"Or ever the silver cord be loosed..."
-Neil Gaiman, The Sandman: The Kindly Ones (New York, 1996), Part Three, p. 1, panel 3.
Remembering this phrase from previous readings but not knowing its source, I googled and learned that it is from Ecclesiastes 12:6. Thus, the second parallel is an unexpected Biblical quotation.
My favorite myth-mix is Lucifer Morningstar and Michael Archangel discussing the Buddha and the Upanishads in Mike Carey's Lucifer, a sequel to Gaiman's The Sandman. After appreciating Anderson's Old Phoenix inn between the universes, fantasy readers might like to visit Gaiman's Inn of the Worlds' End.
Addendum: Loki warns an attacker:
"Kill me...and the curse of a god will...follow you down the halls of time..." (p. 13, panel 1)
Variations on "the corridors of time" have become a blog sub-theme.
11 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I am not sure I understand your comment about "multiple mythologies" in THE BROKEN SWORD. The mythology we see Anderson using in that novel was the Scandinavian myths about Odin, Thor, the elves, etc. And I believe the angels to be real, actual beings, not mere myths.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
But there were also dryads (?) that had emigrated from Greece and maybe others from further afield.
Paul.
Paul: yes, and it was a universe with Christian and Norse and Greek and Irish mythologies all coexisting.
I can't remember whether there were also some Chinese mythological immigrants.
Iirce correctly, there were Oni and Chinese demons in BROKEN SWORD.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: I think I recall seeing a faun in one of Anderson's fantasies, with the faun (a creature resembling Pan) mentioning those dryads. But, IIRC correctly, we see that faun in THE MERMAN'S CHILDREN, not THE BROKEN SWORD.
Mr. Stirling: I'm reasonably sure we saw those Japanese Oni and Chinese demons in OPERATION LUNA. And Irish pre-Christian mythological figures in both THE BROKEN SWORD and THE DEMON OF SCATTERY (co-authored by Anderson and another writer).
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: I think there were fauns in both, in fact.
Sean: of course, it affects the story that we know the pre-Christian Irish mythos through scribes who were themselves Christians... mostly monks, in fact. Hence the widespread "euphemerism" -- reinterpreting myths to remove supernatural elements. (Seen also in THE DEMON OF SCATTERY).
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I'm ALMOST sure we see no fauns in either version of THE BROKEN SWORD, but I could be wrong.
And another online friend of years ago, an ex Major of the 82nd Airborne, said something very much like what you said, that Irish pre-Christian pagan myths were copied down by Christian scribe/monks, one of whom wrote a marginal gloss or colophon dismissing these stories as fantasies!
Ad astra Sean
Sean,
In THE BROKEN SWORD, there is a faun in Chapter IV. He refers to Pan, dryads and Olympus.
Chapter XIII refers to demons of Baikal, Shen of Cathay, Oni of Cipangu and Moorish imps.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Many thanks! So, I was wrong to thin we find such characters only in THE MERMAN'S CHILDREN and OPERATION LUNA. I will be looking up these chapters of THE BROKEN SWORD.
I'm still a bit surprised, I recollect THE BROKEN SWORD as a very SCANDINAVIAN novel, even if set mostly in Britain.
Ad astra! Sean
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