Cross-reading

The joys of surfing are closely related to reading dictionaries: they illustrate the central concept that all knowledge is interrelated. An example from this morning: I started with Tim Bray talking about Sly and Robbie (still in business, I'm delighted to learn, their 25th Anniversary tour is currently in Vancouver, Canada). Tim says:

There's this rhythm that's already out there, everywhere. It's your mother's heartbeat that backgrounded the birth of your mind in the womb, though you don't remember. It's the creaking in the roots of the world tree, and the secret resonance of the inner heart of the Sun.

So, what's a world tree when it's at home? "Bet that's connected to the World Ash in the Ring cycle", I thought, and clicked on the link to the Wikipedia:

In Norse Mythology, Yggdrasil was the "World Tree," a gigantic tree (often suggested to be an ash, an interpretation generally accepted in the modern Scandinavian mind) thought to hold all of the different worlds: such as Asgard, Midgard, Utgard and Hel... Yggdrasil is also central in the myth of Ragnarok, the end of the world. (The Wikipedia is a bibliophile's delight: the original page contains 15 links in the quoted paragraphs alone.)

So, what's Ragnarok? I'm sure I've seen that somewhere before. Click on the link:

In Norse mythology, Ragnarok ( "fate of the gods") is the battle at the end of the world... What is unique about Ragnarok as an armageddon tale is that the gods already know through prophesy what is going to happen: when the event will occur, who will be slain by whom, and so forth. They even realize that they are powerless to prevent Ragnarok. But they will still bravely and defiantly face their bleak destiny.

That suggests Leonidas' Spartans and their suicidal stand against the Persians at Thermopylae, buying time for the Greeks to retreat and regroup:

Xerxes did not believe such a small force would oppose him, and gave the Greeks five days to retreat. When they did not, he sent his troops into the pass, but each successive wave was eventually defeated... After the second day a Greek named Ephialtes defected to the Persians and informed Xerxes of a separate path through Thermopylae... Leonidas then realized that further fighting would be futile. On August 11 he dismissed all but 300 Spartans. A contingent of Thespians, led by Demophilus, stayed as well in a suicidal effort to delay the advance... Although the Greeks killed many Persians, including two of Xerxes' brothers, Leonidas was killed, along with all 300 of his men.

Futile? not to my thinking. The Greeks used wisely the time he bought, and defeated Xerxes at Salamis. Didn't Cavafy write about that?

Honor to those who in the life they lead
define and guard a Thermopylae...
And even more honor is due to them
when they foresee (as many do foresee)
that Ephialtis will turn up in the end,
that the Medes will break through after all.

Like reading the dictionary, pure surfing seldom gets you somewhere you wanted to go, but it's usually a fascinating ride.