news, sites, and pages of interest about hermits and solitude
Stereotypes of hermits are not unusual, even understandable, but a comic created by Basil Wolverton (1909-1978) in the horror genre borders on the ridiculous, though perhaps entertaining for comic book readers of the time, perhaps even today. Appeared in Weird Chills, no. 1 (1952).
URL: https://archive.org/details/aronaamora_yahoo_22
A BBC travel piece, “Japan’s mountain aescetic hermits,” is a short and useful overview of the mountain aescetic Shugendo sect of ancient Japan and its continuity today. The Yamabushi are an eremitic predecessor to hermit practice in Japan, expressed in nature.
URL: http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20210511-japans-mountain-ascetic-hermits
The “hermit” of the Sardinian island of Budelli has long been pressured by national park authorities to vacate the island, where he has been the sole inhabitant for over thirty years. But the threat of eviction has finally forced him to admit: “I have given up the fight,” which is the title of this Guardian (UK) update. Morandi says he will leave by the end of April. But he is only moving to another uninhabited island nearby.
URL: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/apr/26/mauro-morandi-budelli-island-italy-robinson-crusoe
The famous Russian Old Believer hermit Agafya Lykova has a new and updated small wooden house replacing the previous house built by her father eighty years ago. The house was paid by a Russian millionaire and air-shipped in parts to the remote mountain site where Agafya live. She was visited by some of the sect’s clergy.
Daily Mail (UK) features an update on hermit Emma Orbach, who lives in rural Wales. “A woman who left her former life behind to live in the woodlands of Pembrokeshire 20 years ago tells presenter Ben Fogle she doesn’t care if other people call her ‘crazy.'” Includes short video clip. From UK TV series “New Lives in the Wild.”