I often cite the novel The Viking, by Edison Marshall, as the book that brought me to Odin. – and that’s true. But I had an earlier exposure to Him, which I had all but forgotten for a very long time.
You’ll laugh, but here it is: My dad used to go down to a local store and buy his cigars – El Producto Favoritos. Sometimes he took me with him, and he would let me buy a comic book -even though they cost a whole dime back in those days. (We’re talking my age being maybe eight to ten years old, so this was about 1956 or 1958.) Donald Duck was a favorite.
Now, these comic books could actually be educational. In one episode, the Ducks set off to find the Philosopher’s Stone. In another, they engaged the Minotaur. I am sure there were other such classic adventures, but another one, which I was to remember many years later, had the Duck family in Norway. Deep inside a cave, they encountered Odin and Thor, and perhaps others. But the Gods were mere shapes, mere shadows of themselves, ghostly. Why? When asked, they responded that it was because no one believed in them anymore. I don’t remember anything else about the story. Did it make me interested in Norse mythology? No. Did it have any part in the Awakening? Not really. I pretty much forgot about it. It was not a cause of the Awakening… but somehow, it was a forerunner.
Today, the story would have a happier ending!
t.me/Stephen_A_McNallen – wotannetwork.com
