Myths and Monsters: Blandford Chronicles II

"Myths and Monsters, Blandford Chronicles II," is not an assortment of mere hellish stories, designed to frighten the unlearned, or to meddle in the affairs of what The Divine refers to as “The Secret Things.” No, my book and its summary of thirteen contiguous adventures, is the folklore of three ethnic groups who have sweated for this land. Along with their work, they have brought their own cosmology from which to spice up the special times of rest and festivals. It was not simply the Scots, but the British as well, who gave Blandford its tone; and one must not forget the aboriginal keepers of the land, the Algonquin speaking Pocumtuk, Mohican, Wappinger, and Nipmuk, as well as the Iroquois speaking Mohawk, Oneida, and Seneca. Their cosmology adds extra flavor to the affairs of the forest.

Headless horsemen and shrieking ghosts simply will not do. This book sifts the personalities of fairies and pixies, grey people and leprechauns, sorcerers and witches, as well as nature’s odd treasures. Additionally, whereas the Algonquin peoples expressed their animation through stories of nature, the Scots give life to their beginnings via a similar genre of imps and divine retribution. The English are more subtle in that every story of spectral repast must be given rationale - by way of the stout “minister in the Lord”, and a remedy found by way of the King James Version of the Bible.

In this fantasy of bludgeoned local history, we sit as voyeurs and take in the imaginations of the ancients, the collective ideas of urban legends and judge the best story teller among the three. Sometimes fascination with the unknown will cause our imagination to run wild with speculation - and occasionally, we find something we never bargained for. Yet there is a twist the reader will not suspect as the stories culminate to a trial of manhood.

This volume of the Blandford trilogy will excite the readers of Old New England tales, and the charm of mythical characters.