Lyfing
02-19-2009, 10:29 PM
I found this (http://web.archive.org/web/20010616084231/members.loop.com/~musofire/diss/) to be pretty interesting..
Third, she presents a compelling case that the Valkyries, the supernatural women who selected which of those warriors slain in battle would be brought to Valhalla, performed a similar function in Germanic religion as the Morrígan did in Celtic religion. She argues that both the Valkyries and the Morrígna were once psychopomps — a word meaning that they brought the honored dead to the glorious afterlife — by means of devouring the bodies of heroes on the battlefield while in the forms of carrion birds. Her technique is the scholarly version of computer image enhancement, where, by comparing two dim photographs of a distant star, we are able to sharpen both images. By comparing two fuzzy and dim mythological patterns in the two cultures — cultures connected not only by their origins, but also by continuous trade — Ms. Gulermovich Epstein is able to shed light on both mythologies.
I have earlier proposed that the Morrígan is the martial furor that possesses Cú Chulainn, as Odin possesses the berserkir. She seems to combine the functions of both Odin and his Valkyries, suggesting that she may indeed be “Queen of the Slain” and perhaps even rules over the heroic Celtic dead as Odin rules over the einherjar.
Overall, at least, the correspondences between the Morrígan and the Valkyries go beyond what one would expect from parallel typology. The two traditions differ, but their details exhibit similarities unnoted in previous investigations. Taken together, they allow the investigator to piece together elements not clear in any one tradition alone, in particular the related roles of the goddess in the death of the hero, and as psychopomp. These two classes of divine females provide strong evidence for a Northern Indo-European tradition of battle goddesses, evidence reinforced and complicated by the interplay of the Celtic and Germanic traditions throughout their history.
http://web.archive.org/web/20010616090850/members.loop.com/~musofire/diss/Compframes.html
I'm finding all kinds of interesting things these days..I wonder if anyone has anything to add to this matter..??
Later,
-Lyfing
Third, she presents a compelling case that the Valkyries, the supernatural women who selected which of those warriors slain in battle would be brought to Valhalla, performed a similar function in Germanic religion as the Morrígan did in Celtic religion. She argues that both the Valkyries and the Morrígna were once psychopomps — a word meaning that they brought the honored dead to the glorious afterlife — by means of devouring the bodies of heroes on the battlefield while in the forms of carrion birds. Her technique is the scholarly version of computer image enhancement, where, by comparing two dim photographs of a distant star, we are able to sharpen both images. By comparing two fuzzy and dim mythological patterns in the two cultures — cultures connected not only by their origins, but also by continuous trade — Ms. Gulermovich Epstein is able to shed light on both mythologies.
I have earlier proposed that the Morrígan is the martial furor that possesses Cú Chulainn, as Odin possesses the berserkir. She seems to combine the functions of both Odin and his Valkyries, suggesting that she may indeed be “Queen of the Slain” and perhaps even rules over the heroic Celtic dead as Odin rules over the einherjar.
Overall, at least, the correspondences between the Morrígan and the Valkyries go beyond what one would expect from parallel typology. The two traditions differ, but their details exhibit similarities unnoted in previous investigations. Taken together, they allow the investigator to piece together elements not clear in any one tradition alone, in particular the related roles of the goddess in the death of the hero, and as psychopomp. These two classes of divine females provide strong evidence for a Northern Indo-European tradition of battle goddesses, evidence reinforced and complicated by the interplay of the Celtic and Germanic traditions throughout their history.
http://web.archive.org/web/20010616090850/members.loop.com/~musofire/diss/Compframes.html
I'm finding all kinds of interesting things these days..I wonder if anyone has anything to add to this matter..??
Later,
-Lyfing