Alien Space Gods Of Ancient Greece and Rome (46 page)

The Finnish ‘Kalevala' like the Estonian ‘Kalevipoeg’ sharing the world-wide concept of the Cosmic Egg anticipates our own scientists who state the Universe exploded from a single atom born from spatial energy; biologists believe that life evolved from the sea. The capture of the Sun and Moon by the Witch-Queen plunging
Finland
into freezing darkness associated with plagues and widespread misery probably refers to that same cataclysm bewailed in legends all over the world; fire falling from Heaven into a lake suggests some cosmic body crashing to Earth. In his very fine translation W. F. Kirby sixty years ago commented that the catastrophe may concern an early period.

‘.. when as Old Persian books tell us, the climate of some parts of Asia (?) was changed from nine months summer and three months winter to nine months winter and three months summer...’

The ancient Finns attributed pestilence to the anger of the Gods and Demons, primitive superstitions world-wide. Vainamdinen's ascension in a copper-boat to a land in the skies parallels the translation to the stars of that other culture-hero, Quetzalcoatl Can Finland and
Mexico
be linked by the same memory of Spacemen?

The 'Kalevala' ranks with the 'Gilgamesh Epic' the 'Ramayana', 'Kret of Ugarit' and the 'Odyssey’, all tell in simple, moving words the stories of men and women befriended by Immortals long ago. The poetry, the passion, the drama of noble deeds, the hopes and desires of questing humanity meeting their destiny watched by the Gods, transcend the long centuries to enthrall us today. Surely, those people in far Antiquity, whose mind could create such wonderful literature so full of sublime wisdom, so exquisitely expressed, were heirs to a great and profound culture inspired perhaps by Celestials from the stars.

The Icelandic tale 'Eireks Saga Vidforla’ recounts Eirek's travels to the mythological Deathless Land; written in the fourteenth century it is believed to have originated as an ancient heathen myth later somewhat Christianized, Paradise being substituted for the pagan Glaeswellin. In
'Curious Myths of the Middle Ages',
Sabina Baring-Gould describes how Eirek, a son of Thrond, King of Drautheim, with a Danish friend of the same name went to Constantinople, crossed Syria and India and came to a strait crossed by a stone bridge guarded by a dragon. The Norseman stood sword in hand, walked into the maw of the Dragon and to his delight was instantly transported to
Paradise
.

These 'Dragons' of Antiquity now appear to us to have been primitive conceptions of Spaceships; entering a Dragon's mouth was probably the ancient equivalent of travelling in a Flying Saucer like Adamski, Lobsang Rampa and other 'Contacts'. Eirek claimed to have been translated to another world. The Saga vividly related that:

‘... The land was most beautiful and the grass as gorgeous as purple, it was studded with flowers and was traversed by honey rills. The land was extensive and level so that there was not to be seen mountain or hill, and the sun shone cloudless without night and darkness, the calm of die air was great and there was but a feeble minimum of wind and that which there was breathed redolent with the odour of blossoms.... After a short walk Eirek observed what certainly must have been a remarkable object, namely a tower or steeple self-suspended in the air without any support whatever, though access might be had to it by means of a slender ladder. By this Eirek ascended into a loft of the tower and found there an excellent cold collation prepared for him. After having partaken of this, he went to sleep and in vision beheld and conversed with his Guardian Angel who promised to conduct him back to his fatherland but to come for him again and fetch him away from it for ever at the expiration of the tenth year after his return to Drautheim.'

Eirek returned to
India
and after a tedious journey of seven years reached his native land where he related his adventure to the confusion of the heathens and to the do- light and edification of the Faithful.

‘...and in the tenth year and at break of day as Eirek went to prayer God's spirit caught him away and he was never seen again in this world, so here ends all we have to say of him.’

Nennius in
'Historia Brittorum'
written in the ninth century records that in ancient times a Spanish fleet brought people to Ireland when a 'tower of glass’ appeared, the summit of which was crowded with men. The ships attacked the 'tower’ which destroyed them. Elijah too spoke with 'Angels' and was translated to the skies never to be seen again. Today Eirek's story seems strangely credible, there is now reason to believe that throughout history chosen individuals in many countries have been transported to other worlds by Spacemen.

A plaintive Icelandic story tells bow Helge Thoreson like Eirek also visited the Land of the Glittering Plains and married Ingeborg, fairest of Gudmund's twelve daughters; he came home with much treasure. During a great storm on Yule Night two strange men suddenly appeared and took Helge away. A year later all three materialised before King Olav Trygeveson at his feast and gave the King two great drinking-horns, as the Bishop blessed the gift the hall was plunged into darkness, in the confusion Helge and his companions vanished. The following Yuletide the two men again returned with Helge now stricken with blindness. Helge complained that he had been forced to return home because of all the prayers offered for him; his 'spirit-bride' with whom he had lived so happily had made him blind to prevent him casting amorous eyes on Earth-women. This poignant tale is strangely reminiscent of those haunting romances of Old India and the Middle Ages telling of tragic love between mortals and maidens from other realms.

The Germans knew Odin as Woden, identified with Mercury, he gave his name to 'Wednesday', the French 'mercredi', his fateful influence loomed over Teutonic destinies from the Dark Ages to Nazi Germany's Third Reich. In the twelfth-century, an unknown poet compiled sagas of the Northern heroes into 'Das Nibelungenlied', which has inspired the Germanic peoples like the 'Iliad' did Ancient Greece. The story of Sigurd and Brynhild told in the Eddie poems and the Volsung Saga was transferred to the romantic
Rhine
with Siegfried and Briinnhilde.

The Nibelungenlied greatly inspired Richard Wagner who infused the old tale with the original Norse mythology in his own libretto of 'The Ring' in four dramatic operas, 'Das Rheingold’, 'Die Walkilre', 'Siegfried' and 'Die Götterdämmerung', he transformed the epic into an allegory whose real hero is Wotan. Wagner's social ideals were vividly expressed by wonderful characterisation in music which revolutionised the forms of the classical composers and ushered in those strange orchestrations still startling today. Leit-motivs introduce the great roles and dramatic music evokes the episodes with novel harmonies shocking the Victorians who first heard them; the
Valhalla
theme, the Ride of the Valkyries, the Siegfried Idyll and the Trauermarsch remain unsurpassed in melodic inspiration. While the revolutionary Wagner was not consciously writing 'Space Opera', his 'Ring' with Wotan and the Gods, Valkyries, Heroes, Giants, Dwarfs, Dragons, Magic Ring, Enchanted Sword, Fiery Mountain, all characterised in music, surely suggest those wonders associated with Spacemen.

Wagner offered several explanations for 'The Ring', all different, then vaguely agreed with Schopenhauer that his works showed 'the sublime tragedy, the negation of Will.' Bernard Shaw in his provocative essay 'The Perfect Wagnerite' swore with characteristic immodesty that he knew exactly what Wagner was really striving to say; much of 'The Ring' represents 'the portraiture of our capitalist industrial system from the socialist's point of view in the slavery of the Nibelungs and the tyranny of Alberic.' He alleged that Wotan is the Divine Establishment entangled in its own laws and longing for the 'Ideal Man' to extricate the Cosmic Will for new evolution. Siegfried, a young anarchist beyond fear and conscience, destroys the Old Order to make way for the New. In exasperation Shaw deplores that the allegory collapses and Siegfried fails. Nazi Germany was to see the failure of its own Siegfried!

Woden has been confused with Votan, Culture-Hero of the Quiches whose myths declare he came from the East; Votan was said to have aided Solomon in the building of his wonderful Temple. The most ancient 'Oera Linda Boek' states Woden was a Frisian Chief, who sailed from North-West Europe across the
Atlantic
to
Yucatan
, where he and his descendants founded a great empire.

In Teutonic mythology Wotan was depicted as a one-eyed Giant wearing a sky-dome hat and a sky-cloak flecked by clouds, sometimes he drove a star-chariot or the stars themselves; in folklore, he was feared as the Wild Huntsman, the Headless Rider or the Erl König, dreaded in old
England
as Heme the Hunter. The German soul is steeped in mysticism brooding over the Dark Forces of Nature, Night and Death; for many centuries the Church pursued fanatical pogroms against witches, popular Marchen abounded in tales of goblins living in forests or caves, in the eighteenth century romantic writers and composers were fascinated by the Supernatural. After 'Faust’ evoking phenomena suggestive of Spacemen, Goethe's most popular poem is probably 'Erl König’ which describes a father riding late through the dark and wind with his son in his arms. The child pleads that the phantom Erl König threatens to carry him off to a beautiful land, the terrified father hastens on, when reaching the farm his son is dead.

The Wild Huntsman wore a curious hat with a broad brim and was followed by an infernal pack of fiery misshapen dogs and wolves rushing through the air with a terrifying sound; any venturesome onlooker would be whirled up in the air and his neck broken. Associated with the Wild Huntsman was the Schimmelreiter or Headless Rider mounted on a white horse, who wore a strange, broad-brimmed hat, the hat shape, pack of celestial hounds, aerial speeding through the night resemble present-day descriptions of UFOs.

The belief in alien astronauts persisted in Teutonic minds since the days of Charlemagne when laws were passed against aerial demons. None in his ‘Anzeigen’ Vol. 4, p. 304, wrote:

'A violent thunderstorm lasted so long that a huntsman on the highway loaded his gun with a consecrated bullet and shot it off into the blackest cloud; out of it (as out of the sky) a naked female fell dead to the ground and the storm blew over in a moment.'  We know now what to do the next time it rains!

A similar bizarre incident is mentioned by Montanus in 'Deutsche Volksfeste', p. 37, concerned with wizards flying through the clouds who were shot down. In Carinthia, the people shot at storm-clouds to scare away 'evil spirits' that held counsel in them, a custom popular among the Tibetans and even by the early Irish who feared the malevolent entities confined in the inner spaces of the air. Today our UFO literature abounds with alleged hostilities from Spacemen.

More than a hundred years ago the great German mythologist, Jacob Grimm, in
'Deutsche Mythologie'
made a detailed comparison between the German and the Greek Gods, completely unaware of our present conception of Spacemen. He was profoundly impressed by the similarity of the Norse and Classical Deities descending from the skies to mingle among men, and quoted scores of descriptions from the Eddas and Northern Märchen, which agree with the 'Iliad', 'Odyssey' and other Classics with an exactness beyond chance coincidence.

He concluded, 'I think that on all these lines of research, which could be extended to many other parts as well, I have brought forward a series of undeniable resemblances between the Teutonic mythology and the Greek. Here, as in relation between the Greek and Teutonic languages, there is no question of borrowing or choice, nothing but unconscious affinity, allowing room (and that inevitably) for considerable divergence. But who can fail to recognize or who invalidate the surprising similarity of opinions on the immortality of the Gods, their divine food, their growing up overnight, their journeying and transformation, their epithets, their anger and their mirth, their suddenness in appearing and recognition on parting, their use of carriages and horses, their performance of all natural functions, their illnesses, their language, their servants and messengers, offices and dwellings?’