heroes and hero worship-第5节
按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页,按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页,按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
————未阅读完?加入书签已便下次继续阅读!
arly Christian Missionaries found to resemble Christ); is the Sun; beautifullest of visible things; wondrous too; and divine still; after all our Astronomies and Almanacs! But perhaps the notablest god we hear tell of is one of whom Grimm the German Etymologist finds trace: the God _Wunsch_; or Wish。 The God _Wish_; who could give us all that we _wished_! Is not this the sincerest and yet rudest voice of the spirit of man? The _rudest_ ideal that man ever formed; which still shows itself in the latest forms of our spiritual culture。 Higher considerations have to teach us that the God _Wish_ is not the true God。
Of the other Gods or Jotuns I will mention only for etymology's sake; that Sea…tempest is the Jotun _Aegir_; a very dangerous Jotun;and now to this day; on our river Trent; as I learn; the Nottingham bargemen; when the River is in a certain flooded state (a kind of backwater; or eddying swirl it has; very dangerous to them); call it Eager; they cry out; 〃Have a care; there is the _Eager_ coming!〃 Curious; that word surviving; like the peak of a submerged world! The _oldest_ Nottingham bargemen had believed in the God Aegir。 Indeed our English blood too in good part is Danish; Norse; or rather; at bottom; Danish and Norse and Saxon have no distinction; except a superficial one;as of Heathen and Christian; or the like。 But all over our Island we are mingled largely with Danes proper;from the incessant invasions there were: and this; of course; in a greater proportion along the east coast; and greatest of all; as I find; in the North Country。 From the Humber upwards; all over Scotland; the Speech of the common people is still in a singular degree Icelandic; its Germanism has still a peculiar Norse tinge。 They too are 〃Normans;〃 Northmen;if that be any great beauty!
Of the chief god; Odin; we shall speak by and by。 Mark at present so much; what the essence of Scandinavian and indeed of all Paganism is: a recognition of the forces of Nature as godlike; stupendous; personal Agencies;as Gods and Demons。 Not inconceivable to us。 It is the infant Thought of man opening itself; with awe and wonder; on this ever…stupendous Universe。 To me there is in the Norse system something very genuine; very great and manlike。 A broad simplicity; rusticity; so very different from the light gracefulness of the old Greek Paganism; distinguishes this Scandinavian System。 It is Thought; the genuine Thought of deep; rude; earnest minds; fairly opened to the things about them; a face…to…face and heart…to…heart inspection of the things;the first characteristic of all good Thought in all times。 Not graceful lightness; half…sport; as in the Greek Paganism; a certain homely truthfulness and rustic strength; a great rude sincerity; discloses itself here。 It is strange; after our beautiful Apollo statues and clear smiling mythuses; to come down upon the Norse Gods 〃brewing ale〃 to hold their feast with Aegir; the Sea…Jotun; sending out Thor to get the caldron for them in the Jotun country; Thor; after many adventures; clapping the Pot on his head; like a huge hat; and walking off with it;quite lost in it; the ears of the Pot reaching down to his heels! A kind of vacant hugeness; large awkward gianthood; characterizes that Norse system; enormous force; as yet altogether untutored; stalking helpless with large uncertain strides。 Consider only their primary mythus of the Creation。 The Gods; having got the Giant Ymer slain; a Giant made by 〃warm wind;〃 and much confused work; out of the conflict of Frost and Fire;determined on constructing a world with him。 His blood made the Sea; his flesh was the Land; the Rocks his bones; of his eyebrows they formed Asgard their Gods'…dwelling; his skull was the great blue vault of Immensity; and the brains of it became the Clouds。 What a Hyper…Brobdignagian business! Untamed Thought; great; giantlike; enormous;to be tamed in due time into the compact greatness; not giantlike; but godlike and stronger than gianthood; of the Shakspeares; the Goethes!Spiritually as well as bodily these men are our progenitors。
I like; too; that representation they have of the tree Igdrasil。 All Life is figured by them as a Tree。 Igdrasil; the Ash…tree of Existence; has its roots deep down in the kingdoms of Hela or Death; its trunk reaches up heaven…high; spreads its boughs over the whole Universe: it is the Tree of Existence。 At the foot of it; in the Death…kingdom; sit Three _Nornas_; Fates;the Past; Present; Future; watering its roots from the Sacred Well。 Its 〃boughs;〃 with their buddings and disleafings?events; things suffered; things done; catastrophes;stretch through all lands and times。 Is not every leaf of it a biography; every fibre there an act or word? Its boughs are Histories of Nations。 The rustle of it is the noise of Human Existence; onwards from of old。 It grows there; the breath of Human Passion rustling through it;or storm tost; the storm…wind howling through it like the voice of all the gods。 It is Igdrasil; the Tree of Existence。 It is the past; the present; and the future; what was done; what is doing; what will be done; 〃the infinite conjugation of the verb _To do_。〃 Considering how human things circulate; each inextricably in communion with all;how the word I speak to you to…day is borrowed; not from Ulfila the Moesogoth only; but from all men since the first man began to speak;I find no similitude so true as this of a Tree。 Beautiful; altogether beautiful and great。 The 〃_Machine_ of the Universe;〃alas; do but think of that in contrast!
Well; it is strange enough this old Norse view of Nature; different enough from what we believe of Nature。 Whence it specially came; one would not like to be compelled to say very minutely! One thing we may say: It came from the thoughts of Norse men;from the thought; above all; of the _first_ Norse man who had an original power of thinking。 The First Norse 〃man of genius;〃 as we should call him! Innumerable men had passed by; across this Universe; with a dumb vague wonder; such as the very animals may feel; or with a painful; fruitlessly inquiring wonder; such as men only feel;till the great Thinker came; the _original_ man; the Seer; whose shaped spoken Thought awakes the slumbering capability of all into Thought。 It is ever the way with the Thinker; the spiritual Hero。 What he says; all men were not far from saying; were longing to say。 The Thoughts of all start up; as from painful enchanted sleep; round his Thought; answering to it; Yes; even so! Joyful to men as the dawning of day from night;_is_ it not; indeed; the awakening for them from no…being into being; from death into life? We still honor such a man; call him Poet; Genius; and so forth: but to these wild men he was a very magician; a worker of miraculous unexpected blessing for them; a Prophet; a God!Thought once awakened does not again slumber; unfolds itself into a System of Thought; grows; in man after man; generation after generation;till its full stature is reached; and _such_ System of Thought can grow no farther; but must give place to another。
For the Norse people; the Man now named Odin; and Chief Norse God; we fancy; was such a man。 A Teacher; and Captain of soul and of body; a Hero; of worth immeasurable; admiration for whom; transcending the known bounds; became adoration。 Has he not the power of articulate Thinking; and many other powers; as yet miraculous? So; with boundless gratitude; would the rude Norse heart feel。 Has he not solved for them the sphinx…enigma of this Universe; given assurance to them of their own destiny there? By him they know now what they have to do here; what to look for hereafter。 Existence has become articulate; melodious by him; he first has made Life alive!We may call this Odin; the origin of Norse Mythology: Odin; or whatever name the First Norse Thinker bore while he was a man among men。 His view of the Universe once promulgated; a like view starts into being in all minds; grows; keeps ever growing; while it continues credible there。 In all minds it lay written; but invisibly; as in sympathetic ink; at his word it starts into visibility in all。 Nay; in every epoch of the world; the great event; parent of all others; is it not the arrival of a Thinker in the world!
One other thing we must not forget; it will explain; a little; the confusion of these Norse Eddas。 They are not one coherent System of Thought; but properly the _summation_ of several successive systems。 All this of the old Norse Belief which is flung out for us; in one level of distance in the Edda; like a picture painted on the same canvas; does not at all stand so in the reality。 It stands rather at all manner of distances and depths; of successive generations since the Belief first began。 All Scandinavian thinkers; since the first of them; contributed to that Scandinavian System of Thought; in ever…new elaboration and addition; it is the combined work of them all。 What history it had; how it changed from shape to shape; by one thinker's contribution after another; till it got to the full final shape we see it under in the Edda; no man will now ever know: _its_ Councils of Trebizond; Councils of Trent; Athanasiuses; Dantes; Luthers; are sunk without ec