Conference hydra::dejavu

    (or is that "the-legendary-Steve-Kallis or [the-not-legendary]
    Topher"?)
    
    I'd be happy to meet with you or any other member of this conference
    singly or in groups any time our mutual scheduals and transportation
    allow.  I live in Arlington Mass, and work (for the time being)
    in Hudson (HLO) Mass.
    
    Does this mean its time for another New England Dejavu party, or
    should we wait for Halloween?
    
    						Topher

    Maybe if we start planning now, we can get something set up by
    Halloween...it's about time...Maybe I can send the kids on a
    Shoggoth hunt for the evening...MWR
    

    
    "Perhaps I can even meet the legendary Steve Kallis" *and* "Topher."
    
    	Or at least meet the people who are channeling them!
    
    	I work rather difficult hours to attend such a gathering but
    if any of you plan to be transversing the State of New Jersey please
    feel free to materialize by my door. Just let me know ahead of time
    and I will make sure something is there to open the door for you.
    
    a-stones-throw-from-route-80
    
    Craig
         

Did someone say *party*???
There are many here I would like to meet.

Jay

P.S. Steve Kallis Jr doesn't really exist. He is a figment of the
collective imagination ;')

    Re .4 (Jay):
    
>P.S. Steve Kallis Jr doesn't really exist. He is a figment of the
>collective imagination ;')
 
    Who am I (or am _not_ I) to argue with concensus reality?
    
    :-D
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.   

Steve,

since you know so much, and what you don't know will probably not be worth
knowing it, can you give me some information about a goddess called
"Nehalennia"? What I know of her: she was worshipped some 2000 years ago, and
evidence of this worshipping only is found in an excavation somewhere in Norway,
and on a stone that has probably served as some kind of a shrine, digged up
in the Netherlands, in the province of "Zeeland" (south-west Holland). 

I found some vague references to her when I locked myself in a library browsing
through a set of books describing that period, but no clear details. Yet I am
very intrigued by it.

Do you know it? Or am I pursuing knowledge that is not worth knowing? ;-)

Thanks,
Arie

                         -< dnim nwo sih ni dnegel a >-

.5 ( :-D )

>    Who am I (or am _not_ I) to argue with concensus reality?

You are who we make you to be, I guess.
Kinda like a legend in our collective mind ;')

So, who's volunteering to host the next party, eh???

Jay

    
    Partytime!  Yes!
    
    Jay - you and I think too much alike...you took the words right
    out of my head!  (;^)  I'm going to have to meet you this time.
    
    Strong recommendation - whoever hosts the party, please supply
    nametags!   Either that or we can all have a big guessing game (as
    in 'name that person and node name').
    
    Cindy

    - Sniffle - I wish I could be there.  Before our Rocky 
    Mountain get-togther (which was WONDERFUL!!!) last week
    I dreamt about meeting all you easterners.  Cindy, you and
    I were walking across the campus of Boston University
    (does it exist? I've never been there).  You have strawberry-
    blonde hair, right?
    
    Have fun!  I'll be there in spirit.
    
    Nanci

    
    Yes, Nancy, as a matter of fact I do have strawberry-blonde hair.
    Any chance you've been talking with Carla and she described me?
    We met at the last party at Mary's house.
         
    I don't recall ever being at the BU campus, but I do believe it
    exists as several friends of mine went to school there.
    
    Cindy

    Cindy,
    
    I did talk to Carla.  We met the night after I had the dream.
    In my dream you had very thick, long, strawberry-blonde hair.
    Carla told me that your hair was/is short so I got that
    wrong but the color was very vivid in the dream.
    
    Weird, huh?
    
    Nanci

    


    Did someone say, "PPPPpppppAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaRRRRRRRRRrrrrrTTTTttYYYyyyy?"
    
    
    It's Time for one!

    -Arthur

    
    Arthur,
    
    To celebrate an Exodus perhaps?
    
    (;^)
    
    Cindy

	I'm fairly new in here, but since I've met Cindy, I'd like to meet some 
of you others.  It seems noone ever looks like you would have imagined, although
I _did_ picture you with just the style of hair you wear, Cindy. I'm always up 
for a party, anyway. 8^)

Pete

    I'd love to host a party, but with 2 parking spaces and the cottage
    being rebuilt, it's not practical.  Although it's more fun to meet
    at someone'e house, maybe we could take over part of a restaurant
    for an evening.  I think we know a lot of people will show up, I
    really enjoyed meeting people at Mary's and I'd like to do it again.
    
    Sometime in October?, someplace in (North) Worcester County?
    
    Let's hear some suggestions...!!!...MWR
    

    Re .6 (Arie):
            
> ............  .. can you give me some information about a goddess called
>"Nehalennia"? What I know of her: she was worshipped some 2000 years ago, and
>evidence of this worshipping only is found in an excavation somewhere in Norway,
>and on a stone that has probably served as some kind of a shrine, digged up
>in the Netherlands, in the province of "Zeeland" (south-west Holland). 
       
    Sorry, not only does "Nehalennia" not ring a bell, but I did a quick
    reference check over the weekend and whoever she is, she's less
    known than even Cernunnos.  One vague thought that crossed my mind
    is that since the Roman Empire had influence as far as southern
    England, there might have been some spillovers in the Zeeland region.
    If so, then "Nehalennia" could conceivably have been a distortion
    of a goddess of the Greeks (Hellenes) or the goddess being worshipped
    could have represented an attempted reflowering of Greek culture
    (distorted version of neo-Hellene-ia [land], just as "New Amsterdam
    was a city named after an existing one (or New York, New Jersey,           
    New Mexico, etc, were U. S. states named after other territories),
    with the "Nehalennia" representing the "new" culture rather than
    a specific goddess.  But that's just an off-the-wall guess.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.
    

Re .16 (Steve)
>                               -< beats me ... >-
>    Sorry, not only does "Nehalennia" not ring a bell, .....

I must admit, Steve, the question came up in my mind because someone wrote that
you would know everything. It's been quite a while since I did my
investigations, but I will try again now. When I find something, I will let you
know.

Maybe, even, I can tell my grandchildren: "You know the legendary Steve Kallis?
Well, your grandfather once told him something he didn't know....." ;^)

Arie

    I think a Halloween party would be great. How many of you are planning
    to come as witches? ;-)                   
    
    Lois

    Reply to .18, Lois,
    
    I'm not tellin'...

         
    It's my standard costume...complete with green face makeup.
    
    Maybe I'll add a wart on the nose this year.  (;*)
    
    No offense to anyone intended here...it's just that going as Snow
    White or a Smurfette just wouldn't do it for me.
    
    Cindy

    But Cindy, all you'd have to do is change the green makeup
    to blue and go as a Garbage-Pail Smurfette!
    
    Nanci

re: .20 (Cindy)

	Is that all, just green makeup on your face??  

	Which kinda witch is that?  A cold one I bet ;-) ...

	Terry

    Just a suggestion....
    
    We could meet at On Broadway (a smoke-free, alcohol-free nightclub)
    in Somerville, MA. See note 782.
                                                                     
    Maybe on the Friday or Saturday right before Samhain...oops, I
    mean Halloween.                 
        
    (I'd like to meet the legendary Steve Kallis myself.)
    
    Lois

    RE.22 (Terry) 
    
    You shudda seen the faces of my neighbors when I went door-to-door 
    Trick-Or-Treating!  (;^)  What can I say?
    
    Oooo.....I just remembered a GREAT story about this!  See next note.
    
    This reminds me - no more drinking champagne au natural in the woods
    here in New England now that the summer is over as the frost is on 
    the pumpkin.
    
    Cindy

    
    A friend of mine lived in this small New England community, rather
    isolated from the rest of the houses in the neighborhood...or so
    she thought.
    
    As it turns out, she likes to sunbathe and had a pool in the backyard,
    so this is what she did during the day in the summertime when the 
    sun was shining.
    
    Later that October, she took her daughter around to the various
    houses Trick-Or-Treating.  They walked up to the top of a small
    hill with a house at the top and an elderly lady answered the door.
    The lady asked her where she lived, and my friend pointed down
    to her house just across the way.  The elderly lady said, "Oh yes
    dear, you're the one who _enjoys_ your pool on sunny days!"  My
    friend then said to her daughter, "Come along Meghan, time to get
    going."...and then proceeded to dash away as quickly as she could.
         
    (;^)
    
    Cindy 

    Here is the entry I found in _The_Woman's_Encyclopedia_of_
    _Myths_and_Secrets_ by Barbara Walker:
    
    `"Nether Moon", a variant of the goddess Hel, or Holle, after
    whom Holland was named.  Altars and artifacts dedicated to her
    were found in Holland after a great storm in 1646 washed away
    the soil that had buried them.�
    
    1. Johnson,211-12; Reinach, 138.'
    
    Hel is the Norse Queen of the Underworld.  The reference to Hel
    states that her (Nehellenia) altars were also found at the mouths
    of the Rhine.  Johnson refers to _Folk-Memory_ by Walter Johnson.
    Reinach refers to _Orpheus_ by Salomon Reinach.
    
    Since I've know Steve for years, does this count?
    
    Where and when *shall* we have that party.
    
    						Ann B., still getting
    						caught up after her
    						vacation.

RE -1 (Ann)

......... (blush). Errrr. ......

Well OK, despite the fact that I now know my location (did I miss the Rapture or
not?), here the answer - right from HELL(land).;-)

>    Here is the entry I found in _The_Woman's_Encyclopedia_of_
>    _Myths_and_Secrets_ by Barbara Walker:
Interesting to hear it is written in a *woman's* encyclopedia! No wonder I
couldn't find it! :-)

>    `"Nether Moon", a variant of the goddess Hel, or Holle, after
>    whom Holland was named.
First part I accept. I have found someone who is looking into more sources, and
as soon she (also a woman!) has found something more, I will reply it here.
Second part (etymology of Holland) I doubt, in the sense that I heard another
story. I was told at school that Holland is derived from Holt-land, meaning
wood-land. In the old days, the part of the Netherlands that is called Holland,
was indeed covered with woods (well, at least the part that was not under
water...). But now I hear this derivation, I can understand why my teachers have
sought and found a more neutral etymology... ;-)
By the way, the goddess Hel/Holle *is* still known in a lot of myths/fairy
tales. One is called "Vrouw Holle", about a lady in the underworld, giving to
people what they deserve. And I think that Helgoland in Denmark *is* named after
this goddess. There is also a peninsula in Poland (near Gdansk) called "Hel".
Same source? Interesting!

>    Since I've know Steve for years, does this count?
Sorry, I don't think so. Unless Steve officially acknowledges you as his
external memory :-).

>    Where and when *shall* we have that party.
Oh, I misunderstood your question whether it counted. *Of course* there will be
a party. My place. As soon as you come over to these nether lands, the party
starts! (but warn me in advance, will you....)

Arie

RE: .27 (Arie)
    
    While the root association of Holland with the goddess Hel, or her
    domain, seems much more plausible to me, I suspect that it is not
    as direct as being named after her (implying an identity with the
    Netherlands and her domain).
    
    My dictionary tells me that the source of the name Hel is a word
    meaning "concealed".  I rather suspect that she aquired this name
    originally as a euphemism to avoid accidently summoning her by
    using her "real" name.  Instead of referring to her by whatever
    her original name was, people always would refer to her as "The
    concealed one" living in "The concealed place".  This is what
    occured with the Roman God of the underworld (Pluto means "The
    wealthy one" refering to his rulership of all jewels and metallic
    ores beneath the ground).
    
    So Holland may simply be "The Hidden Land" as The Netherlands
    is "The Low Lands", neither refering to "The Concealed One" or
    her abode.
    
    Just a guess, I have no particular qualifications as an etymologist.
    
    					Topher