Richard Jernigan -> RE: What Superman feels like when he flies... (Dec. 16 2011 6:26:39)
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Thank you for your kind offer, Jonas. You are very generous. Both of my wife's mother's parents were born and raised in Norway. Her grandmother came from the east side of the Oslofjord. My half-Norwegian wife and I split up some years ago, but we remain friends. When we visited Norway our children were 12 and 13. We had Christmas dinner--the day before--at the her family's farm--the English would call it an estate. They have owned the "farm" and ships as long as there have been written records in Norway. It's near Larvik. The dinner was completely traditional. Opa, the head of the family took the children to see the barn. At the front part he pointed out the marks of the machine saws on the wooden beams. "You see, this was built in the 19th century." Further back the saw marks were rougher. "This was built in the 17th century. They used pit saws and adzes to make the beams," Opa said. Even further back, the joists were so low I had to stoop. The wooden parts had been selected from trees that presented the right shape for their function, and joined with wooden pegs. "When was this built, Opa?" my daughter asked. "Nobody knows, sweetheart," he answered. On Christmas day we went to the stone church. After the service Opa showed the children the door posts. The door was on the south side of the church, not on the west as in the rest of Christendom. The doorposts were statues, clearly from the pre-Christian era. "Do you recognize the statues, children?" asked Opa. My son immediately identified Thor from the hammer on his necklace. "And who is this on the left side?" asked Opa. The kids were stumped. "It is Odin All-Father. He has only one eye. He traded the other for knowledge." "Why are there pagan statues at the church door?" asked my son. "When King Olaf--the English call him Saint Olaf, I believe--when King Olaf came in 1030 he told the people to become Christians, so they built the church--" "Why did the people become Christians, just like that?" interrupted my daughter. "Because King Olaf told them that if they did not, he would kill them." "I see. But the statues?" "King Olaf told the landowners to bring the statues to be part of the church, so the people couldn't worship them any longer at the temple, which was at the landowner's farm." "Who were the landowners, Opa?" asked my son. "They were us, sweetheart," answered Opa. RNJ
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