(urth) Shadow Children and Inhumi
James Wynn
crushtv at gmail.com
Tue Nov 30 13:41:41 PST 2010
On 11/30/2010 3:15 PM, Mark Millman wrote:
>> This is a common misapprehension. Odin's
>> > sons Vidar and Vali (Vidar having slain
>> > Fenrir) survive Ragnarok (the floods and fires)
>> > and live in the new fields where Asgard (now
>> > burned up and washed away) used to be.
>> > Personally, I can't think of an single end-times
>> > myth right now that does not involve new
>> > worlds, lands, and/or people.
> I subscribe to the idea that the world's refounding by Odin's sons is
> a late addition to the mythology, influenced by Christianity.
Okay. But if Wolfe is riffing off of Ragnarok (and I think there is
sufficient evidence that he is) then surely he ascribes to the
Poetic/Prose Edda versions (assuming there _is_ another one). I say that
because the destruction of Urth is not final. And, in fact, no ultimate
cataclysms are final in tBotNS.
Also, I have to say that I see absolutely nothing Christian in the Vidar
and Vali's survival of Ragnarok. The scene itself as well as Vidar in
particular are almost stereotypical of mythological forms -- from the
revenge of his father to the tip of his big thick shoe. I'm really not
intending to debate or contend here, it's just that you are not the
first person I've heard make the assertion that Odin's sons are a
Christian addition, and I've never understood how that could be.
u+16b9
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