MDDM Ch. 62 Stig

[jbor]

> but Pynchon also seems to suggest that
> Stig may be descended from those who brought murder and slavery to America,
> who broke the native magic

The reason I don't think this interpretation works is that the reference to
the American continent's "own ancient Days" implies a time *before* the
arrival of the Icelanders/Vikings, who are the subjects of some of the songs
in the Elder Edda, which is the manuscript Stig is referring to. I think
that Stig, like Capt. Zhang at 615-6, is referring to the "murder, slavery,
and the poor fragments of a Magic irreparably broken" which these earlier
Northerners witnessed and told tales about, i.e. warring tribes of
Indigenous North Americans. However, I'd want to confirm this with someone
who is more familiar with Old Icelandic literature than I am.

There is indeed a link between the manuscript being in Copenhagen, and
Iceland, which remained a Danish colony or dependency from 1380-1944.

    'The Elder Edda', a collection of mythological and heroic songs in the
    ancient Icelandic language. Altogether there are thirty-three such
    songs, twenty-nine of which are contained in the famous "Codex Regius",
    the most important of the Eddic manuscripts. This codex was found in
    Iceland in 1643 by Bishop Brynjólf Sveinsson.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05280a.htm

"Frederick the Third" (612.7) is Frederick III of Denmark (1609-70), who
succeeded to the throne in 1648 and conducted imperialist campaigns, in
Sweden in particular.

At 612.8-13 Stig is talking about Leif Erickson, Erik the Red etc., and
tales of the discovery of "Vinland the Good" which are celebrated in Old
Icelandic sagas and songs.

http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~scnd151/syllabus/

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0292764995/squirrelcom-20/103-8688944
-4898253

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0192839462/squirrelcom-20/103-8688944
-4898253

http://www.lawzone.com/half-nor/swearinger.htm

I agree that Stig could be Norse/Icelandic.

best



on 12/7/02 3:10 AM, Doug Millison at
> millison at online-journalist.com wrote:

> 
> 
>> 612.6-13 "In the Royal Library in Copenhagen lies an ancient Vellum
>> Manuscript, a gift from Bishop Brynjolf to Frederick the Third,
>> containing Tales of the first Northmen in America, of those long Winters
>> and the
>> dread Miracles that must come to pass before Spring....
> 
> 
> Stig continues (attributed):  "the melancholy suggestion, that the 'new'
> Continent Europeans found, had been long attended, from its own ancient
> Days, by murder, slavery, and the poor fragments of a Magic irreparably
> broken."
> 
> 
> I have  heard  this passage interpreted to mean that some pre-existing
> stain or taint has pre-disposed the land to murder and slavery -- something
> about the place itself was going to cause those horrors no matter who lived
> there. Rereading it now it seems to suggest that the murder and slavery
> were brought by "the first Northmen" and the "Magic irreparably broken"
> would be that of the original spirit of the land itself, or perhaps its
> indigenous inhabitants.  Stig as some sort of "Jacobite" might be worthy of
> our sympathy for the Pynchonian underdog pursuing a lost cause and victims
> of "imperialism" as jbor observes, but Pynchon also seems to suggest that
> Stig may be descended from those who brought murder and slavery to America,
> who broke the native magic -- if so, Pynchon has created another fine
> ambiguity here, undercutting reader expectations left and right.
> 
> 
> Terrance (attributed):
>> seems that we can't know exactly or
>> definitively, it would amount to reading whip scars or reefers in GR
> 
> Yes, something like that.
>