Shadow Children and Inhumi

James Wynn · 30 Nov 2010, 21:41 · from 2010-November.txt.gz

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From: crushtv at gmail.com (James Wynn)
Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2010 15:41:41 -0600
Subject: (urth) Shadow Children and Inhumi
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Message-ID: <4CF56F95.1080400 at gmail.com>

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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