Irish Legends: St Patrick and the Snakes Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

wmshaysix: I have decided to archive this geocache as a suitable location to replace it has not been found.

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Hidden : 2/6/2012
Difficulty:
3 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

The cache container is a small bison tube with room for a log only. BYOP.

Irish legend credits St. Patrick with banishing snakes from the island and chasing them into the sea after they assailed him during a 40-day fast he was undertaking on top of a hill. This hagiographic theme draws on the mythography of the staff of Moses. However, all evidence suggests that post-glacial Ireland never had snakes, as on insular "Ireland, New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland and Antarctica...So far, no serpent has successfully migrated across the open ocean to a new terrestrial home" such as from Scotland on the mainland of the neighboring island of Britain, where a few native species have lived.


"At no time has there ever been any suggestion of snakes in Ireland, so [there was] nothing for St. Patrick to banish," says naturalist Nigel Monaghan, keeper of natural history at the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin, who has searched extensively through Irish fossil collections and records. One suggestion is that snakes referred to the serpent symbolism of the Druids during that time and place, as exampled on coins minted in Gaul. Chris Weigant connects "Big tattoos of snakes" on Druids' arms as "Irish schoolchildren are taught" with the way in which, in the legend of St. Patrick banishing snakes, the "story goes to the core of Patrick's sainthood and his core mission in Ireland."

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Angunve v penaa ubyr

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)


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