Message no. 1

From:	Doctor Doom <JCH8169@*****.TAMU.EDU>
Subject:	Vikings...now in extra-large economy size!
Date:	Wed, 6 Oct 1993 15:56:09 -0500

From Herr Waisley:

> Tuesday i can't remember

Tuesday comes from Tyr's day...the god who lost his hand to the Fenris wolf.

>As to Iceland - I am not sure, but the people might actually speak a language
>there that is similar to what the Vikings spoke - either that or its
>Greenland

Both islands were settled by the Vikings during their explorations and
expansionist migrations (raids).

> Most of my favorite Myths are Norse - I read a lot of them as a kid.
>Lets face it - Thor was the main myth guy - and he was cool.

Thor may have been the most "active" of the Aesir, however, he was NOT the
chief deity of that mythological system.

The chief of the gods was Wotan (or Odin, Woden) with his raven servants
Hugnin & Munin (thought & memory), his wolves, Geri & Freki (greedy &
fierce),
sitting atop the watchtower (and throne) Hlidskjalf, from which he surveyed the
Nine Worlds. Other items he possessed was Gungnir, the spear which always
struck the target at which it was thrown, as well as Draupnir, a ring which
would shed eight similarly sized rings every nine days. Incidentally, it was
Wotan who led the Wilde Jagd (Wild Hunt) in Teutonic belief.

The most famous, perhaps (and as Waisley pointed out, one of the most active)
was Donar, or Thor. Armed with Mjollnir (crusher), Donar raced his chariot
across the sky, drawn by two goats, Tanngniost and Tanngrisner (teethgrinder
and teethgnasher), of which the sound would produce thunder.

It's rather interesting that when the Romans expanded encountered the Teutonic
tribes, they associated their gods with their own pantheon. Although it
appears that there were a few failures in the transcriptions.

The most glaring error was assigning Wotan the role of Mercury (it is possible
that since they reasoned that Wotan was god of the wind, he corresponded to the
quickest of the Roman gods), and Donar was said to be a metaphor for Jupiter
(true, both were gods of thunder, but they did not match in terms of divine
authority).



Colonel Count von Hohenzollern und von Doom, DMSc, DSc, PhD.

Doom Technologies & Weapon Systems -- Dark Thought Publications
>>> Working on solutions best left in the dark.
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[ Doctor Doom : jch8169@********.tamu.edu ]
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