Comments on: Over the River and Through the Woods to the 13th Century We Go…

By: Hrafnkell

Hrafnkell — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:05:55 +0000

I don’t understand either, Ulfrun. I’d like to see us move beyond “Columbus Day” – if not because of the insult given to Native Americans then for the sake of historical accuracy – but the Religious Right – meaning the Republican Base – clings to its illusions. I hadn’t heard about the prayer but it wouldn’t surprise me either!

And I agree – another year gone and the forces of dominionism are as powerful as ever – more, perhaps, simply because so many people laugh off the idea. I remind them people laughed at Hitler too, and as he said, “those who were laughing then are not laughing now.”

Chilling words to remember, in the light of how that turned out.

By: Ulfrun

Ulfrun — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:11:10 +0000

Ahh, Columbus. Why we have a holiday celebrating a man who got lost and then lied about it (hence the term ‘Indians’), I will never understand. I remember hearing once that he thought the Earth was shaped like a pear and that he would find Eden on the bump. Don’t know if that’s reliable info, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

And yeah, this post pretty much sums it up. Less then a year gone by and and yet it feels more relevant. We best do all we can to stop it.

By: Hrafnkell

Hrafnkell — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:05:29 +0000

Yeah, they were here, but only for about 3 years according to the sagas – too many hostile neighbors they couldn’t get along with! I think the Vikings were a lot less likely to just try and kill everybody than the Spaniards of the later era – they tended to assimilate more easily (as your England – and Ireland and Scotland – demonstrate).

By: Anglo-Stu

Anglo-Stu — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:57:30 +0000

“Maybe we can slap them down here…”

Hel, I’ll come over and help…once my life stops getting in the way of me living it!

Yes, I don’t think we missed those ‘puritans’ when they sailed the whale road but I think they’re being slowly replaced. Shame we’re not a republic (yet).

The Vikings did settle in Vinland…if memory serves (from books, not experience!) they were there for sometime, but weren’t they overcome by the natives or had to return home for some seasonal reason and then never went back because of distance?

Columbus…he was going to give up and return home wasn’t he but was urged to keep going…something like that. How different would it have been…..

By: Hrafnkell

Hrafnkell — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:35:34 +0000

Maybe we can slap them down here for you Stu, so poor bastards never have to cope with the insanity. We progressives will do our best, at any rate. I think the difference is that you lost most of your “puritan” types to the New World. We seem to have our own unique blend of nuttiness here in Vinland. Too bad the Vikings didn’t manage to get the place settled before Columbus stumbled by! (the Religious Right insists it was Columbus who discovered America – or at least, Rush Limbaugh does – can’t have a bunch of Heathen Vikings do it, after all!)

By: Anglo-Stu

Anglo-Stu — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:32:06 +0000

This article made me chuckle again!…Thanks for sharing.

Whilst much of what you wrote actually happened in England & Europe in the 13th Century (and after), it inspired me to ‘google’ “Religious Right” and click the ‘pages from the UK’ button just to see how much info there was. To my surprise (or perhaps not!) most of the sites were for UK newspapers/blogs and other articles linking events from the good ol’ US of A!

Now here in the UK we get bishops, archbisops and other church ‘leaders’ saying what’s right/wrong/holy/unholy, etc., but not many people take much notice (so it seems). There are also the evangelical types spouting their nonsense, but not often in the public realm (except in the high street on a busy Saturday morning where one guy churns out his ‘jc luvs ya’ speech and hands out leaflets to passers-by who just…well….pass-by; heads down, with their hands stuffed deep in their pockets!)

So, it seems that Americans can claim “The Christian Right wing” for themselves and leave us poor English pagan folk in the dark about experiencing the excitement of direct confrontation on a national level.

I think our government is slowly jumping on the band-wagon by ‘mentioning’ off-hand that he/she occassionally goes to church and I expect that, as with most of our modern history, we’ll be about 20 years behind you! LOL!