This is somewhat off topic, but I have discovered that if you want to
know something about a religion - ask an atheist. :-)
I have been reading about the old Norse religion, and I have come
across an article about the fishing trip of Thor and Hymer, when Thor
almost caught the Midgard serpent. (If you don't know the story it can
be found at:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/tml/tml16.htm page 102 - 105)
It would be difficult to top this story about the one that got away.
This article - Henrik JANSSON, Snorre, Tors fiskarfänge och frågan om
den religionshistoriska kontexten, i Hedendomen i historiens
spegel - discusses if the story is from the "true" heathen tradition
or if it is borrowed from Christianity, especially
from the christian allegorical stories of God fishing for the devil
using Jesus as bait. As can be expected the experts do not agree.
Brondsted (1882) sees it as a christian story that got into the norse
mythology, Gschwantler (1968) thinks it is an attempt to use
norse myths to explain the christian religion to the heathens, and
Meulengracht Sorensen thinks it is an indo-european myth that might
have been somewhat influenced by christianity.
One thing that is missing from the article is the influence of other
religions and myths, which brings us to my question: are there any
other gods (halfgods, heroes ..) that went fishing for some evil
creature, or for ordinary fish for that matter, and did they catch the
fish they wanted? We can skip all the christian saints who seemed to
think fishing was a better way to spend their time than praying :-).
but some of the other religious figures must have agreed with them.
Lisbeth.
----
The day I don't learn anything new is the day I die.
*What we know is not nearly as interesting as *how we know it.
--
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