- Go tell it on the Mountain,
- over the Hills and Everywhere ...
But even before reflecting on second line, I searched for hills in the Psalms. Here is what I found:
- I have cried to the Lord with my voice:
- and he hath heard me from his holy hill.
And this is from Psalm III. Now, there are similarities between Absalom and Rabadash, notably both being sons of polygamous rulers, and both besetting someone who in a way reminds of Our Lord's anguish. In one case his own father. In another case Queen Susan. And each gets caught "on a hook", so to speak - with his hair or with his cloathes. Some reflections about the less than examplary Christian charity prevalent at King David's court in that particular moment may have become part and parcel of what we read much more cynically between Tisroc and Rabadash. On the other hand Rabadash got an easier deal than Absalon, in the end.
But between Mercury and mountains in Pagan myths? Well, here is French wikipedia on him:
Mercure est le fils de Jupiter et de la nymphe Maïa, fille de Atlas.
OK, if mythological Mercury is grandson of a mountain (Atlas), then the mountain and hill imagery in HHB someone fit. Even from a Pagan viewpoint.
H G Lundahl
day after previous article.
3 comments:
It may be added that the "tombs of the kings" remind of such behind Upsala, and that Tisrocs like Yngling Kings descend from gods - Tash and Odin.
Now, Odin is, in equivalents of classical mythology, not Jupiter, despite being king of the Gods, but Mercury. And both Odin and Tash recieve human sacrifice.
Also, part of the Yngling history of Upsala is quite as treacherous as Tashbaan.
Mercury is also the god of deception in Classical Mythology.
One could even say that Tash, not quite unliked Sauron, is, as opposed to Gandalf, a black side of Odin.
Odin is in a way the god of carrion fowl gathering after battle - and Tash is both bird and carrion in one. If Odin and Sauron are one-eyed, then Tash like a bird, looks with only one eye at a time at anything. But it is finally not here but in the Last Battle that demon makes its appearance.
But this is of course not the end to parallels with The Lord of the Rings - even in this book. We have Pippin about as good a horseman to start with as Shasta, we have a resonance between Arwen and Aravis, we have Anvard rescued by arrival of an ally, as much as Minas Tirith (but Anvard is closer to Edoras, and Minas Tirith has the same topography by and large as Tashbaan) we have the pool of the Hermit serving as combination of Palantir and Galadriel's Mirror ...
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