"'Nerthus - Naerdha - is still female. In centuries ahead, she will become male, the Eddic god Njordh, father of Freyja and Frey - who today is still her husband. Njordh will be a sea god, as Nerthus is associated with the sea, though she is also an agricultural deity.'"
-"Star of the Sea," 11, p. 566.
How does a goddess associated with the sea come to be also an agricultural deity? Poul Anderson imagines one mythological explanation. Niaerdh makes seals, whales and fish, sends rain or light across the sea, sails on an iceberg and catches ships in a net. Thus, she is a sea deity. However, Frae, who would wed her, offers her warm flesh, hot blood and "'...sway over sowing and reaping...'" (I, p. 468) Thus, she becomes an agricultural deity.
She will return to her sea every autumn but will return to Frae every spring:
"'This shall be the year and every year henceforward.'" (I, p. 469)
In Greek mythology, Proserpina returns to the underworld for half the year. One role of myths is to explain familiar features of the natural world. This happens also in Genesis - the Biblical book, not Anderson's novel of that title.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And in THE PHYSICS OF CHRISTIANITY, Frank J. Tipler gives readers a fascinating discussion of how physics and quantum mechanics could have been used by God as the means by which the Blessed Virgin could have been conceived without Original Sin and been asked by God to become the mother of the Incarnate Logos. For instance, Tipler thinks one way Our Lord would not have had needed a human father would have been if He had been conceived as a rare XX male.
I don't know if I can agree with all of Tipler's speculations or arguments (such as his take on humans being "resurrected" as computer emulations in fantastically advanced quantum computers). But his book certainly made me for fascinating, if sometimes difficult reading. And we know Anderson used his suggestions about Tipler machines for THE AVATAR.
I've reached Chapter 8 of Drake/Stirling's THE FORGE, btw. Fascinating, page turning reading!
Sean
Sean,
OK. Maybe I better had read THE PHYSICS OF CHRISTIANITY. How quantum mechanics can affect Original Sin I have no idea.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I was hoping my comments might get you interested in Tipler's book. Some discussion of physics was necessary, mostly in the first four chapters. Rather tough going, but I think understandable with patience and care.
Sean
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