I Begyndelsen var Skriget

by Henning Kure

Beskrivelse: I begyndelsen var skriget. Ikke ordet, det færdige resultat, men skriget, det råstof der kan omskabes til ord. Forskellen er enorm. Begyndte verden med guddommelig perfektion, hvorfra det kun kunne gå ned ad bakke, eller med et potentiale der bestandig skal tilvirkes og udfoldes? Og hvilket syn på verden og mennesket kommer der ud af så forskellige begyndelser? I begyndelsen var skriget er et øjenåbnende bud på en ny forståelse af vore forfædres mytologi. De fleste danskere har en idé om at vikingerne inddelte deres verden i godt og ondt, aser og jætter, som bekrigede hinanden. Det er Snorri Sturlusons 1200-tals Edda der ligger til grund for denne opfattelse. Men Snorri var kristen og havde en kristen dagsorden med sine genfortællinger. Henning Kure bevæger sig bag om Snorri og befrier de gamle myter for tolkninger der hører et andet verdensbillede til. Et verdensbillede vikingerne selv måske ikke ville have genkendt. I stedet får vi et muligt oldnordisk syn på verden og mennesket, der sætter de gamle myter i et helt nyt lys.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

352 pages, Paperback

First published November 10, 2010

Reviews

[Ninon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolut fantastisk at læse!!
Utroligt der ikke har været skrevet noget lign. før (om Nordisk Mytologi)...
- og jeg ville ønske han spyttede nogle flere bøger ud meget, meget snart!!!

[Toni · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the beginning was not the word, but the scream. The first being in Norse mythology was Ymir, which literally means The Screamer. Everything was made from its body. So much for the world being a void that was then filled by a male figure's words. As if the world could be mansplained into being.

This is a totally avant-garde take on Norse cosmology, showing how it was much weirder and fleshier than earlier scholars thought. Both scholarly on point and spiritually "from within" a tradition that is almost all respects a broken tradition, that is, everyone who finds something of value here could not have relied on much oral transmission and the people who live in this part of the world have been almost entirely colonized the cosmology of the respective nation states. People who role-play "Vikings" and claim a "viking" ancestry today are for the most part missing the point (to just take the most obvious: the so called "viking age" was clearly a Christian age in the Nordic countries, the act of "going viking" in many cases Christian crusades, and many of the myths from that time in effect having been rewritten by Christian scholars). Kure clears up many misunderstandings that to this day still dominate the popular view on pre-Christian Nordic cosmology. It's a real shame this is not available in English full-length considering the many strange fantasies being projected on "Nordic culture" these years. There's fortunately a 9-page summary of his reading of the creation myths which can give you a sense of where it's going: Go find "In the Beginning Was the Scream: Conceptual Thought in the Old Norse Myth of Creation".