[lit-ideas] Murderous flowers
- From: "phatic" <phatics@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 03 Apr 2004 13:36:28 +0100
Forwarding letter from Tor, writ from his holiday hideout. As per PS.
best,
phatic
***
Steve Cameron asked
"Wasn't there a Norse myth that had Loki giving blind Hodur a thistle to
throw at and kill Balder ?? Something about everything swearing an oath
no to harm Balder, but the thistle was overlooked?? Can't remember it
all..."
According to the story (as it's told to school children of countries that
like to fashion themselves as descendants of the Norse) Balder was the
son of Frigg and Odin. He dreamt of his own death, and, on account of it,
his mother made every object on earth swear not to hurt him. She forgot
the mistletoe. It was this weed that was turned into a magical spear.
Hod, Baldur's blind brother, was, finally, tricked into killing Baldur
with the mistletoe. (See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldur)
Now there appears to be at least three sources for the Balder myth.
Snorri tells the story of Balder's death in his Edda, where Balder is
portrayed as the only god without vices. Snorre writes of Balder:
"He is the best and everybody cherishes him. He is so beautiful to
behold, and so fair that he emits a glow. Yes, a flower is so white that
it compares to Balder's eyelashes, it is the whitest of all herbs, and
from this you can deduce his fairness. He is the brightest of all the
gods and the most well spoken. He is also the friendliest." etc.
According to Snorri, it was Loki (the trickster god) who betrayed Balder.
When Balder's mother asked Hel, the god of the underworld, to ship Balder
back to earth, Hel agreed, if only all creatures would want him back. One
old woman didn't comply. Again, it was Loki in drag who prevented
Balder's glorious return.=20
However, there's an earlier account of Balder's death that can be drawn
from Edda the Elder (the Lokasenna) where Loki is not implicated. Also,
in Saxo Grammaticus Balder is portrayed as a rather snotty son of a
god-king. (http://www.home.no/norron-mytologi/gudene/balder.htm)
It appears that the later sources, and particularly Snorri, were invested
in portraying Balder as a new Jesus. The old skaldrs, however, appears to
have invoked "Baldr" as synonymous for "man," hence "army-Baldr,"
"court-Baldr," "spear-Baldr," "shield-Baldr" and so forth.
The source above speculates in Balder as a final attempt of the old pagan
mythologies to accomodate a christian figure into itself, and thus
accomplish some kind of hegemony. If that's the case, they failed.
Miserably.
Be also advised that old norse mythology is gaining popularity among
right wing neo-nationalists and anti-Semite groups to assert some kind of
religious autonomy to the Germanic race in Scandinavia. For more
up-to-date use of norse mythology in contemporary Norwegian politics,
check out the murder of =D8ystein Aarseth in 1993. "Varg" Vikernes/"Count
Grishn=E1ckh" was sentenced for this murder, along with a host of arsons to
old church buildings around Norway. He now claims that he is no longer a
Satanist, but has converted to Odinism. He's taken his name from The Lord
of the Rings. More at http://www.uib.no/People/hnohf/greven.htm.
-tor
--=20
phatic
phatics@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://phatic.blogspot.com/
--=20
http://www.fastmail.fm - IMAP accessible web-mail
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