The Norns by Johannes Gehrts, 1889
4,547 words
Part 2 of 4 (Part 1 here; Part 3 here; Part 4 here)
4. Tradition
Having now discussed the clannic being of the individual purely in philosophical terms, I now turn to a consideration of the treatment of this idea in the Germanic tradition.
The first thing we must note is what can be called the “primacy of the past” in that tradition. Read more …
Ancestral Being, Part Four
Siegfried & Mime, Arthur Rackham, 1911
2,325 words
Part 4 of 4 (Part 1 here; Part 2 here; Part 3 here)
7. Concluding Reflections
I turn now to some thoughts on how the foregoing treatment of the influence of the past on the present ought to affect our own present, when we finish this essay and return to the real world.
It is a well-known fact that our ancestors acted with awareness of membership in the clan: trying to be worthy of their own ancestors, and not to disgrace them. Read more …