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Author's Notes
Summer Camp 2021 prompt 8: A myth about a mountain, lake, cave or other landmark.
Source:
1) A really great youtube video "Le pire endroit de Paris !" by Le Stryge
2) "Le mortsafe : l’antivol de la mort" by Lise Antunes Simoes
Most details presented here are historically correct, however the cemetery Saint-Marcel was destroyed to built the dissection rooms Clamart. Saint-Marcel was still the vitctim of body sntachers before this event, but after the medicine students moved to Clamart they had to find their corpses in other cemetery.
This was an interesting and fun read :D But I'm passing on the sergeant's offer to make quick money.
Awwww poor you :p Though I haven't decided yet if the sergeant was serious or if it's a trap for the new recruits...
Judging by all those other quotes from the good Sergeant, I feel like it's a trap.
"allowing for the bodies to rise and the souls of their owners to come back to earth to inhabit them so that they carry out the devil's nefarious business..." --Input scream face here-- And wait... what was that? Corpse Grease!?? What a great article made for Halloween! :D
And almost all historically accurate too :p Really fun ancestors we had...
Once again a very in-depth analysis of grave-robbing and related subjects of the period! You manage to clearly communicate the palpable fear of people of this time surrounding the subject while maintaining that feeling of a penny dreadful. Some related fun facts that you might interest you: 1. The modern vampire's image was heavily inspired by the idea of undead people from this era, since some exhumated bodies showed a bloated belly (they must have been eating somehow) and 'longer' hair and nails (actually the retraction of the skin), leading people to believe that they still lived at night 2. In many cemetaries of rich europeans at the time alarm systems were equipped as part of the grave since being buried alive was a real threat (unconsciousness was not known to be different to death) and the graveyard keeper would listen out for the tinkle of bells in the cold night 3. A more natural and less aggressive means of cleaning bones is maggots to eat away tissue, rather then burning, boiling or chemically treating them
Thanks :D I'd imagine that the maggots would be a bit slower to act :p I love vampire legends and the rational explanation we found for them now :D Though I think that by the time my world is set, a lot of people knew medical students were responsible for the grave robbing so I don't intent to have it really come to play.
Such an interesting article! I can feel that you have put much research into it as I am unable to tell what here is fact or fiction; it sounds plausible yet so gory ^^' Btw, I saw a small typo in 'The Clamart dissection rooms': If they t(h)en sell the fresh corpses. :)
Thanks for that typo :p The only thing I invented is all the myth section in the first part, the fact that St Marcel was still existing at the same time as the Clamart buillding, and the fact that they use the criminals in human sacrifice rituals first, everything else (and so all the best parts) is historical. Rather horrifying, isn't it?
Indeed it is o.O
So intriguing how this reads like an actual history account fo everything! The details and feel of your prose just pulls you right in! :D
Most of it is indeed historically accurate. Things were just horrible enough that I didn't really had to add more :p Thanks for the comment :D
Yes!! Body-snatchers! I was hoping this article would be about this. I again love the historical (mostly) accuracy. I didn't realise France also had a problem with this, though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Weird and unethical things were done across the world to further science. We had a pair of serial killers in England who sold bodies to medical institutes... though they got them from alive people and not the cemetery. Burke and Hare if you're interested, though you might already know of them. :)
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Yes, I heard about Burke and Hare first thanks to Horrible Histories :p I'd never heard about the French equivalent so I was curious and I happened to fall upon the perfect youtube video just a few weeks ago :D
Horrible Histories <3 That's so fun - it's always nice when the perfect YouTube video appears! :D
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This is grim, especially the corpse grease; I love it. There's so much weird stuff right here in our own world!
Yes, so much horrible stuff I didn't really have to invent anything! Though I've added human sacrifices just to have more fun :p
The fact that so much of this is based on history... hot damn! Also I'm amazed at how much time you find to research these things, its awesome!
Thanks :D Yes we have a fascinating history in France :p As for the research time, for this article I was very lucky to have found an amazing youtube video summarising everything for me already :D But yes, most time it does take me forever...
I love how much real history you added into this. And the quotes!
Necromancy is a Wholesome Science.
Thanks :D When real history is so gory and dark already, I have little to add :p