Cultural depictions of turtles and Clydach, Monmouthshire: Difference between pages

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Revision as of 13:54, 7 April 2007

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{{infobox UK place|

'''[[Turtle]]s and [[tortoise]]s''' are depicted in [[Western culture]] as, [[snapping turtle]]s aside,{{ref|1}} easygoing, patient and wise creatures. Due to their long lifespan, slow movement and wrinkled appearance, they are often implicated in [[origin belief|myths about the origin of the Earth]].

|latitude= 51.8086

|longitude= -3.1255

|country= Wales

|official_name= Clydach

|unitary_wales= [[Monmouthshire]]

|lieutenancy_wales= [[Gwent]]

|constituency_westminster= [[Monmouth (UK Parliament constituency)|Monmouth]]

|postcode_area= NP

|postcode_district= NP7

|dial_code= 01873

|os_grid_reference= SO225128

|population= <2000

}}

'''Clydach''' is a village in the [[Historic counties of Wales|Welsh county]] of [[Monmouthshire]], its nearest neighbours being the towns of [[Gilwern]] and [[Abergavenny]].

==Turtles in popular culture==

===In comics===

* The [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]] are comic-book characters whose adventures have been adapted for TV and film. They are:

** [[Leonardo (TMNT)|Leonardo]]

** [[Michelangelo (TMNT)|Michaelangelo]]

** [[Raphael (TMNT)|Raphael]]

** [[Donatello (TMNT)|Donatello]]

* There is a Turtle in ''[[B.C. (comic)|B.C.]]''

* In the [[anime]] and [[manga]] of [[Love Hina]], a flying sea turtle named Tama-Chan is owned by the character Mutsumi Otohime.

* Son Goku from [[Dragon Ball]] uses "Turtle Style" Martial Arts, the "Kame-Hame-Ha" itself translates to Turtle Destruction Wave.Master Roshi has a pet sea turtle known as just turtle.

It is split by the road (the 'Heads of the Valley') into North Clydach and South Clydach.

===In film===

[[Image:DuckandCover.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Bert the turtle]]

*Bert the Turtle is a character in ''[[Duck and Cover (film)|Duck and Cover]]''

*[[Cecil Turtle]] is a character in ''[[Looney Tunes]]''

* In [[Japan]]ese [[science-fiction]], a fire-breathing flying turtle named [[Gamera]] is the star of his own series of giant monster movies.

* In the 2003 [[Walt Disney Pictures|Disney]]-[[Pixar]] film [[Finding Nemo]] there is a sea turtle character named Crush, known for his "''surfer dude''" philosophies. His son "Squirt" later becomes an [[Student exchange program|exchange student]] at Nemo's [[school]].

* In [[2002]], [[Dana Carvey]] dressed as a turtle and asked, "Am I not turtly enough for the turtle club?" in the film ''[[The Master of Disguise]]''.

Historically its main industry was based around the iron-works on the south side of the valley which have long since closed.

===In literature===

*[[Michael Ende]]'s books [[Momo]] ([[1973]]) and [[The Neverending Story]] ([[1979]]) feature, respectively, the tortoise ''Cassiopeia'', who can see into the future and display messages on her shell, and the giant, wise swamp turtle ''Morla''. Some other works of his also feature turtles and tortoises.

* In the books by [[Terry Pratchett]], the [[Discworld (world)|Discworld]] rests on the back of the gigantic star-turtle [[Great A'Tuin]].

* The Turtle (also known as Maturin) appears in a number of [[Stephen King]]'s novels, including ''[[It (novel)|It]]'', and [[The Dark Tower (series)|The Dark Tower]] series. It is a guardian of the beam, and a nursery rhyme from Roland's world opens with "See the turtle of enormous girth, on his shell he holds the Earth".

The community's only school (Clydach Country Primary School) closed its gates for the final time in July 2006 after a contraversial decision by [[Monmouthshire County Council]] to shut it down, despite the protests of local residents. The reasons for the school's closure appear to have been primarily financial with the Council seeing the school as having too few pupils to justify funding. Local residents claimed however that the closure would force the children affected to travel significant distances in order to attend new schools in the area.

===In video games===

* The various species of [[Koopa]] including [[King Bowser]] in the ''[[Mario]]'' games are based on turtles and tortoises.

* The [[Squirtle]], [[Wartortle]], and [[Blastoise]] species and the [[Torkoal]] and [[Shuckle]] species from the ''[[Pokémon]]'' series are based on sea turtles and tortoises, respectively.

* In the [[Sly Cooper]] series, one of the characters is a turtle named Bentley.

The area around the village is a haven for walkers and hikers with many routes tracing the beauty of the nearby Clydach Gorge.

===In pop music===

* The Mock Turtles, an indie-baggie band from the late 89's/early 90's Madchester scene, had a hit with 'Can You Dig It?'

* A 1968 recording by guitarist [[John Fahey]] is called "The Voice of the Turtle". This is a reference to [[Song of Solomon]] 2:12 in an old translation which actually refers to the turtle-dove, but Fahey probably misread it deliberately because turtles were very important to him.

* [[Syd Barret]] recorded a song named "Terrapin" for his album [[The Madcap Laughs]] in 1970. The song was later covered, live, by [[Pink Floyd]] guitarist [[David Gilmour]].

* In [[1996]], [[Harry Connick, Jr.]] released an album called "''[[Star Turtle]]''."

* Rock singer [[Sting]] recorded an album entitled ''The Dream of the Blue Turtles''.

* [[The Turtles]], [[Tortoise (band) | Tortoise]], and [[Beatnik Turtle | Beatnik Turtle]] are musical groups.

* The [[Grateful Dead]] recorded a song entitled "[[Terrapin]] Station", which appears on the album of the same name and was a steady inclusion in their live repertoire.

* The Alternative Rock band [[They Might Be Giants]] recorded the Marty Stouffer style [http://www.tmbw.net/wiki/index.php/Turtle_Songs_Of_North_America "Turtle Songs of North America"] for their first podcast. If you subscribe to their Free Tunes service it can be downloaded [http://www.tmbg.com/mp3/Turtle.mp3 here].

===In television=External Links ==

*[[Franklin (television series)|Franklin]], is the star of a Canadian children's television series

*The fencing Touché Turtle in the animated series [[Touché Turtle and Dum Dum]]

[http://www.btinternet.com/~brynmawrcavingclub/caves.html Caves in the Clydach Gorge area]

===Other===

[http://freespace.virgin.net/paul.benham/aber/clydach.htm Walks in the Clydach Gorge area]

* The ornate box turtle is the state reptile of [[Kansas]]. It is ironic that turtles have been banned as classroom [[pet]]s in Kansas and many other states in the [[United States]].

* A possibly apocryphal story goes: [[Bertrand Russell]], giving a lecture on astronomy, described how the earth orbits the sun which orbits and the movement of the sun about the galaxy. When he had finished, an old lady stood up and protested: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant turtle." Russell smiled and asked gently, "What is the turtle standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the woman. "But it's [[turtles all the way down]]."

* The [[mascot]] of the [[University of Maryland, College Park]] is the diamondback terrapin, which is also the state reptile of [[Maryland]].

* The [[mascot]] of the ''[[Ptolemaic Terrascope]]'' [[magazine]] is a turtle named Ptolemy.

* the mascot of the [[KAME project]] is that of a sea turtle.

== Images ==

==Tortoise species in fiction==

British author [[Patrick O'Brian]] created a fictional tortoise, ''Testudo aubreii'', for his book [[The Mauritius Command]]. In the book, naturalist and intelligence officer [[Stephen Maturin]] discovers the tortoise and names it in honor of his friend, Captain [[Jack Aubrey]].

((Left justified[[Image:Cldach_gorge.jpg|thumb|400px|Clydach Gorge]]))

==Religion, fables and mythology==

* One [[avatar]] of [[Vishnu]] is said to be the giant turtle [[Kurma]].

*In [[Hinduism]], [[Akupara]] is a [[tortoise]] who carries the world on his back. It upholds the [[earth]] and the [[sea]].

* The myth of [[Theseus]] features a giant man-eating turtle, to which a villain would feed humans by pushing the victims off a cliff and into the turtle's ocean.

*In Chinese mythology, the tortoise represents longevity due to its prolonged life-span. It is one of the four most prominent beasts of China and is of the water element. In Feng Shui the rear of the home is represented by the symbolic animal the Black Tortoise, signifying support for home, family life and personal relationships. If you don’t have a building or structure representing the Black Tortoise behind your home you can place a symbolic tortoise there for enhanced support to this aspect of life. A tortoise at the back door or in the backyard by a pond is said to attract good fortune and many blessings. Three tortoises stacked on top of each other represents a mother and her babies.

*In [[Aesop]]'s fable [[The Tortoise and the Hare]], a tortoise defeats an overconfident hare in a race.

==See also==

*[[Owen and Mzee]], a real-life friendship between an old tortoise and a baby [[hippopotamus]].

*[[Turtle racing]]

*[[Turtle Club]]

==Notes==

# {{note|1}} Snapping turtles in fiction can be rather villainous; an example would be [[Tokka and Rahzar|Tokka]] in the film ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze]].

[[Category:AnimalsTowns in popular cultureMonmouthshire]]

[[Category:Fictional turtles| ]]