Poul Anderson's The Earth Book Of Stormgate is a compilation of texts recounting the history of a people and their settlement of a new world. See Other Scriptures and Reinterpreting Texts.
SM Stirling's Emberverse series begins with a pivotal Change that transforms not only human life but also human-divine interactions.
Thus, maybe these are three sets of fictional scriptures?
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I've been pondering this blog piece of yours and the links you added. At first I was not sure I could agree with calling THE KING OF YS and THE EARTHBOOK OF STORMGATE (along with Stirling's Emberverse series) "scriptures." But reading the links you added convinces me that was a reasonable analogy.
I would argue that a "real" fictional scriptures already exists: JRR Tolkien's THE SILMARILLION, THE HOBBIT, and THE LORD OF THE RINGS. Simply recall how that passionate devotee of the "Histories," Astrid Larsson Loring, was absolutely convinced of the literal truth of JRRT's Middle Earth Mythos, and convinced most of her Dunedain Rangers of that literal truth.
THE SILMARRILLION, written as it was in a high formal, sometimes remote mannter, even reads like a scripture! And THE SILMARILLION been compared to Genesis, Exodus and the Books of Kings.
Sean
The SILMARILLION and THE LORD OF THE RINGS might be considered the Old and New Testaments... 8-).
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Well, more like the OT than the NT. I've compared these Tolkien works to Genesis, Exodus, and the books of Kings. But, we don't see an NT in the Middle Earth mythos. But hints of a foreshadowing of both the OT and NT can be found in the Middle Earth legendarium: most esp. in the "Athrabeth Finrod Ah Andreth."
And I think you already know of my puzzlement over why so passionate a devotee of Tolkien as Astrid Larsson Loring became a Wiccan when the religion of the Middle Earth mythos was determinedly MONOTHEIST.
Sean
Well, Wicca -is- monotheist (or dualist) in its theology. The Lord and Lady are dual aspects of the original Monad, and so on down the line; all deities and spirits are "aspects".
This is sort of like the more cerebral and "elevated" types of Hinduism, which is not a coincidence at all since Gardner had spent time in India and was heavily influenced by Theosophy, which also drew heavily on Indian sources.
There actually -is- a Tolkien-Wicca subgroup, btw.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Yes, I knew of how the somewhat implausibly nice Mackenzies practiced a neo paganism believing in "aspects" or dualism. Yes, Wiccaism drew on Gerald Gardner and his Theosophism, among other things.
But, I am a Catholic, which means I deny there are such things as "aspects" when it comes to God. Moreover, Wiccans in your Emberverse books believe in ideas no Catholic can accept, such as reincarnation. And I was disgusted by how the Wiccans tolerated abortion/infanticide.
Fascinating, there actually is a group of Wiccans who believe in the Middle Earth religion? But, that should make them LESS Wiccan and more strictly monotheistic.
Sean
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