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queenie435 · 5 years

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Magic

Storm Callers - The Art of Weather Magic

Updated on April 16, 2017

Pollyanna Jones

"Many tales were bruited about the power of witches and wizards over storms, weapons, spirits, love, and death. I have been assured that at this day the country folk, some of them at least, tremble at the sight of one of these gifted persons, or persons of such repute, lest by some chance the sorcerers eye lighting on them should kindle in him a dislike." – Rev Oswald Cockayne, 1864

The weather. Most unpredictable, and most important to those living off the land, efforts have been made throughout the ages to predict and even control the sun, wind, and rain. Good weather would ensure a plentiful harvest and safe travels, whilst a wet summer or particularly harsh drought would doom a community to starvation and suffering. Even today, extreme weather events affect us profoundly, claiming lives each year. So it is no wonder that throughout the ages, man has tried to influence the elements around him.

Tales of magical manipulation of the weather appear all over Europe, and appear in the Sagas as well as Saxon records. Even today, we utter charms to ensure good weather.

"Rain, rain, go away.

Come again another day."

~ Traditional English proverb, charm for good weather.

Appeasing the Sea

It would seem that some of Britain's earliest superstitions around the sea and weather came to our shores with the Norsemen.

The goddess Rán, one of the deities who ruled the domain of the sea, would catch any who fell overboard with her net. The Helgakviða Hjörvarðssonar Edda describes how she receives those drowned at sea, luring men into the water and sinking ships with her daughters, the waves. As a result, many Norsemen would carry gold with them on a voyage, to appease Rán in the unfortunate event they drowned.

This superstition was carried through right up to the present day; it is believed placing a gold coin under the mast will bring good luck and works as a talisman against stormy weather.

Rán's Embrace | Source

Taming the Tempests

The goddess Rán was the least of their worries though. With the sea being the main transport route of the time, the Norse were vulnerable to the elements, and many accounts speak of how magical forces were at work as a weapon against those sailing the seas. Snorri Sturluson wrote, in Heimskringla:

"King Hakon lay in the Southern Isles, the Hebrides, St Michaels mass fell on a Saturday and on the Monday night, that is, the night before Monday, came a mickle storm with wild fury, and drove a cock boat and a long ship upon the coast of Scotland. On Monday the storm was so fierce that some cut away their masts and some ships drove. The kings ship drove also into the sound, and there were seven anchors out, and at last the eighth, which was the biggest, but she drove notwithstanding. A little later the anchor held fast. So mickle was this storm that the men said it was the work of enchantment, and one made upon it these skaldic verses:-

"There met the much scarching

Maintainer of war

The sorcerers arts

Of Scotlands warlocks.

Roaring the raging sea

Drove with its fair sails

Many a proud ship

Of the beah giver

Broken on land.

Blew with its loud blasts

On the brine skimmers

Full fraught with warriors

Fiercely the sea storm

Stirred up by the wizards.

Up on to Scotland

Scattered and tossed

Broad barking billows

Threw brave men of battle

With shields and war gear

Shivered and torn.""

The weather magic of the warlocks of Scotland was at play, denying many a brave warrior his place in Valhalla.

In this piece entitled "Vikings", a ship of Norsemen battle through a storm at sea. | Source

Another instance of Scottish magic being used against the Norse can be found in the folktale, "Pitchpine: The Norse King's Sorcerous Daughter":

"As they reached the shores, the women of Lochaber used incantations of their own to destroy the vessel. The boat was wrecked at the entrance to Loch Eil, and all souls lost. More ships were sent, and met the same fate.

Finally, the Norse King sent out his most powerful fleet; an armada of sea stallions filled with his best warriors and most experienced sailing men. Their first mission was to weaken the magic of the Scottish folk before moving inland to recover the Norse King's daughter's remains.

They headed to the island of Iona, where it is said that magic was drawn from the fairy wells upon the hill there. The waters of these wells held a power that could call a wind from any direction when needed. In peaceful times this would help the fishermen sail out to the herring shoals, but in times such as these, they could be used to whip up a tempest wherever it was wanted. The islanders just needed to draw water from the wells and empty it in the direction that the wind was needed. The Norsemen knew of this place and its magical waters, and the likeliness that they had been used to ruin their kinsmen before them. If these wells were dried up, then safe passage would be secured, not just for their fleet, but for invaders thereafter.

When the islanders saw the viking ships approaching, they hurried to the fairy wells and began to draw up the water. Nearly emptying the wells themselves, the storm that was called up was so violent that Norse fleet was tossed about and ripped to pieces. The ships were torn apart and hurled onto the shores beneath Fairy Hill on Iona. The power and might of the Norsemen was broken."

"The Finns made in the night violent weather with their cunning sorcery and a storm at sea."

~ Saga of Saint Olaf, anonymous

As Christianity spread throughout Europe, many of the old observations and rites changed to become superstitions. Evil magic could be found everywhere, and the newly converted Norse, fearful of the ire of the shunned Gods, would not dare set sail on a Friday for fear that they would be easy pickings.

This is observed by some sailors even today, and the superstition is thought to have its origins with the Norse Goddess, Frigga. Friday is thought to have been her day, and as the Old Gods were viewed as being evil, a theory has been put forward that priests in Scandinavia preached that Frigga was an evil hag, and she and her witches would whip up storms on Friday. Friday became branded as an unlucky day, so any ship due to sail would be doomed.

"The Spanish Armada and English Ships in August, 1588", artist unknown.

Weather Witches

In Elizabethan England, Sir Francis Drake was said to have sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for success as skilled seaman. He later earned victory in 1588 against the Spanish Armada heading towards England, with great luck on his side.

A terrible storm swept through the English Channel, which hampered Spanish warships. It is said that the Drake had the help of the Devil and witches in the sea battle, who called the storm to aid the English fleet. Folklore tells how the spirits of these witches still haunt the coast around Devonport, at a spot known as Devil's Point.

"Rain" | Source

By the time that Queen Elizabeth was on the throne, magical ways were deemed dangerous and evil, and steps were taken to hunt out witches and warlocks by the Church. What would once have been a useful skill was now seen as a tool of the devil.

This account of weather manipulation was recorded by a "witch hunter" in Swabia, which is now modern-day southern Germany.

"A strange thing lately happened, as has been ascertained in Swabia: a little girl, eight years old, was led by her father, who was a bailiff, to visit the fields, and when he complained of the extreme drouth*, she said she would soon get up some rain if there were need of it. Her father, in wonder, asked whether she knew how to do it; she declared she could get rain, or even hail if she chose. When asked where she had learn this, she said from her mother, and that instructors in these matters were at hand when required. To learn therefore by trial whether the child told the truth, he bid her call for rain upon his farm. For that purpose the daughter said she should want a little water; when then he had brought her to a small stream just by, the child, in pursuance of her mothers instructions, stirred the water with her finger in the devils name; hereupon the air was agitated and the rain descended as she had predicted. Her father told her to fetch some hail upon another field, and when she had done it the man denounced his wife to the authorities. She was burnt alive, and the child was reconciled to the church and made a nun." [3]

*drought

Angela Lansbury as Miss Price, leading a spectral host of warriors to battle, defending Britain from invading foes! | Source

A Magical Battle

Witchcraft also made an appearance during WW2. Whilst Disney's Bedknobs and Broomsticks is a work of fantasy, there is truth in the account that witches in the England and Scotland were working against the powers of the enemy to prevent invasion.

Operation Mistletoe was a magical strike, organised by a lady named Dion Fortune. Gathering some of Britain's more prominent magicians including Dennis Wheatley, Aleister Crowley, and Ian Fleming (yes, the author behind James Bond!), a Cone of Power was directed against Germany.

During the rite, spirits of ancient heroes of the British Isles such as King Arthur, St. George, and Merlin were called upon to protect the UK's shores. A cabal of magic workers gathered in the New Forest under Gerald Gardner, and some accounts tell how witches gathered directly on the Cliffs of Dover to stop a Nazi invasion and assist the British airmen during the Battle of Britain.

Bad weather caused a much smaller Luftwaffe force to take to the skies, and with the skill of British airmen, the enemy was turned away. Victory in the skies was granted to the RAF on 31st October, 1940. It is worth noting that this date coincides with Halloween, or the ancient festival of Samhain; a day of power for many witches, where the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is at its thinnest

Wind Magic | Source

Modern Beliefs

Of course, we live in an age of reason and logic. The weather is produced through varying factors such as sea currents, air pressure, and many other variables. Whilst our technology allows us to track weather fronts, it is still very difficult to predict the weather seven days from now, let alone control it.

We now have technology such as cloud seeding, which enables us to encourage clouds to drop rain in areas of drought, and there are many conspiracy theories about how technologies exist to create more severe weather events.

None of this could be described as being magic though. For this we need to look at our customs and supersitions. A handful of these from England include:

"When you've eaten a boiled egg, always smash a hole through the bottom of the shell. If you don't a witch will ride it out to sea and cause a storm."

Sea hags could often stir up a storm. Best not to help them by leaving your eggshells intact!

"Rain, rain, go away. Come again another day."

Our best known charm for improving the weather.

"If you pull a face in the wind, it'll stick!"

The demons that ride with strong winds were thought to have disfiguring powers.

"If you sing badly, it'll rain."

Enchantment has it's origins with "enchante", or "singing". Witches and sorceresses would use magical songs and chants to perform certain spells. Some of these would no doubt have been used to call the rains.

"Tread on an ant, you'll make it rain."

Ants tend to come out in good weather, on the hunt for foods to take back before the weather turns.

"To end a drought, dip an effigy of a saint in water."

This may have also been done as a punishment to the saint for ignoring the community's prayers! Possibly originating with the custom of leaving holy pre-Christian effigies in springs or lakes, i.e. Nerthus' wain.

"Ring bells during a gale, to scare the demons away."

Church bells were often rung during a storm to frighten evil forces.

"Gales come to take a great spirit away."

Some people believe this is the Devil come to claim a soul, but this superstition is likely to have its origins in legends of the Wild Hunt.

So do any of these hold any truth?

See for yourself. Let me know if you have any results to prove or disprove any of the superstitions above!

Are you superstitious about the weather?

Yes, stop singing already!

No, don't be absurd!

See results

Sources

[1] Rev Oswald Cockayne - Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England, 1864 - ISBN 978-1298592057

[2] Pitchpine: The Norse King's Sorcerous Daughter

[3] Caesalpinus Daemonum Investigatio, 1591

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mizworldofrandom · 5 years

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The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1957)

#viking women and the sea serpent #vintage #classic movies

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genuine-history-blog · 6 years

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The History of Norsemen, or Vikings

During the tenth century Charlemagne’s empire and Anglo-Saxon England were attacked by a new group of invaders known as Norsemen, or Vikings. They came from the far northern part of Europe now called Scandinavia. The tall, fair-skinned Vikings became known as brutal fighters and robbers. They spread fear and destruction throughout western Europe for several hundred years. At the same time, however, they opened up new trade routes and brought shipping skills to other Europeans.

The Vikings captured parts of Britain and France. They ruled cities in Russia and set up colonies on islands in the North Atlantic. They even paid a brief visit to North America. Those who went abroad married the people they conquered. They also accepted a new religion and customs. Others stayed in Scandinavia and set up the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark.

THE LAND

The Viking homeland of Scandinavia was an area mostly of forests and long, rugged coastlines. The southern part, known as Jutland, 0r Denmark, had many natural harbors. It also had large plains where the Vikings grew oats, barley, rye, and wheat and pastured their cattle, sheep, and pigs.

The rest of Scandinavia was not as well suited to farming. Winters were long and cold, summers short and mild, and the soil rocky. The coastline, however, had many fjords, or bays. So the people turned to the sea to making a living.

SHIPS AND TRADE

The Vikings built ships with timber from the dense forests and sailed out of the fjords onto the sea to make a living. The ships were large and well suited for long voyages. The bodies were long and narrow. The sides, where a single row of 16 oars was placed, were usually decorated with black or yellow painted shields. The tall bows were carved in the shape of a dragon’s head. This was supposed to frighten both enemies and the evil spirits of the ocean. The strongly sewn sails were square and often striped red and yellow. The ships bore names like “Snake of the Sea,” “Raven of the Wind,” and “Lion of the Waves.”

An awning in the forepart of the ship protected the sailors from bad weather. They slept in leather sleeping bags and carried bronze pots in which to cook their meals. Whenever possible, they cooked their meals ashore to avoid the danger of a fire on board ship.

The Vikings plotted their courses by the positions of the sun and stars. They sailed far out into the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean in search of good fishing areas and trade. They did most of their traveling and trading in the spring after their fields were sown, or in the fall after their crops were harvested. They spent the long winters in their villages repairing their boats and weapons.

The Vikings were as successful in trade as the Phoenicians. Viking traders carried furs, hides, fish, and slaves to western Europe and the Mediterranean. They returned from these areas with silk, wine, wheat, and silver.

TOWNS, VlLLAGES, AND JARLS

Trade led to the growth of market towns in Scandinavia. These towns usually had two main streets that ran along the water’s edge. Buyers and sellers set up booths and displayed their wares along the streets. The towns were protected on their land side by mounds of earth surrounded by wooden walls with towers.

Most Vikings lived in villages scattered throughout the country. Their houses were made of logs or boards. The roots, which were made of sod-covered wood, slanted steeply to shed the heavy winter snows. Carvings of dragons decorated gables at either end. In front of each house was a small porch supported by carved pillars.

Distance and the cold winters isolated the people of one village from those of another. As a result, there was no central government. The people were divided into groups ruled by military Chieftains calIed jarls. Jarls either inherited their position or were elected to it. They saw to it that their group’s laws were obeyed. Sometimes a jarl became strong enough to take over and unite neighboring territories. When a jarl had enough territory under his rule, he was recognized as a king.

Most Viking adventurers, however, went to western and southern Europe in search of food and valuables. They disguised their ships to look like wooded islands by covering them with tree branches. Then they traveled far up the rivers to make surprise attacks. They stole goods, destroyed homes, burned churches, and killed or sold as slaves any people they captured. All Europe feared the Vikings. In their churches the people prayed, “From the fury of the Norsemen, Good Lord, deliver us!”

THE DANES

Some of the Danish Vikings Settled in the areas they raided. One group of Danes invaded England and set up settlements there. In 954 an heir of Alfred the Great forced them to leave the Danelaw. In 978 Ethelred, nicknamed the Unready, became king of England. The Danes saw their chance and began raiding England again. At first Ethelred was able to buy them off with silver. But in 1017 a Danish king called Knut, or Canute, took over the country and made it part of his North Sea Empire. Canute was a powerful but just ruler. He converted to Christianity and brought peace and prosperity to England. Soon after his death in 1035, however, Danish control of England came to an end. Some Danes left England. Those who remained became a part of the English people and culture.

DAILY LIFE

Family life was important to the Vikings. Most households contained 20 to 30 members including parents, grandparents, married children, and grandchildren. Families often fought bloody feuds to maintain their honor. The payment of fines later put an end to such feuds.

THE PEOPLE

Viking men were warriors called berserkers. They believed in a life of action and valued deeds that called for strength and courage. They fought to gain wealth, honor, and fame. They believed that a liking for war brought special honors from the gods.

To call their warriors to battle, the Vikings lit bonfires on the tops of mountains. Those who saw a fire would light a new one to spread the message. The warriors fought with battle axes, swords, and spears. Metal helmets decorated with animal figures protected their heads. Shirts made of iron rings and covered by a large cloth protected their bodies. The warriors preferred to die by their own hand rather than give their enemies the satisfaction of capturing or killing them.

A Viking groom bought his wife from her family on their wedding day. If he was not pleased with her, he could sell her. Yet the position of Viking women was quite high. They took complete charge of the home. They could attend public meetings and talk with men other than their husbands. They could own property and get a divorce. Many Viking women grew herbs which were used as medicine. All the women encouraged their men to fight.

Both men and women liked fine clothes. The men usually dressed in trousers and woolen shirts covered by knee-length tunics. Broad leather belts held the clothing in place. Sheepskin hoods and caps kept heads warm. For special events the men wore red cloaks with brooches and carried decorated swords and daggers. The women also wore tunics held in place by a belt. They covered their heads with woolen or linen caps, and wore large brooches, pins, and bracelets. Both men and women wore their hair long, and the men took great pride in their mustaches and beards. Calling a Viking man “beardless” was an insult that could be wiped out only by death.

The Vikings had no schools. Parents taught daughters such household skills as spinning, weaving, and sewing. They taught sons to use the bow and arrow and to be good fighters. The boys also memorized tales of heroic warriors and gods, and competed in games that tested their strength and endurance.

RELIGION

The Vikings worshipped many gods which at first were closely ”related to Germanic gods. In time they changed the names and activities of their gods to suit the harsh life 0f Scandinavia. The Vikings believed that the gods were responsible for the weather and for the growth of crops . Since the gods liked to hunt, fish, and play tricks on one another, the Vikings viewed them as extra powerful human beings.

The Vikings bargained with their gods to get what they wanted. Priests offered sacrifices of crops and animals on behalf of the whole community. Most Vikings also had small shrines in their homes where they could pray or offer sacrifices.

The Vikings were proud of their gods and told stories of their great deeds. These stories later became written poems called eddas. The Vikings also composed sagas, or epic stories. At first skilled storytellers used to recite sagas at special banquets. One such saga took 12 days to recite. After 1100 the Vikings wrote down their sagas. With the coming of Christianity, the people lost interest in these tales. Many were forgotten or were forbidden by the Church. Only the people of Iceland passed on the old tales.

At first the Vikings spoke a language similar to that of the Germans. In time the one language developed into four Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and Icelandic. They were written with letters called runes, which few people except the priests could understand or use. The Vikings used the runes as magic charms. They wrote the runes in metal and carved them in bone in the hope that they would bring good luck. When the Vikings accepted Christianity, they began to write their language with Roman letters.

RAIDS AND ADVENTURERS

Scandinavia’s population kept increasing. By the end of the ninth century many Viking villages were overcrowded, and there was not enough food for everyone. Since there was no central government, the kings constantly fought one another and made life difficult for their enemies. Before long many Viking warriors began to seek their fortunes elsewhere.

Groups of warriors attacked merchant ships on the open seas. Danish Vikings began raiding the coasts of France, England, and Spain. Swedish Vikings crossed the Baltic Sea and traveled down the rivers toward Russia. They founded settlements and began to trade. They established a water route from the Baltic to the Black Sea and on to the wealthy city of Byzantium. This water route came to be known as the Varangian Route. In 862 a Swedish Chieftain named Rurik founded a Viking state that became the basis of the Russian monarchy. Norwegian Vikings established trading towns in Ireland, explored the North Atlantic, and founded a colony on the island of Iceland.

Led by an adventurer named Eric the Red, the Norwegian Vikings began to move even further west. In 986 they founded a colony on the island of Greenland. Then Eric’s son, Leif Ericson, sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and landed on the northeast coast of North America. He and his followers named the spot where they landed Vinland because of the wild grapes they found growing there. Today the area is called Newfoundland. The Vikings did not set up a permanent colony in Vinland because it was so far away from home and the winters were so cold.

SUMMARY

The Vikings lived in northern Europe in an area which is today known as Scandinavia.

The Vikings were excellent warriors, sailors. and navigators who earned their living mainly by fishing and by trading with other European regions.

The Vikings lived in villages that were basically isolated from one another. The Vikings worshipped many gods and often told stories about their great deeds.

At first the Vikings spoke one language, but over time it developed into four separate languages.

When the Vikings accepted Christianity, they stopped writing their languages in runes and began to write with Roman letters.

By the ninth century Scandinavia was overpopulated, so many Viking warriors began to seek their fortunes in other places.

In 862 a Swedish Viking named Rurik established a settlement, and that settlement later developed into the Russian nation.

In 986 Norwegian Vikings founded a colony on Greenland, and several years later sailed as far west as the northeast coast of North America.

In 1017 a Danish king named Canute conquered England, but after his death Danish control of England came to an end.

Other Danish Vikings, after besieging Paris, settled along the French coast in an area known as Normandy.

#Vikings #Norsemen #norse mythology #norse gods #scandinavia #Europe

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lushscreamqueen · 3 years

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THE TERROR on The Schlocky Horror Picture Show

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Hello, good evening, and welcome to the Schlocky Horror Picture Show. I'm your host, Nigel Honeybone. Once upon a time, the world's second cheapest producer Roger Corman had horror film legend Boris Karloff and a leftover set for a weekend, and, not being one to miss an opportunity to avoid spending money, he made a feature film appropriately called The Terror! Actually, he made a mess, wasted Karloff's time, captured Jack Nicholson's worst screen performance ever, and puzzled movie audiences for decades. Now...it's your turn. BREAK: Dare to invade the Dark Beast's realm and see things no human was never meant to see! And then after the ads we can get back to the original wacko Jacko in The Terror! MIDDLE: Welcome back to the Schlocky Horror Picture Show, and Roger Corman's The Terror. There's an interesting tale behind the making of this cinematic fiasco, and we all know how a little trivia can brighten our lives. The story begins when the filming of The Raven was wrapping up, and Corman was looking at the gothic sets thinking that it was a shame to let them all go to waste. The cogs in the director's mind were grinding over what to do with that creepy castle set, when he realised he could film the castle interiors over the weekend and other scenes later. It was so simple! The only tiny problem with this plan was that he didn't have a script or even a story, so he called Leo Gordon, genius behind The Wasp Woman, and explained that he needed scenes to shoot immediately and the rest of the plot could be sorted out later. Now all Corman needed was actors for this evil experiment. He already had Boris Karloff handy, and a name like that was sure to attract a stellar cast. Dick Miller may not be stellar, but he was available and agreed to play Walter Paisley...I mean the servant, Stefan. We've seen him before in A Bucket of Blood and Little Shop of Horrors, so if you don't know everything about him down to his shoe size by now I can't help you, except to say that he's been a taxi driver or shopkeeper in just about everything. And he directed an episode of Miami Vice, but if you can't say something nice about someone... Gustav the part-time mute was Jonathon Haze, another Corman regular who was in Little Shop of Horrors, Teenage Cave Man, The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent, and Not of This Earth. He was last heard as a voice actor on the cartoon "The Angry Beavers". Dorothy Neumann, who first met Corman playing Meg Maud in his 1957 take on reincarnation The Undead, here plays the crone Katrina, only this time she's not so good a witch being all out for revenge. All of this is great fun for absinthe-guzzling film fans like yours truly. The lead role, Lt. Andre Duvalier, is played by a young Jack Nicholson, who Corman managed to convince to hang around after also appearing in The Raven. He was still about a decade away from making his first really good dramatic film, Five Easy Pieces, but you can see flashes of the talent that would make him the megastar he later became. Knowing how rich and famous he is doesn't make watching this any easier. Only lacking an actress for the role of...well, it's a bit ambiguous really...Jack suggested that his wife might now have a free weekend. She was Sandra Knight, a bit part actress in many television shows of the sixties and a few horror films including Corman's Tower of London. Not long after this her career went into a sharp decline, which oddly enough coincided with her divorce from Jack. To say the two-day shoot was a challenge to everyone involved is an understatement. The actors were not sure of their character's motivations due to the roughed out story line, so nobody knew what was going to happen to them. Corman kept shooting through those two days on that castle set not even bothering to slate some of the shots or cut the camera. However, he eventually came to the realisation that he needed more of a movie. So Corman hired an obscure young director by the name of Francis Ford Coppola to shoot some scenes around the

beach for a couple days, which in true Coppola style turned into eleven days. Coppola then had another job offer from Ray Stark's company Rastar, which he wisely accepted, so Corman had to find someone else. Coppola's suggested film student Dennis Jakob. Jakob filmed some shots that would be used at the film's finish, and in exchange then used Corman's equipment to film a Civil War movie for his thesis. Since Jakob had to go back to his studies and the film still wasn't fitting together properly, or indeed at all, Corman got Monte Hellman to shoot some scenes on the cliffs in Palos Verdes, changing some things in the script along the way. However, before long Hellman was offered a better job, so Corman brought in Jack Hill to film some scenes to bring the movie together. With just one day of shooting to go, Hill left. By then, Nicholson had requested to direct part of the film and Corman, probably out of sheer frustration, granted his wish. Gee, so much work for a so-called quick and easy movie! Here we have a hodgepodge of directors and their different interpretations of a script being written as the footage was shot. Somehow something had to be done to make some sort of sense to it, so a plot twist was created. Does it work? Wait and see. There are many confusing things. What about the cradle in Ilsa's room? Why did "mute" Gustaf speak? Why did Mrs. Bates make a cameo in the start of the movie? Why on Earth are TVS playing this movie? Well, I should know the answer to that last question by now, shouldn't I? In its own way this was a template for recent cinema: a mix of grand visual styles without a decent script or plot. If you're confused, don't feel bad, it's a natural consequence of watching The Terror. It saddens me to hear people straight out of Film Appreciation school trying to say something sophisticated and intellectual about a Roger Corman movie. That's not what they're for. What they were for was fun. They were for Drive-In Movies in their heyday, and late-night community television fare now that nobody else will play them. What they were was absurd, escapist entertainment. Having got that off my chest, I'll now return you to the musty patchwork quilt that is The Terror. CLOSING: All things considered, The Terror turned out much better than it had any right to, which is to say that it's not totally unwatchable. By this point in their respective careers, Corman and Karloff could do this sort of thing in their sleep, and possibly did in this case, and their unshakable self-assurance goes some way toward making up for the movie's almost innumerable faults. They can't disguise the complete lack of a pre-planned story, however, nor paper over the fact that none of the pieces of what eventually came to pass for The Terror's script quite fit together. We'll try to play something a bit better thought out next week, but no promises, as we expose you to another lethal dose of the public domain on the Schlocky Horror Picture Show. Toodles!

by Lushscreamqueen

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atomic-chronoscaph · 1 year

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The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1958)

#the viking women and the sea serpent gif #roger corman #the saga of the viking women and their voyage to the waters of the great sea serpent #b-movies #50s movies #50s fantasy movies #abby dalton #susan cabot #1950s #1958 #gif #chronoscaph gif

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now-watching · 3 years

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#new to me 2021 #letterboxd

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weirdlandtv · 7 years

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FABULOUS! SPECTACULAR! TERRIFYING! The raw courage of women without men lost in a fantastic HELL-ON-EARTH!

The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent (1957).

Theatrical poster art by Reynold Brown.

#illustration #fantasy #pulp #b-movies #vikings #1950s #movie posters #promo art #1958 #50s #monsters #reynold brown

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brendan270 · 5 years

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I was in Malibu surfing wondering why @rogercorman named a movie The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent while @lanadelrey played in the background. 🌊 🏄 . . . . #manicmonday #surfing #malibu #dointime #lanadelrey #lanapopup #normanfuckingrockwell #rogercorman #bmoviemagic #bmovie (at Malibu, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3mpLUfBUUO/?igshid=f7qf89f2198s

#manicmonday #surfing #malibu #dointime #lanadelrey #lanapopup #normanfuckingrockwell #rogercorman #bmoviemagic #bmovie

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s0022795a2film · 7 years

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Creative Investigation R - Collated Quotes

GENERAL / COUNTER

2: “Most of the Poe films I made in America were written by Dick [Richard] Matheson. I have to give credit to him- some of the ideas were mine, but many of them were his.”

2: “I can’t say that I was influenced by Hammer or Mario Bava when I started making Poe films because I hadn’t then seen any of their films. However early in the Poe cycle I saw a Mario Bava film- I think it was Black Sunday- which was very good. It was because of that we hired Barbara Steele for Pit and The Pendulum (1961).”

4: “They were kids, and kids are cheap… This quickie, no-frills approach… helped launch the directing careers of Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Jonathan Demme and James Cameron, and the acting ones of Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone, David Carradine and Sandra Bullock.”

5: “Or, as articulated by Paul Bartel, who directed the cult hit Death Race 2000 for Corman in 1975, “Roger’s operation is an exploitation operation on almost every level: He exploits directors, he exploits writers, he exploits people in the crafts who are trying to get established. But we are also exploiting Roger.””

5: “It’s difficult to imagine The Little Shop of Horrors finding cult success—or even coming to be—without Griffith’s multitasking involvement. (He reportedly received $800 for the screenplay.) By most accounts, the slapstick of Little Shop and A Bucket of Blood hews much closer to Griffith’s goofball sensibility than to Corman’s serious, engineering approach.”

5: “I believe in [auteur theory] 75 percent,” Corman responds, weighing his words with typical precision. “I do not believe, as the true auteur theorist believes, that the director is the sole maker of the film. I think film is a collaborative process and I would put together the writer, the director, and the producer all joining as a joint auteur of which the most important probably is the director.”

6: “One sequence [for Little Shop] that greatly helped turn the film into a cult favorite featured an utterly inspired bit of black humour by an actor I would behind using more regularly- Jack Nicholson.”

6: “It was an ensemble of Corman ‘regulars’ that kept the mood informal and spirited. I simply called people I knew and cast actors I had used before and could rely on. They all came through. Nobody took it, or themselves, too seriously, and they gave sharp, animated performances.”

7: “When I asked [Corman] how he would best like to be remembered- as a writer, a director or a producer, he told me: ‘I would say that I would like to be remembered as a filmmaker, that I simply have made motion pictures.’”

7: “His former protégé Martin Scorsese put it perfectly when he said: ‘Roger Corman is not only a great mentor. He’s an artist, the best kind of artist, able to nurture and inspire talent in a generous way.”

10: “Corman’s career may be the closest thing there is to a through-line of the past sixty years in Hollywood. He revolutionized independent cinema, he was the first person to recognize a previously untapped teen audience and then exploit the hell out of it, and he brought a Barnumesque huckster’s flair for showmanship to the marketing of his movies, hyping them with eye-popping posters and rat-a-tat trailers.”

10: “He also distributed art house imports by foreign auteurs like Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, and Ingmar Bergman when no one else dared to, helping to broaden the palate of American moviegoers.”

11: “…Corman can boast of extraordinary merits both as a director or a producer. In 1964, he became the youngest American director to be given a film retrospective at the prestigious Cinématèque Française in Paris. In 2008, one of his directorial efforts - House of Usher - was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.”

12: “By mistake, he sometimes made a good picture every once in a while.” [Jack Nicholson]

12: “Nobody knows what the plot of The Terror is.”

12: “These films would be made on your street corner in a way. They weren’t encumbered with having to deal with art… they’re art in another way.” [Martin Scorsese]

GENRE

1: “Most of his nearly 200 movies were shot in a matter of days, almost hours, on skintight budgets, and they had outlandishly lurid titles like A Bucket of Blood, Attack of the Crab Monsters and Stakeout on Drug Street. They tended to pander to drive-in double bills and rarely reached the screens of first-run metropolitan theaters.”

1: “Over the past 27 years he has used his keen commercial instincts not merely to follow trends but to explore entire genres of movies—sci-fi, psychedelic, plus, of course, biker, gangster and horror. Or perhaps exploit them. But in the process, he has single-handedly nurtured more future artists of film than probably the whole television industry.”

2: “When I work with young directors I tell them that you always have to have a theory about your film. It helps if the theory is right, but it’s almost as good if it’s wrong.”

3: “The human brain cannot tolerate a steady diet of high-class entertainment. This is a proven scientific fact, and it is the reason that Roger Corman is still around after 40 years of cranking out low-budget shockers like “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “Not of This Earth,” “A Bucket of Blood” and “She Gods of Shark Reef.””

4: “Though Corman, now 90, made lots of horror films, he didn’t just make horror films. For one very good reason. “Horror films always do well,” he says. “But in cycles. One horror film will do well, and people will make lots of horror films, saturate the market until there are too many horror films and people will slow down making horror films. And then it’ll start up again.””

4: “Corman’s films define the crucial distinction between trash – quirky, low-budget films shot to make a few bucks and have some fun – and garbage: the mass-produced slop that comes out of Hollywood. Trashy films are ironic, sophomoric, nutty and exhilarating, with inspired names such as The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent; garbage films serve as halfway houses for connected comics now furloughed from Saturday Night Live.”

5: “Roger Corman invented the horror-comedy. Or, if he didn’t, he’s still willing to take credit for the hybridized genre that includes his features…”

5: “For the record, he claims he never saw Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), a potential early candidate for the horror-comedy marriage…”

5: “According to Corman, the idea for the blending of horror and laughs—dark comedy—emerged in a screening for one of his earlier horror films.”

6: “My work in low-budget exploitation films would eventually earn me some notoriety as ‘The King of the B’s’, which is ironic, since, to my way of thinking, I never made a ‘B’ movie in my life.”

7: “Corman then capitalised on the success of the blend of horror and gallows humour that had given Not of this Earth an entertaining impact over and above its genre parameters by making the three out-and-out black comedies that marked a major change in his output and helped made him ‘respectable’ in the eyes of critics…”

6: “It’s been suggested that Creature from the Haunted Sea is my most personal film… it’s got my favourite ending of all- a last scene I invented on a whim and literally phoned to Chuck Griffith from Puerto Rico… ‘We have always killed off out monsters with fire, electricity, floods, whatever,’ I told Chuck. ‘This time, the monster winds. The final shot in this picture,’ I insisted, ‘is the monster sitting on the chest of gold at the bottom of the ocean floor. The skeletons of all the people in the picture are scattered around him and he’s picking his teeth. That’s it. The monster wins.’”

8: “I don’t know who came up with the idea for a black comedy. I might have, it might have been an original idea of mine, but I’m sure somebody had done it before.” [Roger Corman]

8: “I then kind of worked out some vague psychological theory, which I still believe in to a certain extent, that horror and humour... are very similar. In each case, you build up the tension, you build it up and up and up, and then you break it. If you build it the right way and you break it the right way, you get a scream from horror, you get a laugh from humour…” [Roger Corman]

8: “Roger likes a movie to be about something, he likes it to literally have a meaning, not just ‘oh, this would be fun to do a monster movie’, but what kind of monster movie and if you like, what does the monster symbolise? What is this monster really about?” [Francis Doel]

9: “Genre to me is very important… You’re not working with a star. On a big picture with a star, you’re free to do many things that you wouldn’t do on a low-budget picture because the star sells the picture.”

10: “[Roger Corman on audience] AIP realised they were in the B-movie business from the beginning. Over time, it became clear that our audience was the youth audience and we began tailoring our films to that. What was normally done was that we took something out of the headlines and grafted it onto a science fiction/monster movie premise. So right from the beginning we were either ahead of the curve or right on the curve of what teenagers were interested in.”

11: “While many giant monster movies… aim at a mere thrill-and-chill spectacle of mayhem and devastation, Attack of the Crab Monsters also tries to convey a deeper meaning to the audience. “As far as this being an end of the world picture, I would say that the philosophical and psychological considerations were there,” claims Corman.”

11: “…it is an allegory of nuclear folly, a microcosm of what might occur on a larger scale if humanity does not reign in its violent nature. It is at bottom a cautionary tale.”

11: “Ridiculous as [Attack of the Crab Monsters] may seem at first glance, its message matches the anti-militaristic trend in the 1950s science fiction.”

11: “It Conquered the World can easily be interpreted as an anti-Communist film… However, Corman himself does not clarify whether It Conquered the World is an anti-Communist film or not, focusing on the ambivalence of science when commenting on the film…”

STYLE

1: “Ron (Happy Days) Howard, whom Corman initiated into directing with Grand Theft Auto in 1977, remembers the time he asked for just one extra half day to reshoot a scene: “Roger told me, ‘Ron, you can come back if you want, but nobody else will be there.’ ”

1: “More characteristic of the Corman modus operandi is The Raven, a horror satire he shot because an appropriately moody old set was still standing and he hated to see it go to waste. On a Sunday too rainy for tennis, he sat down, scribbled a screen treatment and nabbed Vincent Price and Boris Karloff, who were just finishing up another picture for him, for two days’ work. At lunchtime the next day, he threw in Nicholson. Coppola, then an assistant to Roger, shot some scenes; Nicholson ended up directing a few more; and the picture was finally completed on yet another discarded set.”1: “He is not, however, recanting his view that today’s damn-the-expense, $30 million films are positively sinful. ‘With that money,’ he says, ‘you could reconstruct the slums of a major city. It’s morally offensive.’”

2: “I believe Poe was working with the unconscious mind, which is not aware of external reality… So for the Poe films I thought I should stay away from reality and shoot everything inside a studio, where I could create my own effects, my own unreality.”

3: “Make no mistake, Mr. Corman has not abandoned his roots and gone upscale. The 13 films have budgets of about $1.5 million each, compared with an average of about $32 million for a Hollywood studio film. The whole package was shot in less than six months.”

4: “The original idea [for Death Race 2050] came from a short story by Ib Melchior,” says Corman. “I felt that the idea was good but that it had to be developed. So I added the political element.”

5: “Both [A Bucket of Blood and Little Shop of Horrors] were written by frequent Corman collaborator Charles B. Griffith and shared numerous key crew members and actors; both productions were shot at Chaplin Studios (later A&M Records, now Henson Recording Studios) on La Brea Avenue near Sunset Boulevard.”

5: “A multiple-camera setup was a hallmark of the rapidly produced television sitcom, and Corman applied the thrifty approach to feature filmmaking with obvious success.”

6: “On a distant location you can’t afford to fly actors from Hollywood for every small part, so members of the crew and I often played the bit roles.”

6: “I ended up with a ‘trilogy’ of black comedies: A Bucket of Blood, then Little Shop and finally Creature from the Haunted Sea… With these pictures I put together some of the most definitive elements of my style: quirky plots built on somewhat gruesome premises; fast cutting and fluid camera moves; composition in depth; unconventional, well-sketched characters; and solid performances from the ensemble of ‘Corman players’.”

6: [about A Bucket of Blood] “Everyone was coming up with ideas as we went and we just tossed them in.”

6: “And the shoots themselves- three films done in a total span of two weeks- demanded an unprecedented kind of sprinting intensity from the director that provided its own loose, crazy highs just to keep it all flowing together.”

7: “Producer Corman would have been wiser merely to suggest the creature, rather than construct the awesome-looking and mechanically clumsy rubberized horror. It inspired more titters than terror.” [Variety on It Conquered the World]

8: “Roger had a real style… he liked to move the camera a lot, which was impressive, and even though sometimes the camera would merely tip over and he wouldn’t do another take, it was still a lot more fun than watching some of the big budget stuff that was coming out…” [Joe Dante]

8: “One of the things about working for Roger is that you learnt to function under great adversity, like this dog that’s barking now? You know, in a Roger Corman movie, you just find a cutaway of a dog somewhere, you’d stick it in so you could use the sound.” [Joe Dante]

9: “As an engineer, I work differently. I took as if I were above the set. I would draw the set, then I would draw the movement of the people, so it was more like an engineering plan, and from that I could visualise where I would be.”

8: “I can remember being on a Roger set. Everything was fast and furious, as they say, yes, he moved, moved, moved, and would only retake a shot if something really went wrong.” [Bob Burns]

8: “Sometimes when you’re limited your imagination takes you farther in order to conquer the problem.” [Roger Corman]

9: [On filmmakers he admired] “Of the American directors, probably John Ford, Howard Hawks, and Alfred Hitchcock of course was English then became American. And the director I admired most was the old silent film director from Russia Eisenstein. His picture Battleship Potemkin I believe is one of the most significant films ever made…. He was the first to utilise every technique or bag of tricks that directors have today. Griffiths gets credit for the closeup, but in my mind, Eisenstein gets credit for putting it all together.”

10: “Corman wasn’t much of a stylist at first. He was working too quickly for that to even be a consideration.”

11: “He was a maverick director forced to operate outside mainstream Hollywood, hence the theme of exclusion. In the 1960s. his political views started turning left and so did his films.”

11: “There seems to be no clear-cut pattern which would explain why some of his films are stylistically admirable whereas others are not. The outcome seems to be independent of the budget, the schedule, the genre, or the crewmembers Corman worked with. The problem might therefore lie in the director himself… one thing is certain: once Corman reached a higher artistic level, he was unable to maintain it.”

REPRESENTATION OF FEMALES

1: “His corporate family now totals 150, many of them women whose careers Roger has encouraged, including his executive VP, Barbara Boyle, his story editor, Frances Kimbrough, and director Stephanie Rothman. As Talia Shire puts it: ‘The beauty of working for Roger is that you start out answering the telephone and two weeks later you’re reading scripts and scouting for locations. It beats the hell out of going to Yale Drama School.”’’

3: “Moral statement? It’s highly unlikely that viewers will be tuning into “The Alien Within,” “Bram Stoker’s Burial of the Rats” or “Piranha” for uplift. The Corman message tends to be practical rather than moral.”

6: “Several of those films had strong, assertive women leads. I do believe in the feminist movement, but I can only take partial credit for the themes here.”

10: “The first time I met Roger Corman… it was 1971 and I was trying to convince Mr Corman to finance a film I’d just written, an extremely low-budget parody or extremely low-budget ape-man movies… He was complimentary about my screenplay, but felt it was too short and would benefit from several added scenes where the Missing Link character would encounter bare-breasted women. At first I thought he was kidding, but soon I understood he was not. [John Landis]”

11: ‘A real tribute to gender role reversal and female strength is paid by Corman in... The Saga of the Viking Women and Their Voyage to the Waters of the Great Sea Serpent… the females put a rescue mission to the vote… it establishes the women as skilled and strong warriors and their society as open and democratic. Having decided in favour of the rescue operation, the females build a longship from scratch, proving they are equally proficient at typically male activities.”

11: “Though he did exploit popular topics, their role was usually limited to the following: they either constituted an attractive element vaguely relevant to the film’s plot… or served as a framework or context for stories about exclusion or female empowerment… This does not mean Corman cynically used these topics to lure audiences to the cinemas and make his films profitable.”

COMBINATION

9: “I’ve been very strong on the Liberal side, but I made a point after The Intruder… I felt that I had to approach this differently. I could not make an overtly liberal or left picture. What I should do is make a picture that is entertainment, and underneath subtextually, is a little bit of thought on my part. It might be political, it might be psychological, it might be personal…”

11: “Drawing considerable aesthetic inspiration from classic expressionist horror films, classic Universal horror films, and classic literary horror stories, Corman creates a gothic horror series which is almost perfect visually, in which every shot or sequence conveys a feeling of nearly palpable menace.” [Genre and style]

12: “Roger really realised that young people at that time really liked films where teenagers were in trouble with the authorities. He had found an audience that you didn’t have to go through the studio system to reach.”

12: “I’ve always been anti-establishment. I spent two years in the Navy, those were the worst two years of my life. I came very close to setting the record for the most demerits, because I felt if they set up a rule, I really must break that rule.” [Roger Corman]

12: “Roger understood the need for audiences to identify with rebellion, beating the system. That’s cathartic. Defining yourself by your own terms… He was talking to a young audience.” [Ron Howard]

#creative investigation

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