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Now it fell out that doleful tidings came to that part of the country. It was said that the Stoorworm was drawing near the land. And this news made the boldest heart beat faster. And, truly, the Stoorworm came, and set up his head to the land. He turned his awful mouth landward; and yawned horridly; so that when his jaws came together they made a noise that shook the earth and the sea.
And this he did to show that, if not fed, he would consume the land. Now, you must know that this was the largest, the first, and the father of all the Stoorworms. Therefore was he well named the Mester Stoorworm. With his venomous breath he could kill every living creature on which it fell, and could wither up everything that grew. Fear fell on every heart, and there was lamentation in the land.
Black smoked billowed from the monster's nostrils and in his agony his forked tongue shot out and caught hold of one of the horns of the moon. Fortunately it slipped from moon and fell with such a crash that it made a deep rift on the earth.
The tide rushed into the rift and became the Baltic Sea. The Stoor Worm twisted and writhed in torment, flinging his head up into the sky.
Every time it fell back to earth the whole world shook and groaned.
With each fall, teeth dropped from the vile, foaming mouth. The first lot of falling teeth became the Orkney Islands with the next forming the Shetland Islands.
Last of all, when the Stoor Worm was almost dead, the Faroe Islands fell with an almighty splash.
In the end the creature coiled itself together tightly into a huge mass that was said to become the far country of Iceland. Once the sky had cleared and the sun shone again, the King took Assipattle into his arms and called him his son.
The water struck the north-east of Britain with such force it travelled 25 miles (40km) inland, turning low-lying plains into what is now the North Sea, and marshlands to the south into the Channel. Britain became an island nation.
At the time it was home to a fragile and scattered population of about 5,000 hunter-gatherers, descended from the early humans who had followed migrating herds of mammoth and reindeer onto the jagged peninsula.
"The waves would have been maybe as much as 10m (33ft) high," says geologist David Smith, of Oxford University. "Anyone standing out on the mud flats at that time would have been dismembered. The speed [of the water] was just so great."
originally posted by: Butterfinger
a reply to: rickymouse
Cool! Can you cite the Odin usage mentioned?
originally posted by: beansidhe
a reply to: rickymouse
Thank you and thanks for the snippet of mythology too. I don't know much about the Norse tales but understanding the meaning behind the metaphors really helps to make sense of old stories.
I agree, I think that some of our tales are really ancient.
When you start to read the bible and try to figure out what they trying to say, you can find others have already researched it and find out lots more about things.
originally posted by: beansidhe
a reply to: Baddogma
Hello you. It seems too be old to be true and yet, to me, it reads as a landscape story - geophysical as you say. It would start with a simile "It's like a great beast came out of the sea" and three generations later, a great beast itself came out of the sea
originally posted by: rickymouse
I'm not sure when Thor and Baldr were around, it sounds like they were decendents of Odin or Wodan.
It also kind of looks that the redheads, Odin's kingdom, was recognized by the jews back long ago.
They called it one of the lost tribes of Israel, the line of Dan. It appears they were trading with them too. They were not related to the Jews though. Just trading partners from what I can see.
When you start to read the bible and try to figure out what they trying to say, you can find others have already researched it and find out lots more about things.
Black smoked billowed from the monster's nostrils and in his agony his forked tongue shot out and caught hold of one of the horns of the moon. Fortunately it slipped from moon and fell with such a crash that it made a deep rift on the earth.
Although it's too young, I have read about a site, somewhere in northern Scotland, that has evidence of both a tsunami and burning.