Drawing Down The Dream: Monsters, Myth and the Human Psyche
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The wintry hedge was black; The green grass was not seen; Percy Bysshe Shelley
Harshness vanished. A sudden softness has replaced the meadows' wintry grey. Little rivulets of water changed their singing accents. Tendernesses, hesitantly, reach toward the earth from space, and country lanes are showing these unexpected subtle risings that find expression in the empty trees Rainer Maria Rilke -
The Rites of Spring Northern Europe 2000 years ago Series of rituals defined the beginning of spring People believed that spring came from the successful union of Nerthus (Mother Nature)with a male god
Tacitus’ Description of the Rites of Spring 1.Nerthus arrives in her chariot kept in a sacred grove 2.A single priest is allowed to touch and interpret the arrival of the goddess 3.Nerthus travels around the countryside inducing a time of peace and rejoicing 4.When Nerthus has had enough, the priest returns her to her sacred grove
Tacitus’ Description of the Rites of Spring Nerthus is washed along with her chariot and robes in a sacred lake The slaves who aid in this process are drowned in the sacred lake
Tollund Man May 1950 Two peat cutters discovered a body in a peat bog So fresh looking, they thought it was a recent murder Called the police!
Who Was the Tollund Man? Older man Naked except for a cap and belt Believed to have been hung because of the noose found with him 2000 years old
Tollund Man=Priest of Nerthus? Last meal – gruel made of barley, linseed, gold-of-pleasure, knotweed, green bristle-grass, dock, black bindweed and chamomile Rope left around neck to form necklace similar to that of fertility goddess figurines Naked, like fertility goddess Symbolic insemination?
Who was Nerthus? Frigg Goddess of… Married women Giving birth of children Lived in Fensalir=Marsh Halls Freyja Goddess of … Love Fertility Gold Seidr War death
Frigg Freyja