55: Brass pins and copper rods as spiritual language organs, and connected topics

 

Written and published by Linden Alexander Pentecost only on this website www.bookofdunbarra.co.uk and no where else. References are given in the text, including when giving a quotation, and with some references to other works published by the author, are also given in the text. This article is separate from any of my other publications. Published in the UK. This article contains 1596 words. This article contains 3 sub-sections, titled: 1: Brass rods in Cornwall, and connections to the Zolotaya Baba and brazen heads (automata), 2: The more general topic of talking heads, 3: Copper rods and dwarfs in the Kalevipoeg. This article was finally completed on the 7th of March 2025. Note that some updates were added to this article before it was completed on the 5th of March 2025, and the title was altered slightly. This article is unrelated to other separate articles I have published recently, including on a different website to this.

 

1: Brass rods in Cornwall, and connections to the Zolotaya Baba and brazen heads (automata)

Some months ago published a book on this website titled: Tenguas – the new book of languages, published via BookofDunbarra in the UK. Please refer to this book for background, namely please refer to the section titled The Mên-An-Tol which is located near to the end of the book, on page 125. In the aforementioned part of the aforementioned book, I discuss some mythology around the Mên-An-Tol in Cornwall, and how, it was reported that two brass pins would be placed upon the main stone at Mên-An-Tol, i.e. the stone with the hole in, and that these pins would move in a particular way in answer to questions. In my aforementioned book I also discuss how this has a similarity to the Zolotaya Baba connected with the Ural Mountains, although in the case of the Zolotaya Baba, she is an entire physical humanoid body which communicates and speaks, I wrote about and created art of her in a Silly Linguistics magazine I published last year, titled: The Komi-Zyrian language, The Talking Golden Idol, and other languages in the Ural Mountains. I also mention the aforementioned article for Silly Linguistics in my book Tenguas – the new book of languages, published via BookofDunbarra in the UK, when referring to this subject of the pins at Mên-An-Tol.
The general implication seems to be that that copper and brass, or bronze seem to act, whether in more automata-like bodied beings like the Zolotaya Baba, or with brazen heads, or in the case of brass or copper rods, as “language” organs that were in some way believed to be used by spiritual beings. In a sense of the brass rods at Mên-An-Tol for example, it could perhaps be said that these are a “language organ” that spiritual beings can use, but of course the output is not auditory or in the form of letters or light signals, but rather in spatial signals given off by the brass pins, as they answer different questions.

The original reference to the Mên-An-Tol story, which I also talk about in detail in the Tenguas ebook I mentioned ( Tenguas – the new book of languages, published via BookofDunbarra in the UK) is: pages 16 and 17 of Cornish Folklore by Robert Hunt.

Some of the stories concerning brazen heads seem to indicate that some of these mechanical heads were only able to answer “yes” or “no”, whilst others were able to have entire conversations. With the Zolotaya Baba it has been implied that tubes or pipes somehow “picked up” on movements (perhaps in air pressure?) from the spiritual entity that is Zolotaya Baba. The brazen heads seem similarly to be of a technology believed to enable, in some cases, as I mentioned, these heads to have entire conversations, in a sense acting as more advanced forms of “language organ” than the brass pins in the legend concerning Mên-An-Tol. I do not know about other legends of this idea of moving brass pins in Britain, thus far.

 

2: The more general topic of talking heads

 

In a wider sense this idea of the brazen head connects more widely to the concepts of “screaming skulls”, “talking heads”, and the like. I touched on this last year in another Silly Linguistics article titled: Language in the Kalevala and other comments on the mysteriousness of Finnish, where one of the things I touched upon was the ancient giant wizard, Vipunen, who Väinämöinen asks about some magical words. I do not specifically refer to Vipunen’s head in the aforementioned article, but, the idea is that his head is above the surface, and is from what I understand, consulted. Probably a more strict example of the “talking ancestral head” theme, not in the “brazen head” sense, can be found in Icelandic mythological descriptions of Mímir, who’s head remains able to express knowledge and “speak” even though Mímir the god is dead, or undead perhaps. Mímir seems in a sense to have been something that both the Æsir and Vanir gods seeked. A similar theme can be found in the K’iche’ Mayan book, the Popul Wuj, and I have discussed this and the importance of the head in the Popul Wuj in my ebook publication: The Prehistoric Canary Islands, word-links across the sea, and mysteries (includes new horned goddesses art pieces) published via bookofdunbarra (UK) No. 7 in a new series of books published through BookofDunbarra 2024.

 

3: Copper rods and dwarfs in the Kalevipoeg

 

Going back to rods of brass and copper: a very interesting reference to “copper rods” can be found in the Estonian mythological epic, the Kalevipoeg, by Friedrich Reinholt Kreutzwald. This book is an amalgamation of stories concerning the god-hero Kalevi, as well as interconnected, and more miscellaneous oral folklore from Estonia. The only English translation I have come across was translated by W.F. Kirby, in English the book is titled: The Hero of Esthonia, and is in two volumes. 

In Volume 2 there is a story called “The Lake Dwellers”, included presumably by an individual called Jannsen. . In this story, two men discover an underground kingdom of shining metals and crystal, located beneath a lake and possible beneath the land around the lake. The specific part in question from this story is quoted below: 

 

“As they were thus conversing, the old man and his guide reached the gate. Then they looked in each other’s faces, and the dwarf gave the old man two rods of copper with a friendly smile, and said, “If you ever come to this gate, and don’t find me on guard, but some one whom you don’t know, strike these rods together, and I will do what you wish, as far as I can.””

 

This is very interesting in its similarities with the Cornish story. Although in the Cornish story the rods are brass, brass is of course made from copper. Although in the Cornish story the brass rods “move” as a form of communication, the Estonian story also shows how these rods, in this case copper, are a form of language organ, although in this case the dwarf is implying that he can hear or perceive the sound given off by the copper rods. So, do copper and brass rods in some way pick up vibrations, or can give off vibrations that would not otherwise be perceived? With copper being a good conductor of electricity, are the spiritual entities interacting with the brass rods in the Cornish story concerning Mên-An-Tol, through an electric field, with brass rods acting as a form of language organ, and as a form of amplification? Similarly, in the Estonian story, does the man striking the two copper rods together, enable a form of signal or language to somehow reach the dwarfs?

 The general implication in both of these stories, seems to be that when brass or copper rods are employed as organs of speech, that spirits from other worlds can communicate with us, using these as language organs, that these rods can pick up on language (often by displaying it as movement) that we cannot perceive with our own senses; and that furthermore, by striking these rods together, we can create a sound, or send a signal that otherworldly ancestors are able to perceive and hear.
Many also believe that stone picks up vibrations too, but I feel that certain metals in particular can pick up waves and vibrations, and convert them into a form audible to us, as well as, in other ways being able to act as language organs for unknown angelic forces.
I will likely publish more on the Kalevipoeg in the near future.

In any case, it probably isn’t right to deliberately try and communicate with spiritual beings in this way, unless one is protected and that the reasoning is honourable and of a positive nature. I hope that this article was an interesting read. Note that over the past few days I have been working on other articles on a new (since a few months) website titled: Clwàideac na Cuinne. I have already completed one of the articles on this new site, namely that titled: 1-f. On the Finnish language with trees, flowers, moths and butterflies, which was finally completed yesterday on the 6th of March 2025. Note also that whilst dwarfs come up in this article, in my two previous BookOfDunBarra articles I write about other different ancestral beings. This article was written as a gift to my grandad and to the angelic beings of the cosmos. Blessings all!