Monday, January 7, 2008

Nautical Superstitions- Fiddler's Green


FIDDLER’S GREEN

As opposed to Heaven, Hell or Davy Jones' Locker, Fiddler's Green is an alternate afterlife for sailors. The Green is a place where there is eternal happiness and the fiddlers and dancers never tire. References to Fiddler’s Green are found in Homer’s The Odyssey, but the concept can also found in nautical mythology around the world.

To arrive at Fiddler’s Green an old sailor, be he merchant or pirate, puts his oar over his shoulder and walks inland. When he arrives at a pastoral village deep in the country people will ask what he’s carrying. The villagers will give him a seat in the sun at the local inn, a bottomless mug of grog and an eternally smoking pipe, and he watches the beautiful maidens dancing for the rest of time.

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