Alianora's swan dress, which empowers her to metamorphose into a swan, is said to have:
"'...once belonged to the Valkyries.'" (p. 37)
What are the cosmological implications of this? Are the Norse pantheons a part of the Carolingian universe where they would have to belong to the Middle World, serving Chaos together with the Giants? But the Carolingian universe would not be able to incorporate Ginnungagap, Yggdrasil, Nine Worlds, Ragnarok etc. So has there been inter-cosmic contact?
Virginia Matuchek travels from her native goetic universe to the hell universe where she summons Thor as an enemy of Chaos;
later, Virginia travels to Mimir's Well below Yggdrasil in yet another universe;
Virginia's daughter meets Holger in the Old Phoenix.
Thus, we might infer from all this that the Valkyries to whom Alianora refers inhabit not the Carolingian but the Nordic universe.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
It might be simpler to think the Scandinavians of the Carolingian universe retained bits and pieces of Eddaic mythology after their conversion to Christianity. The explicit mention of Denmark existing in that timeline supports such an idea.
It seemed odd to associate swans with Valkyries, then I recalled them described as aggressive and bad tempered, which seems appropriate for Valkyries.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
So maybe the Valkyries were just a myth in the Carolingian universe? I never thought of that.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Exactly, and why not? The most sophisticated Christians came to dismiss the pagan gods as not even being fallen angels, but literal non-entities. I can imagine that happening in the Carolingian universe as well.
Ad astra! Sean
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