This is necessarily short, as late summer has me on the run - to return to another blog this Friday. For now, this one quick comment:
Reading North Men by John Haywood, I have been delighted in an odd way at their barbarity, and the barbarity at the time of Europe as a whole. The Vikings had a special way of gifting the god Odin by taking a high-ranking captive and making from him a "blood angel" in which they would make two slits along the backbone and then pull out the still-functioning lungs to form pulsating bloody "wings" for as long as the victim survived.
The Vikings had no peaceful resting place for the dead - only Valhalla for the greatest warriors, who would all die one day in the final battle of the world, where defeat would lead to the annihilation of the world and then its remaking - add infinitum. And yet, although there was no hope in their religion for eternal paradise, they clung to it as proud warriors, becoming Christian only after defeat or for political gain.
Was it pride, or overwhelming culture? Is the call to high religion a matter of truth or only of levels of civilizations? Or do the two correspond according to a divine plan?
More towards the end of the week. The great green of late summer awaits (oh, and a special hello to frequent contributor Roeker, who is now on his honeymoon after a great wedding. I doubt he will be reading this at the moment - or at least I hope not.) FK
Reading North Men by John Haywood, I have been delighted in an odd way at their barbarity, and the barbarity at the time of Europe as a whole. The Vikings had a special way of gifting the god Odin by taking a high-ranking captive and making from him a "blood angel" in which they would make two slits along the backbone and then pull out the still-functioning lungs to form pulsating bloody "wings" for as long as the victim survived.
The Vikings had no peaceful resting place for the dead - only Valhalla for the greatest warriors, who would all die one day in the final battle of the world, where defeat would lead to the annihilation of the world and then its remaking - add infinitum. And yet, although there was no hope in their religion for eternal paradise, they clung to it as proud warriors, becoming Christian only after defeat or for political gain.
Was it pride, or overwhelming culture? Is the call to high religion a matter of truth or only of levels of civilizations? Or do the two correspond according to a divine plan?
More towards the end of the week. The great green of late summer awaits (oh, and a special hello to frequent contributor Roeker, who is now on his honeymoon after a great wedding. I doubt he will be reading this at the moment - or at least I hope not.) FK
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