Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb And this is the
Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing in non mythical creatures, ideas, and monsters
Speaker 2: in time. Yesterday's core episode of Stuff to Blow Your
Speaker 2: Mind concerned the fabled rat King, in which it is
Speaker 2: said the tales of rats become intertwined and knotted, a
Speaker 2: dire omen of impending doom. But what about elsewhere in
Speaker 2: the natural and unnatural worlds? To begin with, folklore is
Speaker 2: rife with magical knots, is Cyrus l Day pointed out
Speaker 2: in Knots and Not Lore back in nineteen fifty. Just
Speaker 2: as the use of knots extends back through prehistoric human times,
Speaker 2: so too does the idea that we might work magic
Speaker 2: with the various intricate knots that we tie. They observe
Speaker 2: that ancient peoples attempted to control the weather, biology, reproduction, death,
Speaker 2: and various supernatural entities via the working of knots. Not
Speaker 2: Magic was sometimes maleficent and other times beneficial. It could
Speaker 2: be an intentional magical effect or something invoked by accident.
Speaker 2: It might be said to work at close range, across
Speaker 2: vast distances, and across various stretches of time. After all,
Speaker 2: what is the knot but the joining and the binding
Speaker 2: of things, the creation of something, the creation of a
Speaker 2: new complexity in the process, And of course the topic
Speaker 2: is closely aligned with all manner of fabric arts and
Speaker 2: even hair breeds. As not so easily become the subject
Speaker 2: of magical thinking, they inevitably touched the world of monsters.
Speaker 2: Among the many anti vampire traditions, we find the notion
Speaker 2: that one may leave a complex array of knots out
Speaker 2: for the creature, which will then occupy its time trying
Speaker 2: to unravel them and figure them out till the sun
Speaker 2: rises once again. They are also other related tactics that
Speaker 2: don't involve knots at all, such as leaving out poppy
Speaker 2: seeds that the vampire will feel compelled to count. Unnatural
Speaker 2: complexity overpowers the undead senses, it would seem, But as
Speaker 2: with the fabled rat King, there are also some myths
Speaker 2: and legends of knotted creatures. The account of Heracles and
Speaker 2: Coccus is notable. While in some depictions Coccus is merely
Speaker 2: presented as a fire breathing giant, or even just a
Speaker 2: large muscular man that Heracles wrestles. Other times, he is
Speaker 2: described as a sort of giant spider, except with three
Speaker 2: fire breathing human heads atop a long neck. In order
Speaker 2: to slay the monster, Heracles ties its neck in a knot.
Speaker 2: Dragon iconography often involves knots, as does serpentine iconography, and
Speaker 2: the knotting of tail or neck may be presented as
Speaker 2: a means of defeating the creature or as a self
Speaker 2: coiling behavior. In the natural world, climbing snakes have been
Speaker 2: observed to use lasso locomotion to scale trees and poles
Speaker 2: in search of prey, a configuration that indeed appears to
Speaker 2: be a simple knot. Elsewhere, hagfish, when agitated, will twist
Speaker 2: themselves into a traveling overhand knot to squeeze off excess slide.
Speaker 2: Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week.
Speaker 2: As always, you can email us at contact at stuff
Speaker 2: to Blow your Mind dot com.
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