Bones: How would you like to walk among millions of dead people? In a dimly lit underground tunnel no less? Well I did and it even cost me 3€50!
I decided to visit the well-known Catacombs of Paris yesterday and I wasn't disappointed. Hundreds of neatly stacked skeletons pave the way on either side of a labyrinth of subterranean tunnels, all because of overcrowding of Parisian cemeteries in the late 17th century. The result is fascinating and horribly morbid at the same time since skeletons weren't dug up simply to be thrown into these former quarries, but rather were stacked together in an organised and decorative manner for future visitors! No wonder authors, such as Victor Hugo and Umberto Eco, have referenced the famous eerie ossuary in their novels.Witches: It seems like there were witches in England during medieval times after all... Archaeologist Jacqui Wood has unearthed upto 40 ritual pits linked to witchcraft beneath her own front yard! It seems the pits contained remains of swan skin and bird eggs and claws suggesting there was some practice of the dark arts in Cornwall during the 17th-18th centuries. Not only was witchcraft punishable by death at the time, but killing a swan, property of the crown, would also mean being burnt at the stake! Spooky!
Hobbits: And finally, hobbits will once again run amok our screens as Guillermo Del Toro talks about adapting Tolkien's epic fantasy novel The Hobbit at theonering.net. This interview particularly caught my eye since Del Toro talks about 'adapting' the novel into two movie scripts (and possibly even 3!) along with 3 other writers. He also gives more details about budgeting, casting and dragons! "Smaug has the great advantage of having been written like - in my memory and in my view of anti-drama - it is the best Dragon ever written, so that’s a great foundation already." I hope you're all as excited as I am about this project!
Right, back to A Game of Thrones! Click to read more!
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