“Old Devil Moon”: time, memory and oblivion in the narratives of catabasis and Abduction
“Old Devil Moon”: time, memory and oblivion in the narratives of catabasis and Abduction

Summary/Abstract: In many folktales, lays and medieval romances, the hero is lured to the Other Worlds by a fairy mistress and they end up married to each other. They spend good time together and through enchantment of the fairy maiden, the hero does not realize the time he spends in the alter orbis. Whilst thinking that he has just spent few days with his wife, he is shocked to learn that he has spent hundreds of years. After some time, he seeks the permission of his fairy wife to visit his family and friends. She reluctantly allows him and tells him what to avoid in order to return safely in the Land of Perpetual Youth. Returning upon earth, he finds that all his relatives are dead. He forgets the interdict by the fairy mistress and does the opposite of what he was told to avoid; the immortality of the Land of Youth abandons him, he becomes decrepit and turns to dust. In modern times, the narratives about the occupants of the UFOs have replaced those of the fairies who were notorious for abducting people to join in their nightly round dances. The narratives about the occupants of the UFOs display the same pattern of abduction of human victims into the spaceship, regaling them with sex and oblivion by the victims who must be hypnotized to be able to remember the proceedings in the spaceship.

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