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Paganism In Middle-earth
Despite J. R. R. Tolkien's assertion that ''The Lord of the Rings'' was a fundamentally Christian work, paganism appears in that book and elsewhere in his fictional world of Middle-earth in multiple ways. These include a pantheon of god-like beings, the Valar, who function like the Norse gods, the Æsir; the person of the wizard Gandalf, who Tolkien stated in a letter is an "Odinic wanderer"; Elbereth, the Elves' "Queen of the Stars", associated with Venus; animism, the way that the natural world seems to be alive; and a ''Beowulf''-like "northern courage" which is determined to press on, no matter how bleak the outlook. Tolkien was as a Christian interested in religion, and placed many hints of Christianity in ''The Lord of the Rings'', but given that Middle-earth is the Earth in the distant past, he could not make his characters Christian, even the most virtuous pagans among them. He was in addition a philologist, a scholar of Old English language and literature, especially ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baldr Dead By Eckersberg
Baldr (also Balder, Baldur) is a god in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, Baldr (Old Norse: ) is a son of the god Odin and the goddess Frigg, and has numerous brothers, such as Thor and Váli. In wider Germanic mythology, the god was known in Old English as , and in Old High German as , all ultimately stemming from the Proto-Germanic theonym ('hero' or 'prince'). During the 12th century, Danish accounts by Saxo Grammaticus and other Danish Latin chroniclers recorded a euhemerized account of his story. Compiled in Iceland during the 13th century, but based on older Old Norse poetry, the ''Poetic Edda'' and the ''Prose Edda'' contain numerous references to the death of Baldr as both a great tragedy to the Æsir and a harbinger of Ragnarök. According to ''Gylfaginning'', a book of Snorri Sturluson's Prose Edda, Baldr's wife is Nanna and their son is Forseti. Baldr had the greatest ship ever built, Hringhorni, and there is no place more beautiful than his hall, Breidablik. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
