Has the Ragnarok happened yet? I saw one juvenile retelling of Norse myths that began with the premise that we are living in the new world after the Ragnarok. However, Thor is currently a superhero and Hugh Valland invokes him in a remote future in Poul Anderson's World Without Stars. Gods are still around even after they have gone.
Neil Gaiman explains:
"'Mythologies take longer to die than people believe. They linger on in a kind of dream country that affects all of you.'"
-Gaiman's character, Death of the Endless, quoted IN Hy Bender, The Sandman: Dream Country (London, 2000), 5, p. 62.
That makes me happier about dead gods.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
But I seriously doubt Hugh Valland believed in Thor as an actual supernatural being. He was just telling a story to amuse a little girl.
And some pagan reconstructionists are trying to revive belief in the gods of the Eddas.
My view, as a Catholic, is that all pagan gods are literal non-entities, never even alive in the first place.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
Thor not only amused the girl but dispelled her nightmares. But neither sceptical Roman philosophers nor Valland nor I believe that Thor literally exists. He and other gods are an important part of our imagination and consciousness.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I can agree with those points.
Ad astra! Sean
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