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Visions of Death The death. According to vocabulary thus word means The permanent end of all life functions in an organism or part of an organism. But what does it mean for a human being? The visions of death through the history changed greatly. There are religions, which believe that there is no death but only closed circle of reporting.
Reporting leads to the purification of the soul and after some amount of reincarnation the soul reach paradise. All in all, the some kind of hell and heaven we can find in every religion. Of course, they differ from one another and entrance conditions also differ but in some basic things they are all the same. What forms the visions of death? It is hard to say or outlined something. I think that there are many factors, which forms ones vision.
If it is a religious person the main factor is religion. If not, then maybe, philosophy, social rules and concepts, etc. If we look back at our ancestors we can notice that somewhat from Anglo-Saxons times, visions of death have changed. It was interesting to read about the book on the Anglo-Saxons conceptualize of the interim between death and Doomsday.
In this book, Ananya Jahanara Kabir presents the first investigation into the Anglo-Saxon belief in the 'interim paradise'. She states that paradise is some kind of a temporary dwelling for good souls following death and pending the final decisions of Doomsday. Her research covers the origins of this distinctive sense of paradise within early Christian polemics. In ancient times religion was a very intricate thing where pagan beliefs were mixed up with the Christianity.
I've established the Anglo-Saxon development as a site of contestation and compromise, and argues for its post-Conquest transformation into the doctrine of purgatory said Ananya Jahanara Kabir. I tried to find the visions of death of our ancestors in ranging across Old English prose and poetry, she continued. As well as Latin apocrypha, exegesis, liturgy, prayers and visions of the otherworld. If we take a closer look on the Old English prose and poetry we can find that Anglo-Saxons dwelling for the souls. The heroes of Middle Ages took rest in the holy place. That place was usually concealed from the sight of mere mortals.
The most famous place of rest is, of course the island of Avalon. If we take a great interest in worlds legend we can notice some similarities between Scandinavian Valhalla and English Avalon. And really, they are somewhat similar but it is easy to explain. Ancient history is history of wars. It was an honor to be a warrior, and a good one at that. People in that time held power in high respect.
Avalon is the land of sorceress, the land of magic where heroes can find their peace. It is the lain of eternal happiness and youth. In the Welsh mythology this land has is named Yes yr Avalon, which means The Island of Apple-tree. The legend says that Avalon is the land far beyond the sea or concealed in mist island. I may only guess that it was rather nice there and that our ancestors had all rights to seek such rest after the death. Heroic death, do not forget this.
And the best way for warrior to die was to die in fight with his sword in arms and with victorious war cry on his lips. And what we have now? Yes we have wars, human race always has wars. But visions of death changed, and as for me, not for good. There is now Avalon for us, no beautiful concealed in Mist Island. We think that we know everything or almost everything about life and death.
There are no dreams for us about Never-Never Land. We are afraid of death because we know that in the way of our life will be cold morgue with sterile tables and pathologoanatomic opening. We lost what saw our ancestors see the beauty in death. For us there is nothing in it which can be honored, what to seek after. Bibliography Ananya Jahanara Kabir, Paradise, Death and Doomsday in Anglo-Saxon Literature, Cambridge University Press, 2001 Chance, Jane (Rice Univ. ) and Alfred Siemens (Bucknell Univ. ), eds. , Tolkien and the Other: Race and Gender in Middle-earth, TBP Bucknell Univ. Press.
Call, Paul (Univ. of Nottingham), The Christian Tradition in Anglo-Saxon England: Approaches to Current Scholarship and Teaching, TBP D. S. Brewer
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