Ragnarok : the Age of Fire and Gravel

by inheritance; we imbibe them with our mothers' milk; they

ing through the endless and continuous generati

ankind regard comets with fear and trembling, and which unites all races of

ations, and our divisions of time into days, weeks, years, and centuries. This people stood much nearer the Drift Age than we do. They understood it better. Their legends and religious beliefs were full of it. The gods carved on Hindoo temples or painted on

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all reminiscences of that great monster. The idols of the pagan world are, i

on, the destructive winged dog, or wolf, or lion, whose sphinx-like images now frown upon us from ancient walls and door-ways, were really comets; taught how one of them had actually st

has come, and down through the race it

prefigured in the words of

and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn t

righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and y

hall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the

rophe foretold in the book of

nd behold a great red dragon, having seven head

.

part of the stars of heaven, a

in, (ch

, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became b

arth, even as a fig-tree casteth her untimel

en it is rolled together; and every mountai

and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman and ever

l on us, and hide us from the face of him that si

his wrath is come, and wh

ry of Job over again, in thi

efixed to the body of that work, and which the learned author of "Nimrod" suppo

wered and spoke while his eyes were open, and

h him who will go forth from his habitation,

inai, and appear with his hosts, and he manif

.

e terrified. Great fear and trembling sh

ed, and the exalted hills depressed,

rged, and all things whi

oward them exercise clemency. . . .

her history

) we have some allusions to the past, and some prop

hat by the word of God the heavens were of old, and

Ragnarok, and the legends generally, an island

that then was, being overf

," and destroyed, as told by Plato; thereby forming a very distinc

rea

by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire a

h the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt wit

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d, "shall come at the end of the world; he shall vanquish all

d and all its inhabitants by fire was found among t

t the Amantas--the shadow will veil the sun for ever, and land, moon, and sta

orth to consume the habitable land; only a pair, or only, at most, those who have maintained inviolate the

xico, the Muyscas of Bogota, the Botocudos of Brazil, the Araucanians of Chili, the Winnebagoes, all have possessed such a belief f

the ages, it ha

d vanish each w

all be purged wi

ard to a conflagration which is to end all things is found everywhere; a

n's "Myths

Ibi

.

reat shining in the heavens; it is "G

h the proofs of the tr

ing the great meteoric sho

he right and left; this phenomenon lasted until daybreak; people were thrown

1366 produced similar effects.

ismay that they were astounded, imagining that they were

lood of the race, if it had not originated from some great p

ambers

sdirected physical force and untamable animal passions. . . . The dragon proceeds openly to work, running on its feet with expanded wings, and head and tail er

monster i

nce Monthly," Ju

id.,

ncyclopaedia," v

.

the same universal insp

met b

he length of

sky, and from

stilence

akespeare pla

ens with black, y

ng change of ti

crystal tres

courge the bad

he scientist they are a puzzle and a fear; they are erratic, unusual, anarchical, monstrous--something let loose, like a tiger of the heavens, athwart an orderly, peaceful, and

enry VI

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