book_id stringlengths 2 6 | title stringclasses 1
value | author stringclasses 1
value | conversations listlengths 1 5.07k |
|---|---|---|---|
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "ghosts, or spirits of one kind or another, in Lancashire, appeared, to use Falstaff's phrase, to be"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": ""
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Boggart, by some writers is regarded as the Lancashire cognomen for"
},
{
"from": ... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Sometimes I meet them like a man, Sometimes an ox, sometimes a hound, And to a horse I turn me can, To trip and trot about them round. But if to ride, My back they stride, More swift than wind away I go: O'er edge and lands, Through pools and ponds, I whirry laughing, Ho! ho! ho... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Feeorin is a general term for all things of this character that create fear in the otherwise intrepid heart of a"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Lancashire lad. Mr. Edwin Waugh, whose songs in the dialect are not more remarkable for their quaint humour and homely path... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Romeo and Juliet."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Dæmonologie, describes the spirit called a"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "as something that"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When in a good humour, this noted goblin will milk the cows, pull the hay, fodder the cattle, harness the horses, load the carts, and stack the crops. When irritated by the utterance of some unguarded expression or marked disrespect, either from the farmer or his servants, the c... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "From some of the details, it appears to embody, in no slight degree, the popular superstition regarding the mischievous Puck. On three distinct occasions the cellars of a monastery at Prum, in the arch-diocese of Treves, had been invaded, bungs wantonly withdrawn from casks, and... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "by some magical or religious ceremony in Walton Church yard. I have often thought that the story told by Weaver, a Preston antiquary, in his"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Funerall Monuments, printed in 1631, and which I have transcribed at page 149 of the"
},
{
... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This boggart appeared to partake of the cannibal nature of some of the giants and ogres in our nursery tales, one of which, on the approach of the redoubtable"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Jack, the Giant-killer, called out to his wife,"
},
{
"from": "human"... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Grave of Grislehurst Boggart, gives a vivid picture of this species of superstition as it still exists in Lancashire. The story is admirably told in a conversation between the author, an old weaver and his dame, and is replete with characteristic traits. It seems this boggart, a... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Naw; he'll delve noan theer, nut iv aw know it.... Nor no mon elze dar lay a finger oppo that greawnd. Joseph Fenton's a meeterly bowd chap, an' he's ruvven everything up abeawt this country side, welly, but he dar not touch Gerzlehus' Boggart for his skin! An' I howd his wit go... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "His informant was one of the farmers engaged in the mystical ceremony, the object of which was the destruction of a wizard who had wrought sad havoc amongst his neighbours' cattle. He says:--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "They met at the house of one of their number... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "A farmer in Towednack having been robbed of some property of no great value, was resolved, nevertheless, to employ a test which he had heard the 'old people' resorted to for the purpose of catching a thief. He invited all his neighbours into his cottage, and when they were assem... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Criton, we owe a cock to Asclêpius."
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "according to Scandinavian mythology. A black cock is likewise said to crow in the _Niflheim_, or"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Workes of Armourie (1597), says:--"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The lyon dreadeth the white cocke, because he breedeth a pr... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "of the redoubted Grislehurst boggart, it is not improbable, as ghosts are not easily coffined in a corporeal sense, that some superannuated old rooster, who had disturbed the bodily rest, and scared the wits of the neighbouring rustics by some untoward cock-a-doodle-doing, furni... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The author of"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Choice Notes"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It is a common practice with the housewives in the same district to tie a piece of red worsted thread round their cows' tails previous to turning them out to grass ... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The English Puck (the Lancashire Boggart), the Scotch Bogie, the French Goblin, the Gobelinus of the Middle Ages, and the German Kobold, are probably only varied names for the Grecian Khobalus,--whose sole delight consists in perplexing the human race, and evoking those harmless... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Miscellanies, published in 1696, gives what he styles"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "which exhibits an astonishing amount of superstition, even amongst the presumedly learned men of the age. Amongst other things he informs his readers, on the authority of a letter fr... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There was at Athens a large and spacious house which lay under the disrepute of being haunted. In the dead of the night a noise resembling the clashing of iron was frequently heard, which, if you listened more attentively, sounded like the rattling of chains; at first it seemed ... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Visit to the Indian Archipelago, refers to a somewhat similar superstition in Northern Australia. The natives will not willingly approach graves at night alone;"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "have nothing"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "in their characte... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "meaning"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "anything in common with the modern word"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Jack, the Giant-killer, had his"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "which conferred upon its proprietor this marvellous peculiarity. In the classical mythology, the helmet given to Hades or Pluto likewise possessed the power of rendering the wearer invisible. In the Teuto... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "thereof, possessed the quality usually described as"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "According to Panzer, the devil was compelled to fulfil the wish of any person in possession of the seed of this plant; and Meier tells us that in Swabia the peasants believe that the p... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Deutsche Mythologie. It is said to be a popular one with the people of Westphalia. A man, in search of a foal, passed through a meadow on Midsummer's Eve, when some ripening fern seed fell into his shoes. He did not return home until the following morning, when he was astonished... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Calendar of the Romish Church, the 23rd June, the vigil of the nativity of John the Baptist, is stated to be prolific in supernatural phenomena. Amongst others we are informed that"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "that"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "We ar... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Darkness came down like a swoop. The fern was shaken; the upper dish flew into pieces; the pewter one melted; the skull emitted a cry, and eyes glared in its sockets; lights broke; beautiful children were seen walking in their holiday clothes, and graceful female forms sung mour... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Boggart Ho' Clough, and especially such a place, and I can easily imagine, in a very short time, that many of the floating traditions of the neighbourhood would fasten themselves upon it. This being afterwards rendered more definite by the action of literary exponents of traditi... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Amongst the most prominent of the demon superstitions prevalent in Lancashire, says Mr. T. T. Wilkinson,"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I can never forget the impression made upon my own mind when once arrested by the cry of these Gabriel hounds as I passed the parish church of Sheffield, one densely dark and very still night. The sound was exactly like the greeting of a dozen beagles on the foot of a race, but ... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Seeking to make the beautiful Aerô his bride, he is blinded by her father, who caught him asleep. After recovering his sight by a journey towards the rising sun, he vainly endeavours to seize upon and punish his enemy. In his wanderings he meets with and is beloved by Artemis (D... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Historic Memorials of Westminster Abbey, informs us that the great northern entrance of that truly historic pile was erected in the reign of Richard II., and that once"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It appears that the badge was first adopted in honour of his mother,... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "is still retained, and is employed to designate"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Indra and Rudra are regarded as the Aryan prototypes of Odin. Some of their chief characteristics are retained in the doings of the"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "and his fol... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Viator, gives the following Eastern illustration of this superstition,--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It strikes me as curious that Mr. Pearson should hear on a Lancashire moor a tradition or superstition so similar to that which I have heard on the Bosphorus with ... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "I remember to have seen one of these imposters some years ago in the north of England, who made a very hermit-like appearance, and went up and down the streets of Newcastle with a long train of boys at his heels, muttering, 'Poor John alone, alone!' I thought he pronounced his n... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Paradise Lost,"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "or of the"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Durandal, which Mr. Cox says"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "It is that of Theseus and that of Sigurd. It is Arthur's famous sword"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Excalibur, as well as the one which no one could draw from the iron anvil sheath, embedded i... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Lyell and others contend that geological evidence indicates that the winters were long and severe during the period when the makers of the"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Similar traditions are not unknown in Lancashire and other parts of Britain. It is stated in Knight's"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Old England that"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wallet-Book of the Roman Wall, relates the following Northumberland trad... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "has been found amongst the carved stones which decorated the ancient church. In this, Mr. E. Baines says,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Mr. T. T. Wilkinson says"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Goblin Builders are"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"va... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "which the superstitious, however, still insist upon finding on the earth. He is supposed to lie in a secluded spot on some lone moorland side, the way to which no curious enquirer ever trod a second time. Hence the many traditions of heroes slumbering in caves, awaiting the sign... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Northumberland"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wizard's Cave."
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Saxons, under the command of Colgrin, were attempting to exterminate the whole of the British race. They had also entirely subdued all that part of the island which extends from the Humber to the sea of Caithness.... Hereupon he (Arthur) marched to (towards) York, of which, ... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "There are many desert islands scattered about Britain, some of which have the name of being the islands of genii and heroes; that he had been sent by the emperor, for the sake of describing and viewing them, to that which lay nearest to the desert isles, and which had but few in... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The ideas of the Irish peasantry respecting the state of departed souls are very singular. According to the tenets of the church to which the majority of them belong, the souls of the departed are either in paradise, hell, or purgatory. But popular belief assigns the air as a fo... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "which he had direct from a Manchester tradesman's own lips, who thoroughly believed in the supernatural character of his nocturnal assailant. This tradesman, a Mr. Drabble, assured my friend that the celebrated black headless dog-fiend, on one occasion, about the year 1825, sudd... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The appearance of this sprite is considered a certain death-sign, and has obtained the local names of 'Trash' or 'Skriker.' He generally appears to one of the family from which death is about to select his victim, and is more or less visible according to the distance of the even... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Merry Devil of Edmonton"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "superstition. It appears that Dr. Marigold's dog, true to the instincts of his blustering race, could snuff an approaching storm of a"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "character with the most unerring precision. Certainly there are localities in which the blasts of old ... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "and not exactly a wild hunt, in the ordinary acceptation of the term. Kelly says:--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sometimes it gallops through the stormy air as a herd of wild boars; but the spirits of which it consists generally appear in human form. They are of bo... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "But the idea of retribution after death for crimes done in the body was not unknown to German paganism. It was part of the Aryan creed, and the Vedas speak of the goddess Nirriti, and her dreadful world Naraka, the destined abode of all guilty souls. It is not conceivable that s... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, this song is printed with one or two slight variations, with the title of a"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Lyke-Wake Dirge."
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "When any dieth certaine women sing a song to the dead bodie, reciting the journey that the partye deceased must goe, and they are of beliefe (such is their fondnesse) that once in their lives it is good to give a pair of new shoes to a poor man, for as much as after this life th... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Notes and Queries, says that flocks of bean-geese, from Scandinavia and Scotland, when flying over various parts of England, select very dark nights for their migrations, and that their flight is accompanied by a very loud and very peculiar cry. The"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Milky Way to be the path by which departed souls enter Heaven. Mr. Benjamin Brierley, in one of his Lancashire stories, places in the mouth of one of his strongly marked provincial characters, the following expression,--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "When tha goes u... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "First you have Apollo ascending from the sea; thought of as the _physical sunrise_: only a circle of light for his head; his chariot horses seen foreshortened, black against the day-break, their feet not yet risen above the horizon. Underneath is the painting from the opposite s... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Nightmare, in which he represents the fiend in equine form bestraddling his unhappy victim. Kelly says he can find accounts of the nightmare assuming the forms of a mouse, a weasel, a toad, and even a cat, but never that of a horse or a mare, except in the picture referred t... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Marriage of the Arts, deprecates the practice of relying on charms,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He, however, makes the night-hag equestrian or jockey, and not equine. Herrick, too, in his"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Hesperides,"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "in some instances, may have been applied to a witch transformed into a mare by means of a magic bridle, and ridden with great violence by the very party at whose bedside she had previously metamorphosed into a steed, on the back of which she had galloped to the witches' revel. I... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wild Rider, relates a legend not uncommon in various parts of the country, about a Sir Ashton Lever, a lover of a descendant of the Black Knight, who seems to have rivalled him in horsemanship. Bamford, in a note, says:--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He was an exce... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "a thorn bush which had been sunk near its centre had reappeared in Falmouth harbour. One churchman, it is said, nevertheless thought the plan not sufficiently hopeless. He therefore suggested that the only lading or baling utensil employed by the miserable sinner should be a lim... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Nature was at war with herself, the elements had lost their balance, and there was a terrific struggle to recover it. Lightnings flashed and coiled like fiery snakes around the rocks of Roughtor. Fire-balls fell on the desert moors and hissed in the accursed lake. Thunders peale... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Stone Delph, from which the material was quarried for the tower of the Parish Church, Preston, taken down in 1814. I can yet well remember being convinced of the absurdity of this legend by an older companion, a good swimmer and diver, bringing up some mud and a stone from the b... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Of course, each recurring tide swept away the result of his toil, and, according to the tradition,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "He was afterwards removed, by the power of the priesthood, to the estuary of the Loo, and ordered to carry sand across to Porthleven. A f... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "when he says:--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "In Devonshire, to this day, all magical or supernatural dealings go under the common name of wishtness. Can this have any reference to Woden's name 'Wyse?' Mr. Hunt, however, acknowledges that"
},
{
"from": "huma... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Black Knight traditions, doubtless, to some extent, influenced the colouring of Bamford's poem,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The Wild Rider. Mr. Hunt quotes from a somewhat similar modern ballad, entitled"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "by John Penwarn... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Black Lad of the Ashton Legend. The term"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Th' Owd Lad is a common expression in several parts of Lancashire, and means literally"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Old Nick,"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The myth of Ixîôn exhibits the sun as bound to the four-spoked wheel which is whirled round everlastingly in the sky.[33] In that of Sisyphos we see the same being condemned to the daily toil of heaving a stone to the summit of a hill from which it immediately rolls down. This i... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wynwede, with the common suffix"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "This wheel reappears in the Gaelic story of the Widow and her Daughters, Campbell, ii. 265, and in Grimm's German tale of the Iron Stove. The treasure house of Ixîôn, which none may enter without being either destroyed like Hesioneus or betrayed by marks of gold or blood, reappe... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "According to the same authority, Ireland was originally peopled by a similar race of monsters. He asserts that the magician Merlin transported the materials for the building of Stonehenge from the Irish mountain Killaraus, to Salisbury Plain. Merlin assured Uther Pendragon that ... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Journey to Ashango-land,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "After reconsidering the whole subject, I am compelled also to state that I think it highly probable that gorillas, and not chimpanzees, as I was formerly inclined to think, were the animals seen and captured by ... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "was of Cyclopean or gigantic stature. All known evidence of a reliable character, however, condemns this hypothesis as untenable. The power of ignorance and rumour to magnify small facts into monstrous fictions is aptly illustrated by the story of the famous three black crows. T... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "with which he proposed to annihilate the Israelitish army at one blow! We are further informed that Joshua, who was ten ells high, perceiving that the rock was crumbling to pieces around the giant's shoulders, struck him on the ancle with an axe ten ells in length, and thus lame... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Juventus Mundi, contends that the"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Cyclops, a godless race, are the children of Poseidon, and that Poseidon (the Greek Neptune) was the chief god of the Phœnicians. He adds,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Syria was inhabite... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Felix Plater, Professor of Anatomy at Basle, referred the bones of an elephant, found at Lucerne, to a giant at least nineteen feet high, and, in England, similar bones were regarded as those of the fallen angels!"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Malay Archipelago, tells us that the present inhabitants of the island of Java,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "look upon the ruins of the colossal edifices, the remarkable examples of ancient sculpture, and other evidences of the extinct civilisation amidst which the... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "One sympathises, too, with them, and almost pities them as the representatives of a simple primitive race, whose day is past and gone, but who still possessed something of the innocence and virtue of ancient times, together with a stock of old experience, which, however useful i... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Giant's Causeway simply because the early inhabitants, knowing nothing of geology, thought it a result of superhuman or demoniacal labour. The equally celebrated cave in Derbyshire, doubtless, received the name of the"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Devil's Hole for a... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Pastime of Pleasure. Prince Graunde Amour, goes forth in search of adventures. False Report, a dwarf, deceives him, but he slays a giant with three heads, named Imagination, Falsehood, and Perjury. John Bunyan, too, has his Giant Despair, etc., and others will readily occur to t... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Wisdom of the Ancients, referring to what is called the allegorical theory, as a method of interpreting the ancient mythology, says,--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "I freely and willingly confess that I am inclined to the opinion, that not a few of the fables of the... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Morgante Maggiore,"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Professor Morley, in his English summary of the poem, says,--"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Forbidden the homes of mankind, the daughters of Cain brought forth in darkness misshapen giants, elves, and orkens, such giants as warred long with God, and he was one of th... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Historic Ninepins, says,"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "King Arthur's Round Table. Bishop Percy tells us that the term"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "is not a speciality of the King Arthur legends, but that it is common to all the ages of chivalry. In support of this he refers to Dugdale's description of a grand tournamen... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Vetus Ceremoniale MS., and endorsed by Du Cange,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "If Arthur ever lived at all, he lived in the fifth and sixth centuries. Geoffrey of Monmouth says, after being mortally wounded,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Roger de Poic... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Carlion, in Wales, was, according to Sir Thomas Malory's"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Morte Darthur,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "King Uriens of Gore, with four hundred knights with him."
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "about Arthur and se... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Jack, the Giant-killer type, as modern gentlemen do of their savage aboriginal ancestry. Hallam, referring to the plundering barons of the"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "and the legends engrafted upon their ferocious deeds, says:--"
},
{
"from": "human",
... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The real condition of society, it has sometimes been thought, might suggest stories of knight errantry, which were wrought up into the popular romances of the middle ages. A baron, abusing the advantage of an inaccessible castle in the fastnesses of the Black Forest or the Alps,... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Beauty and the Beast,"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The White Cat,"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Little Red Riding Hood, etc., yet very popular amongst others than the juvenile section of the population, point in a similar direction. These stories are... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The Twelfth Night, where the clown, under the pretence of his being"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "Sir Topas, the Curate,"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It appeared to Landor that Pythagoras, who settled in Italy, and had many followers in the Greek colony of the Phocæans at Marseilles, had engrafted on a barbarous and bloodthirsty religion the human doctrine of the metempsychosis; for that finding it was vain to say, 'Do not mu... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The souls, previous to their entering into human bodies, floated in the air, from whence they were inhaled by the process of breathing at the moment of birth. At the moment of death, they descended into the lower world, where they were probably supposed to dwell a certain number... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "The soul passes from one state to another invested with a subtle frame, consisting of elementary particles, the seed or rudiment of a grosser body. Departing from that which it occupied, it ascends to the moon, where, clothed with an aqueous form, it experiences the recompence o... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "And he saw her and changed himself into a hare. But she changed herself into a grey-hound and turned him. And he ran towards a river and became a fish. But she, in form of an otter, chased him until he was fain to become a bird. Then she, as a hawk, followed him, and gave him no... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "It happened that my master was gone to Capua to dispose of some second-hand goods. I took the opportunity, and persuaded our guest to walk with me to our fifth milestone. He was a valiant soldier, and a sort of grim water-drinking Pluto. About cock-crow, when the moon was shinin... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "by means of which they"
},
{
"from": "gpt",
"value": "The"
},
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Thiassi and Suttungr, had each an"
}
] |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "They were supposed to possess the power of casting aside their external skins, and disporting themselves in human form on the sea-shore. If a mortal contrived to become possessed of one of these outer coverings belonging to a female, he might claim her and keep her as his bride.... |
39934 | Unknown Title | Unknown Author | [
{
"from": "human",
"value": "Evenings with Prince Cambacérès, relates a story of a vampire, or blood-sucker, named Rafin, on the authority of the celebrated Fouché. The astute chief of the police, if not absolutely imposed upon, was, certainly, much perplexed with the case. He says,--"
},
{
"from": ... |
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