I just finished reading Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett. It is basically a reworking of Midsummer Night's Dream, but set in Discworld.
Of course Oberon and Titania are there, though not mentioned by those names.
On the one had we have the Queen of the Elves and then there is her Husband (played in this photo by Patrick Stewart).
The Husband lives under a mountain with a giant sign of male genitalia, and though the King of Elves is supposed to be similarly endowed, a dwarf comments that he is not half of what he is supposed to be, maybe referring to his general size or maybe his endowment (which makes for a good joke, but not much sense, since he only appears to be, his real nature is something else entirely.)
Here is a similar giant as seen in Religulous:
I can think of two movies featuring the Green Man but can find no good photos: The Green Man (1990) and Gawain and the Green Knight (1973.)
The King appears as a horned giant, and immediately made me think of this drawing.
But also of the many horned hart of Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke:
and in turn of the forest giant, since they are two faces of the same god:
Hellboy II has an intimate connection to Mononoke, in that Del Toro used a similar forest elemental giant:
And also a horned King of Elves/Faerie:
Which makes sense, since both figures are linked to male fertility, although in this case the forest elemental is a separate agent of the King, and not the King himself.
Now, let me point out that I am an idiot, and that it took me this long to see that both aspects of the Shishigami are not merely a Japanese religion/myth conception, but more universal myth figures.
This chain of thought made me start thinking of all the different manifestations of Male fertility gods, which include satyrs, the god Pan, and lead up to the "modern" versions of devils and their connection with goats (horns, hoofed feet, etc.)
This includes the conception of Hellboy himself. Thus the Elf King, and Hellboy are two different aspects of the Male fertility god.
Why are two fertility gods featured in the same movie?
Well, that is simple. Hellboy is named as the Destroyer Of Worlds, which I initially thought meant it in the Catholic sense of bringing the ultimate end of the world and somehow the end of Mankind (and not merely the end of the world as we know it.)
As we see, Hellboy II, not only brings upon the death of the King of Elves, but that of his son and daugther (who happen to be twins.) Hellboy then engenders two twins himself, (did it really take me this long to see this? Duh!)
Thus Hellboy is bringing upon the end of the world of Elves (Destroyer Of Worlds, remember?) while replacing it with a new world of his own progeny. Did the prince not clearly state that he would not be challenged/replaced by someone not of royal blood?
On a different issue, I started to think how Christianity addressed the subject of male fertility.
As I've said the goat imagery is taken care of in representations of the devil, but it is not generally considered a good or positive thing.
I think the image of Christ somehow takes care of it but substitutes the reproduction by way of seed to a reproduction by way of blood.
Maybe the seed and the blood are one and the same thing from a Mythical perspective.
Also, the Lords And Ladies novel reminds us of the Elves' aversion to iron.
With all of that thought on different mythologies I thought it was weird that Christ was killed by iron (nails, spear,) and in this way the Christ myth becomes sort of Faerie-like in that sense.
Since Christ is descended from David, and Solomon, and Solomon was supposed to mess around with genii and efreets and such, could Christ as myth not have had the opportunity to have Faerie blood in him?
I know Christ as alien has been done (Demon/God Told Me To,) but has Christ as Faerie ever been done? Can the thorn crown be seen as an mythic visual evolution of the horns associated with a Faerie King?
I guess the Easter Bunny is no substitute for a Fertility God, Huh?
Of course Oberon and Titania are there, though not mentioned by those names.
On the one had we have the Queen of the Elves and then there is her Husband (played in this photo by Patrick Stewart).
The Husband lives under a mountain with a giant sign of male genitalia, and though the King of Elves is supposed to be similarly endowed, a dwarf comments that he is not half of what he is supposed to be, maybe referring to his general size or maybe his endowment (which makes for a good joke, but not much sense, since he only appears to be, his real nature is something else entirely.)
Here is a similar giant as seen in Religulous:
I can think of two movies featuring the Green Man but can find no good photos: The Green Man (1990) and Gawain and the Green Knight (1973.)
The King appears as a horned giant, and immediately made me think of this drawing.
But also of the many horned hart of Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke:
and in turn of the forest giant, since they are two faces of the same god:
Hellboy II has an intimate connection to Mononoke, in that Del Toro used a similar forest elemental giant:
And also a horned King of Elves/Faerie:
Which makes sense, since both figures are linked to male fertility, although in this case the forest elemental is a separate agent of the King, and not the King himself.
Now, let me point out that I am an idiot, and that it took me this long to see that both aspects of the Shishigami are not merely a Japanese religion/myth conception, but more universal myth figures.
This chain of thought made me start thinking of all the different manifestations of Male fertility gods, which include satyrs, the god Pan, and lead up to the "modern" versions of devils and their connection with goats (horns, hoofed feet, etc.)
This includes the conception of Hellboy himself. Thus the Elf King, and Hellboy are two different aspects of the Male fertility god.
Why are two fertility gods featured in the same movie?
Well, that is simple. Hellboy is named as the Destroyer Of Worlds, which I initially thought meant it in the Catholic sense of bringing the ultimate end of the world and somehow the end of Mankind (and not merely the end of the world as we know it.)
As we see, Hellboy II, not only brings upon the death of the King of Elves, but that of his son and daugther (who happen to be twins.) Hellboy then engenders two twins himself, (did it really take me this long to see this? Duh!)
Thus Hellboy is bringing upon the end of the world of Elves (Destroyer Of Worlds, remember?) while replacing it with a new world of his own progeny. Did the prince not clearly state that he would not be challenged/replaced by someone not of royal blood?
On a different issue, I started to think how Christianity addressed the subject of male fertility.
As I've said the goat imagery is taken care of in representations of the devil, but it is not generally considered a good or positive thing.
I think the image of Christ somehow takes care of it but substitutes the reproduction by way of seed to a reproduction by way of blood.
Maybe the seed and the blood are one and the same thing from a Mythical perspective.
Also, the Lords And Ladies novel reminds us of the Elves' aversion to iron.
With all of that thought on different mythologies I thought it was weird that Christ was killed by iron (nails, spear,) and in this way the Christ myth becomes sort of Faerie-like in that sense.
Since Christ is descended from David, and Solomon, and Solomon was supposed to mess around with genii and efreets and such, could Christ as myth not have had the opportunity to have Faerie blood in him?
I know Christ as alien has been done (Demon/God Told Me To,) but has Christ as Faerie ever been done? Can the thorn crown be seen as an mythic visual evolution of the horns associated with a Faerie King?
I guess the Easter Bunny is no substitute for a Fertility God, Huh?
