Eodan, a Cimbrian:
"'I would pull down the sky if I could... I would make a balefire for the world of all the world's gods, and kindle it, and howl while it burned. And I would tread heaven under my feet, and call up the dead from their graves to hunt stars with me, till nothing was left but the night wind."
-Poul Anderson, The Golden Slave, XI, p. 149.
Raor, an Exaltationist:
"'We would have made [the universe] what we chose, and unmade it and remade it, and stormed the stars as we warred for possession, with an entire reality the funeral pyre of each who fell and entire histories the funeral games, until the last god reigned alone.'
"Desire blew out of [Everard] on a winter wind."
-Poul Anderson, The Shield Of Time (New York, 1991), PART TWO, 209 B. C., p. 118.
He would hunt stars; she would storm them. He ends with "...night wind." Raor's speech is followed by "...winter wind."
Based on this and earlier remarks, Eodan seems to regard the wind as the primordial force like the sea in the Bible. He anticipates the Ragnarok although, in that last battle, Loki will lead the dead against Odin.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
And the last Emperor to be declared "divine" by the Roman Senate, the "last god" Diocletian, would not have agreed with such attitudes! His passion was the restoration of order, of driving back chaos, of enabling ordinary people to live out their lives in peace. Yes, Diocletian made grave mistakes, but he was an able and well meaning leader.
Ad astra! Sean
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