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#1
06-27-2012, 01:45 AM
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Is the Myth of Ragnarok Post-Christian?
Anyone know if any scholarship has been done on this? The myth of Ragnarok just seems really different then the rest of Norse mythology.
Some of the Germanic myths are post-Christian, so it makes me wonder if Ragnarok is.
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*** Sekhmet-Ra, Lady of the Two Lands and Queen among gods, who is enthroned in the Sun Boat, cast your light upon your people the Remetj. Guide us upon your path and kindle strong in us the light of devotion to Netjer. *** 
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#2
06-27-2012, 02:03 AM
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Essentially this is close to impossible to know. There aren't any writings of our lore left from before, perhaps the 13th century or so. Ragnarok is mentioned in post-Christianized writings of ours, and the word itself is made of proto-Germanic etymology, so that suggests an origin of the 1200s latest with any certainty.
I am not so sure it's that different, really, as the end-of-the-world theme tends to be covered as a universal subject in most faiths. It doesn't seem similar to the Christian Revelation mishmash in any event.
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Let a bed be fetched in haste on the quarterdeck be placed that the enemy I might face till I die, till I die. I am the author of the Spiderman Fallacy [believe it, or not].
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#3
06-27-2012, 03:29 AM
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The only detailed account of the events of Ragnarok I know of is the one from Völuspá which (as far as I know was written down around 1270)
My guess is that the story existed long before that but the version written down in 1270 probably reflects the world of 1270 and not the pre-christian world.
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Small steps can take you a long way if you take enough of them
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#4
06-27-2012, 03:35 AM
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Yeah I have my doubts about Loki being seen as a devil-like figure like he is in Ragnarok.
As Christianity spread we see this done all over the ancient world, one of a region's gods taken and equated with Satan. They did it with Set in Egypt and of course equated Horus with JC
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*** Sekhmet-Ra, Lady of the Two Lands and Queen among gods, who is enthroned in the Sun Boat, cast your light upon your people the Remetj. Guide us upon your path and kindle strong in us the light of devotion to Netjer. ***
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#5
06-27-2012, 06:18 PM
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It's all but impossible for cultures that interact with each other to not share concepts. Christianity was, I'm sure, just as influenced by the Norse as vice-versa.
wa:do
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mispellers of the world 'untie'!  wa:do Cherokee for 'thank you'
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#6
06-27-2012, 06:52 PM
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Quote:
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"Zen opens a man's eyes to the greatest mystery as it is daily and hourly performed; it enlarges the heart to embrace eternity of time and infinity of space in its every palpitation; it makes us live in the world as if walking in the garden of Eden." -D.T. Suzuki
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