Everything Mysterious

[Trevor]

Island Of The Dolls​

The Island of the Dolls (“La Isla de las Muñecas" in Spanish), is located off the famous canals of Xochimilco (pronounced “zo-chi-meel-ko”) in the southern part of Mexico City, where motorless human-powered boats known as trajineras, brightly painted and often named, are propelled via pole down the canals. Touristy but deservedly so. This small island is adorned with thousands of old, tattered dolls hanging from trees and scattered across the landscape. The dolls on the island vary in size, age and condition. Some are missing limbs, while others have decaying features, contributing to the eerie atmosphere.

The story behind the Island of the Dolls is shrouded in tragedy … real or imagined. Legend has it that in 1950 the island's caretaker, Don Julian Santana Barrera, discovered the lifeless body of a drowned girl in the canals surrounding the island. The next day, he found a doll drifting down the canal. Believing it belonged to the girl, he hung the doll from a tree in her memory and as a talisman to ward off evil spirits. Tormented by the incident and haunted by the spirit of the deceased girl, Don Julian began collecting discarded dolls to appease her restless soul. Over the years, he hung these dolls from trees and structures on the island, creating a surreal and unsettling environment.

Many visitors claim to have experienced a sense of unease and an otherworldly presence as they explore the island. Let’s face it, dolls are a bit creepy at the best of times, and even when they are shiny new and able-bodied. There’s even a phobia for that vibe. Pediophobia is a fear of dolls and is considered to be caused by the blank, yet lifelike stares on dolls’ faces. In 2001, Barrera's nephew came to the island to help his uncle. As they fished in the canal, Barrera, then 80, sang passionately, claiming that mermaids in the water were calling for him. The nephew left briefly, and upon his return found Barrera dead from a heart attack, face down in the canal, in the same spot where the girl was said to have drowned.

After Barrera's death, his family opened the island to the public as a tourist attraction. It continues to draw curious visitors from around the world. In addition to the hundreds of dolls, the grounds host three huts, and a small museum with articles from local newspapers about both the island and Barrera. In the one-room hut Barrera slept in, the first doll he collected is displayed, as well as Agustinita, his favorite doll … and the only one on the island that is named. Today there are about four thousand dolls on the island. Not surprisingly, there’s even a Guinness World Record for this doll-infested wonderland: “Largest Collection of Haunted Dolls”.

*Please click the green link for further info.

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[reynard_muldrake]

I would gladly visit that place... with a group of at least five other people.

 

[randomguy]

I would gladly visit that place... with a group of at least five other people.

You're a braver man than me. That's bloody scary, the only thing worse I can think of is a clown island.

 

[Trevor]

Before I got a computer I had no idea that places like this even existed. Downright spooky.

 

[reynard_muldrake]

Has anyone here ever listened to Art Bell's radio show? I never got into it when he was alive, but every so often I'll listen to clips and episodes. This segment amused me.

 

[Trevor]

Has anyone here ever listened to Art Bell's radio show? I never got into it when he was alive, but every so often I'll listen to clips and episodes. This segment amused me.

Hi reynard_muldrake,

I've never listened to this man's show but I have seen a video on the sounds of Hell. Scary to say the least.

 

[reynard_muldrake]

Hi reynard_muldrake,

I've never listened to this man's show but I have seen a video on the sounds of Hell. Scary to say the least.

The sounds were taken from a horror movie called Baron Blood and tweaked a bit. Still, reading about things like this provides entertainment.

 

[Trevor]

Codex Gigas​

THE LARGEST MEDIEVAL MANUSCRIPT IN the world is believed to have been the work of a single monk in Bohemia (in modern Czechia). Nevertheless, it’s not its 620 pages at three-feet in size that makes it remarkable; it’s the Devil contained therein.

Literally meaning “giant book,” the Codex Gigas was created in the 13th century and originally stored in the Benedictine monastery at Podlažice. The manuscript contains not only the New and Old Testaments but also an assortment of other shorter texts addressing matters of extreme practicality for the time: exorcism, grammar, a calendar, and medical works, to name a few. Everything within the book was handwritten by a single, anonymous monk. The National Library of Sweden puts this massive undertaking into perspective:

“If the scribe worked for six hours a day and wrote six days a week this means that the manuscript could have taken about five years to complete. If the scribe was a monk he may only have been able to work for about three hours a day, and this means that the manuscript could have taken ten years to write. As the scribe may also have ruled the lines to guide the writing before he began to write (it probably took several hours to rule one leaf), this extends the period it took to complete the manuscript. The scribe also decorated the manuscript, so this all means that the manuscript probably took at least 20 years to finish, and could even have taken 30.” These elements alone are enough to qualify the stunning manuscript as a wonder of the world. Yet the most bewitching element of the Codex Gigas is a single page of illumination that defies explanation, tucked away within the tome. Spanning nearly the entire face of a page is a full-color rendering of the Dark Lord himself.

Speculation, plausible and otherwise, abounds as to how the unholiest feature possible made its way into this most sacred text, but answers remain elusive. Precisely because of this tension, everyone loves the Codex Gigas – or, the Devil’s Bible, if you prefer. The manuscript originally travelled to Stockholm in the late 16th century, plundered from the Holy Roman Emperor’s castle by the Swedish army during the Thirty Years War.

This massive tome currently resides behind glass in a room on the second floor of the King’s Library (also called the National Library of Sweden) in Humlegården (“Humle” meaning “hops,” suggesting royalty grew hops there for their own beer, “gården” meaning “courtyard”), a lovely park in the posh Stockholm neighborhood of Östermalm. The manuscript is not kept open and it is kept in a fairly dark room because of possible damage from light. There is a movie describing the history of the Codex in Swedish with English subtitles playing on a loop.

*Please click the green link for further info.

​

 

[reynard_muldrake]

I thought I had read multiple people contributed to the Codex Gigas, but I must be getting confused with another mysterious text. Or maybe it was conjecture from a random person. Quite an accomplishment, regardless.

 

[Trevor]

I thought I had read multiple people contributed to the Codex Gigas, but I must be getting confused with another mysterious text. Or maybe it was conjecture from a random person. Quite an accomplishment, regardless.

https://www.kb.se/in-english/the-codex-gigas/history-of-the-codex-gigas.html