Owl King
From Plastic Tub
Revision as of 18:54, 25 Sep 2005
According to Dr. Jeanne-Marie Sicre, the Owl King is a variant of an ancient local deity whose cult was centered around the area of St. Girons in the Arriege department of southern France. Tradition has it that members of the cult kidnapped children and waylaid prostitutes to be sacrifed at camps in out-of the-way places. The victims were chopped into small pieces and burnt in front of stone effigies, resembling an owl.
Step one of the Ritual Murder was called "Decefalos". The victims' heads were separated from the body and placed upon a pike to "observe the grisly procedings."
Step two resulted in the complete amputation of the arms, starting at the wrists, continuing to the separation of the forearm at thge elbow and the upper arm at the shoulder.
The process was repeated at the ankles, knees and groin.
The trunk was then quarted.
As the pieces were removed, each is said to have had its own moral lesson delivered via sacred chant as it was placed in an ark made to Biblical specifications.
This entire step was called the "16 sans Tête."
Step three, "Cremation," involved transporting the ark in a holy procession towards the Owl King effigy were the remains were burnt and the ark destroyed.
The Owl King has been linked with the Oaken God, Old Man Gloom, the Wicker Man and various Beanstalk Hero Myths from the Trans-Baltic.
Extrapolation
In 1664, Guiilaume du Feu, intrepid traveller of the Pyrenées, was caught in a blizzard one early October and sough refuge in a remote dale he had seen glimmering with village lights from the mountain trail along a long and bleak crest.
There, he witnessed a sacrifice to a Black Virgin who supported an owl under her arm, as opposed to a Jesus on her knee.
Du Feu barely escaped with his life, and his story brought him to the attention of several prominent prosecutors who mounted a massive search for this ittle village yet nevertheless found nothing. Du Feu was discredited and lost his job as an official surveyor of the region. His subsequent fustian broadsides got him into trouble with several local officials, ruthless martinets who suppressed his incredible allegations.
He died, hounded and penniless, in 1675, almost 11 years to the day he was found frost-bitten and delirious in the mountains, clutching a bloody apron and murmuring "Mormo....Mormo...."
