Tolk the Herald explains to van Rijn the importance of ritual to the Flock:
"'It is not that we take the old gods so seriously any more - but their rituals, the rightness and decency of it all, the belonging -' He looked upward, into the shadow-hidden roof, where the wind hooted and rushed about the busy millwheels. 'No, I don't believe that ancestral ghosts fly out there of nights.'" (p. 214)
But he does believe that maintaining the rituals keeps the Flock alive. Old ghosts, hooting wind and ancestral ghosts belong together. At the end of "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth," Ermanaric sees something white, a cloud or Swanhild following the Wanderer.
As I said when giving a talk on religion: "I don't have to believe in gods to appreciate Homer. I don't have to believe in ghosts to appreciate Hamlet..."
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
Well, I would not be surprised to find out some of the Flock still took their gods seriously!
Ad astra! Sean
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