(i) (a) the gods are good for us and
(b) will harm us if we forsake them;
(ii) (a) Norse myths are good stories,
(b) essential to our identity.
(i) (a) The White Christ is powerful but:
Odin is wise, uplifts us in battle and begot our first kings;
Thor sends rain and repels trolls;
Aegir gives good luck and catches at sea;
Ran welcomes drowned sailors;
Frey begets;
Freyja loves;
Frigga is the mother.
(i) (b) " 'Dreams have come to me, nightmares...I stumble lost through a land gray, cold, bare. Everywhere lie dead bones, gnawed by trolls. In an endless wind, I hear a mockery, "You have forsaken the gods. So the gods have forsaken you." ' " (p. 323)
- (b) has been disproved in practice.
(ii) (a) " '...is not the world of the gods a wonderful world? Green Yggdrasil, wherein grows and shines everything that is...Odin...Thor...' " (p. 314)
(ii) (b) " '...not something out of Romaborg or the Empire, but ours. Without them, how long can we remain ourselves?' " (p. 314)
- (b) remains valid but does not require the stories to be literally true.
5 comments:
Hi, Paul!
Except of course, I believe there are no Gods except the true God, who revealed himself to mankind thru the Jews and completed that revelation thru Jesus Christ.
The Irish were among the first of peoples outside the old Empire who converted to Catholic Christianity (in fact, while the Western Empire still existed). And they never seemed to have thought that doing so undermined their "identity."
Sean
No. indeed. I think it is important to keep all the old stories whether or not we still believe in them and whether or not we now believe in something else. And I love PA's presentation of Gunnhild comparing the ordeals of Odin and Christ. That transition period is very interesting.
Hi, Paul!
Oh, certainly! I agree that merely because neither of us believes in the actual reality of the Olympian or Norse gods, that does not mean we cannot admire and respect as works of art (mixed with wisdom) the poems of Homer or the Elder Edda. In fact, I have a copy of Lee M. Hollander's translation of the Edda, which he called THE POETIC EDDA.
I also have Hollander's translation of Snorri Sturluson's chronicle of the early kings of Norway, the HEIMSKRINGLA. Frankly, while I agree with much of Poul Anderson's admiring view of that work, I think St. Gregory of Tours HISTORY OF THE FRANKS was in some ways, in literary terms, a better work. Primarily because St. Gregory kept better control over the material he used. That is, he did not wander as far from the main line of his narrative as Snorri sometimes did.
I even gave Poul Anderson a copy of St. Gregory's HISTORY as a birthday gift in 1991. And Anderson in his letter of reply said he found so many interesting bits while browsing it that he would soon read it all the way thru.
Sean
One of the things I like about the Norse myths is that those gods have a conflict with beings of equivalent power. The Greek gods have rather petty conflicts within Olympus.
Christianity is worse from a storytelling POV. A character that is vastly more powerful than any possible opponent makes for a boring story.
Kaor, Jim!
Re the Norse gods: except I don't think we would LIKE them in person, if we met them in actuality. Grim and cruel gods, esp. Odin!
The Olympians indulged in petty conflicts? Yep! Reminding me of how one character in THE GOLDEN SLAVE called them "those children."
Disagree with your last comment. I found both the revealing of His existence by God to the Jews over centuries and the narrative about Christ's life in the Gospels a dramatic story.
Apologies for being so late responding!
Ad astra! Sean
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