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H of thought.
A key element of the cult of Odin was trickery. To
understand Odin's riddles, it is helpful to know certain esoteric things. This is a "must" in understanding
Riders to The Sea.
In figurative language, a riddle is a knot. To interpret a riddle, it must be untangled to be understood.
The use of figurative language and discerning
the furtive nature of the god Odin are part of understanding the play. In fact, Norse mythology is
full of tricky language in the posing and solution of riddles. Consider an example of hidden or embedded meaning in the
old Irish song She Moved Through The Fair:
"Last night she came to me,
My dead love
came in.
So softly she came
That her feet made no din.
As she laid her hand on me
And this she did say,
It
will not be long, love,
'Til our wedding day."
If you understand the main theme of the song
and "her feet made
no din", the name of the Lord of the Dead
is revealed:
"Her feet made no din"
becomes:
"Her feet maid(e) (n) odin",
and from this, the thought of Odin's handmaidens,
the Valkyrie, who come flying to escort the dead to the hall of Odin, is revealed.
Odin is Lord of the Dead. The Valkyrie are Choosers of the Slain.
Odin, as a shape-changer and trickster, falls
into the same category as the Devil and Coyote. The Devil in popular culture has many names depending on the part he is playing.
Old Scratch, Old Nick, and Splitfoot are three examples.
"Old Scratch or Mr. Scratch is a nickname or pseudonym for the Devil. The name likely comes from Middle English scrat, the
name of a demon or goblin, derived from Old Norse skratte" Wikipedia
In these popular stories, the Devil initially interacts with unsuspecting victims, although these people recognize him
as the Devil by the end of the story. The Devil usually makes an enticing offer in these stories, but there is always a catch.
Jesus, of the Bible, was often confronted by Satan who sometimes offered enticements and temptations, or made false
accusations.
The Devil, as an archetypical character, the
enemy of mankind's best endeavors, could be interchangeable with Odin, especially since the old gods often had horns,
claws, tail, and other animal characteristics. Christianity was believed to be elevated above the old nature religions whose
devotees worshipped animals in some cases and sometimes acted like them too.
The example of She Moved Through the Fair
may help in explaining hidden riddles found in Riders to The Sea.
The following quote is a line of Bartley's just
as he leaves home for the last time:
"... The fair will be a good fair
for horses I heard them saying below."
Where is below? At first glance, it
seems to be a geographical location, but could it be a reference to the underworld where the fairies were said to dwell or
the older Norse concept of hell?
The Devil of Christianity is found often in literary works and folk tales, from Dantes Inferno to The Devil and Daniel Webster.
The Devil and Old Scratch
"In old-timey New England (you know, where the Salem witch trials took place!), the devil became colloquially known by
euphemisms like Old Nick, Old Scratch, and Mr. Scratch due to the "nicking" and "scratching" that his
cruel influence could inflict on one's soul."
https://www.popsugar.com/entertainment/what-does-nicholas-scratch-name-mean-46005707
The Devil and Krampus
| A man dressed as 'Krampus' creature, Munich |
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| http://news.yahoo.com/photos/photos-of-the-day-december-14-2014- |
The Devil and Tom Walker
"The Devil and Tom Walker" is a short story by Washington Irving that was first published in 1824. The story is
similar to the German legend of Faust and is about a greedy and selfish man who makes a deal with the devil. The story is
considered dark and controversial, particularly among religious people.
Wikipedia
The Devil and Daniel Webster
According to some people, Odin was a devil and a trickster, not straightforward but talking in riddles.
One has to read between the lines to see the enduring old religion with its many pagan gods and goddesses and the Norse hero
Odin.
In Riders to The Sea, Maurya's children speak
of the rope with a knot in it. They say the knot cannot be untied. They say would not, but one also
hears would knot or even wood knot.
Wood and trees were very important to the northern people. It was scarce, and every kind of tree had its particular use and
properties. The runes were sometimes carved on wood and are tied to various kinds of trees.
Since this is a play, the characters might be saying to the audience that the play is a full of riddles which need to be solved
to fully understand the play..
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A
dictionary defines the word knot in terms of a "tight constriction", as in the expression my stomach was
in knots. Another meaning of knot is a "difficult problem". Another definition refers to a
bond of union such as marriage. This last meaning is sometimes heard in the expression they tied the knot.
In the play, a discussion about the tide was an important subject to a family whose
members make their living from the sea.
The phrase the tide is turning would indicate that things in the play would soon
change:
"NORA. Middling bad, God help us. There's a great roaring in the west,
and it's worse it'll be getting when the tide's turned to the wind.
[She goes over to the table with the bundle.]
Shall
I open it now?"
She is referring to a bundle of clothing that will tell them if the drowned man is
their brother.
Synge's use of puns, riddles, and implied proverbial
sayings occur throughout the play.
Riders to The Sea is a play on words.
A knotted bundle from the sea can be connected to the mythology of the hangman's knot of Odin's cult in a riddle
meant to be difficult or impossible to unravel.
Referring to a puzzle within the play Riders to The
Sea, there is a string that has a knot that cannot be loosened:
"CATHLEEN (trying to open the bundle). Give me a knife, Nora,
the string's perished with the salt water, and there's a black knot on it you wouldn't loosen in a week."
There
are many meanings of the word knot. There is a literal knot that the girls must untie to see what's in the bundle
of clothing.
A
ship's velocity can be measured in knots.
Additionally,
there is knot theory, which can be expressed by way of linear algebra.
Consider
the varied forms of Celtic knot designs which are woven in such a way as to resemble eternity. Celtic knots, as well as other
kinds of knots, can also express symmetry.
As
in the case of M.C. Escher's art, the mazelike pattern suggests eternity.
M.C. Escher
Knots,
for the most part, can be broken apart like a puzzle. The knots can be tied, and they can be undone, sometimes
by retracing the pattern. This is called reverse engineering in mechanical applications.
"There
are many definitions of a knot, all of which capture the intuitive notion of a knotted rope...The goal for now is to demonstrate
how the notion of knotting can be given a rigorous mathematical formulation..." (Livingston, 11).
In
the story of the Gordian Knot, it is said that Alexander the Great cut the knot with his sword, fulfilling a prophesy. Other
commentators say that he may have pulled out the pole which held it in place. Cutting the knot as a solution is
not considered permissible in mathematical knot theory.
It is said the Gordian Knot originated in this way:
"According to a Phrygian legend, an oracle at Telmissus decreed that the next
man to enter the city driving an ox cart should become their king. Midas, a poor peasant, happened to drive into town the
very next day on an ox cart and was declared king. In gratitude, he dedicated his ox-cart to Zeus, and tied it to a post with
an intricate knot. An oracle prophesied that the person who untied the knot would become the king of Asia."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_Knot).
Knots have become an interesting subcategory of mathematics. Regarding
the Gordian Knot, it was assumed that the knot had been wet when tied and allowed to dry before Alexander the Great attempted
to untie it.
"In 2002 the polish physicist Piotr Pieranski and the biologist Andrcej
Stasiac...With the help of computer simulations they were able to create a knot whose rope length was too short to untie.
In their statement to the press they said that 'the shrunken loop of rope was entangled in such a way that it could not be
converted back to its original circle by simple manipulations'" (Szpiro, 99).
Knots are always closed loops in mathematical theory. That means that
the two loose ends are tied together, or looking at it another way, there are no loose ends.
Alexander the Great may have been looking for a "loophole" and not
finding it, cut the knot by way of expedience.
Knots and math may even help hold the universe together.
"An international team of physicists has developed an out-of-the-box theory that shortly after it popped into existence
13.8 billion years ago the universe was filled with knots formed from flexible strands of energy called flux tubes that link
elementary particles together."
https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2017/10/13/filling-the-early-universe-with-knots-can-explain-why-the-world-is-three-dimensional/
Cosmic Knots and a Three Dimensional Universe
One
simple knot is called the trefoil. There are left and right handed trefoils, mirror images of each other. It appears,
at first glance, to be three, but that is an illusion. It is one single unbroken strand or tubule. Its appearance is
also reminiscent of the shamrock.
Trefoil Knot
Trefoil
The Alpine Butterfly is a knot.
The Alpine Butterfly is tied in the bight.
The Egyptian Sphinx is considered a figure of mystery.
It predates the Norse and their legends.
The Sphinx was, undoubtedly, a symbol for many
things. (The word "sphinx" comes from the Greek Σφιγξ — Sphigx, apparently from the verb σφιγγω — sphiggo,
meaning "to strangle" (note that the ng and nx sounds were written in ancient Greek as a double gammas. http://flizoo.com/Sphinx/
Freud, Jung's colleague, used the story of Oedipus
Rex, in which the hero answers the Sphinx's riddle, to illustrate some of his beliefs about human psychology.
In literature, Oedipus
Rex contains a powerful riddle in association with the Sphinx. In The Forgotten Language, it is written about Oedipus:
"...Behold, this is Oedipus/ Who unraveled the great riddle/
and was first in power/ Whose fortune all the townsmen praised and envied;/ See in what dread adversity he sank" (Fromm, 198).
It seems the ancients were wary of too much knowledge.
Oedipus and Odin suffered because of being too clever and knowing too much.
Solving the Riddle of the Sphinx that guarded the
city enabled Oedipus to enter it, although in doing so he sealed his fate which was foretold at his birth.
When Oedipus solved the Sphinx's riddle, he was able to enter Thebes. The
story makes it a point to show that he could not escape his fate. Since he could not escape, he experienced the same despair
that Thor felt when he was defeated by Elli. Old age and death is another fate that cannot be changed.
In the story of the Gordian Knot, it is said that
Alexander the Great cut the knot with his sword, fulfilling a prophesy. One opinion was that he pulled out a pin
that held the knot together. Some suggest that the knot was a cipher guarded by the religious priests of the time. What secret
knowledge might have this cipher unlocked (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordian_Knot).
This knot was a symbol for a difficult problem like the difficult knot in Riders to The Sea. Somewhat
like the difficulty of extracting the Sword from the Stone in Arthurian legend, it was considered nearly impossible
to solve, and like Oedipus' riddle, the Sword in the Stone was linked to the right of kingship.
The Riddle of Oedipus and the Spinx
Sphinx-lined road unearthed in Egypt
The Gordian Knot
Origin of the Gordian Knot
The Endless Knot
Egg of Columbus
"Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot,
which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.” Jean Cocteau
Definition of linchpin
Ancient chariot linchpins
Linchpin in the British Museum
You may have heard of the expression trying to keep body and
soul together. What is the linch pin that holds our soul to this life? It is the body of earth as in ashes to ashes and
dust to dust. The physical body is destroyed when the linchpin of life is removed.
Buddhists as well as mathematicians see the material
world tied together by what is not seen. Victory is a concept just as acceptance of fate is a concept:
"14. Victory breeds hatred,
for the conquered is unhappy. He who has given up both victory and defeat--he, the contented, is happy"
(http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ambedkar/ambedkar_buddha/04_03.html#10).
Maurya expresses this thought
in the play when she says:
"MAURYA (continuing).
Michael has a clean burial in the far north, by the grace of the Almighty God. Bartley will have a fine coffin out of the
white boards, and a deep grave surely. What more can we want than that? No man at all can be living for ever, and we must
be satisfied."
The question of why death comes to man is treated
as a riddle sometimes, along with other philosophical questions. Many pagan societies explain these and similar archetypical
themes by story telling.
Why do we die? Is there any escape from ultimate death?
The answer to these questions, if ever found, is related to religious and scientific perspectives.
The Norse god Thor could not answer this riddle which
he enacted with Elli. He had to accept his fate as the fate of all mankind. Thor is an archetype of man questioning the meaning
of life.
In times past, riddles about old age were plentiful, as were riddles about all sorts of other things.
In
one story, Thor wrestled with a symbolic "hag", also an archetype. This woman, often personified as a young goddess in
Spring and an old woman in Winter, represented the seasons of life that culminated in old age. The answer to the riddle of
the City of Illusion was that death was inevitable. Every man must die, and in another sense, no man must die.
In Riders to The Sea, everyman and no man were
the same thing. Odin traveled the byways of the common man, usually in disguise. At these times he was every man or the common
man. When engaged in one of his fabulous activities he was "no man".
The Symbel
The Beer Sacrifice
The Norse propensity for riddles is illustrated by a tale of contests that Thor was invited to participate in
when he entered the City of Illusion.
Of course, he did not understand that the city was an illusion until the contests were over, and it is this lack of
knowledge which prevented him from winning.
Ordinarily, Thor would have won all contests hands down, and he was baffled and humiliated by his apparent loss
.
When he left the City of Illusion Utgard-Loki explains
to him why he could never win.
Things had not been what they seemed on the surface, and the last contestant Thor had to wrestle an extremely
old lady, so that losing the match to her was the most puzzling (and humiliating) thing of all.
In Norse Mythology, Legends the fable is recounted:
"Now I will tell you the truth, said Utgard-Loki, Since you are well
outside of the castle...The fact is, you have all been hoodwinked. The wrestling match with Elli was no less a marvel, for
never a man lived, nor ever shall live, but must fall before her (elli=old age)" (Munch, 64-65).
Thor
has been wrestling, not with mortals or gods, but with the realm of ideas and the eternal unchangeable fact of mortality.
The last contest is one that confronts all of mankind: old age and death from which there is no escape.
Sometimes a look at archaic language and words with meanings no
longer commonly used or known can give clues as to a possible solution of the meaning in context..
The Word Museum gives this definition for blind tam:
"A bundle of rags, carried by female mendicants, made up so as to pass for a child, in order to excite compassion and secure
charity [Jamieson]" (Kacirk, 29 ).
The blind tam was used as a device to secure pity and money
by beggars. Maurya and her daughters might have been hinting at this. The bundle of clothes of their last male family member
reminded them of their sad fate of finances.
Would it be too much to think that blind is a reference to Odin's eye, especially
since he may have appeared to have been a beggar when traveling the highways of the common man?
TheViking gives us this information about Odin and symbols:
"His foes he strikes with panic or with
a kind of paralysis called the battle-fetter, a power which may account for the knot shaped like a triple triangle
which is believed to be a symbol of him" (Simpson, 162).
Is this the hangman's knot, and is death
the riddle of the cult of Odin and within the play? At this point, the perils of expecting a pat answer become apparent.
It also takes some fortitude to continue the study, as well as a strong stomach. The actual facts of ancient cult practices
are sometimes grisly.
The Valknot / Masked One (Grimner)
Concentration Camps - Triangle Badges
Triangle Badges - Warning Signs
Another account in The Viking shows
an example of ritual sacrifice connected to Odin and Norse worship. It involves hanging and stabbing, two of the three sacrificial
methods of the cult of Odin:
"The clearest tells of
the Norwegian king Vikar, chosen by lot to be offered up to Odin; hoping to evade his fate by a mock ceremony, he stood on
a stump under the thinnest branch of a fir tree, tied to it by a noose of calf-gut with his most trusty follower ready to
strike him with a slender reed- but the reed suddenly turned into a spear and the calf-gut into a stout rope, while the stump
fell from under his feet and the branch sprang up, so that he died of stabbing and hanging simultaneously. Such a death points
clearly to the cult of Odin, god of the hanged; a scene on one of the Gotland stones shows his symbol, the triple triangle,
near a hanged man whom a swooping bird is about to attack..."(Simpson, 170).
This illustrates that no amount of cunning could free a person from his fate.
Most of the details of fanciful tales about elves and "otherworldly"
folk have passed out of common knowledge. The Word Museum explains about Queen Mab and elflocks:
"Elflocks- Knots of hair twisted by elves. [Walker] It was supposed to be a spiteful amusement of Queen
Mab and her subjects to twist the hair of human creatures, or manes and tails of horses, into hard knots which it was not
fortunate to untangle. [Nares] SEE tazzled, witch's-stirrups"
(Kacirk, 64).
This definition introduces the idea that not all puzzles
are meant to be solved. Stating it another way, sometimes it would be better to leave well enough alone and mind your
own business, the same moral of the story of Pandora's Box.
Bartley said the rope in Riders to The Sea
would be very difficult to unravel. Although the Irish are famous for their legendary belief in the mischief of the Little
People, the play does not necessarily attribute the knotted rope to Mab or anyone in her court.
Hanging
was a common form of execution "since time began". Odin, in particular, hanged himself on the tree but did not die.
Death
is connected to the supernatural, and many superstitions arose about the subject. Cervantes writes in Don Quixote:
"...Where
had you learned that it is well done to mention the rope in the house of the man that has been hanged?"
Don Quixote to
Sancho Panza
from Don Quixote
by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
In Riders to The Sea, Bartly talks
about the knot in the rope, but his death is in the sea. Still, looking at his unlucky circumstances, readers could imagine
bad luck is part of his fate.
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