Ragnarok

“Baldur went, but he did not come back. The thin child sorted in her new mind things that went and came back, and things that went and would not come back. Her father with his flaming hair was flying under the hot sun in Africa, and she knew in her soul that he would not come back. She knew it partly because of the things tangibly unsaid when the family at Christmas raised small glasses of cider, and drank to him, and the hope that next Christmas he would come back. There were stories that ended, instead of going in circles and circles, and the story of the beautiful god was one of those, and she found it grimly satisfactory. Though her readings and rereadigs at all times of the year gave it a kind of eternal recurrence. The story ended, but she began it again.” (77).

This quote is important because it tells a deeper truth about the importance of religion and mythology in our society. The fact that the “thin child” rereads the myth of Ragnarok to cope with her world in the apocalyptic state of war was very interesting. It shows that apocalyptic literature offers an escape from the daily apocalypses and tragedies we experience. The child truly thought that her father would not come back, and in the story of Ragnarok, Baldur died and did not come back. The child couldn’t do anything about the state of her father, but she could reread Ragnarok and control whether or not Baldur came back. Although such stories of apocalypse are not uplifting, and sometimes make us dwell more on our own tragedies than distract from them, they can function almost as a support system.  This is true for modern religion as well. In the same sense that Baldur “went, but he did not come back”, so too do Christian religions believe that Jesus died on the cross, never to come back until the final judgment day. Although biblical stories such as the life of Jesus end, throughout the course of the year, the same story is repeated, and has been repeated for hundreds of years. This recurrence offers stability that humans need.