Paganism
Column: Bloody Dreams and Blue Giants
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Despite all their violently macho bravado, even the gods have empathy.
The Wild Hunt (https://wildhunt.org/tag/thor/page/4)
Despite all their violently macho bravado, even the gods have empathy.
“I think we have a problem.” I held up two identical wooden blocks, each stamped with an image of a man bent low under the weight of a massive boulder. “We’ve got two Sisyphuses and no Graces.”
Ever since then, across six decades, I’ve associated the forest – any forest – with dwarfs, elves, secrets, songs, trolls, traps, witches, wizards, and other mysterious manifestations. All unknowingly, my ex-monk philosophy professor father was laying the tracks for my later embrace of Norse mythology and Ásatrú religion.
As my wife takes our daughter to bed for a well-deserved nap, Hanne takes her bicycle out of the shed, hands me the map, a helmet, and a bottle of water. In less time than it takes to recite the runes of the elder futhark, I am out adventuring.
Karl E.H. Seigfried delves into the ways we interpret and misinterpret the texts that shape our lives – whether those texts are Old Icelandic poems or the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.