Headline News: We Have Hobbit Ancestors....

[Lalwendë]

I'm joining Child's thread because she joined mine, and it's time to get serious...despite there being plenty on here which has already made me laugh!

Do we have some kind of a collective memory that taps into what happened in the distant past?

This is something I've often thought about myself; I've read articles on this in the past and it does seem to make some sense to me. The human mind is unfathomable, and we do not know what constitutes memory and the subconscious. In addition to this, there are genes and DNA to bring into the equation. If genetic features from an ancestor several generations back can suddenly manifest in a child born today (and this does happen) then who can tell in what ways genes may affect our minds. Considering that the billions of people in the world are descended from just a few common ancestors, it is entirely possible that some kind of genetic memory is shared by all of us.

I'm not sure whether this is something we could ever 'tap' at will, but the correlation of myths between cultures spread around the globe suggests that there are genetic links we do not yet understand.

That was a good link, THE Ka (that's a website I do look at often), and there was a lot of interesting food for thought within the link. I grew up with stories of Boggarts and I'm fascinated by the mythical little creatures. My grandmother was a maid when she was young, and each night she used to leave a bucket by the well of the hall she worked at. Each morning it was full. She maintained that the Boggart had filled it. We always thought there were Boggarts in our own house, and the description I was given of them was rather like Gollum. They were supposed to particularly like the nooks above doors, dark corners, ginnels or cupboards. If you moved house, the Boggart might even come with you; not good if it was an unfriendly one . My auntie even had a horseshoe nailed above her door to keep the Boggarts from entering - some kind of offering?

No, the area I grew up in was not populated by delusionary people ( ), but these stories had been handed down the generations, and it was once an area cut off from the rest of the county, and where the Vikings took up residence, and there is little history written about the area, but there are plenty of folk tales. Similar tales exist in other areas, where the creatures may have different names; but whether these creatures were once real, if they were poltergeists, or just someone's tomfoolery, no-one really knows!