The Beast of Almería and Mormon Lampreys, Mermaids, and Leviathans

Earlier this week an unidentified four-meter-long animal washed up on a beach at Almería, Spain (ht Kristine Haglund; see image below).

In some of the photos it seems that the animal has  horns, though subsequent reports are that the ?horns? are actually displaced bones protruding from the rotting carcass. I can?t think of any particular ?Mormon angle? for this particular beast, but since we?re in the neighborhood? there are a few things to be said, briefly, about figurative language, Mormons, and sea creatures of uncertain taxonomy.

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Mormon Hydra 1 of 2

The Hydra, or more specifically, the Lernaean Hydra, was a poly-cephalic reptilian killed by Heracles/Hercules in Greek mythology. It had, depending on the source, nine or fifty heads; if one were cut off, two grew to replace it; its breath and blood were poisonous. [1] Both pro- and anti-Mormon writers and orators used Hydra rhetoric in their contests.

The hydra was a common polemic image applied to various groups and ideas on both sides of the Atlantic from at least the 1700s on. [2] A particularly prominent instance in the US arose in connection with the 1830s ?Bank War? in which President Andrew Jackson railed against the (Second) Bank of the United States as a ?hydra of corruption? (see images below). [3]

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For the Yanks: Happy We?re-Not-British Day

While looking for something else this morning, I came across the lyrics of a composed-by-a-Mormon song  from 1876 about the Fourth of July. Peter McBride wrote ?The Fourth of July Song? while living in Brigham City, a United Order community in what is now Arizona. Since it?s a holiday and I?m lazy, I present the text below without comment. [1]

Mormon Robots

[Part of the Many Images of Mormonism series.]

In the 2012 US presidential campaign candidate Mitt Romney was frequently described as a robot or robot-like. Mormons in general are sometimes compared to robots, the Borg (a cybernetic species from Star Trek), or Stepford Wives. In this post I will look at some of the context for using robots to describe people, particularly when those people are Mormon. [1]

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Around the World in 1200 Days, 1929-1932

[We are thrilled to have this guest post from Emily Farrer on a project she is currently working on, which covers her grandfather’s 1929 mission to South Africa. After reading this fascinating overview, go visit her site: aroundtheworldcsb.blogspot.com]

My grandfather, Clarence Sharp Barker, was born in Salt Lake City in 1903.  He was a quiet man and seemed to enjoy observing things from the outside as he was a newspaper reporter.  He did, however, have a great adventure of his own: a trip around the world.

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Multiple Brighams Redux: In the Midst of a Brigham Young Revival

We’ve discussed before the changing place of Brigham Young in scholarly discourses. For academics during much of the twentieth century, Young was far more interesting that Joseph Smith in the panorama of American history. In most of these works, Young was lauded for his organizational prowess and his intrepid leadership on the frontier. He was also seen as the savior of Mormonism, the great leader who picked up the pieces after Joseph Smith’s death. This image of Young fit the needs of American historians who, following Frederick Jackson Turner, believed that the essence of America was found on the frontier. Although academic interest in the frontier had waned by the 1980s, and with it much of the interest in Young as a frontiersman, it was in that decade that Leonard Arrington published his landmark study of the American Moses.

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Neither Johnny Lingo nor the Eight-Cow Husband Fought in the Mormon Cow War

Moving onward, ever onward, through the simile and metaphor zoo, we arrive at Bos primigenius, ?civilization?s most important animal,? the cow. [1] Mormonism?s pre-eminent bovine octet first lumbered across a public screen in 1969 when Johnny Lingo used them to buy a bride, perpetuate his culture?s patriarchal commodification of women, and teach us that if we?re nice and/or Machiavellian enough we?ll get a hot wife. Or something. [2] Fittingly for a Mormon-produced film, plurality dominated the plot.

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For Chris: Two Anti-Anti-Mormon Miscegenation refs

In a post earlier today, Chris asked about instances when Mormons defended polygamy by attacking sexual relations between races. I have been working on racial construction by Mormons and non-Mormons in the late 1880s to 1890s and happen to have two pieces ready to go. They would be too long for a comment, so I’m posting them here.

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Thomas O’Dea, John A. Widtsoe, and the De-Horning Room

In the summer of 1950, a young Harvard graduate student named Thomas F. O’Dea traveled to Salt Lake City and met with a veritable who’s who of Mormon intellectuals and church leaders.

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