So much is being said of great interest and value, and yet with such fluidity and a certain whimsy, that it is becoming impossible to do every contribution justice, or even maintain a good adversial debate [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
Still, in light of the latest reflections, I am reminded of a particular traditional Irish tale that deals with the onset of Christianity and the interaction of priests with the pagan divinity - eventually leading to the pre-eminence of (Catholic) Christianity in a mythical as well as cultural sense.
In one story there is a spirit that resists the patient and gentle persistence of a priest. The ancient Tuan remembers and recounts "backwards through incredible ages to the beginning of the world and the first days of Eire". Father Finnian listens as Tuan tells of his power, of his joy in nature and delight in the hills and forests and streams, and the appearance of the people of Iarbonel, from whom came the race of Faery, the gods of Ireland. Tuan tells of becoming a salmon, the lord of the rivers, and then of his capture by men. He enters the pregnant king's wife as food and is reborn within her son, and remembers the warmth of the womb. Finnian the priest encourages this tale with patience and affection, and ends by baptising Tuan into Christianity so that he may, finally and fully, be born again into the family of the Living God.
Oscar Wilde's wonderful fairy stories contain something of this pathos and compassion, and the gentle interweaving of ancient myths with the presence of God.
Yet the arguments I quoted in my earlier post from avowedly Christian perspectives show another reaction to the old world. And an understandable (if unpleasant) one, in my view. For to acknowledge and allow for some small and subcreative element of Faerie, is to open the door to another aspect of non-Christian myth. Not to the emasculated pastiche of ancient deities that survive as leprechauns, or the dwarves of Snow White, but the fierce and territorial lordship over men of the elemental will - the fates, the wind, the sea and the sun, and so on. Zeus, Odin, Ishtar and Jehovah (to name but a few) cannot share 'truth', nor claim it as their own without the inevitable destruction of all others.
It is perhaps the nature of writers and philosophers to attempt to make sense of the irreconcilable and mysterious in their different ways. And in Tolkien we find a wonderful and obscure evocation of the ancient and the spiritual. Yet the tension remains, even there, as these boards continue to show.
Peace [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]
[ May 18, 2002: Message edited by: Kalessin ]
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