When Hrolf Kraki's half-sister, Skuld, refers to what we have here called "Chaos," her names for it are "the Old Life," "freedom" and "wild magics." See Skuld. She argues that man and civilization are the enemies of all of this, of nature, of "...the brotherhood of Beast, Tree, and Water."
Thus, that single word, "freedom," has now been used in two opposite senses:
unrestricted natural activity preceding human action on nature - the latter regarded as human interference with natural processes;
specifically human freedom requiring a minimum of social order.
A tiger in the wild is free in the first sense but not in the second.
Whichever words are used, this passage in Hrolf Kraki's Saga presents another example of the cosmic conflict discussed in the previous post.
6 comments:
Well, humans in a state of nature -- before the invention of the State -- were much like other social carnivores in one respect: they killed each other rather often. You were free to do as you pleased... but alas, so were the neighbors!
Kaor, Paul!
To paraphrase/quote Thomas Hobbes, life in the "state of nature" for humans was "nasty, brutish, and short." So I agree with Stirling!
Ad astra! Sean
Well, it was short by our standards -- but longer than those of farmers. Less work, too. Lots and lots of spears and clubs, though, and not just for dinner. Or sometimes for you -and- for dinner.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Meaning not all hunter/gatherers were above eating people? If so, I'm not in the least surprised!
Ad astra! Sean
Cannibalism seems to have been common early on -- among Neanderthals and the early humans contemporary with them -- and to have diminished, but never ceased, as time went on.
Kaor, Paul!
Not in the least surprised! One book I read, called FOSSIL MEN, discussed how paleoanthropologists discovered evidence on ancient human bones of cannibalism.
Ad astra! Sean
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