At Sea
Niall of the Nine Hostages offers Manandan white bulls. See Bribing The Gods. Manandan is the son of the god who is sending the storm against Niall's ships. These and other local deities are about to withdraw before the new God Who has already displaced the Olympians from Rome.
In Space
Roan Tom's older, Krakenite, wife vows Blue Giant seabeasts to the gods (see Gods And Stars) whereas Tom's younger, Sassanian, wife asks God for strength.
Millennia later, a Ranger entering the mysterious Cloud Universe remembers the Norse creation myth. See Entering The Cloud Universe.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I have speculated in other comments that Sassania was founded/colonized by Iranians. And a name like "Sassania," harking back to the last great non-Muslim dynasty of Iran, the Sassanians, makes me think these Iranians were not Muslims, or included ex-Muslims. If the people of Sassania were Christians or Zoroastrians, that would explain why Yasmin prayed to God, rather than to "gods."
Sean
Nationalistic Iranians tend to emphasize the pre-Islamic past of Persia. It's similar to Scandinavian attitudes to the Viking era, or Greek or Italian ones to the Classical period.
Dear Mr. Stirling,
Yes, I have heard of that, esp. how the late Shah Mohammed Pahlavi admired Cyrus the Great and the Achaemenic Dynasty. I would have to check if there's any such admiration or nostalgia in Iran for the Sassanians. The fact that the last pre-Muslim king, Yazdegird III (r. 632-651) fought and opposed the Muslim invasion of Iran makes me doubt the current theocratic regime in Iran has any sympathy for the Sassanians.
I can imagine a post Ayatollah regime in Tehran, fed up with Islamic Shia theocracy, looking more kindly on the Sassanians, however.
Sean
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