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I get the meaning/relation/joke. But.....I'd really like to know the why one would be so enamored by a deity or their story to take a screen name like that. What is the why behind it?
I guess it's time to read it again. I didn't note that when watching.
A Catholic priest gave me his copy of The Hobbit in the 60s and I'm ashamed to say it took me a couple of years to get around to reading it. By the time I did, he was no longer assigned to that parish* and I'd stopped attending church.
I toted a London-purchased copy of LOTR around with me as a hitchhiking hippie in Europe in 1971. I've read it perhaps four times since but not since the late 80s.
*I learned a few years later he left the priesthood.
It is the Extended Edition of the movies I am referring to. Some of the additional material was definitely good and boosted the story. But some seemed to be just filler. Not bad but not exactly epic either. (Brief few seconds cameo by Jackson as in King Kong BTW.) Likewise with the extras.
To get a bit more back on topic: Notice how no one but the High Elves seem to have anything resembling a religion in the book. Religious meta-references in the story to be sure - Gandalf's resurrection is a big one. But only the Noldor seem to have religious sentiments, albeit only about their own history and apparently celebrated only in song.
What your favorite non abrahamic based diety and/or story? And why?
I forgot to mention that the Heart Thread (Heart Sutra), when translated correctly into common language, actually urges people to go forth further and beyond.
But I also like the Norse story about the Creator being stuck in the Salty Ice of Nothingness (Primordial ice) then licked out by a Primordial Cow... It explains why an Eternal God did Nothing for an eternity before he did something (create his angel/god children). And it also explains how a "Magic Cow" can also be an Eternal Primordial deity just like the Christian God. There doesn't just have to be "one" primordial nor one way of being primordial. And technically "chaotic nothingness" can be anything, even salty ice (if "nothingness" is going to "stop" things from happening).
The Chaotic Void, from Hellenic stories is also funny to consider, because it is the First Creator, and the Father of Good and Calamity (or evil) just like the Abrahamic Wrathful God. The Hellenic stories usually centered around how the Chaotic Void was killed (or changed) by his own children, Inevitability and Fate. Then about how Inevitability and Fate birthed Heaven and Earth, then how they birthed Titanic Forces that were eventually corrupted by Power (choosing to create both good and evil, then mostly evil), then how their own children (the Olympians) had to put them down and in-prison the Titanic forces. ...Then it would be assumed that Zeus was put down by his own bastard child Jesus, who had gone into cahoots with the First Creator, the god of Monotheism.
Last edited by LuminousTruth; 02-24-2015 at 12:21 AM..
Not sure if it qualifies as "deity" but stories surrounding Coyote in some Indigenous American traditions are really good examples of "primitive" psychological analysis.
Upon seeing this thread Coyote was the first to spring into my mind.
It is the Extended Edition of the movies I am referring to. Some of the additional material was definitely good and boosted the story. But some seemed to be just filler. Not bad but not exactly epic either. (Brief few seconds cameo by Jackson as in King Kong BTW.) Likewise with the extras.
My favorite added scene was "the mouth of Sauron" sequence in Return of the King. It managed to be badass and profound at the same time.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alt Thinker
To get a bit more back on topic: Notice how no one but the High Elves seem to have anything resembling a religion in the book. Religious meta-references in the story to be sure - Gandalf's resurrection is a big one. But only the Noldor seem to have religious sentiments, albeit only about their own history and apparently celebrated only in song.
Tolkein wanted a mythology for the english-speaking peoples, and to do that, I think he had to be, shall we say, religiously neutral. I think he succeeded. The LOTR trilogy and the Hobbit are the the closest thing to a "non abrahamic based deity or story" that I personally like, but like you I think it's a stretch because all that's really in there are "meta-references" ... death and resurrection, love and sacrifice, good and evil, etc.
...snip... The LOTR trilogy and the Hobbit are the the closest thing to a "non abrahamic based deity or story" that I personally like, but like you I think it's a stretch because all that's really in there are "meta-references" ... death and resurrection, love and sacrifice, good and evil, etc.
My favorite added scene was "the mouth of Sauron" sequence in Return of the King. It managed to be badass and profound at the same time.
Tolkein wanted a mythology for the english-speaking peoples, and to do that, I think he had to be, shall we say, religiously neutral. I think he succeeded. The LOTR trilogy and the Hobbit are the the closest thing to a "non abrahamic based deity or story" that I personally like, but like you I think it's a stretch because all that's really in there are "meta-references" ... death and resurrection, love and sacrifice, good and evil, etc.
I like the one where a giantess comes to make a deal with the gods and one of the conditions of the deal is that they have to make her laugh. So Loki ties a goats beard around his balls and plays tug of war with it. It worked.
Another is one in which Thor is traveling through the woods with a boy and a girl. Night falls and it begins to rain so they take refuge in a cave. Inside the large cave room is a side passage that they decide to sleep in. In the morning when they exit the cave they discover it was a giant's mitten and the side passage was the thumb of the mitten.
The Norse myths are full of homey little stories like that.
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