Saturday Scenes

On the 22nd of August, in the year 565, Columba reported seeing the Loch Ness monster.

Loch Ness Monster on Wikipedia

The earliest report of a monster associated with the vicinity of Loch Ness appears in the Life of St. Columba by Adomnán, written sometime during the 7th century. According to Adomnán, writing about a century after the events he described, the Irish monk Saint Columba was staying in the land of the Picts with his companions when he came across the locals burying a man by the River Ness. They explained that the man had been swimming the river when he was attacked by a “water beast” that had mauled him and dragged him under. They tried to rescue him in a boat, but were able only to drag up his corpse. Hearing this, Columba stunned the Picts by sending his follower Luigne moccu Min to swim across the river. The beast came after him, but Columba made the sign of the cross and commanded: “Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once.” The beast immediately halted as if it had been “pulled back with ropes” and fled in terror, and both Columba’s men and the pagan Picts praised God for the miracle.Believers in the Loch Ness Monster often point to this story, which notably takes place on the River Ness rather than the loch itself, as evidence for the creature’s existence as early as the 6th century. However, sceptics question the narrative’s reliability, noting that water-beast stories were extremely common in medieval saints’ Lives; as such, Adomnán’s tale is likely a recycling of a common motif attached to a local landmark.

On 22nd August, 2009, we have this set of Saturday Scenes. We have a lot of water scenes although I noticed no one went swimming in any rivers . Probably safest that way.

Take a look:

• redalexred
• capo42
• wolfgang
• deinos
• akaSylvia
• mousewords
• Vaxanta
• StacyJMT
• pixelfreund
• colinbrooks
• CliffStanford
• drewbenn

It’s easy to take part!

1. Take a photo on a Saturday and upload it to the photo site of your choice.
2. Twitter the url for your photograph to @SatScenes.
3. Watch for the next episode of Saturday Scene to see your photo here!

The photo should be taken on a Saturday but you don’t need to let me know until Tuesday (although as soon as possible is always nice) when I collate them all. It’s a bit quiet at the moment, a perfect time to join in!