Direction For this weeks work Myths and origin of the lych

For my first week of BA7 i'm going to be doing research into my studio work and my research report

I am going to start by looking into where the concept of a lych came about. I always find starting with using information from Wikipedia to start my research, I find it helps me branch my research into further areas. I will start by flickering through wikipedia pages to see if i can find any useful concepts. I then will look into any reference material such as books and fairy tales.

Areas to look into:

1. Modern day interpretation And where it comes from
2. Other Uses of the word Lich/Lych
3. English folk law - Lyke wake dyrge
4. Russian Fairy tales - Koschei
5. Modern day Interpretation of koschei
6. Serbian Folk law and the Brothers Grimm 
7. Ancient Egypt links to embalming
1. Embalming
2. Religion and death
3. Book of the dead
8. Booklist

Extract from Wikipedia

1.

Wikipedia Description

Often such a creature is the result of a transformation, as a powerful magician or king striving for eternal life uses spells or rituals to bind his intellect to his phylactery and thereby achieve a form of immortality. Liches are depicted as being clearly cadaverous, bodies desiccated or completely skeletal.

2. In religion and mythology[edit]

In Roman Catholicism and the Church of England, the word "lychgate" refers to a covered area at the entrance to the cemetery where the casket awaits the clergy before proceeding into the cemetery for proper burial, lych being a word derived from Old English lic meaning "body" or "corpse".^[6] The word has cognates in most other Germanic languages, like Old Norse and Old Frisian lik, Gothic leik, Dutch lijk,German Leiche, Swedish lik and Danish lig, ultimately being derived from Proto-Germanic *likow.^[7]

 
• Word derives from Christianity language, for both lychgate and lych.
• Adding Christianity references and occult (New research topic) for architecture.
• Use of lychgate as an entranceway for burial ground

Example of a lychgate

Taken From Wikipedia 

Many of Clark Ashton Smith's short stories feature powerful wizards whose magic enables them to return from the dead.

This is a useful bit of information and sets me onto a new target of research. I am going to look into  getting some short stories by "Clark Ashton Smith" this may offer new inspiration to show out in my studio work.

Taken From Wikipedia 

An earlier mention of the lich can be found in "The Death of Halpin Frayser", a short story by Ambrose Bierce.

Another interesting piece of literature I am going to look into.

I did not want to look at similar creatures such as whites and wraths, as they are a bit to deriven from modern fantasy worlds. I am aiming to look further than novels; I wanted to more focus on folk law, fairy tales, potential religion, and very old literature; and push away from the modern day idea of a lych.

3.

Lyke-wake dirge

An old English Poem about a souls travel through death towards purgatory with references from Christianity yet links to Germanic Paganism.

(Wiki)

"The song is written in an old form of the Yorkshire dialect of Northern English. It goes:

The Anima Sola (lonely soul), often interpreted as a soul in the fires of purgatory.

THIS ae nighte, this ae nighte,
—Refrain: Every nighte and alle,
Fire and fleet and candle-lighte,
—Refrain: And Christe receive thy saule.

When thou from hence away art past
To Whinny-muir thou com'st at last

If ever thou gavest hosen and shoon,
Sit thee down and put them on;

If hosen and shoon thou ne'er gav'st nane
The whinnes sall prick thee to the bare bane.

From Whinny-muir when thou may'st pass,
To Brig o' Dread thou com'st at last;

From Brig o' Dread when thou may'st pass,
To Purgatory fire thou com'st at last;

If ever thou gavest meat or drink,
The fire sall never make thee shrink;

If meat or drink thou ne'er gav'st nane,
The fire will burn thee to the bare bane;

This ae nighte, this ae nighte,
—Every nighte and alle,
Fire and fleet and candle-lighte,
—And Christe receive thy saule."

The poem was first collected by John Aubrey in 1686, who also recorded that it was being sung in 1616, but it is believed to be much older.

4.

Koschei

The Koschei is an old russian fairy tale, he normally fits a specific archetype of an antagonist, throughout the fairy tales. He normally plays the role of stealing the hero's wife/lover, there is never much description of this character, yet this is the small amount of reference i found on wikipedia says this. 

Taken from wikipedia
Koschei cannot be killed by conventional means targeting his body. His soul (or death) is hidden separate from his body inside a needle, which is in an egg, which is in a duck, which is in a hare, which is in an iron chest (sometimes the chest is crystal and/or gold), which is buried under a green oak tree, which is on the islandof Buyan in the ocean. As long as his soul is safe, he cannot die. If the chest is dug up and opened, the hare will bolt away; if it is killed, the duck will emerge and try to fly off. Anyone possessing the egg has Koschei in their power. He begins to weaken, becomes sick, and immediately loses the use of his magic. If the egg is tossed about, he likewise is flung around against his will. If the egg or needle is broken (in some tales, this must be done by specifically breaking it against Koschei's forehead), Koschei will die.

• Aspects of this are very similar to the modern day interpretation of a lich. An immortal evil character that has magical powers, which can only be killed by finding its soul. All of this are categories of which you would place a lych under.

In folk tales (Wiki) 

"The Death of Koschei the Deathless" is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki, which itself is included in The Red Fairy Book.

Koschei also appears in Russian versions of the story "The Frog Princess".

This is another book i want to look into for my studio research.

The death of Koschei the deathless by alexander afansayev

Ivan Bilibin Koshchey

5.

After looking through the list of other mentions i found that there have been a lot of other modern day references; such as. (wiki

Koschei appears as an immortal Russian warrior in the dark fantasy novel Fury of the Witch Queen (2012) by Joseph Robert Lewis. The novel also features Baba Yaga as Koschei's mother.

Koschei appears as a character in John C. Wright's "War of the Dreaming" novels. He offers to save the hero's wife, if the hero will agree to take the life of a stranger.

Koschei appears as an antagonist to the heroic demon Hellboy in the 2007 comic book Hellboy: Darkness Calls. The Baba Yaga will grant him death only through Hellboy's destruction, but in Hellboy, Koschei's soul is hidden in an egg, inside a duck, inside a hare, inside a goat. Vasilisa Prekrasnaya also appears and helps Hellboy. Koschei's origin story is later revealed in (as yet uncollected) backup stories to single issues of Hellboy: The Wild Hunt

In The Sandman: Fables and Reflections, Koschei's emerald heart (or, more likely a piece of green glass being passed off as such) passes into the possession of a Romani trader, then a werewolf, and finally Baba 

I am going to also try and get my hands on copies of this modern day interpretations to see what they depict this russian fairy tale as. 

6.

Baš Čelik

This is another old fairy tale this time with Serbian origin. It is an incredibly similar to the concept of the russian Koschei.

Synopsis (Wiki)

A king had three sons and three daughters. On his deathbed he made his sons swear that they would marry off their sisters to the first person who asked. When one night a booming voice demanded that one sister be given to him, the two older brothers were reluctant, except for the youngest (the Least of Three) who heeded his father's dying request and handed her over. The same thing happened for the next two nights, until all the sisters were given away to mysterious strangers. The three brothers decided to go and search for their sisters to find out where they were.

Throughout their travel each brother fought many-headed serpents, the youngest tosses the serpent into the lake taking out their camp fire; in addition, the youngest brother has to go out alone to find fire and used his wits to defeat nine giants that were terrorizing the region and eating human flesh as he stumbled upon them; finally he saved the king’s daughter from the previous giants village and a snake bite as she was laying in bed. Because of all this, he is allowed to marry the princess and becomes one of the king’s favorites. He lives in her castle and is allowed to visit any of the rooms, except one which was bound with chains (the One Forbidden Thing). When his wife was absent one day, he went inside and saw a man held prisoner and bound by chains. The man called himself Bash Chelik, and he begged for three glasses of water. Every time he complies he gets an extra life. When the third glass is handed it to him, the man suddenly gained his massive strength, broke the chains, opened his wings, and flew away with the youngest son's wife.

Now the prince sets out on a new quest to rescue his wife. On the way, he discovers that his sisters were married to the Lords of Dragons, Hawks and Eagles. He visits all the castles of the Dragons, Hawks and Eagles and is welcomed. He tells each Lord of his plans to defeat Bas Celik. They all try to stop him, telling him its impossible but the young price refuses to listen. Each Lord finally gives in and offers a magical feather that when burned will summon the armies. He tries to get his wife back three times, each time losing a life that Bash Chelik gave him for the glasses of water. On the fourth time he fails again and dies, but not before he burns the feathers and his body is saved by his brothers in law, and they resurrect him using the magical water from River Jordan. At this point the prince's wife learns that Bash Chelik cannot be killed, because his life is in a bird that is in a heart of fox in forest of a high mountain. Helped by the Lords, the prince finally slays Bash Chelik and rescues his wife.

Brothers Grimm - The crystal ball

Synopsis (Wiki)

A witch was afraid of her three sons. She turned the oldest into an eagle and the second into a whale, and each could take his human form for only two hours a day. The youngest fled before he could suffer the same and went off to seek the king's daughter, bewitched and held prisoner in the Castle of the Golden Sun. He saw two giants quarreling over a wishing cap and they asked him to settle the dispute. He put on the cap, forgot he had it on, and wished himself to the castle.

The king's daughter told him that only a crystal ball would break the enchantment. She directed him to go down the mountain and fight a wild bull beside a spring. If he killed it, a bird would spring out of it. If the bird was forced to let free an egg in its body, the crystal ball was its yolk, but the egg would light everything about it on fire if dropped on the land.

He fought the bull. The bird sprung free, but his brother the eagle harried it until it dropped the egg. This landed on a fisherman's hut, setting it ablaze, but his brother the whale drowned the hut with waves. The youngest brother took the crystal ball to the enchanter, who admitted himself defeated and told him that the ball would also break the spell on his brothers. The youngest hurried to the princess, and they exchanged rings.

This is the wikipedia Version of the synopsis of this Serbian tale (Bas Celik), and the brothers grimm  story, the crystal ball. Both these stories are near symmetrical other than a few small changes. Once again a very similar story to the russian tale Koschei.

• All versions of this character are a magical, powerful wizard/enchanter/spirit. 
• An immortal being holding his soul inside an item filled with challenges unlocking further items.
• Destruction of item causes death of the wizard.
• Always endangering the main characters loved ones.
• Certain versions warn the main character or character to not set the spellcaster free. (offer water to the prisoner normally)

7.


Egypt

7.1  
Embalming

The egyptian process of embalming is the process and ritual of death. Embalming can be laid out into these stages.

1. The body is cleaned and bathed in scented oils and herbs
2. An incision under the left side of the rib cage allows the removal of the internal organs
3. The brain is removed with prongs and drawn out from the nose.
4. The heart is left in the body as it will be needed for the soul to pass through to the next life.
5. The body is then stuffed with Natron (sand that gathers at the bottom of a river)
6. After forty days the body is washed and cleaned again.
7.  The body is then wrapped in linen and filled with sawdust
8. In the early period of ancient egypt the organs were places in jars away from the body. Yet by the end of the ancient egypt era, the organs were also placed inside the body before the linen is applied

Each of these organs were placed in specific jar's each with their own aesthetic personality.

Liver

  

Lungs

Stomach 

Intestine

Once the linen is applied, an amulet is placed round the dead body.

Isis Knot
Grants protection for the body

Plummet
Keep the person balanced through life and the next life

• Once this is done priests will read spells, and enchantments while more linen is applied. The body is then bounded hands and feets, the bindings are made from pages of the book of the dead.
• More linen is added and a piece of artwork of Osiris is painted on,
• A Ritual called the 'Opening of the Mouth' is performed, allowing the deceased to eat and drink again
• Finally they are placed in a sarcophagus,  and there precious objects are laid around in the area around the tomb.

All infomation was gathered from:

from http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/mummies/story/page1

The source seems quite a reliable learning site, and seems like a relevant source of research

7.2

Religious  views on Death

Looking into the religion of the ancient egypt has proven very interesting, with alot of reference into death. It will not only help my research progress, it should allow

Afterlife (wiki)

The Egyptians had elaborate beliefs about death and the afterlife. They believed that humans possessed a ka, or life-force, which left the body at the point of death. In life, the ka received its sustenance from food and drink, so it was believed that, to endure after death, the ka must continue to receive offerings of food, whose spiritual essence it could still consume. Each person also had a ba, the set of spiritual characteristics unique to each individual.^[35] Unlike the ka, the ba remained attached to the body after death. Egyptian funeral rituals were intended to release the ba from the body so that it could move freely, and to rejoin it with the ka so that it could live on as an akh. However, it was also important that the body of the deceased be preserved, as the Egyptians believed that the ba returned to its body each night to receive new life, before emerging in the morning as an akh.^[36]

Originally, however, the Egyptians believed that only the pharaoh had a ba,^[37] and only he could become one with the gods; dead commoners passed into a dark, bleak realm that represented the opposite of life.^[38] The nobles received tombs and the resources for their upkeep as gifts from the king, and their ability to enter the afterlife was believed to be dependent on these royal favors.^[39] In early times the deceased pharaoh was believed to ascend to the sky and dwell among the stars.^[40] Over the course of the Old Kingdom (c. 2686–2181 BC), however, he came to be more closely associated with the daily rebirth of the sun god Ra and with the underworld ruler Osiris as those deities grew more important.^[41]

During the late Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period (c. 2181–2055 BC), the Egyptians gradually came to believe that possession of a ba and the possibility of a paradisiacal afterlife extended to everyone.^[37][42] In the fully developed afterlife beliefs of the New Kingdom, the soul had to avoid a variety of supernatural dangers in the Duat, before undergoing a final judgment known as the "Weighing of the Heart". In this judgment, the gods compared the actions of the deceased while alive (symbolized by the heart) to Ma'at, to determine whether he or she had behaved in accordance with Ma'at. If the deceased was judged worthy, his or her ka and ba were united into an akh.^[43] Several beliefs coexisted about the akh's destination. Often the dead were said to dwell in the realm of Osiris, a lush and pleasant land in the underworld.^[44] The solar vision of the afterlife, in which the deceased soul traveled with Ra on his daily journey, was still primarily associated with royalty, but could extend to other people as well. Over the course of the Middle and New Kingdoms, the notion that the akh could also travel in the world of the living, and to some degree magically affect events there, became increasingly prevalent.^[45]

- Taken from wikipedia

The ancient Egyptian, however, hoped not only to extend life beyond the grave, but to become part of the perennial life of nature. The two most important concepts concerning the afterlife were the ka and the ba. The ka was a kind of double or other self, not an element of the personality, but a detached part of the self which was sometimes said to guide the fortunes of the individual in life, like the Roman genius, but was clearly most associated with a person's fortunes in the hereafter. When people died they were said to join with their ka. More important perhaps than the ka was the concept of the ba. The ba is perhaps loosely identifiable as the soul of a person. More specifically the ba was the manifestation of an individual after death, usually thought to be represented in the form of a bird. The Egyptians also believed in the concept of akh, which was the transformation of some of the noble dead into eternal objects. The noblest were often conceived of as being transformed into stars, thus joining in the changeless rhythm of the universe.

Information found at -  

http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/society/egyptian-religion-life-after-death.html

Notes

• upon death spirit (Ka) is released back into nature and is seperated from the body
• Originally afterlife only applied to the nobles, and priests. However during the new kingdom era the concept of a life after death, applied to everyone
• some believe the dead were thought to be with Osiris, a lush land within the underworld
• Others believed that the dead came to follow Ra, and his journey as the sun, throughout each day, yet this extended only to the nobles of Ancient Egypt
• The spirit or Akh, was sometimes believed to return to the world of the living, and hold a magical effect on their surroundings. 

7.3

Book of the dead




The book of the dead is quite an icconic symbol of ancient Egypt death theory. The name translates as "Book of coming forth" Or, "book of emerging forth to the light". There was a range of different books of the dead. priests and nobles had there own copy's, filled with specific spell's that, they relived would help them ascend to the afterlife.

Spells

The Book of the Dead is made up of a number of individual texts and their accompanying illustrations. Most sub-texts begin with the word ro, which can mean mouth, speech, a chapter of a book, spell, utterance, or incantation. This ambiguity reflects the similarity in Egyptian thought between ritual speech and magical power.^[14] In the context of the Book of the Dead, it is typically translated as either "chapter" or "spell". In this article, the word "spell" is used.
At present, some 192 spells are known,^[15] though no single manuscript contains them all. They served a range of purposes. Some are intended to give the deceased mystical knowledge in the afterlife, or perhaps to identify them with the gods: for instance, Spell 17, an obscure and lengthy description of the god Atum.^[16] Others are incantations to ensure the different elements of the dead person's being were preserved and reunited, and to give the deceased control over the world around him. Still others protect the deceased from various hostile forces, or guide him through the underworld past various obstacles. Famously, two spells also deal with the judgement of the deceased in the Weighing of the Heart ritual.
Such spells as 26-30, and sometimes spells 6 and 126 relate to the heart, and were inscribed on scarabs.^[17]
The texts and images of the Book of the Dead were magical as well as religious. Magic was as legitimate an activity as praying to the gods, even when the magic was aimed at controlling the gods themselves.^[18] Indeed, there was little distinction for the Ancient Egyptians between magical and religious practice.^[19] The concept of magic (heka) was also intimately linked with the spoken and written word. The act of speaking a ritual formula was an act of creation;^[20] there is a sense in which action and speech were one and the same thing.^[19] The magical power of words extended to the written word. Hieroglyphic script was held to have been invented by the god Thoth, and the hieroglyphs themselves were powerful. Written words conveyed the full force of a spell.^[20] This was even true when the text was abbreviated or omitted, as often occurred in later Book of the Dead scrolls, particularly if the accompanying images were present.^[21] The Egyptians also believed that knowing the name of something gave power over it; thus, the Book of the Dead equips its owner with the mystical names of many of the entities he would encounter in the afterlife, giving him power of them.^[22]
The spells of the Book of the Dead made use of several magical techniques which can also be seen in other areas of Egyptian life. A number of spells are for magical amulets, which would protect the deceased from harm. In addition to being represented on a Book of the Dead papyrus, these spells appeared on amulets wound into the wrappings of a mummy.^[18] Everyday magic made use of amulets in huge numbers. Other items in direct contact with the body in the tomb, such as headrests, were also considered to have amuletic value.^[23] A number of spells also refer to Egyptian beliefs about the magical healing power of saliva.[1

Notes

• Loads of different books of the dead, self made by nobles and preists
• Started off only the pharaoh and his queen would have the book of the dead written around there tomb
• at present 192 spells are confirmed to have been documented
• The "weighing of the heart of the ritual" playing a big part of the book and the spells that follow.
•  The first book of the dead was found in the casket of queen Mentuhotep

The Books of the Dead from the Saite period tend to organize the Chapters into four sections:

• Chapters 1–16 The deceased enters the tomb, descends to the underworld, and the body regains its powers of movement and speech.
• Chapters 17–63 Explanation of the mythic origin of the gods and places, the deceased are made to live again so that they may arise, reborn, with the morning sun.
• Chapters 64–129 The deceased travels across the sky in the sun ark as one of the blessed dead. In the evening, the deceased travels to the underworld to appear before Osiris.
• Chapters 130–189 Having been vindicated, the deceased assumes power in the universe as one of the gods. This section also includes assorted chapters on protective amulets, provision of food, and important places.
•  

8.0

Norse Religion and death