To describe an experience is to interpret it. Thus, if I say that I saw a man in front of a house, then I interpret some coloured shapes as a man and a house with a spatial relationship between them. Indeed, to give this description, I have to recognize some immediate visual impressions as colours and shapes. However, we habitually perceive objects like men and houses as totalities without having to analyze them. And there are finer layers of interpretation, as when I interpret the man's facial expression and body language as benign, neutral or hostile etc. In assessing another person's account of an event, we must distinguish between his perceptions and his interpretations of them. One observer "sees" police harassing demonstrators. Another "sees" demonstrators provoking police. Observers flatly contradict each other. Each of us has to find his or her own way through a maze. Do not just read one account and believe that. I learned to read different newspapers and then to go and see for myself.
Experience
In
"Star of the Sea," 13-
14, men from a Roman ship tie up Heidhin and rape Edh while Heidhin swears perpetual war against Rome. A woman flies down, kills the men and consoles Edh.
Joint Interpretation By Edh And Heidhin
The woman was the goddess. Edh has been chosen for a mission which can only be to preach war against Rome. To them, with their world-view, this seems obvious. Much later, Edh/Veleda begins to distinguish between the experience and the interpretation:
"'It is not truly what the goddess bade me say, it is what I have told myself she wants me to say.'" (3, p. 500)
Veleda learns wisdom. Heidhin clings to hate.
3 comments:
In proto-Germanic cultures, revenge was a -moral obligation-.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Which makes me think Veleda's softening of her hostility to Rome would confuse and disillusion many of her followers.
Ad astra! Sean
It is unacceptable to Heidhin.
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