Tag: The Worm Ouroboros

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1. Brynhild and Sigerdrifa

Sigurd has now slain the dragon Fafnir and tasted his blood, thereby acquiring knowledge of the language of birds. We discussed the esoteric significance of this in the last three installments. The birds tell Sigurd that he ought to ride “up to Hindarfjall, where Brynhild sleeps.” There, they say, “he would learn much wisdom.”^[1] This is precisely where Sigurd heads, after loading Fafnir’s cursed treasure onto Grani. Two chapters of the saga are devoted to his meeting with Brynhild, and they are rich with occult significance. Among other things, the first of these chapters is one of the chief sources for our knowledge of rune magic. (more…)

Siegfried bathes in the dragon’s blood in Fritz Lang’s 1924 epic Die Nibelungen.

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1. Why Does Sigurd Slay the Dragon?

In How to Kill a Dragon, the linguist Calvert Watkins explores the common structure of the dragon or serpent slaying myths that are found throughout the Indo-European tradition. Midway through the book, he asks a crucial question, “Why does the hero slay the serpent? What is the function of this widespread if not universal myth, what is its meaning?” His answer employs language that must immediately remind us of Evola’s account of the “heroic path”: “The dragon symbolizes Chaos, in the largest sense, and killing the dragon represents the ultimate victory of Cosmic Truth over Chaos.”^[1] (more…)

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1. Julius Evola’s Interpretation of Alchemy

In our last installment, we told the story of Sigurd slaying the dragon Fafnir and tasting his blood, which gives the hero knowledge of the language of birds. I proposed that this, and surrounding episodes, may be understood as an account of alchemical transmutation, in just the way Evola expounded this term in The Hermetic Tradition and other texts. In this essay I will introduce readers to Evola’s understanding of alchemy. In subsequent installments, I will expound an alchemical interpretation of Sigurd’s adventures. (more…)

3,568 words

Part 4 of 4 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here)

E. R. Eddison
The Worm Ouroboros
Charleston, S.C.: BiblioBazaar, 2008

We have reserved this mystery for the final part of our review: the question of the meaning of ouroboros, sign and signal of the book we have set ourselves to contemplate. (more…)

E. R. Eddison, 1922

2,810 words

Part 3 of 4 (Part 1 here, Part 2 here)

E. R. Eddison
The Worm Ouroboros
Charleston, S.C.: BiblioBazaar, 2008

The blood which binds one to one’s family and to one’s people is treated throughout The Worm Ouroboros as one of the strongest and least questionable motivators of human action, and proves to be finally decisive in all the characters to whom we are presented. (more…)

2,661 words

Part 2 of 4 (Part 1 here)

E. R. Eddison
The Worm Ouroboros
Charleston, S.C.: BiblioBazaar, 2008

We lovers of the Occident are in a hard battle; before the end of it, we will be tried in ways we might not even now imagine. All of us, I think, perceive as much. (more…)

2,077 words

Part 1 of 4

E. R. Eddison
The Worm Ouroboros
Charleston, S.C.: BiblioBazaar, 2008

Long would I hesitate before calling any literary work of the past century great. That word, so abused in our day, seems to me best reserved for the highest prose and poetry of the literary sphere, and I am of the opinion that precious little of such is to be found in these latter days. (more…)