One shouldn’t interfere in the development of a myth.
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| — | Ernst Jünger |
One of my favourite artists, Jim Fitzpatrick’s illustration of Balor of the Evil Eye / Mighty Blows. His site and books are well worth checking out. When I was a teenager in the eighties I was obsessed with his work and still am. My local pub is like a shrine to him, framed posters and large scale copies painted large on the entrance to the place.
Clearly, mythology is no toy for children. Nor is it a matter of archaic, merely scholarly concern, of no moment to modern men of action. For its symbols (whether in the tangible form of images or in the abstract form of ideas) touch and release the deepest centers of motivation, moving literate and illiterate alike, moving mobs, moving civilizations.
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| — | Joseph Campbell, Primitive Mythology |
In this sacred grove there grew a certain tree round which at any time of the day, and probably far into the night, a grim figure might be seen to prowl. In his hand he carried a drawn sword, and he kept peering warily about him as if at every instant he expected to be set upon by an enemy. He was a priest and a murderer; and the man for whom he looked was sooner or later to murder him and hold the priesthood in his stead. Such was the rule of the sanctuary.
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| — | Sir James George Frazer |
Yggdrasil and the Realms
A convenient guide to the way the Old Norse mapped out the universe. See: Norse and Germanic Mythology for more!
