Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [269]
*“Fenian” becomes an important name later in Irish history. Beginning in the 1850s, it was used by Irish nationalists struggling to free the country from British rule. Many Fenians also belonged to a revolutionary secret society called the Irish Republican Brotherhood, founded in the United States. The Fenians had a great influence on a later generation of Irish nationalists, and after years of rebellion and guerrilla warfare, Ireland won independence in 1921—although the province of Ulster remained in British control. Political heirs of the Fenians, the nationalist party Sinn Féin (“we ourselves”) began as a self-reliance movement in 1905.
*A scholar of medieval poetry and myth, Tolkien taught Norse and Germanic literature and mythology at Oxford University for more than thirty years while writing The Hobbit and the Ring Trilogy. His books are steeped in these Norse and Germanic myths, and the name of his wizard, Gandalf—sometimes likened to the Norse god Odin—comes from Norse poetry. The scene of the Ring Trilogy, Middle Earth, is also drawn from Norse myth, in which the world of men is called Midgard.
†They even reached North America, establishing settlements in Canada five hundred years before Columbus arrived. But their stay there was temporary and left no permanent impact on the Americas.
*Composed over a period between 1853 and 1874, the cycle begins with Das Rheingold (The Rhine Gold), which serves as a prologue to the three main operas: Die Walküre (The Valkyrie),Siegfried, and Die Götterdämmerung (The Twilight of the Gods). All four works were first performed as a cycle in 1876 for the opening of the Festival Opera House, built by Wagner in Bayreuth, Germany.
*The Making of the Atomic, Richard Rhodes, p. 676.
*Due to its unfortunate association with Hitler and Nazism, the word “Aryan” has acquired a taint. Hitler and the Nazis used the term to refer to Germans and other northern Europeans, whom they considered racially superior to all other people. This racist use of the term continues among white supremacist groups, such as the Aryan Nation in the United States. Even the swastika, adapted as the symbol of Nazi power, has its roots in a similar ancient but benign Hindu symbol, which originally meant “let good things happen.” Among the other people who referred to themselves as Aryans were the Iranians; the name “Iran” itself comes from the word “Aryan.”
*Dalits, or untouchables, have traditionally held such occupations as tanning, street sweeping, and other menial jobs forbidden to members of the four castes. In 1950, untouchability was constitutionally outlawed, but discrimination against the Dalits is deeply ingrained and a form of caste-based “apartheid” still exists in India, where, according to Human Rights Watch, Dalits are often the victims of violence. “Pariah,” a Tamil word used for people with no caste, has also come to mean a social outcast.
*There is a school of mythology called ritualism, which suggests that rituals precede myths—merely stories created to justify the ritual. A “which came first, the chicken or the egg?” debate, the ritualist concept does not alter the fact that rituals and myths combine as powerful forms of belief and social order.
*Unfortunately, the Ganges has also become an industrial chemical dump, an open municipal sewer for the millions who live along its great length, and a depository for animal carcasses and human remains. It may indeed be a divine river, but it is a river seriously soiled by human hands.
*Mitra was a minor Hindu Vedic sun god worth mention because he eventually travels far beyond India. His twin brother was Varuna, the guardian of the cosmic order, and both were thought to be young, handsome, shining deities. Mitra ruled the day while Varuna ruled the night. The god of friendship and contracts, Mitra was good-natured and seen as a mediator between the gods and man. While Mitra occupied a more significant place in pre-Vedic times, his prominence faded with the