Prophecies

How does prophecy fit in with the supposed immutability of the Norns’ Weave? I’m not sure. But I know Pevoraille spends a great deal of time examining prophecies and trying to sort out those which are patently false from those which may bear the germs of truth. Thus I think you should at least strive for some familiarity with the discipline. As to methodology, since I don’t have any mystical skills, I’m forced to rely on a mechanical approach. If you’d like, I’ll show you what I mean. But a few words of caution before we begin. First, I’ve not yet figured a trick for determining whether a prophecy will be symbolic, concrete, or a blend of the two. Second, I’ve seen a number of prophecies fulfilled on dual levels, prophecies, that it, which can speak to entirely disparate things.

Ragnarok

   I suppose it would be foolish to start with anything other than Ragnarok, the prophesied doom of our world or ‘the twilight of the gods’ as some have called it. But I’m not going to regurgitate what you may have already heard - that the Fenris Wolf will devour Odin and that Thor and the World Serpent will lay one another low. No, I’m going to show you that the assumptions underlying the Ragnarok prophecies are fundamentally wrong.
   Just look at Loki, the Architect of Ragnarok. Now, do you truly think someone so selfish as he would march willingly into oblivion? Of course not - it’s not in his character. And his daughter Hel no longer exists; you think the Norns will let someone else pilot the ship of the dead without batting an eye?
   Now, if you’ll grant that Ragnarok’s foundation has its share of cracks, you’ll necessarily accept this corollary: the trappings that have made Ragnarok more palatable - namely the suggestion that a man and woman will emerge from Yggdrasil to give rise to a new mortal race, and that Baldr, dead beyond resurrection, will slip from the realm below to guide the universe along a nobler path - are, in brief, fairy tales, fairy tales concocted by none other than Loki, the Father of Lies, fairy tales meant to put the Lords of Virtue off balance in hope that they’ll accept their lots stoically and simply go about their lives, paying Ragnarok little mind.
   Aviticus the White was the first to see through this sham - or at least the first to announce it as such to the world at large. But in answer to his preaching, Aviticus was branded a heretic by those whom he served - by the temple of the Allfather and the church of Tyr - at least that’s the way history has it recorded. As for Aviticus’s death on the tip of Odin’s spear, my own feeling is that Aviticus welcomed the spear into his heart that he might ascend as a demigod and take his cause to a higher sphere. Think otherwise if you’d like. But if you do, I’ll want an explanation as to why Glesvengion and Pevoraille greeted Aviticus like a brother and took him in as the Third Pillar in the Triad of Light.

What would I have you remember from all this?
One thing: should Ragnarok come to pass, it won’t mark the end of an age; it will mean the death of the universe, the disintegration of space, and the cessation of time itself.

The Children of Destiny

So, if there’s to be no rebirth to be had and the gods themselves are at the mercy of the Norns’ Weave, what’s the point in trying? Or, put another way, wherein lies our hope? Well, while I haven’t the answer, I do have something that’s cropped up in a number of places - a prophecy of sorts, I’m quite sure of it. Now, as to my admittedly clumsy approach, let me show you why I think it’s not wholly without merit. First, the stanza I’ve seen in a number of reputable tomes:

Of stone and of grace, of light and of shadow,
Four seeds of five sowers to shepherd us on,
And three pillars of strength, conjoined at the marrow,
But wherein lies hope when justice is gone . . .

Don’t feel bad if this holds no meaning for you at this point; you probably haven’t the background to make sense of it. I, on the other hand, having served Pevoraille for the equivalent of several hundred lifetimes, am immediately struck by a few things. First, hope and justice aren’t merely platitudes, those are the names of two of the most powerful relics in the world: the Hope Ruby and the Sword of Justice. As for three pillars of strength, conjoined at the marrow no less, that’s one of the clearest references I’ve ever seen to the three Pillars of Light - Glesvengion, Pevoraille, and Aviticus the White. Now, for the second line: four seeds of five sowers to shepherd us on - clearly this is about four children who will come to the world to lead us from darkness, though I must admit the remark about five sowers has me puzzled. And as to who those children shall be, we return to the first line. Of light and of shadow - every generation the Velandran Order of Knights - Aviticus’s Children - produce a new Child of the Light. Evidently, there will be a Child of Shadow as well, one who shall serve our cause, and a Child of Stone - presumably a dwarf, or a Rock Dweller as their commonly known - and finally a Child of Grace - which our world most assuredly needs.

Believe me, as you master the fundamentals of this approach and become familiar with our land, prophecy will become less of a jumble and more of a whisper about what lies ahead. Now look at the stanza again with the capitals in place to identify the proper names, and see if it doesn’t begin to take on meaning:

Of Stone and of Grace, of Light and of Shadow,
Four seeds of five sowers to shepherd us on,
And Three Pillars of strength conjoined at the marrow,
But wherein lies Hope when Justice is gone . . .

A simplistic reading of this might suggest that if we are to avert Ragnarok, we will have to rely on four prophesied Children who, in conjunction with the the Triad of Light, will shepherd us through the blackest of nights. As to the final line, it seems to indicate that the Sword of Justice may go missing for a spell, and that a search for the Hope Ruby will be in order. This is mostly conjecture, of course. But the point of the exercise is to show you that prophecy - particularly in the hands of someone who knows what they’re doing - is not a thing to be scoffed at . . .

picture of blacksmith working