer, as sacrifice
to Loki, to Odin and to any Pictish god who would heed a Viking.
Man’s magic, for sure, but is it good to hold such secrets from my
wife?
It had to be, he decided. Eithne, these days, often looked
drawn and troubled. She had enough pain with her sister’s
As a strange writer's coincidence I wanted a Norse name for a small black horse, one that would roughly translate as "Sooty". I searched on the Internet and found a name: Saehrimnir, meaning sooty sea-beast. This fit nicely with Scottish and Pictish beliefs concerning water-horses and Kelpies.
The June movie kiss is from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
I am an
Indiana Jones movies fan. I like the Raiders of the Lost Ark best, because it was the first of the five in the franchise. However, I love them all for different reasons, not the least of which is I watch movies to be entertained, and all of
the Indiana Jones movies have entertained me.
In Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I loved that Indy and Marion were reunited and were married after all their years
apart. I also liked that they had a son. The ‘you may kiss the bride’ kiss was a
fun kiss, but it’s not THEKiss in the Indiana Jones franchise.
THEKiss is at the end of the fifth movie, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.
In Dial
of Destiny, Indiana Jones is 80 years old and separated from Marion, due to a combination of his temperament and their deep grief. He is
disillusioned with where his life has brought him. He is equal
parts angry with life and himself. He is at loose ends with retirement and
wondering what purpose there is in life at his age. There were moments I felt
sorry for him. But he is still Indy at heart, despite his life since he and Marion
first fell in love to when they finally married twenty-something years later
and currently living alone with his heartache. Many references to the previous
four movies pop up in Dial of Destiny,
which is delightful.
There
is one particular scene in Dial of Destiny
that is absolutely soul-wrenching. It is in this scene that we see Indy at his
most vulnerable. It is agonizing to share his deepest regrets, which is the
grief of the death of his son and the subsequent disintegration of his marriage,
both of which he feels completely helpless to deal with.
I
needed Indy and Marion to reconcile before Dial of Destiny ended—desperately needed
it.
I
wasn't disappointed. The moments leading up to the reconciliation kiss are
simply wonderful. Their dialogue takes us back to Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark scene when Marion and
Indy are alone in a cabin on the ship and Marion, exasperated, says, “Well, where doesn’t it
hurt?”
This is
a touching scene, and we know in our heart of hearts that it’s going to be okay
between Indy and Marion now. It’s a bittersweet, happy ever after feeling.
Theirs
is a kiss of forgiveness. It’s a kiss that begins to heal their shared heartache.
It is a kiss that reminds them of their love. It is THE Kiss.
This
movie clip isn’t great quality, but it’s the only one available on YouTube.
Dial of Destiny honored Harrison Ford
and Indiana Jones. It is a fitting story to end the series with.
See you next month for more
kisses from the big screen.
Robert Todd Lincoln (August 1, 1843 – July 26, 1926) was the eldest son of Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln, and the only one of their children to outlive both parents. He was a businessman, a corporate lawyer, served as Secretary of War, and was also the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He was president of The Pullman Company from 1897 until 1911, but served on the board until 1924, two years before his death.
He had a distant relationship with his father, who was often busy working, but it seems that the President was aware of missing out on family life, mentioning to his wife in a letter, "don't let the blessed fellows forget Father."
Robert was an undistinguished student, failing fifteen out of the sixteen subjects of the Harvard entrance exams, and described by the author Jan Morris as having "emerged an unsympathetic bore." Parental strings were pulled for him at university and in his military career when the Civil War broke out, with his mother keeping him from joining up until shortly before the end of the war. President Lincoln seemed more aware of the optics, telling his wife that, "our son is not more dear to us than the sons of other people are to their mothers." However, when Robert did join up, his father wrote to Ulysses Grant asking for his son to be placed on his staff, meaning that he still got the kind of cushy and safe position denied to almost everyone else.
Abraham Lincoln
He married Mary Eunice Harlan in 1868, and had three children, who themselves had children of their own, with the last of Abraham Lincoln's acknowledged direct line dying out when Robert's grandson Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, died in 1985. However, DNA studies proved that author Vicky Reany Paulson is a descendent of Abraham Lincoln's mother's line, Nancy Hanks, who was illegitimate and raised by her grandparents until going to live with her mother and her new husband when she was twelve. There's currently a DNA project underway to find more people connected to this side of the family, and that proves Nancy Hanks' parentage was different from that of her siblings, confirming the illegitimacy tales. Rumours still swirl about Lincoln's feal father being a man named Thompson, but no research has confirmed this to date.
All these stories are commonplace to those of us who have studied our own family trees. We all have such dalliances in our genealogy, but what sets Robert Lincoln apart, aside from the extraordinary opportunities and company his fortunate birth set before him? It wasn't even the scandal of committing his mother to an, albeit plush, mental asylum to evade negative publicity; something she ruined by sneaking a letter out to her lawyer and escaping, leaving the press negatively questioning his motives. Such treatment of inconvenient women was fairly
James A. Garfield
commonplace at that time, although she garnered more public sympathy than most.
His distinction lies in his link to assassinated American presidents.
Robert was invited to the theatre the night his father was shot, but declined the invitation. However, he was present when Abraham Lincoln died, nine hours after being fatally wounded in 1865. Not only that, but he was present when Charles J. Guiteau shot President James A. Garfield at the Sixth Street Train Station in Washington, D.C., on July 2, 1881. Just to compound that, he was just outside when President William McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz, making him the only man there when three American presidents died through assassination, which makes him absolutely unique in US history.
On top of all that, he was saved from falling in front of a train in 1963 or '64 by Edwin Booth, whose brother, John Wilkes Booth, assassinated Robert's father. Robert Lincoln wrote, "
William McKinley
The incident occurred while a group of passengers were late at night purchasing their sleeping car places from the conductor who stood on the station platform at the entrance of the car. The platform was about the height of the car floor, and there was of coursea narrow space between the platform and the car body. There was some crowding, and I happened to be pressed by it against the car body while waiting my turn. In this situation the train began to move, and by the motion I was twisted off my feet, and had dropped somewhat, with feet downward, into the open space, and was personally helpless, when my coat collar was vigorously seized and I was quickly pulled up and out to a secure footing on the platform. Upon turning to thank my rescuer I saw it was Edwin Booth, whose face was of course well known to me, and I expressed my gratitude to him, and in doing so, called him by name."
So, Robert Lincoln was not only present when three American Presidents were assassinated, but was rescued from certain death by the brother of the man who killed his father.
My question to you is, what's your favourite set of weird coincidences?
This short post is on Martha Lynn Bell. She was born in Indiana in 1839 to William and Elizabeth Lynn. By 1850 she and her six siblings were living in Keokuk County, Iowa. Her father was a minister.
She married James W. Bell in Keokuk County, Iowa, sometime between May 28 and May 30, 1859. The couple settled in Steady Run, Keokuk County, Iowa.
The couple remained in Keokuk County, Steady Run through 1870. By the 1880 census, the couple and their two daughters were living in Luka, Pratt County, Kansas.
Possible photo of Martha from Find A Grave
In 1883 the couple arrived in Colorado Springs, El Paso County, Colorado. During their marriage, other than when James was serving in the Iowa Infantry during the Civil War, she was raising their daughters. The census records always show her as a housewife. James was a carpenter.
Martha passed on March 2, 1892, at fifty-three of pneumonia.
For those who want to learn more about Keokuk County, Iowa, here is a link to the 1996 Sesquicentennial video: History of Keokuk County, Iowa
For links to past writing on Civil War Veterans and Civil War Wives:
