One sentence has stuck in my mind from the hilarious Fawlty Towers: 'I am from Barcelona, I know nooothing!' "Hilary ... name of a saint and doctor of the Church, bishop of Poitiers (died 367), whose feast, falling on 13 January ["February 23 = Terminalia = day 419 = *298 = *285 + *13], gives his name to the first of the law and university terms of the calendar year ..." (English Etymology) The Other will always be a foreigner, someone who is ill informed and has bad manners - eating frogs like the French for instance. How did we get to this place? ... The eye is the symbolic site of subjection. Valeri observes that: 'The two sentiments that permit the transcendence of the self are, according to Hawaiians, desire and respect. One and the other are called kau ka maka, literally, 'to set one's eyes on' ... 'To see' (ike) in Hawaiian (as in French or English) is 'to understand', but it is also 'to know sexually'. Witness to the order, the world of forms generated by the chief, the eye, is the sacrifice of those who violate that order. The left eye of the slain tabu-transgressors is swallowed by Kahoali'i, ceremonial double of the king and living god of his sacrificial rites. Like the sun, chiefs of the highest tabus - those who are called 'gods', 'fire', 'heat', and 'raging blazes' - cannot be gazed directly upon without injury. The lowly commoner prostrates before them face to the ground, the position assumed by victims on the platforms of human sacrifice. Such a one is called makawela, 'burnt eyes' ... In our present context we can begin to respect the Other by reading the rongorongo texts. There were 2 ways to float down the rivers of time, one delimiting the western side of Mesopotamia along the lazy Euphrates and the other was to try to navigate the raging Tigris in the east.
... What happens after (or happened, or will happen sometime, for this myth is written in the future tense), is told in the Völuspa, but it is also amplified in Snorri's Gylfaginning (53), a tale of a strange encounter of King Gylfi with the Aesir themselves, disguised as men, who do not reveal their identity but are willing to answer questions: 'What happens when the whole world has burned up, the gods are dead, and all of mankind is gone? You have said earlier, that each human being would go on living in this or that world.' So it is, goes the answer, there are several worlds for the good and the bad. Then Gylfi asks: 'Shall any gods be alive, and shall there be something of earth and heaven?' And the answer is: 'The earth rises up from the sea again, and is green and beautiful and things grow without sowing. Vidar and Vali are alive, for neither the sea nor the flames of Surt have hurt them and they dwell on the Eddyfield, where once stood Asgard. There come also the sons of Thor, Modi and Magni, and bring along his hammer. There come also Balder and Hoder from the other world. All sit down and converse together. They rehearse their runes and talk of events of old days. Then they find in the grass the golden tablets that the Aesir once played with.
Two children of men will also be found safe from the great flames of Surt. Their names, Lif and Lifthrasir, and they feed on the morning dew and from this human pair will come a great population which will fill the earth. And strange to say, the sun, before being devoured by Fenrir, will have borne a daughter, no less beautiful and going the same ways as her mother.' Then, all at once, concludes Snorri's tale wryly, a thunderous cracking was heard from all sides, and when the King looked again, he found himself on the open plain and the great hall had vanished ...
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