tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post4392032963357683176..comments2024-03-28T07:57:49.338+00:00Comments on Poul Anderson Appreciation: YuleKetlanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08588156788583883454noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-48773113828054100922016-06-16T16:42:21.767+01:002016-06-16T16:42:21.767+01:00Kaor, Paul!
Exactly! By the time of the Viking Ag...Kaor, Paul!<br /><br />Exactly! By the time of the Viking Age (circa AD 800-1066) such fears were probably fading away. But, many Scandinavians still might have feared the sun would not return in the fifth/sixth centuries.<br /><br />SeanSean M. Brookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13973738112230622557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-11662682976202677702016-06-16T16:33:18.755+01:002016-06-16T16:33:18.755+01:00Sean,
Maybe the celebration was by then just tradi...Sean,<br />Maybe the celebration was by then just traditional. Still, there would have been a time when it was feared that the sinking sun would continue to sink and not return.<br />Paul.Paul Shackleyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04180596532266581425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3538502828554372917.post-45957895805363094162016-06-16T16:29:00.471+01:002016-06-16T16:29:00.471+01:00Kaor, Paul!
Even granting the lack of systematize...Kaor, Paul!<br /><br />Even granting the lack of systematized astronomical knowledge of the kind accumulated by the Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, I'm puzzled over why the Scandinavians should have seriously feared the sun would not again turn "homeward" after Yule. Repeated observation of the sun doing precisely that over generations and centuries should have told them that!<br /><br />Perhaps it takes a literate society with an educated, scholarly class (probably the priests) measuring the movements of the sun, moon, and stars for people to stop fearing the days would not lengthen again.<br /><br />SeanSean M. Brookshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13973738112230622557noreply@blogger.com