Texts of the 20th Century: Part 1

Texts of old

Note: the following is a copy of original writing not my own, part of a research process writing the fiction series, The Elements

THE PREHISTORIC GREEKS

THEOSOPHY, Vol. 27, No. 3, January, 1939 (Pages 99-105) 

On a blustery February afternoon in 1874 the German-American archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann climbed the hard steep road leading to the Cyclopean citadel of Mycenae, in the northeastern corner of the Peloponnesian peninsula. As he gazed upward at the grim outlines of the ancient fortress, sharply etched against the dull grey sky, his heart beat high with anticipation, for he knew that he was approaching the scene of one of the greatest tragedies of the heroic age of Greece. For in that citadel Agamemnon, after his return from the Trojan War, was slain by his wife Clytemnestra, who in turn was murdered by her children, Orestes and Electra.

Professor Schliemann had already begun to suspect that the stories of the Trojan War were limned upon an Atlantean background. While excavating in Troy he had found, in the treasure house of Priam, an exquisitely wrought bronze vase bearing the inscription: From King Chronos of Atlantis. Ten years later, while wandering through the Louvre in Paris, he came across its mate, which had come to light in Tiahuanaca, on the South American continent. If, before he died in 1890, this intuitive man had been fortunate enough to read Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, he might have learned that the Trojan War coincided with the cycle of events described in the Mahabharata, and that Homer's Iliad was but a copy of the Ramayana.

Homer declared that Agamemnon and Clytemnestra had lived in Mycenae, and, according to Pausanius, they were buried there. Armed with this information, Schliemann began his excavations. In the hillside tombs he found a number of skeletons wearing golden crowns, masks and girdles, and a vast treasure house filled with golden ornaments which, he believed, had once adorned fair Helen of Troy.

Scholars who had previously regarded the Iliad as a fairy tale now began to wonder if it could possibly be a record of some prehistoric race. When the Cyclopean fortress of Tiryns was excavated by Schliemann, Professor Sayce of Oxford suggested that the word Tiryns came from some pre-Aryan language spoken in the peninsula before the Greeks arrived.

The Greeks themselves called these prehistoric settlers Pelasgians. But who were the Pelasgians? Were they primitive Neolithic men, or did they belong to some mighty civilization of which the very name has been forgotten? What sort of people built the magnificent Lion Gate of Mycenae, with an enormous slab, weighing a hundred tons, poised a full twenty feet above the level of the ground? Who laid out the great hillside tombs of Mycenae, with their 45-foot domes built without a keystone? Professor Schliemann was convinced that "the architects who planned Mycenae and Tiryns certainly possessed an engineering and calculating skill which was not surpassed by the builders of the Pyramids."

The excavations of Sir Arthur Evans in Crete proved that these early settlers belonged to a highly cultured race. They had built a road across the island upon which they travelled in wheeled chariots. Their palaces were equipped with bath-rooms, running water, drainage systems, heating devices, and even elevators! Their artificers in ivory and bronze "wrought masterpieces which remain today among the world's greatest works of art." (Breasted, The Conquest of Civilization.)

Who were these mighty builders? Pausanius said that "the walls of Tiryns were built by the Cyclopes," and Euripides called the plain of Argos the "Cyclopean land." The identity of the Cyclopes is shrouded in mystery. One might expect the Greeks would themselves have left a record of their forefathers. They did, but in a form unacceptable to modern scholars. The Greeks preserved the record of the races which preceded them in their myths.

The word myth in Greek means an oral tradition, one which was passed from generation to generation by word of mouth. Plato considered the myths as "vehicles of great truths well worth the seeking." Even Ruskin declared that "to the mean person the myth always meant little; to the noble person, much."

We of the present day are content to accept a monkey as our ancestor, but the proud Greeks traced their lineage to the Gods. These gods were divided into three distinct classes: the Immortals, who dwelt on Mount Olympus; the inferior gods, who animated Nature; and the demi-gods, half mortal and half immortal. Here we have the three lines of evolution -- Monadic, physical, and intellectual.

The Gods of Olympus may be regarded in seven different ways. The meaning of the myths depends on the personification of the gods, which may be any of the following: of the noumena of the intelligent Powers of nature; of Cosmic Forces; of celestial bodies; of self-conscious gods; of psychic and spiritual powers; of Divine Kings on earth; and finally, as actual historical characters. If the Greek myths are interpreted from this last point of view, we will have a picture of the four races which preceded our own.

The Greeks allegorized the four Races as four Ages, using the four metals -- gold, silver, bronze and iron -- to symbolize the steps of descent into materiality.

The Golden Age was the period when the First Race lived in the "Sacred Imperishable Land" which capped the North Pole. The forms of this Race were ethereal. They could walk, run, fly, and see objects at a distance. They were sexless and the principle of Kama had not yet been developed. Thus it was said that in the Golden Age war was unknown and no one coveted the possessions of another.

The Second Race lived in the Age of Silver and occupied the Hyperborean Continent. The Greeks called it the "land of the gods," for it was the favorite abode of Apollo, the god of light, and its inhabitants were his beloved priests. The story of this Race is contained in the myth of Uranos, the King of the Second Continent. He personified the creative forces of nature, while his wife Gaea represented matter, the basis of all forms. According to the legend, Uranos produced giants and nymphs from drops of his own blood, suggesting the method of reproduction in this Race. He is said to have devoured his own children and to have been devoured by his son, indicating the fruitless efforts of unaided nature to create real men of mind.

The Third Race, of the Age of Bronze, inhabited Lemuria. This Race was itself divided into three periods. The early Lemurians were sexless, producing their young by exuding drops of vital fluid, which formed an egg-shaped ball. The myth of Leda, whose twin sons were gestated in an egg, refers to this early method of procreation. Then came a cycle of bisexuality. Plato gives us a description of the Third Race at this point of its evolution. "Our nature of old," he wrote, "was not the same as it now is. It was then androgynous. Our bodies were round, and the manner of their running was circular. Hence Zeus divided them into two." Finally mankind became male and female, and since that time the reincarnating Ego has depended upon the union of the sexes for the production of its physical vehicle.

At the beginning of the Fourth Round on this globe, every class of being was one-eyed. The "one-eyed Cyclops" of Greek mythology, those giants fabled as sons of Coelus and Terra, three in number, represented the last three sub-races of the Lemurians, for the two front eyes, as physical organs, did not appear until the beginning of the Fourth Race. The myth of Ulysses, who visited the cave of the Cyclops Polyphemus and destroyed his vision by means of a fire-brand, symbolizes the atrophy of the "third eye." The adventure of Ulysses with the pastoral Cyclops, a giant race, is an allegorical record of the gradual passing of the Cyclopean civilization of stone and gigantic buildings to the more physical and sensuous culture of the Atlanteans, which finally caused the "eye of wisdom" to disappear.

In the middle of the Third Race, the "lighting up of Manas" occurred. At the beginning of our evolution the Monad (the "vivifying agent" present in every atom in the universe) had been plunged first into the lowest form of matter, the mineral. Gradually, by the passage of the Life Wave through the vegetable and animal kingdoms, a superior form was evolved -- ready at last for the Host of Manasaputra whose destiny it was to incarnate upon this globe. Some of these mindless human forms were neither ready nor suitable for occupancy and remained destitute of higher knowledge until the Fourth Race. Into those forms which were half ready, a spark of intelligence was infused. Into those forms which were ready, the "Lords of the Flame" entered, kindling the germ of mind in the "mindless men" and adding to them the flame of their own Manas.

The story of the "lighting up of Manas" is found in the myth of the Titan Prometheus, creator of men. He first moulded a form which could stand upright, so that, while the animals looked down to the earth, man could fix his gaze upon the stars. When the form was completed, Prometheus lighted a torch at the chariot of the sun and gave the fire of mind to men. Enraged because this made of man a God, Jupiter chained Prometheus to a rock and sent an eagle to tear at the vitals of the suffering Titan. His destined deliverer, Hercules, told him how he could free himself from his bondage--

The soul of man can never be enslaved
Save by its own infirmities; nor freed
Save by its own strength and own resolve
And constant vision and supreme endeavor
.

The myth of Castor and Pollux, twin sons of Leda by a mortal and an immortal father, also shows the difference between the "mindless men" and the incarnating Egos who ensouled them. Castor was the son of a mortal while Pollux had Jupiter for his father. In a battle in which both engaged Pollux came out victorious, but Castor was stricken. In sorrow Pollux asked Jupiter to be allowed to die with his brother. Jupiter told him he could not die because he came of an immortal race, but that he might share his immortality with Castor by passing half his existence underground, the other half in the heavenly abodes. This semi-immortality was accepted by Pollux. The occult meaning of the allegory is given by H.P.B.:

Here we have an allusion to the "Egg-born," Third Race; the first half of which is mortal, i.e., unconscious in its personality, and having nothing within itself to survive; and the latter half of which becomes immortal in its individuality, by reason of its fifth principle being called to life by the informing gods, and thus connecting the Monad with this earth. This is Pollux; while Castor represents the personal, mortal man, an animal of not even a superior kind, when unlinked from the divine individuality. "Twins" truly; yet divorced by death forever, unless Pollux, moved by the voice of twinship, bestows on his less favoured mortal brother a share of his own divine nature, thus associating him with his own immortality. (The Secret Doctrine II, 123.)

Practically all of the gods of Greece are of a northern origin, originating in Lemuria toward the end of the Third Race after its physical evolution was completed. The Fourth Race is, with Hesiod, that of the heroes who fell before Thebes, or under the walls of Troy. The Trojan War, therefore, although an historical event of some 6,000 years ago, was also a symbol of other events which took place upon the continent of Atlantis. The Atlanteans developed from a nucleus of northern Lemurian men, centered, roughly speaking, toward a point of land which is now in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The early Atlanteans were three-eyed, having two in front and a third eye at the back of the head. The Greeks preserved the record of this race in a statue of the three-eyed Zeus, discovered in the Acropolis of Argos and believed to be the oldest statue ever found in Greece.

At the height of their civilization the Atlanteans were giants both in body and in intellect, and were greater scientists than those of the present day. For one thing, they had aeroplanes which were operated by solar force. Homer's vessels "going without sails or oars" refers to them, as does the myth of Icarus, who was warned by his father Daedalus to fly

...nor low, nor high, If low, thy plumes may flag the ocean's spray, If high, the sun may dart his fiery ray.

Unfortunately for their own future, the Atlanteans turned their knowledge to evil uses. Many modern practices such as vivisection, blood transfusion, the transplanting of animal glands to human bodies -- even the craze for personal wealth and power -- are the Karmic product of the sins of the Atlanteans, a defiance of nature which caused their destruction as a race and the catastrophic submergence of their continent.

The Greeks preserved the tradition of the sinking of Atlantis in the myth of Deucalion. The legend says that after the fourth race had passed its apex of development, a change occurred in men. Modesty, truth and honor fled, and in their place came crime, fraud, cunning and the wicked love of gain. Seeing the condition into which the earth had fallen, Jupiter determined to destroy it and form a new land where men would have fresh opportunities to live a virtuous life. So the waters came and covered the land, leaving only Mount Olympus above the waves. There Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha found shelter, and from them sprang the new, fifth race.

Thousands of years after, Solon, the great Athenian law-giver and one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece, visited Egypt and recounted the myth of Deucalion to one of the priests of Saïs. The priest assured Solon that it was the record of an actual historical event which had occurred some 9,000 years before. He told the Greek sage of the last of the Atlantean Islands, which he called Atlantis, but which was really the Island of Poseidonis, picturing in detail its high mountains, canals, bridges, and harbors filled with vessels from foreign ports. He gave a full account of the inhabitants of the island and their customs, describing in particular the laws of the country and the method of their enforcement. On his return to Athens Solon wrote down the tale in epic form. Plato inherited his manuscript and repeated the story in the Timaeus and Critias. For more than 2,000 years the world regarded Plato's story as a fable. But in the last quarter of last century Ignatius Donnelly and H. P. Blavatsky provided indisputable proofs of the existence of Atlantis.

Long before the island of Poseidonis sank beneath the waves, one of the early sub-races of the Aryan stock descended from the high plateaux of Asia and emigrated to islands in the West. There they resided for some thousands of years, intermarrying with members of the last, or seventh sub-race of the Atlanteans. Ages later these people, called Atlantean Aeolians because of their long stay on the remnants of the lost continent, were to become the ancestors of the Greeks, for when some of the islands around Poseidonis showed signs of sinking, they had again to leave their homes. They built a flotilla of arks and sailed through the Pillars of Hercules (the Straits of Gibraltar) into the Mediterranean Sea. Some of them colonized the coasts of Italy and Spain. Others went on into the Aegean Sea and settled on the Greek Isles and in Thessaly, to which they gave the name of Aeolia. The Atlantean Aeolians were, therefore, the "autochthones" of Greece, the forefathers of the Hellenes, the builders of the Cyclopean citadels and fortresses which still puzzle the archaeologist.

Before Professor Schliemann died, he expressed his firm conviction that Atlantis had been the cradle of the human race. His son, devoting fifteen years to submarine exploration around the African coast, found many relics of Atlantis: wall-fragments, representing a ceremonial dance; a cave-temple of highly artistic construction; two great high-roads, and several unexplained lighthouses on the African coast which he believed were built by Atlantean navigators.

The objections to Professor Schliemann's theory that the modern races of mankind came from Atlantis are based on the same blind negation which refuses a hearing to Theosophic philosophy: both contradict prevailing speculations, and must therefore be denied with little or no investigation. While interest in the subject of Atlantis grows yearly, not until the biological and anthropological significance of that continent are grasped by science can we say that its real existence has been admitted. For then, and only then, will modern civilization come into its heritage of the true, the secret knowledge of the ancient Greeks.

The Seven Tablets of Creation

Mark David's  homepage

The Elements community on google+

Follow The Elements homepage

Image: Chaos monster and sun god

Leonard William Kings (1902) was the authoritative work on the Enuma Elish, the Babylonian creation myth. The etext linked to at the end of this blog includes the complete introduction, and the English text of the Enuma Elish and other related texts, with selected footnotes.

About

Enuma Elish is the earliest written creation myth, in which the God Marduk battles the chaos Goddess Tiamat and her evil minions. It originated in the land of Sumer, or the ‘land of civilized kings’, flourished in Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq, around 4500 BC. Sumerians created an advanced civilization with its own system of elaborate language and writing, architecture and arts, astronomy and mathematics. Their religious system was a complex one comprised of hundreds of gods. According to the ancient texts, each Sumerian city was guarded by its own god; and while humans and gods used to live together, the humans were servants to the gods.

The Sumerian creation myth can be found on a tablet in Nippur, an ancient Mesopotamian city founded in approximately 5000 BC.

The creation of Earth (Enuma Elish) according to the Sumerian tablets begins like this:

When in the height heaven was not named,

And the earth beneath did not yet bear a name,

And the primeval Apsu, who begat them,

And chaos, Tiamut, the mother of them both

Their waters were mingled together,

And no field was formed, no marsh was to be seen;

When of the gods none had been called into being,

And none bore a name, and no destinies were ordained;

Then were created the gods in the midst of heaven,

Lahmu and Lahamu were called into being...

In the beginning, Sumerian mythology tells us human-like gods ruled over Earth. When they came to the Earth, there was much work to be done and these gods toiled the soil, digging to make it habitable and mining its minerals. The texts mention that at some point the gods mutinied against their labour:

When the gods like men

Bore the work and suffered the toll

The toil of the gods was great,

The work was heavy, the distress was much.

Anu, the god of gods, agreed that their labour was too great. His son Enki, or Ea, proposed to create man to bear the labour, and so, with the help of his half-sister Ninki, he did. A god was put to death, and his body and blood was mixed with clay. From that material the first human being was created, in likeness to the gods:

You have slaughtered a god together

With his personality

I have removed your heavy work

I have imposed your toil on man.

…

In the clay, god and man

Shall be bound,

To a unity brought together;

So that to the end of days

The Flesh and the Soul

Which in a god have ripened –

That soul in a blood-kinship be bound.

Links to Eden

This first man was created in Eden, a Sumerian word which means ‘flat terrain’. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Eden is mentioned as the garden of the gods and is located somewhere in Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Initially human beings were unable to reproduce on their own, but were later modified with the help of Enki and Ninki. Thus, Adapa was created as a fully functional and independent human being. This ‘modification’ was done without the approval of Enki’s brother, Enlil, and a conflict between the gods began. Enlil became the adversary of man, and the Sumerian tablet mentions that men served gods and went through much hardship and suffering.

Adapa, with the help of Enki, ascended to Anu where he failed to answer a question about ‘the bread and water of life’. Opinions vary on the similarities between this creation story and the biblical story of Adam and Eve in Eden.

Sumerian tablet depicting Enki in the creation myth. (world-myth.com)

Origins

The name ‘Enuma Elish’ is derived from the first two words of the myth, meaning ‘When in the Height’. Tiamat takes the form of a gigantic snake, and Marduk battles and defeats her using an arsenal of super-weapons. After his victory Marduk is made the leader of the Gods by acclamation. Marduk divides Tiamat’s corpse into two portions, the upper half becoming the sky and the lower half, the earth. Marduk then creates humanity from his blood and bone.

The Enuma Elish has long been considered by scholars to be primary source material for the book of Genesis. It has also been hypothesized that this is a legend about the overthrow of the matriarchy or records of some cosmic catastrophe. It was discovered in the ancient Royal Library of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (current day Mosul, Iraq) in 1849.  George Smith translated the text and released his work in 1876 in the book, The Chaldean Account of Genesis.

History

The Assyrian copies of the work are from the great library which was founded at Nineveh by Ashur-bani-pal, king of Assyria from B.C. 668 to about B.C. 626; the Babylonian copies and extracts were inscribed during the period of the kings of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods ; and one copy of the Seventh Tablet may probably be assigned to as late a date as the period of the Arsacidae. All the tablets and fragments, which have hitherto been identified as inscribed with portions of the text of the poem, are preserved in the British Museum.

From the time of the first discovery of fragments of the poem considerable attention has been directed towards them, for not only are the legends themselves the principal source of our knowledge of the Babylonian costnogony, but passages in them bear a striking resemblance to the cognate narratives in the Book of Genesis concerning the creation of the world. A suggestion has been made that the prominence given to the word of the Creator in the Hebrew account may have found its parallel in the creation by a word in the Babylonian poem. It is true that the word of Marduk had magical power and could destroy and create alike; but Marduk did not employ his word in any of his acts of creation which are at present known to us. He first conceived a cunning device, and then proceeded to carry it out by hand.

The only occasion on which he did employ his word to destroy and to create is in the Fourth Tablet, 11. 19-26,2 when, at the invitation of the gods, he tested his power by making a garment disappear and then appear again at the word of his mouth. The parallelism between the two accounts under this heading is not very close.

The order of the separate acts of creation is also not quite the same in the two accounts, for, while in the Babylonian poem the heavenly bodies are created immediately after the formation of the firmament, in the Hebrew account their creation is postponed until after the earth and vegetation have been made. It is possible that the creation of the earth and plants has been displaced by the writer to whom the present form of the Hebrew account is due, and that the order of creation was precisely the same in the original forms of the two narratives. But even according to the present arrangement of the Hebrew account, there are several striking points of resemblance to the Babylonian poem. These may be seen in the existence of light before the creation of the heavenly bodies ; in the dividing of the waters of the primeval flood by means of a firmament also before the creation of the heavenly bodies ; and in the culminating act of creation being that of man.

It would be tempting to trace the framework of the Seven Days of Creation, upon which the narrative in Genesis is stretched, to the influence of the Seven Tablets of Creation, of which we now know that the great Creation Series was composed. The reasons for the employment of the Seven Days in the Hebrew account are, however, not the same which led to the arrangement of the Babylonian poem upon Seven Tablets. In the one the writer's intention is to give the original authority for the observance of the Sabbath; in the other there appears to have been no special reason for this arrangement of the poem beyond the mystical nature of the number "seven." Moreover, acts of creation are recorded on all of the first six Days in the Hebrew narrative, while in the Babylonian poem the creation only begins at the end of the Fourth Tablet.

In Exilic and post-Exilic times the account of the Creation most prevalent in Babylonia was that in the poem Enuma edir, the text of which was at this time absolutely fixed and its arrangement upon Seven Tablets invariable. That the late revival of mythology among the Jews was partly due to their actual study of the Babylonian legends at this period is sufficiently proved by the minute points of resemblance between the accounts of the Deluge in Genesis and in the poem of Gilgamesh.' It is probable, therefore, that the writer who was responsible for the final form of Gen. i - ii, 4a, was familiar with the Babylonian legend of Creation in the form in which it has come down to us.

Links
http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/stc/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Chaos_Monster_and_Sun_God.png
http://www.ancient-origins.net/human-origins-folklore/origins-human-beings-according-ancient-sumerian-texts-0065
http://www.etana.org/sites/default/files/coretexts/14907.pdf
http://www.world-myth.com/mesopotamian/sumerian-creation-myth

Tombrobbers of the Ancient World

Mark David's  homepage

The Elements community on google+

Follow The Elements homepage

The ancient Egyptian document Amherst Papyrus, now known as the Leopold II and Amherst Papyrus, is part of the original court records dealing with the tomb robberies under Ramesses IX and dates to Year 16 of Ramsesses IX. It contains the confessions of eight men who had broken into the tomb of Sobekemsaf II and a description of the reconstruction of the crime. It throws light on the practices followed at ancient Egyptian courts: eliciting confessions by beating with a double rod, smiting their feet and hands, reconstructing the crime on site, and imprisonment of suspects in the gatehouse of a temple. 

The document remains an important document for understanding the importance of burial and the afterlife in Ancient Egypt as well as crime and punishment practices in Egypt during the 20th Dynasty.

The Amherst-Leopold Papyrus is split in two halves: the lower half of the papyrus was bought in Egypt by Lord Amherst of Hackney in the middle of the 19th century, and sold to John Pierpont Morgan in 1913. 

In 1935 the missing upper part was found by the Belgian Egyptologist Jean Capart in the Musée d'arts at Brussels, and given the name Leopold II papyrus. This fragment had been hidden inside a wooden statuette which had been acquired by the future Belgian king Leopold II during one of his visits to Egypt in 1854 or 1862. As such efforts in coordinating the documentation and understanding of the Amherst-Leopold Papyrus have been difficult, unlike similar documents such as the Abbot Papyrus.

Tomb-robbing

Archeological data provides a lot of information about tomb robbers. We have actual written records, dated to the late XX'th dynasty, which describe the court trials of various people accused of tomb robbing in the Valley of the Kings. These records clearly tell us that tombs were robbed by the very same workers who had carved them out of the limestone cliffs of the Valley. The papyrus texts also implicate the mayor of Western Thebes and other Theban officials, who apparently knew about the illicit activities in the necropolis but did nothing to stop them, probably because they were getting a portion of the loot. 

The Amherst-Leopold Papyrus is of great importance in helping understand the culture of Ancient Egypt "and give[s] us more detail than we could ever have recovered from purely archeological evidence.” 

The document shows us the prevalence of tomb-robbing in Ancient Egypt and the rewards it offered, and demonstrates why people would perform the difficult and dangerous act of robbing a tomb. 

Tomb-robbing was a common feature in the Ancient World, and was very common in Egypt in particular: “it is a sad fact that the vast majority of ancient Egyptian tombs have been plundered in antiquity.” Efforts had been made in the past to discourage tomb-robbers, but it only served to increase their ingenuity and craft. At first the coffins themselves were made harder to open, and went from being made out of wood to stone, whilst entrances were sealed in a way to make it difficult for robbers to enter, secret burial chambers were then used to hide the bodies. Despite all the measures to stop these robbers, the lure of potential treasures during the hard times can be seen to have led to robberies like those described in the Amherst-Leopold Papyrus.

The punishments given for the crime itself also can be seen to be important, the harshness of impalement shows that tomb-robbing was taken very seriously. This suggests that the authorities either wanted to prevent future robberies by giving such harsh punishments and deter future tomb-robbers (even though it had not deterred those in the past), or it might show the importance of death and the afterlife in Ancient Egypt. The acts in robbing tombs, such as taking away funerary gifts and destroying coffins or even the bodies of the deceased, was thought to endanger their passage into the afterlife, and could be the reason for using such a violent and painful punishment. What we do know for sure is that this source is an interesting view into Egyptian culture and administration, giving us an idea of what life and the practices of Ancient Egyptians were like.

The actual content of the papyrus is concerned with the confessions of the perpetrators on the crime committed as well as the punishment handed out to them. The tomb that was robbed belonged to Sobekemsaf II and the crimes dated to Year 13 of Ramesses IX. Amenpnufer is shown as the main player in the robbery, and in his trial we are told that the amount of gold found in the pyramid came to 32 lbs. 

The robbery was not just limited to Sobekemsaf; “we also found the royal wife and collected all that we found on her. We took objects of gold, silver, bronze, and divided them amongst us.” 

Whilst the perpetrators admitted to committing the crimes, we know that crime and punishment during the time was not so fair or comfortable: “the robbers brought before investigators of the Twentieth Dynasty were questioned about their activities and witnesses were called to confirm or contradict their stories. Both the accused and the witnesses were beaten as an aid to their memories.”

Knowing this, it becomes harder to really judge whether those accused really were responsible for committing the crimes, although the description of the event would point towards the guilt of the accused: 

“We stripped off the gold, which we found on the august mummy of this god, and its amulets and ornaments which were at its throat, and the coverings wherein it rested.” 

The punishment we are given as listed is that of impalement, a punishment used for the most serious of crimes: “the punishment for violating a royal tomb: impalement.”

Punishments for Tomb Robbers

The punishments for those convicted as tomb robbers were extremely severe. Robbery, damaging tombs and the fencing of stolen tomb goods were criminal offences. Confessions was the base for a conviction together with circumstantial evidence and witness statements. Torture was used to achieve confessions. The initial methods of torture were whipping and beating. The arms, legs and back were beaten or whipped mercilessly to obtain a confession. Threats were made to cut off hands, ears and the nose. And in severe cases these threats were carried out as punishments. Death sentences were rare in Egypt compared with other ancient societies but robbers were executed. Executions took the form of impalement or been burnt alive. Both of these methods of execution had implications for the eternal life of the tomb robbers. To be burnt to ashes would mean that there was no body to pass into the afterlife and the sentence of impalement meant that the Ka would be forever tied to the place of execution. 

Ratlines

Mark David on mark-david.com

The Elements community on google+

The following is put together from a variety of sources as part of the research being undertaken writing The Elements.

World War Two had barely ground to a final halt when, in 1947, Allied strategists set about planning for World War Three.  Even as British and US intelligence officials scoured Europe seeking to apprehend Nazi’s wanted on war crimes charges, other more secretive US and British intelligence units were actively engaged in helping those same Nazi’s to escape. 

NATO’s Secret Stay Behind armies had as a central focus the Gehlen Org — also involving the ODESSA "ratlines" — named after Reinhard Gehlen who would become West Germany's first head of intelligence, while the predominantly Italian P2 masonic lodge was composed of many members of the neofascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), including Licio Gelli. Its clandestine "cells" were to stay behind (hence the name) in enemy controlled territory and to act as resistance movements, conducting sabotage, guerrilla warfare and assassinations.

'His organization, the Gehlen Org, quickly regained control of the majority of his former agents inside the Iron Curtain, and with the help of many of his former staff, put them back to work. Though he agreed not to hire any former Gestapo, SS or SD members, he sought them out and put them on the payroll - the CIA's payroll - regardless of his promise. And the CIA did not stop him.Among his recruits were Dr. Franz Six and Emil Augsburg. Six and Augsburg had been members of an SS mobile Death's Head killing squad that hunted down and killed Soviet Jews, intellectuals and partisans wherever they could be found. Six was known as a Streber, or Eager Beaver, for the enthusiastic manner in which he pursued his job. 
Gehlen also recruited the former Gestapo chiefs of Paris, France, and Kiel, Germany. Then, that not being enough, he hired Willi Krichbaum, the former senior Gestapo leader for southeastern Europe.’

(General Reinhard Gehlen and the OSS by Craig Roberts)

Ratlines

The means of escape were the Vatican run “Ratlines.”  Operated with the knowledge and blessing of highly placed US and British government officials, the Ratlines guided 30,000 wanted Nazi’s to sanctuary.  Safe haven locations included the US, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the favourite bolt hole of them all: South America. 

Those who reached safety in this manner read like a “Who’s Who” of the most wanted Nazi war criminals.  Klaus Barbie, the cruel Gestapo officer known as the “Butcher of Lyons;” Franz Stangl, Commandant of the notorious Treblinka extermination camp; Gustav Wagner Commandant of Sorbibor extermination camp; Alois Brunner, a brutal official in the Jewish deportation programme.  Of the most famous to escape along the ratlines were Adolf Eichmann, the chief architect of the “Holoucast” and Dr Joseph Mengele, the “White Angel” of Auschwitz concentration camp.  Not least was Deputy Fuhrer Martin Bormann.

An entire Waffen SS division - the notorious “Galician Division” from the Ukraine - consisting of 8000 men were given “free settler” status. 

(The Division surrendered to British forces after Germany’s capitulation. Its veterans were held in Rimini, Italy in a POW camp for two years. They were released in 1947; most of the veterans settled in Canada, the United States and Britain.)

Secretly granted immunity these and thousands of other battle hardened Nazi soldiers were to form the fighting nucleus of a top secret Allied contingency group conceived by the first Director of the CIA, Allen Dulles.  Loosely known as operation “Stay Behind,” the idea was to build a Europe wide secret network of anti communist guerrillas who would fight behind the lines in the event of a Soviet invasion.  The plan was later codified under the umbrella of the Clandestine Co-ordinating Committee of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), the military arm of NATO.

Links
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2341611/SS-leader-Michael-Karkoc-tracked-living-American-SIXTY-YEARS.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratlines_%28World_War_II_aftermath%29

The world’s oldest writing

Mark David's  homepage

The Elements community on google+

Follow The Elements homepage

We all know the alphabet - alpha - beta, the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, itself developed from the Phoenician, the Phoenician being the ‘mother of all western writing systems’. 

The origins of writing is one of The Elements, a network of ideas that are being interwoven into an epic mystery-thriller story universe of the 20th century of the same name. The following is an amalgamation of sources from Wiki:

In her book, "A History of Sinai", Lina Eckenstein theorized that Serabit el-Khadim was the historical site of Mt. Sinai where Moses received the 10 commandments. This theory comes in no small part to the site containing a temple of Hathor which is believed to be the Golden Calf idol constructed by the Hebrews while Moses was on the mountain top. 

Thirty incised graffiti in a "Proto-Sinaitic script" shed light on the history of the alphabet in pre-phoenician times. Because the script co-existed with Egyptian hieroglyphs, it is likely that it represented true writing, but this is by no means certain.

The mines were worked by prisoners of war from southwest Asia who presumably spoke a Northwest Semitic language, such as the Canaanite that was ancestral to Phoenician and Hebrew. The writing is believed to represent the language of this people.

The Sinai inscriptions are best known from carved graffiti and votive texts from a mountain in the Sinai called Serabit el-Khadim and its temple to the Egyptian goddess Hathor (ḥwt-ḥr). The mountain contained turquoise mines which were visited by repeated expeditions over 800 years. Many of the workers and officials were from the Nile Delta, and included large numbers of "Asiatics", speakers of the Canaanite language that was ancestral to Phoenician and Hebrew, who had been allowed to settle the eastern Delta.

The Egyptian reads The beloved of Hathor, the mistress of turquoise, and according to Gardiner's translation, the Proto-Sinaitic reads m’hb‘l (the beloved of the Lady; m’hb beloved), with the final t of bʿlt (Lady) not surviving. 

Egyptologist Orly Goldwasser believes the script was most likely invented during the reign of pharaoh Amenemhet III of the Twelfth Dynasty.

It was generally accepted that the language of the inscriptions was Semitic, that the script had a hieratic prototype and was ancestral to the Semitic alphabets, and that the script was itself acrophonic and alphabetic (more specifically, a consonantal alphabet or abjad). The word baʿlat (Lady) lends credence to the identification of the language as Semitic. However, the lack of further progress in decipherment casts doubt over the other suppositions, and the identification of the hieratic prototypes remains speculative.

Expeditions of Pharaoh Amenemhet IV

Pharaoh Amenemhat IV sent four expeditions to the turquoise mines of the Serabit el-Khadim in the Sinai are dated to his reign by in-situ inscriptions. The latest took place in his 9th year on the throne and could be the last expedition of the Middle Kingdom since the next inscription dates to Ahmose I's reign, some 200 years later.

Amenemhat IV sent another expedition to mine amethyst in the Wadi el-Hudi in the south of Egypt. Farther south, three Nile-records are known from Kumna in Nubia which are explicitely dated to his years 5, 6 and 7 on the throne, showing that the Egyptian presence in the region was maintained during his lifetime.

Important trade relations must have existed during his reign with the city of Byblos, on the coast of modern-day Lebanon, where an obsidian and gold chest as well as a jar lid bearing Amenemhat IV's name have been found. A gold plaque showing Amenemhat IV offering to a god may also originate from there.

Recently, continuing excavations at Wadi Gawasis on the Red Sea coast have produced two wooden chests and an ostracon inscribed with a hieratic text (priestly writing) mentioning an expedition to the fabled Land of Punt in the year 8 of Amenemhat IV, under the direction of the royal scribe Djedy.

Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Sinaitic_script#Proto-Sinaitic_script

The Saga of Hromund Gripsson

Mark David's  homepage

The Elements community on google+

Follow The Elements homepage

Illustrated by Photos by Mark David. Taken in and around Scandinavia. The saga of Romund Gripsson is used in The Elements.

Historical Background: Wiki: Olaf I of Denmark (Danish: Oluf I Hunger) (c. 1050–1095), was king of Denmark following his brother Canute IV starting from 1086. He was a natural son of king Sweyn Estridson and married Ingegard, princess of Norway, the daughter of Harald Hårdråde.

Chapter 1

Hromund Gripsson was the son of Gnodar-Asmund, and he was a famous man. Two brothers, Kari and Arnulf, were the king's land-wardens and great warriors. There was a powerful farmer named Grip who married a woman named Gunnlod, the daughter of Hrok the Black, and they had nine sons, named Hrolf, Haki, Gaut, Throst, Angantyr, Logi, Hromund, Helgi, and Hrok. They were all promising men, though Hromund was greater than the rest. He knew no fear, and was handsome, fair-haired and mighty, great and strong, much like Hrok, his uncle. With the king were two men, one named Bild, the other Vali. They were evil and crafty. The king was mighty.

One time, Olaf sailed east to Norway with his fleet, and sailed to the Ulfar Skerries, harrying until he laid anchor at an island. The king told Kari and Arnulf to go up to the island and see if they could see any warships. They went ashore, and soon saw six warships. There was one most magnificent dragon-ship. Kari called to the occupants and asked who was in charge of the ships. An ugly man stood up in the dragon-ship and said that he was named Hrongvid, - 'and what is your name?' Kari said to him and his brother: 'I know none worse than you, and moreover, I shall cut you into tiny pieces.' Hrongvid said: 'I have harried summer and winter for thirty-three years, fighting sixty battles and always had the victory. My sword is named Brynthvari, and it never goes blunt. Come here tomorrow morning, Kari, and I shall sheath him in your breast.' Kari said he would not fail, and Hrongvid might choose the day to face the sword's point.

Chapter 2

The brothers came back to the king and told him the news. The king decided to accept the challenge, and so it was done. They met, and there they received hard battle. The brothers went well forward. Kari always felled eight or twelve men in each stroke. Hrongvid saw that. He ran up to the king’s ship, to Kari and thrust his sword through him. As soon as Kari had taken a wound, he said to the king: “Live well, sire, I go to be the guest of Odin.” Hrongvid fought Arnulf, felling Kari’s brother with his spear. Then Hrongvid told them all that they should give up. An evil murmur came from the king’s troop. Iron did not bite Hrongvid.

Now the saga says that Hromund Gripsson was in the king’s following. He took a club in his hand, bound to himself a long goat-beard and put a hood on his head, then stormed forward to find both the brothers dead. Then he took up the king’s standard and beat the black men to death with his club. Hrongvid asked, who he was, “— or was Kari your father that you are so wrathful?” Hromund gave his name and said he would avenge the brothers, —”Kari was not my father. All the same, I shall kill you.” Then he gave Hrongvid so great a blow that he bowed his head and said: “I have been widely in battle and never taken such a stroke.” Hromund gave to Hrongvid another stroke, so that his skull broke. In the third stroke, he lost his life. After that they went, those who lived, to the king, and so the battle ended.

Chapter 3

Now Hromund searched the ship and he found one man hiding up in the prow. He asked this man his name. The man said he was called Helgi the Valiant, and that he was the brother of Hrongvid, —”and I cannot bear to sue for peace.” Hromund allowed Helgi the Valiant time to heal his wounds, and later he sailed to Sweden and became a land-warder there.

King Olaf sailed west to the Hebrides with his fleet, and here they went ashore and rounded up a herd of cattle. A farmer lived nearby. The king’s men took his cow and drove it down to the ships. He was greatly grieved by that loss. Hromund came and asked him where he dwelt. The man said that his name was Mani, and that he lived a short way away, and added that it would be a greater deed for them to break into a barrow and rob the drow’s wealth. Hromund asked him to tell him if he knew anything about that. Mani said that certainly he knew and added: “Thrain, who conquered Gaul and was king there, he who was a great and mighty berserk, and an excellent sorcerer — he entered a barrow with his sword, armour and much wealth. But you must go there quickly.”

Hromund asked how long it would take them to sail there. Mani said that they should sail due south for six days. Hromund thanked the man for this information, gave him his wealth and let him take back his cow. Then they sailed as the man had advised them, and in six days’ time they saw the barrow before the prow of the ship.

Chapter 4

They sailed west to Gaul and soon found the barrow. And after six days had passed, they came to an opening in the barrow. They saw a great ugly man sitting in a chair, blue-skinned and stout, all clad in gold, so that it glittered. He chattered much and blew on the fire.

Hromund asked now who would enter the barrow, and said that whoever did should choose three treasures for himself.

Vali said: “No one would willingly give his life for that. There are sixty men here, and that troll will kill us all.”

Hromund said: “Kari would have dared to do this, if he was alive,” —and added that he was prepared to descend into the barrow, although it would be better if he went with others. Hromund went down on a chain. It was night-time by then. And when he reached the bottom, he found much wealth and gathered it together.

In previous days Thrain had been king over Gaul, and he had accomplished everything by sorcery. He did much evil, until he was so old that he no longer wanted to know adversity any longer, so he went alive into the barrow and took much wealth with him.

Now Hromund saw where a sword hung up from a pillar. He took it down, belted it to himself and went forward and said: “I will speak with you before I leave the barrow, since you do not stop me. What is wrong with you, you there, old one? Do you not agree that while I gathered your wealth together you sat silent, hated dog? Was something in your eyes, that you looked on as I took your sword and jewellery and many of your other treasures?”

Thrain said to himself that he would seem worth little if he allowed himself to sit silently in his chair, — “I have little wish to fight. But I must have become a great coward, if you can rob my wealth. I refuse you my treasure. You will see me dead first.”

Then Hromund said: “It would be seemly if you rose, cowardly and craven one, and took your sword back from me, if you dare.’’

The drow said: “That is no deed, to bear a sword against me, who am weaponless. I will test my strength with you and wrestle.”

Hromund threw down the sword and trusted in his own strength. Thrain saw that and got up from his cauldron. He blew on the fire, and now he was ready to eat out of the cauldron. A great fire lay between his feet, and the cauldron was full of goat-meat. He wore a gold-painted hide. Both his hands were gnarled, and his nails were crooked over the tips of his fingers.

Hromund said: “Rise from the chair, cowardly slave, and take your wealth.” Then the drow said: “Now will we have fitting speech, now you challenge my courage.”

Day passed, and dusk fell, and it grew dark in the barrow. Then the drow went to wrestle with Hromund, but he cast down his cauldron. Hromund had the advantage of strength, and so they went hard at it, so that rocks and stones sprang up. Then the drow fell to his left knee and said: “You knock me down, and certainly you are a brave man.”

Hromund said: “Stand without support to your back. You are as great a coward as Máni the farmer said.”

Thrain went crazy, and he filled the barrow with an evil reek. Then he set his claws to the back of Hromund’s head and broke hold of the bone to his loins and said: “Do not complain about it, although the game grows coarse and I have wounded your throat, so that now I shall tear you apart still alive.’’

“I do not know,” said Hromund, “from where such cat-kin has come to this barrow.”

The drow said: “You were born to Gunnlod. All your like are so.”

“Evil will it be,” said Hromund, “that you scratch me long.” They wrestled hard and long, so that everything around them shook, until Hromund felled the drow with a foot-trick. By then it had become very dark.

Then the drow said: “Now you want my advice having obtained my sword. I have lived long in my barrow and gloated over my wealth, but no good came from that treasure, although you think it good. I never intended that you would use Mistiltein, my good sword, to harm me.”

Hromund then loosed the sword and rested it on his knee, and said: “Tell me now, how many men did you defeat in duels with Mistiltein.”

“Four hundred and twenty,” said the drow, “and I never received a graze. I tested my skill with King Seming, who ruled in Sweden, and he saw that I would soon be the victor.”

“Long have you,” said Hromund, “ been harmful to men, and I will work it that you die first.”

He struck the head off the drow, and burned him up in the fire, then went out of the barrow. Then the men asked how Thrain and he had parted. He said that he went in choice, —”then I struck off his head.”

Hromund kept three treasures that he found in the barrow, a ring, a necklace and Mistiltein. All of the others got money. Then King Olaf sailed away from there, north to his kingdom, and afterwards his land was well renowned.

Chapter 5

Following this, Hromund was very famous, and popular and generous. He gave a man named Hrok his good gold ring, which weighed eight ounces. Vali got to know this and he killed Hrok one night, but took the ring. The king learnt of this and said that some time he would reward Vali for his trick.

The king had two sisters, one named Dagny, and the other Svanhvit. Svanhvit was foremost of all women, and there was no one like her throughout Sweden and Halogaland. Hromund Gripsson now stayed at home, seeing much of Svanhvit, and avoiding neither Vali nor Bild. Svanhvit told Hromund that Vali and Bild would slander him to the king.

He said “I am not afraid of such cowardly paltry fellows, and as long as you love me, then I will speak with you.”

But this slander grew so great that Hromund and his brothers abandoned the king’s retinue and went home to their father. A little while later, Svanhvit spoke with King Olaf and said:

“Now Hromund has abandoned your retinue, through whom my honour was greatly increased, and in his place you have those two who have neither courage nor renown.”

The king said: “I have heard it said that he had fooled you, and that your love shall know the sword.”

“You remember little now,” she said, “but he went into the barrow when no one else dared. But before long Vali and Bild will be slain,” she added, and afterwards went away quickly.

Chapter 6

Some time later, two Swedish kings, both named Halding, came to the land. With them was Helgi, Hrongvid’s brother. They invited King Olaf to fight with them in the west, at Vaenisis. He was mightier than they, and would not flee his kingdom. He sent word to Hromund and his brothers to accompany him in the fight. But Hromund would go nowhere, and he said that Bild and Vali would help the king achieve everything. The king went to that place of battle with his army. Svanhvit left and went to Hromund, who received her well.

“Consider my prayer,” she said, “Go to aid my brother and join the army. I will give you a shield with a garter that was his aid. You will receive no injury while you have that.”

Hromund thanked her for this gift, and she was glad. He and his eight brothers prepared for the journey.

Now the king came to Vaenisis with his army. The Swedish army was there. That morning, as soon as battle commenced, they went armed onto the ice, and the Swedes charged forward. Bild was slain the moment the battle began, but there was no sign of Vali. King Olaf and King Halding were both wounded.

Hromund had pitched tents beside the water. His brothers put on their armour early in the morning.

Hromund said: ‘I have had bad dreams this night, and have no wish to enter the battle today.”

His brothers said that it would be a great shame that they dared not fight in the king’s army, and it was better to go on this errand. They entered the battle and charged forward, but each fell about the other when they encountered the troop of Halding.

A witch was there in the form of a swan. She cast magic with so many spells that no one among King Olaf’s men noticed her. She flew over the sons of Grip, singing loudly. Her name was Lara. Helgi the Valiant met the brothers then, and killed all eight together.

Chapter 7

At that moment, Hromund entered the battle. Helgi the Valiant saw this and said: “Now is he come here, who fought Hrongvid my brother. You may now see him with his sword that he sought in the barrow. Now you must flee. I slew your brothers.”

Hromund said: “Helgi, you need not question my courage. Either you or I will now fall.”

Helgi said: “Mistiltein is so heavy a weapon, that you cannot control it. I will lend you another sword that you will be able to control.”

Hromund said: “You need not test my strength. You will remember the stroke that I gave Hrongvid, and crushed his skull.”

Helgi said: “Hromund, you have bound about your hand a maiden’s garter. You know that it will shield you when you bear it. You will get no wound while you bear that, and so you will always be true to that maid.”

Hromund would not suffer these provocative words, and he cast down the shield. Helgi the Valiant always won victory but achieved everything by magic. His mistress was named Lara, who was there in the form of a swan. Helgi swung his sword so hard above himself that he accidentally cut off her leg, and the sword sank into the ground up to the hilt.

He said:

‘Now has my luck gone, and it goes badly for me that you will succeed.”

Hromund said: “Helgi, you are defeated. It was very bad luck when you slew your own mistress, and your health will go.”

Lara fell down dead. But with the stroke Helgi struck Hromund, the sword ran to the hilt, and the sword point slid into Hromund’s belly, but Helgi stooped to strike again. Hromund made no delay and hewed Helgi’s head with Mistiltein, cleaving helmet and skull, so that it sank into his shoulders. Then the notch in the sword broke. Hromund took his belt-knife and pierced his belly where it was ripped, pushed so the paunch-fat hung out, tore his belly and with the garter bound his clothes together.

Then he fought so fiercely and felled men so they fell each across the other, and fought on into the middle of the night. Then that army fled, along with the Haldings. There the fight ended.

Then Hromund saw that a man was standing there on the ice. He knew well that sorcery could turn the ice to water, and he noticed that it was Vali. He said that he was obliged to reward him, ran to him, swung Mistiltein and would have struck him. But Vali blew the sword out of his hand, and it flew over an opening in the ice and sank down to the bottom. Then Vali laughed and said:

“Now you are doomed, now you have lost Mistiltein from out of your hand.”

Hromund said: “But before that you will die.”

Then he ran to Vali and lifted him up, then dashed him down on the ice, so his neck broke. This wizard lay there, dead, but Hromund sat down on the ice. He said:

“I had no good advice from the maiden. I have now sent fourteen men under, and though my eight brothers also fell, and my sword Mistiltein fell in the water, and this loss I can never make good, that I lost my sword.”

Afterwards he went away from there, went home to his tent and took some rest.

Chapter 8

Now the king’s sisters searched the battlefield. Svanhvit found Hromund wounded and sewed his belly together, and searched his wounds. She sent him to a healer named Hagall. Hagall’s wife was very cunning. They took him in and healed his wounds. Hromund discovered that this household was very knowledgeable.

The man often went fishing, and one day when he was at his fishing he caught a pike, and when he came home and cut it open he found in its mouth Mistiltein, Hromund’s sword, and took it to him. Hromund was glad at that, and he kissed the hilt of the sword and was instantly well.

There was a man in King Halding’s host who was called Blind the Evil. He told the king that Hromund was alive, healthy, and living with the farmer Hagall and his wife. The king said that this was false, that they would not dare to keep him in ignorance. But he told Blind to search for Hromund.

Blind went with some men to Hagall’s house and asked if Hromund was concealed there. Hagall’s wife said he would not find him there. Blind searched carefully and could not find him, because the woman had concealed Hromund in her boiling cauldron.

Blind and his fellows departed, but after they had gone some way, Blind said:

“That was not the journey I foresaw. We must turn back.”

They did so, went back and found the woman. Blind said she was crafty, and she had concealed Hromund in the cauldron.

“Look there and take him, then,” she said. But she said that because as soon as they had left she had dressed Hromund in women’s clothes and set him to grind corn and turn the quern. And as soon as they came there, the maid turned the quern. They searched all around, but again they found nothing, and so they went away.

But as they were heading off, Blind said that the woman must have magically seen them and he thought that Hromund must have been the one who turned the quern in women’s clothes, “and I see she has outdone us. I can do nothing against that woman, since she is so cunning.” They wished her evil and went back to the king.

Chapter 9

That winter, Blind saw much in his sleep, and he recounted one of his dreams to the king, saying:

“It seemed to me a wolf ran eastward. He bit you, king, and gave you a blow.”

The king interpreted the dream.

“The king of another country will come here, and when we first meet he will harm me, but later we will be at peace.”

Then Blind said that he had dreamed that it seemed to him that many hawks were sitting in a house, “and I noticed in there your spirit, sire. He was all featherless and stripped of his coat.”

The king said:

“A wind will come from the skies and shake my stronghold.”

A third dream recounted Blind.

“Many swine ran south of the king’s hall, rooting up earth with their tusks.”

The king said:

“That means that the swell rushes over the beach, and the land will be flooded with water while the sun shines in the brightness of the sky.”

Blind recounted a fourth dream.

‘It seemed to me a furious giant came east. He bit you, which was a great wonder.”

The king said:

‘The messengers of some king will come to my hall. They will bite up all his weapons, and then ride away.”

“I had a fifth dream,” said Blind, “and it seemed that about me lay a grim serpent.”

“There will come to land,” said the king, “a handsome dragon-ship, laden with treasure.”

“Sixth I dreamed,” said Blind, “that it seemed that a black cloud with claws and wings came to the kingdom, and it flew away with you, king. Then I dreamed that a serpent was beside the farmer Hagall. It bit men furiously. It ate up you, and me, and all the retainers. What does that signify?”

The king said:

‘I have heard that not far from Hagall’s house lies a hibernating bear. I will go against that bear, and he will bristle greatly.”

“Next I dreamed that a dragon-spirit was drawn about your hall, and it was thick with Hromund’s shields.”

The king said:

“You know that Hromund lost his sword and shield in the water. Or are you afraid of Hromund now?”

Blind dreamed more dreams, and each he recounted to the king, but the king interpreted them all favourably, and saw no omens in them. Now Blind recounted another dream, in which he felt himself touched, and he said: “It seemed to me that an iron ring was set about my neck.”

The king said:

“This dream means that you will be hanged, and with that we are both doomed.”

Chapter 10

After that, King Olaf gathered his troop, and afterwards sailed to Sweden. Hromund went with him. They surprised King Halding’s hall. The king was in an outbuilding. He was unaware of the attack until the door of the building was broken down. Halding called to his men and asked them about this night attack. Hromund spoke to him.

The king said: “You will avenge your brothers.”

Hromund said he should say little about the fall of his brothers, “Now you will pay, and here dispense with your life.”

Then up ran one of King Halding’s warriors who was as big as a giant. Hromund killed him. King Halding was the worst for sorcery, and got no wounds, so that whenever Hromund struck him, the flat of his sword struck the king. The Hromund took a club, laid about King Halding and sent him to Hell. Then Hromund said:

“Here I have felled King Halding, and I have never seen so valiant a man.”

The man Blind, who was also named Bavis, was bound and hanged, and so fulfilled his dream. There they took great gold and other wealth, then afterwards sailed home.

King Olaf gave Svanhvit in marriage to Hromund. They loved each other greatly, and had sons and daughters together who were excellent people. From them, royal dynasties and great warriors trace their lineage.

Here ends the saga of Hromund Gripsson.

You can follow Mark David on Twitter @authorMarkDavid. You can read more about what he is up to on mark-david.com or on medium.

If you want, contribute to developing the collection Stories To Imagine, working with elements of the imagination from the real world. More on The Elements.