checking out the library book / Love

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> wrote:
> ::snerk:: If you want to maintain that a series which makes mention
> of  ghosts, souls, monks, nuns, knights, chivalry, cathedrals, a fat
> friar, prophecy, a power beyond the forces of nature and enough
> mythological references to choke a hippogriff has no overt 
> references to religion, be my guest. I'm sure Jo can work in a
> reference to God in the same fashion which allowed you to 
> overlook the others.
> 

Enlighten me please - where does it mention souls and cathedrals in 
canon? Not being sarcastic, I genuinely can't remember - or nuns,
come to that.

Ghosts and prophecies are pretty much  standard fare in fantasies
from all cultures in all times; knights and chivalry (which in reality only 
applied to one's equals, the peasants were fair game, something glossed 
over by the authors of the romance epics) aren't particularly associated 
with religion either, except as a justification for piling up the corpses. 
"I'm doing it for God," they'd say while slitting a heretic/infidel throat.

Friars - maybe. But way back anyone could claim 'benefit of clergy' if 
they could quote a phrase in latin; they didn't even have to know what 
it meant. Anyway, organised religion is anti-magic. Get caught dabbling 
and it's barbeque time. Alchemy - very definitely a clerkish pastime; 
though that was a by-product of the religious being the only group 
around who could a) read and b) not have to work for a living and
c) most centres of learning were run or over-seen by the church.
It hung on, too. For those entering Oxford University it was compulsory
that their first qualification be in theology, even as late as Charles Darwin. 

That 'power' is up for grabs, some have one idea, others disagree.
Interesting that you seem to class religion as a sub-set of mythology.


Kneasy