When you are used to the no-nonsense, no-context approach of medieval Irish stories, trying to read Old Norse saga literature does feel kind of like you’re being told a medieval story by Uncle Colm from Derry Girls.
If this were a medieval Irish story, it would be more like:
“There was an excellent warrior, Thorir his name. He was fostered by Thorstein, who had a son called Thorgrim, but it was not an auspicious time for their farm, because there was a haunting there. When Thorir saw the dead man, he tied a withe around its feet, but it pursued him anyway. Then he performed the sword-feat, and cut the man into many pieces. He took his head and went back to Thorgrim mac Thorstein. ‘O fosterbrother,’ he said, 'I have killed the man who was haunting you, that is, the revenant.’ Thorgrim said, 'This is a great deed.’ And that is why that place is called Hill of the Dead Man.”
And we will never find out who any of these people are or what was up with the revenant or what Thorir was trying to achieve with the withe – or even who the revenant was before he was dead.
Meanwhile in the Norse saga we’re still learning his family tree and Thorir hasn’t even shown up yet.
The ultracatholics on this website aren’t actually trying to “debate” you. They think they are trying to save you.
What is actually happening, is they’re saying inflammatory things that get strong negative reactions from readers. People yell at them in response. This generates a feeling of being attacked, so they can continue to see themselves as an underdog.
This entire dynamic can be shortcutted by simply blocking them and moving on with your life.
Whoa there, pardner! What have you done to make sure that belief or practice actually originates in ancient times and didn’t come from the imagination of a repressed Victorian romantic?
The first time I scrolled by this, I misread “pardner” as “Gardner” and this became ten times funnier.
