BYRON GRABS ME BY THE GHOULIES!

Hallowe'en seems to grow in popularity each year. Of course it all goes back to pagan times, though they didn't have the modern convenience of a calendar and precise dates and used the Sun and Moon to mark events - a bit like Christian Easter, which moves around.

The most popular costumes people wear on this night are demons, witches, ghosts and vampires. Whilst the first three have been around for centuries, vampires are relatively new in the west.
Surprisingly, it was the 19th century Romantic poets who established the vampire we recognise today. Based on eastern European legends, poets like Coleridge, Shelley, and Nottingham's own Byron gave the blood-sucking demon its more human and sexual overtones which still appeal today. The word vampire first appeared in 1734, taken from a French word which was adapted from the Slavonic for "witch".

Dracula, the most famous vampire, was created by Bram Stoker, a close friend of Oscar Wilde's family, and a man who struggled with his own sexuality. Dracula was influenced by "The Vampyre" by John Polidori, which in turn was influenced by one of the greatest literary "brain-storming" sessions in history.

One stormy night in 1816, in a villa near Geneva, a group of literary friends gathered and challenged each other to tell the scariest tale. Present were Percy Shelley and his wife Mary, John Polidori, and Byron. Mary won the contest with her story of Frankenstein. Byron wrote down a vampire tale, which inspired Polidori to write "The Vampyre".

The vampire possessed corpses and could change into animals, usually a wolf. Then, in South America a relative of my father, Charles Darwin, saw blood-sucking bats. Vampires were popular in literature and Darwin immediately gave the bats the name Vampire Bat. From then on vampires turned into bats rather than wolves. Perhaps that's why people are so scared of bats - thank you, Uncle Darwin! Just think - if Darwin had seen blood-sucking gerbils, we'd see gerbils instead of bats everywhere at Hallowe'en!

In a couple of days I'll write about the other side of Hallowe'en - the "good" side. Until then, let's remember Byron's place in the birth of gothic horror literature.

To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk

Secret of the Templars revealed!

Today is the anniversary of the persecution of the Knights Templar in 1307. The Templars have entered folklore as an enigmatic group of knights in the supposed possession of many mystical secrets - and thanks to the books "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" and "The Da Vinci Code" that now includes being the guardians of a secret bloodline from Christ.

As Dan Brown has shown, anyone can claim a there's conspiracy or cover-up - you don't need proof to show it, quite the opposite in fact. Even in their lives-time the Templars were accused of all sorts of things based purely on gossip. King Philippe II of France was particularly jealous of the Templar's wealth, so he used this gossip to declare the Templars heretics. On Friday 13th October 1307 he ordered the seizure of all Templar property and wealth, and the destuction of the organisation. Under torture the knights were forced to admit to many accusations, including devil worship and homosexuality. But there was no proof of either. Lots of unanswered questions remain about their activities, but for now let's turn to local connections.

The Templars owned many churches across Europe, and generally any place-name in the UK which contains "Temple" was once their property. In Nottinghamshire they also owned the village churches of Marnham and Sibthorpe, and for a short time Brewhouse Yard at the foot of Nottingham Castle.

King Philippe was the father-in-law of King Edward II of England - that well-known Queen of Nottingham Castle. Edward was at first reluctant to follow Philippe's example and seems to have joined the persecution after realising how much money they had.

As for being guardians of a secret bloodline from Christ through the Merovingian kings, I can now REVEAL that great secret and tell you the identity of the present owner of that bloodline - ME! ... and YOU! ... and 99% of everyone with European ancestry. Genealogists have known for over a century that the Merovingians left thousands of descendants and now have billions of living descendants - including the 18 million in the UK and USA who, like myself, inherit Merovingian blood from the Merovingian-descended King Edward II.

To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage, click on www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk