Nexus - 0802 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

Tengu trained Minamoto Yoshitsune, a famed Samurai swords- homes were hidden in inaccessible mountainsides and other man of the late 12th century, when he was an exiled boy on the _ remote locations. run from his enemies. The Tengu are almost identical in descrip- The Scandinavian and Germanic peoples also believed in the tion to the Utukku of Sumerian myth. Huldre, the "hidden folk", or Elves. The Huldre domain was a Other beings are the Kappa, a semi- luminous cavern realm called aquatic and totally reptilian-looking Alfheim. From Alfheim they would humanoid dwarf, the "ugly girls of venture forth to cajole, abduct or hell" and sundry other shapeshifting seduce human beings. Other beings entities who dwell underground or . were the Kobolds, or mine dwarves, under houses. The "fox people” are More mysterious were the perhaps a variant of the Norse among the latter, often taking human Svartalf. Another type was the form sand delighting in abduction and dwarves, a race (or races) of Tusse, a variant of elt who lived seduction of mortals. stunted, powerful craftsmen close to humans, usually beneath or and weapons-smiths. close to a farmstead. The primary interest of the Huldre elf-folk, which could be said to apply to all the Germanic types, seems to have been procreation with human The underworld of ancient Egypt has many things in common with its Mesopotamian counterpart. Called the Tuat or Duat, it was ruled by the god of the dead, Osiris, the counter- part of Sumer's Nergal. It is the ser- beings for the purpose of vants of Osiris, however, who are of maintaining genetic diversity. Like concern here. There was the jackal-headed god Khentimentiu and the trolls and dwarves, the elves seemed to dislike bright sunlight, also Anubis, both gods of arcane knowledge, embalming and but may have had more tolerance than their troll and dwarf other sciences. The god of knowledge, Thoth, was also a regular _—_ cousins as they were sometimes seen at dawn, twilight or dusk, or in the Tuat; he had a humanoid form with the head of a baboon _ by day in deeply shadowed valleys or mountain chasms. Huldre (but very canine in appearance). All three of these deities beara __ elves in particular are said to have dwelt beneath mounds and hills strong resemblance to the Sumerian Pazuzu. which were in closer proximity to human habitations, as trolls did There is also a parallel in the Ushabtiu, originally conceived as more rarely. The elves took a regular interest in human affairs— artificial, animated and robotic servants who were very similar to weddings, births and deaths (bloodlines?), the success of crops the Gala, or Galatur, of the Sumerian underworld. Like the Gala, and livestock and so forth—but only for their own selfish the Ushabtiu could be dispatched to punish or abduct an ordinary mortal or even the Pharaoh himself. These beings were represented in Egyptian burials by small statues of the same name, mimicking the supernatural servants of Osiris and hopefully providing a retinue of retainers and slaves for the deceased. Another being with familiar characteristics was Ammut, a blend of crocodile, lion and dog. But possibly the most feared being to haunt the underworld was the god of chaos and strife, Set or Seth, who attempted to mount a coup d'état against his brother, Osiris. Set is often considered to be the Egyptian counterpart of the Judaeo-Christian personality known as Satan, his appearance both canine and reptilian with a human form but animalistic head, long- snouted and/or muzzled. The hugest dragon of the Tuat, however, was the gigantic serpent Apophis, very similar to Nidhoggr or Jormungand from the Norse underworlds—a monstrous serpent which brought fear even to the gods. dwarves, a race (or races) of stunted, powerful craftsmen and weapons-smiths. 2. The West Moving into Europe and Scandinavia, the mythical sub- terraneans became less distant and more immediate, inter- acting with the common folk on a much more regular bas Scandinavians had their trolls and giants or Jotuns, also called Etins, who were great granitic beings of immense physical power and sometimes hairy of form. More myste- rious were the dwarves, a race (or races) of stunted, power- ful craftsmen and weapons-smiths. One race of dwarves was from Svartalfheim, the Land of the Dark Elves, a cav- ern world in its own right. Some of the Svartalf dwarf-kind lived in Nifleheim, the Land of the Dead. Along with the savage and man-eating trolls, the dwarves would turn to stone, into toads or otherwise die if struck by the direct rays of the Sun. More often than not, the entrances to their A hero fighting a scaled humanoid creature similar to a Greek gorgon. Note the creature's "third eye". NEXUS - 61 More mysterious were the FEBRUARY —- MARCH 2001