Thursday Things: Runaway Fox Edition
10 March 2022. Vol 4 No 10 By Dan McGirt. #135
Welcome to Thursday Things! If you enjoy this edition, please click the heart icon in the heading or at the end of the post to let me know. You can also post a comment by clicking the dialog bubble next to the heart.
“Free at last.” Photo by howling red on Unsplash
I’m not saying this explains everything happening lately. But this explains everything happening lately. Ancient Japanese ‘killing stone’ said to contain evil demon has cracked open
As if the world doesn’t have enough problems, people are now worried that an evil demon locked in a rock for almost 1,000 years is on the loose.
The so-called ‘killing stone’ that kept the malevolent spirit imprisoned all this time has split in two, sending believers into a state of panic.
Japanese legend has it that anyone who comes into contact with the rock will die.
According to mythology, the volanic rock – officially called Sessho-seki – is home to Tamomo-No-Mae, aka the Nine-Tailed Fox.
The demon apparently took the form of a beautiful woman, who was part of a plot to kill Emperor Toba, ruler of Japan from 1107 to 1123.
Located in the mountainous northern region of Tochigi, near Tokyo, the rock is something of a tourist hotspot – but now visitors are fearful.
Some speculate that the evil spirit may have even been resurrected to wreck1 [sic] havoc once more.
Let’s take a look at the scene. I’m no expert, but this does not look good:
So be on the lookout for a nine-tailed fox who sometimes takes the form of a total fox and whose hobbies include wreaking havoc.
“So much havoc to wreak, so little time.” Photo by Linnea Sandbakk on Unsplash
How to havoc. Let’s pause for a brief public service message. I notice an disturbing increase in erroneous usage of certain words and phrases in online writing. Free reign when what is meant is free rein, for example. But wreck havoc, as seen in the NY Post article quoted in the last item, was a new one to me. So let’s nip that in the bud, with a little help from Merriam-Webster.
Do You 'Wreak' Havoc, or 'Wreck' It?
Does one wreak havoc or wreck it? Should one, properly speaking, cry havoc or play it? And before we get into all that, what exactly is havoc? We’re so glad you asked these common, everyday questions.
All good questions! Let’s focus on the wreaking.
The verb wreak usually means “bring about, cause” (although it can also mean “to avenge” and “to give free play or course to malevolent feeling”), and this word, rather than wreck, is the one that is most often paired with havoc. There is often confusion about this, and it is not uncommon to find wreck havoc in edited prose, but most usage guides strongly advise to stick with wreak havoc when you wish to say that something causes great damage. In the past tense, oddly enough, we generally say wrought havoc, even though wrought is actually a past tense not of wreak but of work.
And that is how you havoc. NY Post, take note.
Meanwhile, in Egypt… Is King Tut’s space dagger our best defense against Japanese demon foxes? Science says yes!
Only King Tut’s space dagger can save us now! Photo: T. Matsui et al./Meteorit. Planet. Sci.
What does an ancient dagger found in an Egyptian pharaoh’s tomb have to do with a fugitive Japanese fox demon? Read on!
KING TUT'S METEORITE DAGGER UNSHEATHES MORE MYSTERIES
It came from outer space, but it didn't land in Egypt.
When archaeologists first glimpsed the gilded splendor of King Tutankhamun’s tomb, they never thought that one of the most fascinating artifacts didn’t originate in Egypt — or on Earth.
Tutankhamun ascended the throne at 9 and died at 19. While he may not have reigned long, he did wield an iron dagger that was (in the most literal sense) out of this world. It might have not looked like much compared to all the riches unearthed from his tomb, including a gold death mask that seems to gaze into the hereafter, but the blade of this dagger was actually carved from a meteorite that had previously fallen to Earth. The question is where that dagger was forged.
Pay close attention to this next graf. There’s an important detail here:
Never mind the origin of the asteroid that burned up in the atmosphere and sent a meteorite hurtling to Earth. Where the dagger itself came from is debatable, but the type of space rock it was made from might have now revealed something. Researcher Tomoko Arai of the Chiba Institute of Technology in Japan looked up close to find out what type of meteorite was used for such a weapon. She coauthored a study recently published in Meteoritics and Planetary Science.
Did you catch the Japan connection? Why is a Japanese scientist so interested in the origins of an ancient Egyptian space dagger?
Because they need the dagger to stop the Japanese fox demon that just busted out of its rock prison after 1000 years? It’s the obvious answer.
You think I’m kidding? Read on.
“The era of King Tutankhamun was around 1300 BC, during the late Bronze Age,” she told SYFY WIRE “It is widely believed that the subsequent Iron Age started around 1200 BC. That is when the presence of the Tut iron dagger have raised doubt.”
The metal in the boy king’s dagger is also the same kind as that from the Japanese meteorite Shiragahi, from which several royal swords are known to have been made. That doesn’t necessarily mean that the blade or its raw material came all the way from Japan. What it does mean is that, because Shiragahi is an octahedrite, there is something to compare the dagger to.
King Tut’s dagger was forged of the same kind of meteorite metal as that from which certain Japanese royal swords were made. It is also strongly suspected that the dagger was not made in Egypt, but was a gift from a foreign ruler:
Where that meteorite landed and where the dagger was made is unknown. However, the Amarna Letters might be whispering about it from the past. These 3,400-year-old tablets kept records of diplomatic matters and are from around the time Tutankhamun was pharaoh. Something is mentioned about an iron dagger being given to his grandfather, Amenhotep III, who married the daughter of the Anatolian king of Mitanni. It is possible that it was a wedding present that was passed down as an heirloom until it was finally buried with Tutankhamun.
“The hypothesis of the dagger being foreign is consistent with the Amarna letters,” Arai said. “We find the plaster used for the gold hilt was also what was not used in the ancient Egypt during that era. We think this is also in line with a foreign origin.”
Foreign origin? I’m going with Japan. There may be no evidence for that whatsoever. But it’s a better story.
Thank you for reading Thursday Things! Again, please click the hearts, comment, and use the share feature to send this issue to a friend who might enjoy it. See you next Thursday!
Wreak is the preferred usage here. Rhymes with reek. See next item.
Very interesting...thank you
Very interesting...thank you