U... is for Urquhart Castle!

More on castles, this is a very very famous one. You wonder why you haven't heard of it? Well, that's because you have heard of it as the Castle by Loch Ness :)
Yes, Nessie and her stories do overshadow everything, don't they? So, Urquhart was a castle that wasn't built for strategy at all! What harm could come to them from a Loch really, other than wee  monsters! But, quite the contrary, this castle was built for people to live in, sort of like a huge mansion. The ruins that exist now date back to the 13th century. Earlier that that, it was apparently a Pictish fort, with objects that date back to the 6th century! Ancient... However, the castle looked very different in every century that it has seen.
Many modifications, including the extra fortifications, were added to it as and when required. Of course, like all other castles, invading it was seen as messing with someone's powers and so, it was the victim of a number of seiges and loot and plundering; but what remains today is still very impressive and picturesque.

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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow, Hamish, Isle of Skye, John o' Groats, Kirk, Loch Lomond and Luss, Mogwai, Necropolis, Old Man of Storr, Portobello, Queen of Scots, Robert Burns, Stirling, Tantallon Castle.

R... is for Robert Burns!

Scotland's favourite son, The Bard of Scotland, The National poet... are some of the titles Burns has earned over the years. I had read very little of Burns before I got here, only having perused his most famous works. I have been reading some more now that I've been around a bit of Scotland and can see what inspired him; and man, is he brilliant!
I'm not in the mood to write much today, so I'll leave you with some wonderful poetry and my favourite version of Auld Lang Syne


Scots, wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots, wham Bruce has aften led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to victorie.
Now's the day, and now's the hour;
See the front o' battle lour;
See approach proud Edward's power,
Chains and slaverie.
'Robert Bruce's March to Bannockburn'

My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe,
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go.

Wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flow'r,
Thou's met me in an evil hour;
For I maun crush amang the stoure
Thy slender stem:
To spare thee now is past my pow'r,
Thou bonie gem.
'To a Mountain Daisy'

The following is my favourite version because this thing in the video is exactly what I'd do for a friend. And people who have heard me sing this like it :)




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This post is part of the ongoing A-to-Z Challenge. Previously, Aye, Berwick, Cramond, Disability, Edinburgh, Forth Bridge, Glasgow, Hamish, Isle of Skye, John o' Groats, Kirk, Loch Lomond and Luss, Mogwai, Necropolis, Old Man of Storr, Portobello, Queen of Scots.

X

X is for ‘Xenophilius’.
‘Xenos’ and ‘phile’ – the lover of the strange…
He is the father of Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter books. He is the editor of ‘The Quibbler’ and lives in a rock-shaped house. His magazine mostly prints out-of-the-world unbelievable things but as the stories begin to emerge in weirder ways, we find that sometimes, he does print sense. He’s never accepted as normal or mainstream and because of his beliefs, even his daughter Luna is considered to be a weirdo. Although, they both are very courageous, I admit. I’ve always felt that his character was dubious, sometimes good and sometimes not so much. I had not, in fact, even thought of him until a fellow blogger suggested it. Lover of strange things, indeed!

Candyfloss textured hair... seriously?!

So far: Atticus, Beth, Cassius, Dumbledore, Estella, Francesca, Gandalf, Humbert, Ishmael, Jean-Baptiste, Kali, Long John Silver & Lisbeth, Miu, Nancy, Oliver, Piyali, Quentin, Rebecca, Scarlett, Tita, Ursula, Valhalla, Watson

I'm writing every day of April for the A-to-Z April Blogging Challenge 2012. I'm writing of characters of fiction that are immortal and touch hundreds of lives everyday...

S

S is for ‘Scarlett’.

What a girl, what a woman! She is the epitome of womanhood. A match of strength for every Rhett, a match of folly for every Ashley… This O’Hara is beautiful, brave, cruel, and brilliant. So what if Rhett left her (I do not think that the sequel to Gone with the Wind counts); she was no left weak. No when he played with her, not when he loved her. Bonnie’s death was Rhett’s fault. Period.

Scarlett needed a different man, she didn’t need a charmer, she didn’t need a fool. She was ahead of her times and men just couldn’t catch up with her. Ever since I’ve read the book five years ago, her words have given me strength on many a hopeless day. Whenever faced with trials and tribulations, judgment, loss, and despair; she always believed:
"After all... tomorrow is another day!"

Vivian Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara

So far: Atticus, Beth, Cassius, Dumbledore, Estella, Francesca, Gandalf, Humbert, Ishmael, Jean-Baptiste, Kali, Long John Silver & Lisbeth, Miu, Nancy, Oliver, Piyali, Quentin, Rebecca

I'm writing every day of April for the A-to-Z April Blogging Challenge 2012. I'm writing of characters of fiction that are immortal and touch hundreds of lives everyday...

R

R is for 'Rebecca'.
I never, even for a moment, felt that she was dead and gone. I identified with the second Mrs DeWinters, nameless, faceless. I shivered with her, I despaired with her… Du Maurier struck gold with her intense portrayal of Rebecca. Her presence, like an evil charm, hung on the reader’s head throughout the book. She haunted me right through it all. Manderley, oh Manderley, that fell prey to such dark, gothic forms! My heart bled for it.


I sympathized with Mrs Danvers, even when she was being villainous, at least she had a belief and an existence. The rest of us that the author dragged to Manderley, why we didn’t stand a chance against R at all!

She just overpowered all our senses and took over our lives from us. What a woman, what a book!

P

P is for 'Piyali'.
This girl is the heroine of The Hungry Tide, she studies cetaceans. An American of Indian origin, she comes to the Sundarbans to study them Irrawady dolphins. In a haunting tale of love, high and low tides, and shtrrange relationships that follows, the reader is led through a brilliant travelogue. The writer, Amitav Ghosh, has made a brilliant tale out of this one. The novel is well-researched. And the relationship of Piya and Fokir, her boatman, trancends time and space.
Love that has no words, love that has no name or meaning, perhaps it is not even love but a curious feeling that can exist only in the Gangetic swamps... This is the only contemporary Indian author I have true respect for. The way darkness and light have come together is beautiful, yet disturbing, a highly recommended read. I have written more about it here.

Irrawady Dolphin

K

K is for ‘Kali’.

Kali is a form of Durga, a form of Parvati, from the Hindu mythology. She is said to be pitch black, aggressive, and ugly, terrifying. Her presence signifies death, carnage, and destruction. Even a vision of hers is considered ominous and her devotees worship her to pacify her.

The physical dynamics of the character has been retained in the seond book of the Shiva trilogy (The Secret of the Nagas) by Amish Tripathi. I’m not big on Indian authors; their English is at best halting and their vocabulary is limited. There are, of course, exceptions. But not this one. But that has been compensated for by the absolute hype created around religion and deities.

I’m not religious; but I liked Kali. She is ugly but is portrayed s a nice person. She is a Queen of a clan with a great personality and defined focus. She is deformed and has four hands and is dark; her clan is made of people with such and other deformities. And yet, I was attracted to her magnetic persona. Now the final book of the trilogy hasn’t released so I haven’t a clue if her character will turn out to be twisted. But I sure hope that doesn’t happen…

PS: This is a late post because K was a tough letter to draw out a character with.

Image courtesy: http://www.deviantart.com/

So far: Atticus, Beth, Cassius, Dumbledore, Estella, Francesca, Gandalf, Humbert, Ishmael, Jean-Baptiste

I'm writing every day of April for the A-to-Z April Blogging Challenge 2012. I'm writing of characters of fiction, that are immortal and touch hundreds of lives everyday...