(Semi-)Formal Introduction

[Nodens]

Greetings to all.

Firstly, I would like to identify myself as having played the lurker for a time prior to registration, partly due to a desire to observe the general dynamics prior to joining in the fray, but primarily due to a general reclusiveness and reluctance to place myself in social situations. (I'm also fairly lazy and hate putting unpolished ideas/statements in print.)

With that established, here goes.

I'm a 23-year old college student from Southeastern Michigan. I have Slavic (Polish) ancestry on my mother's side and Celto-Germanic (English/Dutch) on my father's (both of which I hold sympathies with). I found The Apricity while browsing Skadi (where I never registered as a member but found to be a decent resource; I actually saw the Apricity link, bookmarked it, and promptly forgot about it for several weeks). As the board seems to be receiving a bit of a jostling at present, it seems an interesting time to formally enter the forum (and I'm finding that just formulating ideas/answers is less interesting than bringing them forward for discussion). I take an interest (both practical and academic) in many areas of the board, so (providing I can keep myself motivated) I look forward to many productive (or at least interesting) discussions.

[Absinthe]

Every time a new member joins, I scroll down in haste to read the profile information and now I think "oh thank goodness, not another Albanian!" :D :p

Welcome, and enjoy your stay :thumbs

[The Lawspeaker]

Welcome aboard, Nodens. You sound like a sensible person and like an asset to our forum. :)


And indeed, I second Absinthe here: thank God.. not another Albanian !

[Brynhild]

Welcome to the forum.

[Vulpix]

Welcome Nodens :wave!



Firstly, I would like to identify myself as having played the lurker for a time prior to registration, partly due to a desire to observe the general dynamics prior to joining in the fray, but primarily due to a general reclusiveness and reluctance to place myself in social situations. (I'm also fairly lazy and hate putting unpolished ideas/statements in print.)

Sounds good to me :).


I actually saw the Apricity link, bookmarked it, and promptly forgot about it for several weeks.
:p


I take an interest (both practical and academic) in many areas of the board, so (providing I can keep myself motivated) I look forward to many productive (or at least interesting) discussions.Be my guest :thumb001:!

[Osweo]

Howdo, Nodens! :yo:

You seem very thoughtful and well-spoken, with promising profile choices. I look forward to seeing more of you around.

Good name, too. Do you have a southwestern English link? Who's the avatar?

[Poltergeist]

Welcome!

[Nodens]

Do you have a southwestern English link?

I've been rather slack in my genealogical research so I really can't say.


Who's the avatar?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_the_Apostate

[Tabiti]

Nietzschean Heathen
Sounds interesting.
Welcome!

[Osweo]

I've been rather slack in my genealogical research so I really can't say.
Just trying to figure out why you chose the name. Have you been to his sanctuary down there in Dobunniland, or wherever it is?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_the_Apostate
Good old Julian. I remember years ago laboriously copying out his quotations in Greek in the annoyingly untranslated footnotes of some old copy of Gibbon's Decline and Fall. I never got round to translating them!
:D

[Nodens]

Just trying to figure out why you chose the name.

Chosen based on the H.P. Lovecraft entity, not the Celtic deity.


Have you been to his sanctuary down there in Dobunniland, or wherever it is?

Never been outside of North America. To my knowledge, all of my British ancestry is pre-revolutionary.

[Ladejarlen]

Welcome to TA

[Psychonaut]

Welcome! As a fellow Heathen, Nietzschean and purveyor of weird fiction I can definitely say I'm glad to see you here. :thumb001:

[Osweo]

Chosen based on the H.P. Lovecraft entity, not the Celtic deity.
Oh. :rolleyes::p
I have read a bit of his stuff, but not come across that one yet. I am suspicious - is this blasphemous?

Never been outside of North America. To my knowledge, all of my British ancestry is pre-revolutionary.
Would that be Cromwell's or William and Mary's? :wink

Damn, I suppose I'll have to go over to Wiki, to see what Lovecraft's been up to... :tsk:


... Ah. Not too bad, I suppose. Perhaps appropriate, even:

And upon dolphins' backs was balanced a vast crenelate shell wherein rode the grey and awful form of primal Nodens, Lord of the Great Abyss... Then hoary Nodens reached forth a wizened hand and helped Olney and his host into the vast shell.
—H. P. Lovecraft, "The Strange High House in the Mist"

Nodens is one of the Elder Gods and appears as an elderly, human male with white hair — gray-bearded and hoary yet still vital and strong. He often rides in a chariot formed from a huge seashell pulled by some great beasts of legend. Nodens is served by the Nightgaunts.

As a hunter, he will chase down evil creatures in the Dreamlands, such as the Shantaks. He prefers to hunt the servants of the Great Old Ones or Nyarlathotep because they are usually the most intelligent and offer the best sport, but not necessarily because he wants to help humans being attacked by them. He has, however, been known to deliberately help humans, such as when he offers advice to assist Randolph Carter against Nyarlathotep in The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath: "Out of the void S'ngac the violet gas had pointed the way, and archaic Nodens was bellowing his guidance from unhinted deeps," later followed by "And hoary Nodens raised a howl of triumph when Nyarlathotep, close on his quarry, stopped baffled by a glare that seared his formless hunting-horrors to grey dust."

Lovecraft may have based Nodens on Arthur Machen's The Great God Pan (1890) because Machen was one of Lovecraft's favorite authors.[1] In the novel, Machen describes a late Roman inscription hinting that Nodens is actually the titular god Pan.

On one side of the pillar was an inscription, of which I took a note. Some of the letters had been defaced, but I do not think there can be any doubt as to those which I supply. The inscription reads as follows:

DEVOMNODENTi
FLAvIVSSENILSPOSSVit
PROPTERNVPtias
quaSVIDITSVBVMBra
'To the great god Nodens (the god of the Great Deep or Abyss) Flavius Senilis has erected this pillar on account of the marriage which he saw beneath the shade.'
—Arthur Machen, The Great God Pan
Machen was probably inspired by the finding of an extensive temple complex dedicated to Nodens at Lydney Park in Gloucestershire.

[Freomæg]

Welcome friend!

[Beorn]

Welcome to the Apricity. :) I'm glad our recent muck raking enticed you to register...i think? :confused:

:D

[Skandi]

Hello there welcome to the Forum and enjoy your stay :)

[Äike]

Welcome to The Apricity.

[Lady L]

Welcome :wave

[Loki]

Nodens, that's a great introduction. You are the kind of member that all of us would like to see joining.

Be very welcome and enjoy the forum with us. :)

[Vargtand]

Welcome to the forum, hope you will come to feel at home here :)


Nodens, that's a great introduction. You are the kind of member that all of us would like to see joining.

Be very welcome and enjoy the forum with us. :)

Unlike the other riff-raff that the rest of the members are? :P :D

[Germanicus]

Welcome Nodens...:)

[Gooding]

Every time a new member joins, I scroll down in haste to read the profile information and now I think "oh thank goodness, not another Albanian!" :D :p

Welcome, and enjoy your stay :thumbs

What if someone came along with a Gypsy mother and an Albanian father?:P:D Hello and welcome, Nodens..this is a great tribe of Folk.:thumb001::D

[Absinthe]

What if someone came along with a Gypsy mother and an Albanian father?:P:D
It would be a sign that KurdishWarrior88 is about to sign up next :D

[lei.talk]

"I am a Cimmerian," the outlander answered, in no friendly tone. The reply and the manner of it meant little to the Kothian; of a kingdom that lay far to the south, on the borders of Shem, he knew only vaguely of the northern races.

"Then give ear and learn wisdom, fellow," said he, pointing his drinking-jack at the discomfited youth. "Know that in Zamora, and more especially in this city, there are more bold thieves than anywhere else in the world, even Koth. If mortal man could have stolen the gem, be sure it would have been filched long ago. You speak of climbing the walls, but once having climbed, you would quickly wish yourself back again. There are no guards in the gardens at night for a very good reason — that is, no human guards. But in the watch-chamber, in the lower part of the tower, are armed men, and even if you passed those who roam the gardens by night, you must still pass through the soldiers, for the gem is kept somewhere in the tower above."

"But if a man could pass through the gardens," argued the Cimmerian, "why could he not come at the gem through the upper part of the tower and thus avoid the soldiers?"

Again the Kothian gaped at him.

"Listen to him!" he shouted jeeringly. "The barbarian is an eagle who would fly to the jeweled rim of the tower, which is only a hundred and fifty feet above the earth, with rounded sides slicker than polished glass!"

The Cimmerian glared about, embarrassed at the roar of mocking laughter that greeted this remark. He saw no particular humor in it, and was too new to civilization to understand its discourtesies. Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing. He was bewildered and chagrined, and doubtless would have slunk away, abashed, but the Kothian chose to goad him further.

"Come, come!" he shouted. "Tell these poor fellows, who have only been thieves since before you were spawned, tell them how you would steal the gem!"

"There is always a way, if the desire be coupled with courage," answered the Cimmerian shortly, nettled.

The Kothian chose to take this as a personal slur. His face grew purple with anger.

"What!" he roared. "You dare tell us our business, and intimate that we are cowards? Get along; get out of my sight!" And he pushed the Cimmerian violently.

"Will you mock me and then lay hands on me?" grated the barbarian, his quick rage leaping up; and he returned the push with an open-handed blow that knocked his tormenter back against the rude-hewn table. Ale splashed over the jack's lip, and the Kothian roared in fury, dragging at his sword.

"Heathen dog!" he bellowed. "I'll have your heart for that!"

Steel flashed and the throng surged wildly back out of the way. In their flight they knocked over the single candle and the den was plunged in darkness, broken by the crash of upset benches, drum of flying feet, shouts, oaths of people tumbling over one another, and a single strident yell of agony that cut the din like a knife. When a candle was relighted, most of the guests had gone out by doors and broken windows, and the rest huddled behind stacks of wine-kegs and under tables. The barbarian was gone; the center of the room was deserted except for the gashed body of the Kothian. The Cimmerian, with the unerring instinct of the barbarian, had killed his man in the darkness and confusion.
The Tower of the Elephant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tower_of_the_Elephant)
by Robert E. Howard (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Howard)

[Aemma]

Hello fellow Heathen. Welcome! Hope you enjoy your time with us. :)