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Fenrir - Creation Myth
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31 comments
I really love that landscape shot in the set.
I was out of town for a bit so I'm just now catching up.
I like your take on it and would say I agree. it is what drives things and keeps thing from falling apart.
It is a nice and complex one which explains commonalities of your Skyrim and Fall Out stories. It even allows you to embrace more game stories and to create stories there.
So it will be interesting to see one day to which gray lord or agent Wulver is connected to.
The wolves look different, I think these are images of wolves from different games.
The landscape after World of Fenrir looks photo-realistic.
As for cosmogony, the problem is logical and at the same time linguistic. The difficulty lies in the fact that you represent an event that happens outside of any temporal succession, therefore out of time, but which you describe in linear temporal terms. This is why some physicists tend to consider time with a permanent structure within which the phenomenon of creation would take place. Personally I find it rather comfortable, and even a little naive, and I align myself with Agostino of Ippona's old intuition, according to which creation would include time itself, but making it impossible to define such an event as it would not technically be an event, in as it cannot be framed through the succession of a before the creation and an after it.
I, in fact with Einstein, I am a neo-Parmenidean, so I consider the temporal dimension, a sort of illusion determined by our limited perception of multidimensional space-time. With the Italian philosopher Emanuele Severino (much opposed here in italy), I consider that our birth and death is only an apparent fact, because in the end we would in fact be immortal and eternal without knowing it, given that our lives would be like a kind of metaphysical books, contained in a sort of eternal library, if you can define this condition with this metaphor, (Severino does not use it). It would be interesting to know who is reading our story right now, but here we fall again into the original paradox, that "mysterious reader" would be out of time itself. In practice the reader would be simultaneously reading all the books of his infinite library, in a timeless act of reading. A real bookworm....
To begin my comment, I really like that with the development of your narrative the light slowly moves from man to animal. Fenrir is the protagonist, but perhaps the reader should not immediately notice the intention, he should remain displaced and surprised. What I don't like so much, it is the fact that Fenrir appears at least from what I read, completely detached from his original mythical figure staged by Norse mythology.
In reality it is not, indeed its narration would present different development opportunities in that direction, which could bring it back in the original groove, but in my eyes this would be made possible only if in the middle of the book it turned out to be a complete reversal of the story. The twist should, if anything, relate to the fact that Gray lords are in fact the real hidden villains, while the enemy is actually the opposite in a sense.
For example, it is an untested and arbitrary assumption that the universe must be kept in balance by the action of the Gray lords. Who are they? Who invests them in this role? And with what right do they claim that balance is the main goal of the universe?
The Gray Lords can be seen as the re-enactment of the ancient gods of the Norse myth chaining Fenrir through the ideological deception (the chain Gleipnir) of their cosmogonic narrative. The enemy painted by them as the fetish, incarnation of all evil, which tries to sacrifice Fenrir, to open a portal on the mondus, could easily reveal itself as a cunning lie. In the original myth Fenrir is the devourer of the Gods in the Ragnarok, but you have turned it into their watchdog, which could turn out to be their cunning plan to avoid the fulfillment of their inevitable destiny.
The Gray Lords could be read as the reactionary and tyrannical force that prevents the entire universe from realizing itself, and Fenrir as the liberating force, which takes away from these false gods, their power, finally liberating energy and leading dialectical conflict between order and chaos in a process ever further away from equilibrium towards its extreme consequences. The Ragnarok is not the end of the universe but its complete realization, in its pure self consciousness, just supposed by the narrative at the origin of the universe. God is not at the beginning, but at the end of the cycle, which being a cycle recreates itself right at the end of the process, like the Baron of Munchausen who pulls himself out of the quicksand pulling himself up, lifting himself up by the tail through a classical autopoiesis.
On the other hand, your story could be read as a sophisticated socio-political allegory. The multiverse would be nothing but contemporary USA, spiritually suffocated by its false tyrannical masters neo-cons, obsessed by an evil ev placed beyond frontiers, which promise order and balance to people," to make America Great Again", while in reality they lock them up , imprisoning them behind a wall, debasing them, and corrupting them, to preserve eternally their power. The meaning of the book could be the message to wake up the wild wolf , inside every American citizen, accepting the challenge by freeing themselves from the fear and paranoia that power uses to chain the American spirit while the political leader wants to preserve itself, even the coast of self-destruction in the final atomic holocaust. Fenrir would thus be the symbolic embodiment of the American spirit that fight against them to condut people to ragnarok, a new spiritual revolution.
This is what came to my mind when reading your excellent post and admiring your beautiful images, dear Jonathan.
First thanks for this great comment. The very second thing I want to say is that the feedback is very useful as I have decided to re-structure a few things. I don’t know how much yet but I do know I do not want to give the impression that Fenrir has been domesticated! Also I need to work on my explanation of the Gray Lords and their lore … yes I might actually consider them as possibly being an enemy in the back ground with the exception of Gaia.
No easy to place to start on my thoughts to your comment so just going to touch upon a few things quickly so you know I appreciated your time and thoughts and that they mattered to me.
Gray Lords – I have always loved books about Chaos and Order. Something about those two forces has appealed to me even as a child when I started reading fantasy books. One of my favorites is about an eternal struggle of Order and Chaos and what happens when one gains dominance over the other. Of interest was also some keep concepts the Lords of each embodied and Time fell under a lord of Chaos. Yet they were also the most understanding of the Chaos Lords in realizing there also needed to be some balance.
Anyhow the Gray Lords were not meant to be really police but more guardians who might intervene if things got really serious. Yet that is still a police like activity and the idea that pure neutrality might be as bad as pure chaos or order is an interesting idea and perhaps they might be far more shadowy and perhaps evil in some ways, wanting to keep power for themselves. I am going to start thinking about that now.
They are not central to my story – more just in the background like the creation myth itself. Even Fenrir isn’t the central part of the story – the main part of my book idea is one of his agents called Wolf. Wolf was a Viking warrior. He dies and Fenrir eats his soul to preserve it. Wolf is later reborn in the future where he becomes a modern day agent for Fenrir trying to prevent the destruction of the Earth.
Gaia – If I change the Gray Lords, Gaia will be the exception. She, like the Gray Lords themselves, isn’t aware in the sense humans are. It is important to note I anthropomorphized a lot of cosmic concepts/forces as a way to bring it down to general understanding and more of the fantasy realm of gods and mortals, etc. Gaia believes the balance will take care of itself. She does, however, represent all life. Consequently .as part of that, her nature is to survive since she is in a way the sum collective of all life. She freed Fenrir from captivity so that he could protect the natural world and by doing so herself.
Fenrir – I did move Fenrir away from his Norse mythology and that will never change. That is the very core part of his lore and my book. To change that would mean not doing the book. The whole point of Fenrir is that he was betrayed by the Gods. And here, for once, I actually do have a deeper underlying message/meaning in my writing (normally I do not beyond what my unconscious is putting into my creativity and who knows what underlying concepts my brain is hiding from my consciousness!).
Many of the gods are arrogant, conceited, self-serving, ego-centric, wanting worship and glory and followers for themselves. They are prideful and lack empathy. They represent our current rulers and those in power. The ultra-wealthy (the top 1% of the top 1%) and their corporations, corrupt leaders of the most powerful nations, etc. Not just in any specific country but all over.
They represent the desire to harness, control, and if gets in their way, destroy, the natural world and the life on it. Although they mirror much of humanity in general.
They betray Fenrir and try to collar him, to domesticate him, to leash him. When he proves to wild and untamable they resort to trickery and betrayal to bind him. Just as we try to control nature instead of learning to co-exist or even live in harmony with it. The gods should have learned to co-exist but their fear and arrogance got in the way.
Gaia did not leash Fenrir. She did not try to domesticate him. She freed him with one condition – that he use whatever means he wished to protect the natural world, of which he himself is part of. I do not see that as leashing him or trying to control him, at least not in the way of domestication. She instead wanted him to channel some of his destructive nature to better use. Fenrir could have said no but being part of the natural world himself he also knew it was in his own best interest. Wolves are intelligent creatures and they work together in a pack. They do not domesticate each other yet at the same time they do control themselves based on the hierarchy in the pack. Gaia, in this case, is just like the ultimate pack alpha.
Theme – The main idea, then, is Fenrir represents the untamed world of nature, neutral, chaotic, even random at times. Yet focused on preserving both the world and all life – which includes all animals not just humans. His struggle represents, on some level, the struggle of humans to either work with nature instead of always trying to control it. To live in greater harmony with it, to respect it and not abuse it.
Time – This is getting way too long but have to say I loved the comments you made on time. It is so hard for my mind to grasp the concept of no time. I don’t mean our various cultural ways of measuring time but instead just the basic concept of change, of the before and after, of aging, of the sense that things progress and develop. Yet I have read things that there is only the present and no past or future, that is just illusion or a mental construct. All there ever is … is the here and now. Our minds, or at least my mind, wants to know what was before the big bang, what set it off, where did it come from? But at some point you may have to stop asking why or what came before or you go down an endless rabbit hole and get lost.
Perhaps timelessness means there simply IS an existence with no before or after. The universe just IS. Maybe the big-bang is a wheel, a cycle, that is always there, never-ending.
One last thought, somewhat tied to the Gray Lords and the idea of balance. It is the idea that our own theories indicate things had to be JUST right for the Universe and life to form. If things had worked out just a bit different then suns and planets could not form or life not exist. Also that if the universe were to expand to fast it would not have been able to have the energy to create that it did. Or if it did not have enough force it would have collapsed again. Course that is just one theory around the Big Bang. I have read many other theories and some very interesting ones lately that space itself is not empty but is like a liquid. I have read theories on multiple universes and many theories on creation. It is all great stuff to think about!
Thanks again for your wonderful comment that has made me think so much!
Quite an interesting concept the Grey lords and multiverse, so all things are possible in some way in some place is the premise is it? Did the Grey lords not have something to do with an issue in Grim's past also in one of the multiverses or am I mistaken?
I think of it in my mind like the big bang or like I can be here but in another place at the same time and as long as I do not interact with that other being they can exist even on the same plane but if they were to meet it would be like the end of my timeline as I had crossed into myself but to be honest quantum physics is a bit above my pay grade lol but I always love to see how others think of if there is more then one universe or if there is how it could be possible to find or use them.Do the gods use them to travel through time and space or do we in each of our lives use them to travel to a new body after death maybe. So much unknown!!
Either way an amazing read and I always love to hear how others feel about things makes you think more and find out more.
I could have forgotten but I think the only time I really brought up the Gray Lords in Skyrim and Grim is with Captain Sayid. He was working for them and then became one of them ... or at least a special version of them. It came up on a small lore piece I did on him.
I like the idea that given infinite time and space most anything could happen or exist. It helps me cope with things sometimes as I day dream about other realities and what it would be like if I were in Skyrim or Fallout or some other world. Who would I want to be in that world? What would I be? What would I do? That is how I role play. I don't role play other people I role play how I would be if I were to exist in some other life.
Thanks for the comment and glad you enjoyed it ;)
Everything only exists in our heads anyhow so I tend to spend a lot of time there since I have more freedom to change to the rules :)
Overall Fenrir is more on the fantasy side and that will always be my true love. So I tend to enjoy working him into things best in Skyrim which is why I posted his lore here.
I think someone is using the Thalmor as puppets or tools or pawns. Perhaps enhancing their bigotry above that of the usual Altmer and feeding them lies about a promise to a return of immortality.
Part of me is toying with playing Captain Sayid and doing a few stories on him but not sure. I mentioned once in a lore post that he was on the path to becoming a special sort of Gray Lord himself which is why he has lived so long and has such a mysterious past. But not on the same power scale of course.
Ah so many ideas to write about!
For now still enjoying Wulver who is now helping the Graybeards in exchange for them helping him to learn about his eye tattoo. He has learned from them that the tattoo has made it easier for him to learn shouts but that he isn't a true dragonborn. That is how I am working his story into the main game at least. Since Wulver exists in Grim's world that would mean he also follows some of the logic and lore that I added to Grim's background in regards to Dannee and hence Dannee is the only True Dragonbon and the one that fought Adluin.
If Wulver ever fights him then it I will consider it a shadow or shade of Alduin. Plus Wulver is pretty weak compared to Grim. Playing Grim, when I was really playing him, he was deadly with his twin blades and maxed out perks for combat and stealth. Wulver is spread thin as he is using daggers, bows, illusion, destruction, and stealth. Yet he is fun to play even if he really does need Thrynn around to help protect him.
It would be interesting if the possible identities of unknown puppeteer master of Thalmor might appear in some conversation of your characters like Captain Sayid theory one day if you will have a wish to write it. And captain Sayid as one of Gray Lords can be very cool story to see.
It is cool to have such combined verse and hopefully we will see more of Wulver. I wonder if one of shadow verses has a shade of Alduin for him to fight with for it might make very intriguing paradox like in story with Kavel where there were two Nelthas.
Anyhow I love thinking about this stuff and of course I like incorporating it into my world building. I kept this post short as it was just meant to give the basics of the creation myth for the world (or Universe I suppose) I do my writing in even though its primarily focused on an alternative version of Earth (the book idea anyhow - my stories here are with FO and Skyrim since that is where I post and the game I am using).
Rambling. Thanks for the comment :)