#ox tales

[hunter-husky]

A small gift

been showing off some Boes comic strips Have a read theyre fun!  (https://twitter.com/Nanothehedgehog/status/1778569160219591120) anyway I drew this cause I like em

[eric9794]

Some drawings I've done in the last few days of May

[awsmdog-blog]

WAFFLE - Geragera Boes monogatari - Kimi no Freedom

[tinyirnfistforever]

Before Amber Ruffin became famous in America; she did voice acting roles for the 2nd English dub of Ox Tales.

It was mostly animal noises.

[itsbetterthantakingpills-jk]

I drew this sketch in 2008...totally forgot about it and found it again today.

[eregyrn-falls-art]

HAPPY PAUL BUNYAN DAY!

Not sure what the Pines were looking for on their hike, but running across a couple of legends is a nice bonus!

Aside from the iconic statue in the town of Gravity Falls, and the OTHER iconic statue at Mystery Mountain, I was always intrigued by the little side about Stan invoking Paul Bunyan in his hour of need. (And really, given how they defeat Darlene, ol' Paul came through in the end. In a manner of speaking!)

[drconstellation]

The Altar of Eccles Cakes

(updated 21 Oct 2023, for Grain Offerings example) (updated 21 Nov 2023, for link to First Temptation)

The mysterious plate of Eccles cakes. Are they really to "calm people down?' And why do they just ...disappear? They must be there for a reason?

Yes, they certainly are. They are just the first course of a fascinating meal on offer in S2.

So far, most of the meta around the Eccles cakes has focused on the meaning of their name. Eccles is an old name for church. We could view it as Aziraphale trying to calm Crowley down. They are also known as "squashed fly cakes." The white outside and the black inside could be seen as a metaphor relating to Gabriel. Or it hints at the Roger the Stunt Fly, that contain Gabriel's memories, flying around the book shop, who's purpose we don't find out about until the end. There is even a link to the 1650 Sorry Dance that Aziraphale mentioned, in that were banned by Oliver Cromwell for being pagan! (Did I get that right? I've not kept the post link.)

[Edit: They also represent the First Temptation as Jesus fasts in the wilderness for 40 days before the Entry into Jerusalem at the start of the Passion narratives, where bread was made from stones.]

Take another look at the blocking in this shot. The dark horse statue, representing Crowley - even wearing his sunglasses! - has the placating plate of Eccles cakes placed before it, in supplication. Yeah, it didn't work this time, but it's the thought that counts. What we have here is Aziraphale making an Sin offering to the altar of Crowley, to ask for atonement in advance for what he has done (taking Gabriel in.)

Once you frame it in that reference, you realize its not the only altar offering made during S2. It also adds a bit more depth to some of the other scenes, where they have all been mentioned already in some way, but it certainly helps to explain the Eccles cakes!

Firstly, we need to mention the main types of altar offering that are made:

Burnt offerings - for general atonement of sins and for expression of devotion to God. It could be a bull, a ram, goat, or a bird in the form of a dove or pigeon. Such as this magnificent example in the Job minisode.

Aziraphale certainly devoted himself to the sin of gluttony on that occasion. (hang on, that didn't come out the right way, did it...?) But he was still devoted to God, despite his nocturnal conversation with Crowley while they waited out the storm in the cellar.

Grain offerings - a voluntary expression of devotion to God. This was grain prepared in different way, but always seasoned, unsweetened and unleavened. Recall at Gomorrah Lot offered to prepare the visiting angels unleavened bread as part of a meal.

Originally when I wrote this post I didn't think I had any Grain offering examples, but a few days later as I was writing my post on The Ineffable Ducks I realized where the missing S2 Grain offering was - in S2E1, when Crowley yells at the Azerbaijani spies in St James Park. The ducks are usually offered bread, which is leavened with yeast, so technically not quite correct, but when you review all the instances of feeding the ducks crumbs or bread crumbs it certainly fits. Unless you are Crowley, and you'd rather have the current state of quiet "frozen peas" between Heaven and Hell. See my Ineffable Ducks post for an elaboration.

Peace offering - This could be cattle, sheep or goat without defect, but the main purpose to was consecrate a meal between two or more parties before God and share that meal in a fellowship of peace and commitment to each other's future prosperity.

You know where we see one of these? At the eldritch ball!

I did see a nice meta about the vol-au-vents recently, mainly about their name, but I don't seem to have saved it, and can't find it again. They are usually filled with chicken (a bird) and the eldritch ball is ostensibly the shopkeepers monthly meeting, after all, where they are there to talk about their mutual prosperity in the future. Just so happens its also an opportunity for Aziraphale to talk to Crowley about their future...oh, and Nina and Maggie's, as well, of course!

Sin offering - atonement or unintentional sin. It would have the elements of a Burnt offering, as well as a Peace offering, but not be shared. These are what the plate of Eccles cakes are, so they were never meant to be eaten. They were an olive branch to Crowley regarding Gabriel, but he turned it down. So they softly and suddenly vanish away, never to be met with again.*

There is one more altar offering that needs to mentioned, another Sin offering. The one Crowley consumed in Elspeth's place in The Resurrectionists minisode in 1832 Edinburgh - the laudanum.

It pretty clear to most observers that Crowley did a good and "kind deed" for Elspeth here, which angered Hell in the process and then he was dragged forcibly downstairs to be duly punished for it. There is a post here from atlas-hope that suggests this is a parallel of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, drinking the cup of God's wrath to absolve Christians of their sins. They point out the laudanum is even poured into a goblet. Crumbs, that's a hefty bit of spiritual lifting, dear demon. What were you thinking, Anthony J. Crowley? It might cast that conversation you had with the carpenter back on the mountain in a new light, or least make us look back twice at it. (Plenty of time for contemplation before S3 arrives...)

Remember, a Sin offering has elements of both a Burnt offering and a Peace offering: a giant Crowley gets Elspeth to promise to devote the rest of her life to being "properly good, not just pretendy good" and the money Aziraphale is forced to donate to her ensures her future prosperity. Sounds like a win-win situation there, Elspeth!

[*OK, if you don't get the ref, its from the Hunting of the Snark. The Snark represents happiness, a most elusive thing to find, and more often than not its a fruitless search, and you find the terrible Boojum instead. During the third verse the Baker recounts the lecture his uncle gives him about how to hunt the Snark, and to be aware of his fate if he is unlucky enough to encounter a Boojum. It kind of fits in with S2, I feel.]

[uwmspeccoll]

Spotlight: African Folktales

For Black History Month I found another book of folktales (shocker) to share with you all! The fun and exciting part of this job is being able to look into things that one would not normally take the time to explore, and I have been given the opportunity to do nothing but explore and dig into the expansive collection we have in Special Collections (if you aren’t getting interested to come in and take a peek, you should be).

The book I am keen on sharing is The Ox of the Wonderful Horns: And Other African Folktales, a children’s book from our Historical Curriculum Collection, published in New York by Atheneum in 1971. The stories were retold and illustrated by Ashley Frederick Bryan (1923-2022), an American writer and illustrator for children’s books, of which most of his subjects focus on the African-American experience. Bryan’s desire and challenge for the anthology was to “bring the stilted language of the linguists’ narration back to an oral tradition through rhythm and poetic verses.”

This anthology features five tales from Akan-Ashanti, Angolan, South African, and Kaffir myths with various illustrations accompanying us through each story. The illustrations switch between half-page black and white and full-page color that are meant to evoke African wood block motifs that suggest the ochres and reds of African clay dyes and African textile designs; very eye-catching and absorbing!

View another of my posts.

View more Black History Month posts.

-- Elizabeth, Special Collections Undergraduate Writing Intern

[redtippedfox]

Did you all see how cool-looking the Ox mallet is and we didn't get to see it get used in the show?!

It's an Ox's head! That's so cool!

[joe10kmiller]

Tall Tale The Unbelievable Adventure VHS Release Trailer Patrick Swayze

[huli-jinx]

Nino's Codenames for Each Miraculous:

Ladybug Miraculous: Sonic Beetle

Black Cat Miraculous: Midnight Dasher

Bee Miraculous: Pollenator

Fox Miraculous: Foxtrot

Turtle Miraculous: Carapace

Peacock Miraculous: Paon

Butterfly Miraculous: Lepidoptera

Snake Miraculous: Anaconda

Rabbit Miraculous: Swiftfoot

Mouse Miraculous: Squeaky Ranger

Ox Miraculous: Taurus

Tiger Miraculous: Thunderclaw

Dragon Miraculous: Wyvern

Horse Miraculous: Xanthos

Goat Miraculous: Capricorn

Rooster Miraculous: Asclepius

Monkey Miraculous: Macaque

Pig Miraculous: Pigmalion

Dog Miraculous: Greyhound

Eagle Miraculous: Griffin

[mysterious-secret-garden]

Théophile Schuler - ‘Vois cet homme! c'est le Temps…’, from “Le Docteur Ox” by Jules Verne, 1874.

[plumsaffron]

Ox Miraculous being worn actually sucks.

That miraculous needs to be washed everytime or become something else like Monarch did. Nose piercing miraculous others used before. Pretty eww and cursed.

[diospyros-kaki]

If anyone is interested, Festival de Parintins is going on right now. It lasts three nights startig today.

I wanted to watch live this year but unfortunately I'm too tired and can't stay up, so I'm offering my comically small number of followers the chance to know a brazilian tradition other than carnival. Enjoy.

(I say as if I hadn't only known the festival tangentially until last year, just in time to miss the presentations... but I've seen some clips and became team Caprichoso since then.)

[miraculousdeservesbetter2024]

Kwami Swap! Chloe sketches. Meet Miss Pooch (Dog! Chloe) and Sodalite Pride (Ox! Chloe). Probably going to do more in the future. Which should I do next?

[muttball]

Paul Bunyan and Babe his Blue Ox

It took five storks to deliver Paul to his parents when he was born. Paul was 63 ax handles tall his blue ox, Babe was 42 ax handles tall. It is said that Minnesota's 10,000 lakes are Paul Bunyan's footprints. Paul's frying pan covered 1 acre.  Young Paul grew so big that his parents did not know what to do with him. Once, Paul rolled over so much in his sleep that he caused an earthquake. This angered people in the town where his parents lived. So, the government told his mother and father they would have to move him somewhere else.