Atlantic Salmon

I ended up taking today off work. Game ended up getting cancelled last night, which is probably for the best as I was not super coherent. Stuart and I ended up going to see Coraline, it was good, the stop motion was so smooth I thought is was CGI.

Art

sick day

Animal

Photo by Zalgon

Mythology

The Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is featured somewhat prominently in European mythology. In one Celtic myth in a sacred well that hazelnuts regularly fell in there was a salmon of knowledge that the poet Finegas spent 7 years trying to catch. He did eventually catch the salmon of knowledge and his assistant Fionn cooked it for him. While he was cooking the salmon Fionn burnt himself and put his finger in his mouth by doing this he gained the salmon's knowlege, he then went on to become Fionn mac Cumhaill, leader of the Fianna. This may be the origin of the idea of fish as a brain food. In Norse mythology after the death of Baldr, for which Loki was being blamed, Loki took the form of salmon to escape the other gods to the sea. Thor caught him grabbing his tail so hard that all salmon now have tapered tails. In Welsh mythology the salmon is the oldest of all animals.  In Northeast Scotland it was considered taboo to mention Salmon directly as it was thought it would bring bad luck, it was often referred to as the red fish or the beast.

Pictish petroglyph of an Atlantic salmon