Thread by @KrisAtLarge

argh! I forgot the most important bit! because it's about Baldr and Hoðr and Loki—and a very *particular* version of their story, the one that most people know, which comes from Snorri Sturluson and the "Prose Edda" and which then got picked up by English poets.

(1/x)

https://twitter.com/KrisAtLarge/status/1632260753788141568

#CSLewis cites Matthew Arnold's "Balder Dead", a retelling of the story of Baldr's death from the "Prose Edda", as one of his early influences in his semi-autobiographical work "Surprised by Joy".

now I speculate: Jack Lewis probably had Baldr in mind when he converted.

(2/x)

for it's been *noted* that the narrative about Baldr's death from Sturluson's "Prose Edda" is *almost* like the Christian narrative. Baldr is impossibly beautiful and impossibly pure, with amazing powers, then treachery lays him low—but he'll be coming back after Ragnarok!

(3/x)

I'm laying long odds here that if Jack Lewis was convinced by @JRRTolkien's (unfortunately specious) reasoning about the Christian story being the summation of European paganism somehow, it was largely because of Baldr's tale from the "Prose Edda"—that *one* data point.

(4/x)

the resemblance is too great, too tempting. there's a reason for the likeness: Snorri Sturluson was *Christian*. he had a reason to shape his retelling of Norse legends into a form that seemed like a premonition or foreshadowing of Jesus and Christianity: he was Christian.

(5/x)

it was in Sturluson's interest to present Norse tales as though they were foreshadowing Christianity—as though Baldr returned (after Ragnarok) were really what *Jesus* was all about, even though Jesus was no Baldr. that's the *implication* of making Baldr resemble Jesus.

(6/x)

for we have a *very* different tale about versions of Baldr and Hoðr in which they're straightforward peers and rivals, and Hoðr kills Baldr out of plain ordinary jealousy—and Loki is nowhere in sight, in this Danish form of the Baldr story (q.v. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldr)

(7/x)

that's a telling sign that the "Prose Edda" and Sturluson was being rather selective and slanted in its reshaping of legends of Baldr and Hoðr—here's a totally different version of their story. that's usual with pagan legends, which tend to turn up in multiple variations.

(8/x)

and it was done by a Christian writer! I'm not sure how widely that's appreciated—the best known and most widely retold and redistributed tales about the Norse deities come from Sturluson's "Prose Edda" and it's by a *Christian*, putting his own spin on these stories.

(9/x)

so if #CSLewis decided to convert to Christianity because of "Balder Dead" he made a *dreadful* mistake—his idea of "Baldr" was filtered through multiple Christian lenses, first Sturluson's, then Matthew Arnold's. of *course* the poor guy ended up resembling Jesus!

(10/x)

but that's rather the problem with Christian writers, or writers stamped with Christian values—they end up rewriting Jesus over and over. heck @jordanbpeterson thinks his personal narrative is the same as Jesus's. #HarryPotter is basically #JKRowling doing a Jesus trope.

(11/x)

obviously I don't think Baldr was a mere shadow or foretelling of Jesus (I don't think he was the "God of War" Baldr either but I'm biased) and I think it's wrong to pretend he was nothing more. Baldr's got his own story and it's not over yet! Baldr's yet to have his day.

(12/x)

after all...Snorri Sturluson *did* say he was coming back, right? so did @neilhimself, for that matter.

~Chara of Pnictogen

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