Sinking further in
I have had way more than my share of sick this year. I'm recovering now from my third bout being down with some kind of cold or flu. At least this one is not as wretched as the fever-and-lung-pain thing I had in January. And I thought I had escaped the plague of PCon.
So I'm at home and have been doing some further readings on the Faery researches I mentioned in my last post.
jonathankorman, you should check out RJ Stewart's edition of Robert Kirk's Secret Commonwealth. In the appendices, there is extensive commentary on esoteric meanings within the Faery ballads, including his notions of what the "tithe to Hell" in Tam Lin is all about. (It used to be downloadable here, which is where I got it years ago, but now it seems to point to his publishing site so maybe you have to buy the hard copy.)
I am not sure I'm completely satisfied with his answer though. Some instinct of mine is telling me there is more to it than Hell as symbolic of natural forces of death and dissolution, although that still seems relevant. I just have this sense that there is something very important and deep hidden in all of this, about the relationship of Lucifer to the Faery power and the life force in the Underworld... and I'm also naturally suspicious of interpretations of lore that try to make old potent powers less dangerous by sanitizing and rationalizing them.
I feel bad because
dionysusdevotee is working his tail off getting the guest house ready to move and getting the boat dealt with and all of that, but he assures me that I should be resting, so I am.
So I'm at home and have been doing some further readings on the Faery researches I mentioned in my last post.
jonathankorman, you should check out RJ Stewart's edition of Robert Kirk's Secret Commonwealth. In the appendices, there is extensive commentary on esoteric meanings within the Faery ballads, including his notions of what the "tithe to Hell" in Tam Lin is all about. (It used to be downloadable here, which is where I got it years ago, but now it seems to point to his publishing site so maybe you have to buy the hard copy.)
I am not sure I'm completely satisfied with his answer though. Some instinct of mine is telling me there is more to it than Hell as symbolic of natural forces of death and dissolution, although that still seems relevant. I just have this sense that there is something very important and deep hidden in all of this, about the relationship of Lucifer to the Faery power and the life force in the Underworld... and I'm also naturally suspicious of interpretations of lore that try to make old potent powers less dangerous by sanitizing and rationalizing them.
I feel bad because
dionysusdevotee is working his tail off getting the guest house ready to move and getting the boat dealt with and all of that, but he assures me that I should be resting, so I am.