My old hardcover
Webster’s dictionary defines a legend as:
o
a
story coming down from the past, especially one popularly regarded as
historical although not verifiable
o
a
popular myth of recent origin
o
a
person or thing that inspires legends.
I intend, in this blog,
to write about all three.
Most of us are familiar
with Greek and Roman myths of gods, goddesses and heroes that we learned about
in school. More recently comics and movies have used a few of these stories and
embellished them. Other people may be familiar with African or Asian legends,
or the stories that Indigenous People tell in various parts of the world. I’m
not going to write about any of those legends.
I can’t remember when I
first heard about George Mallory and the various expeditions he joined in attempts
to climb Mount Everest (Sagarmatha or Chomolungma; this mountain did have names
before Europeans ‘discovered’ it). Sadly, if he and his young climbing partner Andrew
Irvine hadn’t disappeared, few would probably remember them, unless they’d
managed to reach the summit.
It is believed that on the
morning of June 8, 1924, Mallory and Irvine began their climb from Camp VI
toward the summit. The last picture of the two was taken by Noel Odell on June
6 at Camp IV. A couple of notes were sent down later by Mallory with porters
explaining that they were going to leave early for the climb. Odell was climbing
toward Camp VI and watching for them, though for a while the weather was too
misty for him to see much. At 12:50 the mists cleared so that Odell could see
the summit ridge and final pyramid. He wrote in his diary, “Saw M & I on
the ridge, nearing base of final pyramid.” He said that he had seen two moving
black dots. Later his sighting was challenged by others, and he also varied his
account. At any rate, no trace of Mallory and Irvine was found for many years
and no one knew whether they might have reached the summit.
Seventy-five years
later an expedition set out to find the climbers remains. Other climbers
remains had been found at various times, and there had been rumours. In 1933
Irvine’s ice axe was found in the area of their last known route. It was
identified by three notches. In 1960 a Chinese porter reported seeing the
remains of “an English dead.” In May 1999 Conrad Aker discovered Mallory’s
body. However, Irvine has yet to be discovered, and the camera that the two
carried has never been found, so there is no proof on whether they reached the
summit or not.
Wade Davis wrote an
amazing book, published in 2011 ‘Into the Silence: The Great War, Mallory, and
the Conquest of Everest.’ There are also lots of videos and other on-line
resources if you’re interested in more on this.
You may be familiar
with Stan Roger’s song ‘Northwest Passage.’ It has the words, “Ah, for just one
time, I would take the Northwest Passage to find the hand of Franklin reaching
for the Beaufort Sea.” Songwriters play a part in creating legends. The search
for a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific involved many
explorers at various times, resulting in failures and claiming many lives.
One of the most famous
expeditions was led by Captain Sir John Franklin. Between 1819 and 1827
Franklin was involved in overland explorations of Canada’s north, from the
western shores of Hudson Bay toward Alaska. In 1845 Franklin set out to search
for a northwest passage. His two ships, the Erebus (primeval god of darkness,
son of Chaos) and the Terror carried 128 men. Interesting names for ships,
considering what happened.
The last sighting of
the ships was in late July, by British whalers, north of Baffin Island at the
entrance to Lancaster sound. In 1847, when no further word had been received,
search parties were sent out. For twelve years searches were conducted, but
nothing was known until 1859, when Captain Francis Leopold McClintock’s
expedition found skeletons and a written account through to April 25, 1948. The
written account revealed that the ships became trapped in the ice. An old Inuit
woman told McClintock about starving men who fell as they walked. Post-mortems
conducted in the late 20th century on preserved bodies, found that
botulism, scurvy, and lead poisoning may have contributed to the mental and
physical decline of the crew.
In September 2014, the
wreck of the Erebus was found off King William Island. Two years later the
wreck of the Terror was found 100 kilometers north in Terror Bay.
Another legend that has
fascinated me since I was a teenager is the loss of the Eagle of the Ninth
Roman Legion. This fascination was sparked by reading Rosemary Sutcliffe’s book
‘The Eagle of the Ninth,’ published in 1954. By the way, you can order the book
from Indigo.
A Roman Legion was a
military unit of the Roman Empire, usually composed of about 5,000 men, though
I’ve seen various numbers. Each legion carried an eagle standard.
The Romans first
invaded the British Isles (though the land was not called that then) in 55 B.C.
under Julius Caesar. The Roman occupation ended around 408 – 409 A.D. Various
legions served in Britain, including the Legion IX Hispania. Each legion got
its name through various ways. The Ninth was probably stationed in Spain during
the time of Augustus.
The Ninth Legion
disappeared from surviving Roman records around 120 A.D. So, what happened to
it?
The various groups that
lived in the British Isles did not take kindly to Roman occupation, and though
there was a certain amount of integration and intermarriage, revolts did occur.
You may have heard the story of Boudica of the Iceni. (A story for another time
and place, and more legends. Read ‘The Eagle and the Raven’ by Canadian author
Pauline Gedge.)
In 60 or 61
A.D. there was a battle at a place called Camulodunum, which resulted in the
massacre of the Ninth Legion. This was in the southeastern part of England.
Supposedly the Legion was not totally wiped out and was again brought up to
strength and moved north.
An inscription was found
at York dated from 108 A.D. that credits the Ninth Legion with rebuilding the
fortress there. This appears to be the last written record of the legion.
In Rosemary Sutcliffe’s
version, the Ninth Legion marched north to deal with revolts (Hadrian’s Wall
area).
Sutcliffe wrote,
“Sometime about the year 117 A.D. the Ninth Legion, which was stationed at
Eburacum where York now stands, marched north to deal with a rising among the
Caledonian tribes and was never heard of again.
“During the excavations
at Silchester nearly eighteen hundred years later, there was dug up under the
green fields which now cover the pavements of Calleva Atrebatum, a wingless
Roman eagle, a cast of which can be seen to this day in Reading Museum.
Different people have had different ideas as to how it came to be there, but no
one knows, just as no one knows what happened to the Ninth Legion after it
marched into the northern mists.
“It is from these two
mysteries, brought together, that I have made the story of ‘The Eagle of the
Ninth’.”
No comments:
Post a Comment