brochs
cairns
cromlechs
menhirs
barrows
- five words with similar or related meanings. She wants to:
"...raise those ghosts, awaken those powers. But she was never left by herself with them."
-Poul Anderson, Mother Of Kings (New York, 2003), Book Three, Chapter VI, p. 208.
- a wish for which she would be killed by Christians and even by some Odinists. Unable to work magic, she nevertheless feels cold with the "...awe of age and unknownness..." (ibid.)
"...awe of age..." is good.
Dag the skald is also there, trying to compose a poem, another kind of power:
"Sometimes a poem was more than words." (p. 210)
Word comes that Eirik, campaigning in Northumbria, has been accepted as king in York and sends for his household. As a necessary part of the deal, he and most of his followers have been sprinkled by Christian priests.
"'Christ is strong...'" (ibid.)
From a pagan perspective, the god of a strong realm is a strong god. What other criterion is there?
Ragnhild, the daughter who wanted greatness, "...yelled her glee. She skipped about like a kid goat." (ibid.)
Well, that is how she has been brought up. I think that everyone, while maturing, should at least question their parents' values but how many can? I spent many years applying my intellect to rationalizing, instead of questioning, the beliefs in which I had been indoctrinated but fortunately also read and inquired more widely. Nowadays we have an unprecedented advantage. We are the heirs of all the traditions. Our rejection, if we reject it, of a particular world-view, can be based on knowledge instead of either ignorance or prejudice.
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