The Power of Curses: How Divine Intervention Can Keep Objects In Place

[Danger]

I'll get back to you on that. The Legion is closing down, so I'll be off-line until I get home.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Wait a sec... You mean there's no Mjolnir? :-(

 

[DoggerDan]

Am I the only one who realizes that this entire conversation has been based upon the acceptance of something that doesn't exist?

Not at all. We don't respond to what doesn't exist.

 

[LaurieAG]

It is simple to picture some god devoting a molecule of his will to reach down from heaven and place an invisible finger on the sword, such that it cannot moved by man... Odin declares "Only he who is worthy shall wield Mjölnir!" and embeds the hammer in the ground, where it remains despite the mightiest efforts of humans and fallen gods.

Who enforces it? What higher power does Odin, the King of Gods call upon to grant him his request?

Hi Dave, good topic.

It's interesting that structurally Odin lives in Asgard while his hammer Mjollnir and Excaliber were earthly deposits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mjöllnir

Eitri then puts iron in the forge and tells Brokkr to never stop blowing. Loki comes again and bites Brokkr on the eyelid much harder than before and the blood makes him stop blowing for a short while. When Eitri comes and takes out Mjöllnir, the handle is a bit short (making it one handed).

Heimdall would also blow his horn when Midgard (earth) and Asgard (heaven) were both under attack from the Jotnar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jötunheimr

From Jötunheimr, the giants menace the humans in Midgard and the gods in Asgard. The river Ifing (Old Norse, Ífingr) separates Asgard, the realm of the gods, from Jötunheimr, the land of giants. Gastropnir, home of Menglad, and Þrymheimr, home of Þjazi, were both located in Jötunheimr, which was ruled by King Thrym. Glæsisvellir was a location in Jötunheimr, where lived the giant Gudmund, father of Höfund. Utgard was a stronghold surrounding the land of the giants.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heimdall

Heimdallr is the watchman of the gods, and he sits on the edge of heaven to guard the Bifröst bridge from the berg jötnar. Heimdallr requires less sleep than a bird, can see at night just as well as if it were day, and for over a hundred leagues. Heimdallr's hearing is also quite keen; he can hear grass as it grows on the earth, wool as it grows on sheep, and anything louder. Heimdallr possesses a trumpet, Gjallarhorn, that, when blown, can be heard in all worlds, and "the head is referred to has Heimdall's sword".

Smelting iron ores for superior weapons was very difficult but there were easier ways to get the metal other than smelting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Age

Thus it is not surprising that humans only mastered the technology of smelted iron after several millennia of bronze metallurgy.

It was thought that the lack of archaeological evidence of iron production made it seem unlikely that iron production was begun earlier elsewhere, and the Iron Age was seen as a case of simple diffusion of a new and superior technology from an invention point in Near East to other regions. It is known in the present age that meteoric iron, or iron-nickel alloy, was used by various ancient peoples thousands of years before the Iron Age. Such iron, being in its native metallic state, required no smelting of ores.

This source of metallic iron would have been the main source of superior weaponry in the west up to the introduction of blast furnaces in the high middle ages.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blast_furnace

Superior weapons are probably cursed because they can kill people more easily than inferior weapons.

 

[FlexGunship]

[...]and Flex has been rapidly earning my respect. [...]

(Source: http://127.0.0.1/2011/04/funny-celebrity-pictures-roll/ )