geno
Lifer
- Dec 26, 1999
- 25,074
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Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
Originally posted by: meltdown75
Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
Originally posted by: meltdown75
Originally posted by: aplefka
Originally posted by: meltdown75
http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/sta03.htm
if you can get through that you're a champ.:beer:
Okay, so what do I get?
eleventy billion :beer:s
Eleventy billion, isn't that a bit excessive? We're not even having a BBQ right now
lol - it took me an hour to read that thread at work this morning. :beer:
:beer: indeed
:beer:s all around! :beer: for the nefs, :beer: for the mods, :beer: for the worthless members, and most of all :beer: for all the cool people.
Originally posted by: aplefka
Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
Originally posted by: meltdown75
Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
Originally posted by: meltdown75
Originally posted by: aplefka
Originally posted by: meltdown75
http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/sta03.htm
if you can get through that you're a champ.
Okay, so what do I get?
eleventy billion :beer:s
Eleventy billion, isn't that a bit excessive? We're not even having a BBQ right now
lol - it took me an hour to read that thread at work this morning. :beer:
:beer: indeed
:beer:s all around! :beer: for the nefs, :beer: for the mods, :beer: for the worthless members, and most of all :beer: for all the cool people.
woooooo!
:beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer::beer:
In 1608 when discords raged between the two brothers, Prince
Rudolph and the Archduke Matthias, the populace scrutinized
their actions, comparing them with examples taken from Bohemian
history. At that time I was driven by the same curiosity to
apply myself to the study of Bohemian legends. When I chanced
upon the legend of the Libyan virago, so celebrated in the art
of magic, something happened. On a certain night after I had
attentively contemplated the Moon and the stars I peacefully
settled on my couch and fell into a rather deep sleep. In my
sleep I seemed to have picked up a book, from the bookshelf to
read it through. The drift of the book was as follows.
My name is Duracotus and my fatherland Iceland called Thule by
the ancients. My mother, Fiolxhild who died recently left me at
leisure to write something which I already ardently desired to
do. While she lived she diligently saw to it that I did not
write, for she said that there were many malicious usurpers of
the arts, who, because they did not understand anything, on
account of the ignorance of their mind, misrepresented them and
made laws detrimental to the human race. Under these laws, many
men would assuredly have been condemned and swallowed up in the
abysses of Hekla. What my father's name was she never told me.
She asserted that he was a fisherman who had die at the age of
one hundred and fifty when I was three years old. He had been
married for seventy years more or less.
In my early childhood, my mother led me by the hand or, lifting
me up in her arms frequently brought me to the lower ridges of
Mount Hekla especially around the feast of Saint John when the
Sun, visible for 24 hours, leaves no room for night. She gather
many herbs and at home cooked them with various religious rites.
She made small sacks from goat skins and when these were
inflated with herbal concoctions, she brought them to the
neighboring harbor to be sold to placate the captains of the
ships. Thus she provided herself with the means of sustenance.
Out of curiosity on one occasion I had opened one of the sacks.
My mother unaware of what had happened sold it. I had taken out
the herbs from the linen cloth, ornamented with needlework and
displaying various symbols. By opening this sack I had
defrauded her of her profit. My mother, inflamed with rage,
said that she would give me to the skipper as his own in place
of the sack, so that she could keep the money. On the next day
he unexpectedly set sail from the harbor under a favorable wind
bound for the Island of Norway. After several days under the
rising north wind, he was brought between Norway and England.
He passed through the channel and made his way towards Denmark
because he had letters of an Icelandic Bishop to be delivered to
Tycho Brahe, the Dane, who lived on the Island of Hveen. Then a
fourteen year old boy, I was growing seriously ill by reason of
the tossing of the ship and the unusual temperature of the air.
When the ship had been landed, along with the letters the
skipper left me
there in the home of an island fisherman and set sail again with
the promise of returning.
After the letters were handed over, Brahe in a very cheerful
mood began to ask me many questions. I did not understand him
because I did not know the language except for a few words. He
gave all his time to his students, whom he cared for in large
numbers. Through Brahe's liberality they could frequently speak
to me. With a few weeks' practice I began to speak Danish in a
tolerable way. I was no less prepared to answer them than the y
were to question me. I marveled at many unfamiliar objects. I
recounted many recent happenings in my fatherland to my
admirers.
Finally, when the ship's captain returned to take me back, Brahe
kept me. This made me exceedingly happy.
Astronomical exercises pleased me to an extraordinary degree.
For whole nights Brahe and his students devoted themselves to
the study of the Moon and the stars using wonderful machines.
This practice brought my mother back to mind since she also
frequently conversed with the Moon. By this stream of events,
although I was considered a semi-barbarian on account of my
birthplace and indigent circumstances, I came to a knowledge of
the most divine of sciences, which prepared my way for greater
accomplishments.
After living on this island of Hveen for several years, I
desired to revisit my native land. On account of the science I
had acquired I supposed that it would not be difficult me to
rise up to some degree of honor in my own nation of unskilled
men. I asked a obtained permission to depart from my patron,
bade him farewell and came to Copehagen. My traveling
companions freely took me under their protection because of my
familiarity with their language and country. I returned home
five years after I had left.
My first source of joy upon my return was to find that my mother
was still living and rendering the same services that she
formerly did. Since I was still alive and provided with a means
of livelihood, I put an end to her continual sorrow for having
abandoned her son in a fit of anger. Autumn was approaching and
those long nights of ours were drawing near. In December the
Sun, scarcely rising a little at noon, is again hidden from
sight. My mother stayed close to me now that she was free from
her work and did not leave me no matter where I went. Because
of my letters of recommendation, I was questioned about the
lands I had visited, and even questions concerning the heavens.
My mother took pleasure in comparing the extent of knowledge I
had gathered and what she herself discovered as true. She
declared that she was now ready to die so that she could leave
her son heir to that information which she alone possessed.
By nature I had a real thirst for learning new things. So I
asked my mother about her art and which teachers in her country
stood out above the rest. Then, on a certain day, when there
was leisure for her to speak, she repeated in this manner all
she knew from the very beginnings: Duracotus, my son, knowledge
is available not only in other provinces to which you traveled
but also in our own homeland. You have made me realize the
enchantment of other regions. But even if we have coldness,
darkness and other discomforts which I now feel oppress us, we
still abound in people with talent. We have among us very
gifted spirits who shunned the greater light of other regions
and the chattering of men and they sought our shaded areas to
converse familiarly with us. Of these spirits nine were
important. One of these, by far the gentlest and most innocent,
was particularly known to me. This spirit was disclosed by 21
marks. Often, in a split second, I was transported by its power
to other shores which I
selected for myself. If I were kept away from certain places on
account of their distance, I gained ground by questioning about
those places just as if we were present there. He reviewed for
me very many facts about those objects that you had examined
with your eyes, accepted from report, taken out of books. I
would especially like you to become a spectator, my companion,
of that region concerning which he told me. How wonderful were
those things which he told me about it. He conjured up Levania.
Without delay, I agreed that she should summon her teacher. I
sat in council, prepared to hear both the entire purpose of the
journey and the description of the region. Spring was upon the
region. As soon as the Moon was in crescent, it began to shine
forth since the Moon was in crescent, it Sun had hidden under
the horizon joined to the planet after the Sun had hidden under
the horizon joined to the planet Saturn in the sign of Taurus.
My mother, withdrawing from me into the nearest crossroads and
uttering cry few words in a loud clamor set forth her request.
After she completed the ceremonies, she returned and demanding
silence with the palm of her right hand outstretched she sat
down near me. Scarcely had we hidden our heads with a cloth (as
was the custom) when behold, there arose the hawking of a hoarse
lisping voice and immediately it began to speak in this way, but
in the Islandic language.
THE DAEMON FROM LAVANIA
The island of Levania is located fifty thousand German miles
high up in the air. The journey to and from this island from
our Earth is very seldom open; but when it is accessible, its
easy for our people. However, the transportation of men, joined
as it is to the greatest danger of life, is most difficult. We
do not admit sedentary, corpulent or fastidious men into this
retinue. We choose rather those who spend their time
persistently riding swift horses or who frequently sail to the
Indies, accustomed to subsist on twice-baked bread, garlic,
dried fish, and other unsavory dishes. There are dried up old
women especially suited for our purpose. The reason for this is
well known. From early childhood they are accustomed to riding
goats, or on mantles, and to travel through narrow passes and
through the immense expanse of the Earth. Although Germans are
not suitable, we do not reject the dry bodies of Spaniards.
The whole journey, far though it may be, is completed in four
hours at most. Our departure time happens when we are busiest,
before the Moon begins its eclipse in its eastern section. If
the Moon becomes full while we are still on our way, our return
journey is impossible. The occasion becomes so brief that we
have few humans and not any other beings except the most helpful
toward us. Forming a column we seize any man of this kind and
all of us pushing upward raise him to the heights. The initial
shock is the worst part of it for him, for he is spun upward as
if by an explosion of gunpowder and he flies above mountains and
seas. On that account he must be drugged with narcotics and
opiates prior to his flight. His limbs must be carefully
protected so that they are not torn from him, body from legs,
head from body and so that the recoil may not spread over into
every member of his body. Then he will face new difficulties:
intense cold and impaired respiration. These circumstances
which are natural to
spirits are applied force to man. We go on our way placing
moistened sponges to our nostrils. With first section of the
voyage complete, our conveyance becomes easier. Then we expose
our bodies freely to the air and withdraw our hands. All these
persons are gathered into a ball within themselves, by reason of
pressure, a condition which we ourselves produce almost by a
mere sign of the head. Finally, on arrival at the moon, the
body is directed into its intended place by its own accord.
This critical point is of little use to us spirits because it is
excessively slow. Therefore, as I said, we accelerate by
gravity and go in front of the man's body, lest by a very strong
impact into the Moon he might suffer any harm. When the man
awakes, he usually complains that all his members suffer from an
ineffable lassitude, from which, however, he completely recovers
when the effect of the drugs wears off, so that he can walk.
Numerous other difficulties occur which would take too long to
recount. Nothing happens to us that is entirely evil. How long
those shadows of the Earth are which we inhabit on the moon in a
compact manner! When these men have reached Levania, we are at
hand. They seem to be climbing from a ship on to land. There
we speedily withdraw into the caves and gloomy places lest the
Sun at present in the open but about to eclipse a little later
from a pleasant resting place, casts us out and forces us to
follow the departing shadow. Our ingenuity exercises itself in
moments of decision. We join ourselves to the daemons of this
province and a society begins when the Sun first begins to fail
the locality. Gathered together in crowds we deviate from our
course into the shadow. And if the shadow hits the Earth with
its sharp point, which often happens, we shall fall heavily upon
Earth and our fellow soldiers, for we are allowed no other
result when men have witnessed the Sun's eclipse. From this it
follows that
the eclipses of the Sun are dreaded.
As a consequence, these comments shall be made about the journey
into Levania. I shall speak about the shape itself of the
province, beginning as do geographers with those things which
happen to it from above.
Even if the whole of Levania has the appearance of fixed stars
in common with us, yet one observes very many movements and
numbers of planets different from those which we see from Earth
so that all of their astronomy has another meaning.
Just as geographers divide the Earth's globe into five zones due
to celestial phenomena, so Levania consists of two hemispheres,
the one of the Subvolvans, and the other of the Privolvans. Of
these two hemispheres, the Subvolvans always see their Volva, or
our Earth, which to them is like our Moon, and the Privolvans
are completely deprived of the sight of their Volva. The circle
dividing their hemispheres, similar to our solstices' colure,
passes through the poles of the world and is called divisor.
I shall explain first what is common to both hemispheres. All
Levania suffers the same alternations of day and night as we do,
but during the year they lack other annual changes. Throughout
Levania its days are almost equal to its nights, except for the
fact that for the Privolans each day is regularly shorter than
its own night whereas the Subvolvans' day is regularly longer.
What is altered in an eight-year cycle will have to be mentioned
later on. Under both poles half of the Sun is concealed for the
equalization of the night, the other half shines, forming a
circle around the mountains. Because the stars are moving,
Levania seems to stand no less motionless to its inhabitants
than our Earth to us. One of our months equals one of their
nights and a day. When the Sun is going to rise early in the
morning, almost a completely new sign of the zodiac is more
apparent the day after rather than the day before, Just as in
one of our years the Sun revolves 365 times and the orbits of
fixed stars 336 times;
or more precisely, in four years the Sun revolves 1461 times but
the orbits of fixed stars 1465 times for us, so for them in one
year the Sun goes around 12 times, the orbit of fixed stars 13
times; or more precisely, in 8 years the Sun goes around 99
times, the orbits of fixed stars 107 times. But they are more
familiar with a 19 year cycle. In that number of years, the Sun
rises 235 times and fixed stars 254 times.
The Sun rises in the central or innermost parts of the
Subvolvans when the last quarter is visible to us; then to the
innermost parts of the Privolans when the first quarter appears
to us. What I say about the central parts must be understood of
all the semicircles led through the poles and the middles at
right angles to the divisor. You can call them the semicircles
of the Medivolvans.
The circle that is the intermediate between poles producing the
same effect as the equator of our Earth will be called by the
same name. It cuts the divisor into equal parts and the
Medivolva in opposite points. The Sun passes over some places
on the equator on two opposite days of the year precisely at the
point of noon. At midday the Sun digresses from the zenith to
the others dwelling on both sides of the poles.
On Levania there is some variation of summer and winter but that
must not be compared with our own nor as we have in the same
places at the same time of the year. In a ten-year period their
summer changes from one part of the star-year to the opposite
part, from the same intended place. In a 19 star-year cycle or
in 235 days, summer occurs 20 times and winter just as often
towards the poles, and at the equator 40 times. Just as we have
our months they have 6 days in all during the summer, the rest
belong to winter. The same alternation is scarcely felt around
the equator because the Sun does not digress to the sides beyond
50 backwards and forwards from those places. It is felt more
next to the poles and those places that have or lack the Sun
alternately at six-month intervals just as there are on Earth
those of us who dwell under one of the two poles. Levania's
globe is also divided into five zones corresponding somewhat to
our terrestrial zones; that is, the Torrid and Frigid Zones have
scarcely 10
degrees each; all the rest falls in proportion to our Temperate
Zone. The Torrid Zone passes over through the middle parts of
the hemisphere, half its length through the Subvolvans, the
other through the Privolvans.
There are four cardinal points to the sections of the equator's
and the zodiac's circles. We call these points equinoxes and
solstices, and from these sections is the start of the zodiacal
circle. From its beginning to its consequence the motion of
fixed stars is very swift, namely twenty tropical years, that
is, defined by one summer and one winter. Fixed stars cross
through the whole zodiac which we do in about 26,000 years, So
much for its first motion.
The cause of their secondary motions differs no less from those
which appear to us although much more intricate. Besides the
many inequalities existing between ourselves and all six
planets, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, they
have three others that occur; namely, two of longitude, one
diurnal, the second through the cycle of 8 1/2 years and the
third of latitude through a 19-year circuit. The Privolvans'
centers have the Sun at noon more than their other counterparts
whereas the Subvolvans have it less than if the Sun rises. Both
are of the same opinion that the Sun inclines towards the
Subvolvans for a few minutes, back and forth from the ecliptic
and then among those fixed stars. These variations, as I have
said, are restored in the space of 19 years into their former
marks. This wandering takes hold of the Privolvans somewhat
more, somewhat less of the Subvolvans. Although the Sun and the
fixed stars are set to fall equally around Levania by its first
motion, yet the Sun increases
for the Privolvans at midday but nearly nothing beneath the
fixed stars. At midday the Sun appears very swift for the
Subvolvans although the contrary is true about the middle of the
night. As a result, under the fixed stars the Sun is seen to
make certain leaps as it were, separate ones for each individual
day.
The same is true on Venus, Mercury and Mars, but on Jupiter and
Saturn they are almost imperceptible.
Yet every day's motion is not even the same each day at similar
hours. However, it is sometimes slower with the Sun than with
all the fixed stars, yet faster in the opposite part of the year
at the same hour. This lassitude goes back and forth through
the days of the year in such a way that it now occupies summer
then winter which feels the swiftness in another year. All this
occurs in one absolute cycle through a little less than nine
years. The day becomes longer than the night (by a natural
slowness, not as we have it on Earth by an unequal section of
the orbit of a natural day).
Though the slowness falls upon the Privolvans in the middle of
the night, it accomplishes its deviation before another day; if,
on the other hand, it is completed during the day, then night
and day are equal because it happens once in 9 years. This is
completely changed for the Subvolvans.
Such characteristics are found common to both hemispheres.
CONCERNING THE PRIVOLVAN'S HEMISPHERE
What belongs separately to each hemisphere is the great
diversity between them. Not only the presence and absence of
Volva display quite dissimilar spectacles, but these common
phenomena themselves differ so greatly here and there in their
effects that one could perhaps more correctly call the Privolvan
hemisphere intemperate the Subvolvan temperate. The Privolvans'
night lasts 15 or 16 of our days, terrible with never-ending
shadows, as are our moonless nights. The rays of the Volva
never light upon them. For this reason everything becomes stiff
from the ice, the frost and from the sagest and most powerful
winds. One day ensues, 14 of our days long, or a little less
than that in which the Sun appears larger. The Sun is slow
under fixed stars and there are no winds. Then, it becomes
intolerable hot. Thus for the space of one of our months or of
one Levanian day and in one and the same place, the heat becomes
15 times hotter than our Africa, and the cold, unbearable.
Especially should it be noted that the planet Mars is sometimes
observed by those in the central parts of the Privolva at
midnight and for others at the beginning of their own night, as
almost greater than double what we see.
CONCERNING THE SUBVOLVANS' HEMISPHERE
As I cross over to this hemisphere, I begin with its
frontiersmen who inhabit the divisor circle. Particular to them
is the fact that they observe the digressions of Venus and
Mercury from the Sun as much greater than we do. To these same
people Venus appears at certain times as greater than double our
view of Venus, especially to those who live at the North Pole.
The most pleasant of all occupations on Levania is the
contemplation of its Volva. Levanians enjoy the sight of their
Volva as we do our Moon which the Privolvans lack completely
because they are deep within. Because of their Volva's
perennial present this region is called Subvolva just as the
rest is called Privolva because it has bee deprived of the view
of its Volva.
When our Moon rises full and goes over distant homes, we
Earth-dwellers see it as equal to open circle of a large wooden
keg. When it rises to the middle of the sky, the Moon brings to
mind something like the form of a human face. The Subvolvans
see their Volva in the middle of their own sky. (The Volva
takes this position for those who dwell in the middle or the
navel of this hemisphere) with a diameter a little less than
four times longer than our Moon to us so that if we set up a
comparison of disks, their Volva's surface is fifteen times
greater than our Moon. To those whose Volva continuously
cleaves fast to their horizon, it appears in the shape of a
distant fiery mountain.
Just as we differentiate our regions by means of greater or
lesser elevations of the pole although we do not necessarily
seethe pole itself with our eyes, so the altitude of their
ever-present Volva fulfills the same need for them, varying as
it does in different places.
As I said, the Volva hangs directly over certain place s whereas
it seems to have been suck down close to the horizon's circle
for the remaining regions. In every place it gives evidence of
an ever constant altitude.
Still the Subvolvans have their own poles which are not among
those fixed stars, where we have the poles of the world but
around other fixed stars, then these are ecliptic signs of the
poles for us. In 19 lunar years these poles pass through small
circles around the poles of the ecliptic under the constellation
Draco and its opposites, Xiphias [Dorado] and Passer [Piscis
Austrinus] and Nebecula Major [Large Magellenic Cloud]. When
these poles, in one-fourth of a circle, are away from their
Volva, so that the regions can be classified both according to
the poles and according to the Volva, it is apparent how great
is the advantage with which they surpass us. These poles mark
the longitude of places by their immobile Volva and mark the
latitude by both their Volva and their poles. This differs for
us because we have no means of obtaining our longitudes except a
most subservient and scarcely distinguishable inclination of a
magnetic needle
The Subvolvans' Volva remains as it were fixed with a nail to
the heavens and is immobile in this place. Other stars and the
Sun itself cross over from sunrise to sunset. Nor is there any
night in which none of the fixed stars in the zodiac hide
themselves behind this Volva and emerge once again from the
opposite region. Although the same fixed stars not accomplish
this every night, still they all change completely among
themselves; is, those that move up to 6 or 7 degrees from the
ecliptic. In 19 years the whole circuit is made so that they
return exactly to their original positions.
The Subvolvans' Volva neither increases no decreases any less
than our Moon. The same cause exists for both the presence of
the sun or the digression from the Volva. If study its nature,
the time is the same; but the Subvolvans measure them by one
method, we do so by another. Subvolvans think that one day and
one night is the space of time during which all the increases
and decreases of this Volva are completed. We call this space
of a time a month. The Volva rarely hides itself from the
Subvolvans even in new Volva on account of its size and
brightness, especially for the Subvolvan polar dwellers who lack
the Sun at the time. At midday the Volva turns its extremities
upwards for the Subvolvans in the intervolvian period itself.
In general, for those who dwell between the Volva and the poles
under the medivolvan circle, the new Volva is the sign of noon
and the first quarter of evening. The full Volva separates
equal parts of the night, and the last quarter brings the Sun
back. Those who have the
Volva and the poles set on the horizon live at the intersection
of the equator with the divisor. Their morning and evening
comes in the new and full Volva, their midday or midnight, in
the quarters. From these observations we can draw conclusions
about those who dwell between those places described above.
The Subvolvans differentiate the hours of the day by means of
these and other phases of their Volva so that the closer the Sun
and Volva come so much the closer is midday for the Subvolvans
and evening or sunset for the Medivolvans. The Subvolvans are
much better equipped than we are to measure out the periods of
night which regularly last 14 of our hours. We said that
outside that sequence of phases of the Volva, whose full Volva
marks the middle of the night for the Medivolva itself, the
Volva already distinguishes their hours. Although the Volva
seems in no way to change place, yet our Moon, on the contrary,
revolves within a place and adequately explains the surprising
number of marks which persistently change from its rising to its
setting. When the marks return after one such revolution, the
Subvolvans have one hour in time equal to a little more than one
of our days and nights. This then is the only uniform measure
of time. We have indicated above that the Sun and the stars
daily go around the
Moon-dwellers in an uneven way from the fact that this
perturbation of the Volva especially projects itself, if you
compare it with the prolongations of fixed stars from the Moon.
The upper northern section of that Volva seems to have two
halves; that is, one that is rather hidden, as it were covered
with continuous marks, and the other somewhat clearer, spreading
in the north a bright cincture on the dividing line of both.
The figure is difficult to explain.
On its more easterly section we perceive something like the
front of a human head, cut off at the shoulders, bending over to
kiss a little girl clothed in a long robe while her arm
stretches backward and lures a leaping seducer. The wider and
larger part of the spot projects itself toward the west without
any visible shape. In the other half of the Volva a brightness
is spread more widely than the spot. You might call it the
image of a bell hanging down from a rope swinging toward the
west. The upper and lower parts cannot be compared with
anything.
It is not sufficient that the Volva distinguishes the Subvolvan
hours of the day in this way, but rather that it give clear
indications of the parts of the year if anyone pays attention to
it or if the purpose of fixed stars escapes anyone. When the
Sun passes into Cancer, the Volva clearly indicates the North
Pole of its perturbation. There is a certain small dark spot
above the image of the girl, inserted into the middle of the
brightness. This brilliance is moved from the highest and
furthest section of the Volva toward the east; and from here,
once it has made the descent into the disk, is moved toward the
west. The mark again withdraws from that last position into the
top of the Volva toward the east and always appears there. But
when the Sun goes into Capricorn this spot cannot be seen
anywhere because the entire circle together with its pole hides
behind the body of the Volva. During these two parts of the
year the spots fall directly toward the west. During the
intervening periods placed in the
east or in Libra, and the spots either sink down crosswise or
climb up in a curved line. This presentation teaches us that
when the center of the Volva's body remains at rest, the poles
of the perturbation on the arctic circle go around those poles
once in a year's time.
The more diligent observers see that this Volva does not remain
the same size. During the hours of the day when the stars move
swiftly, the diameter of the Volva is much greater so that it is
then clearly four times larger than our Moon.
Now, what shall I say about the Sun's and the Volva's eclipses
which occur on Levania at the same time as the eclipses of the
Sun and Moon occur here on Earth's globe, but evidently for
different reasons? When we see the Sun's total eclipse, their
Volva eclipses, whereas when our Moon eclipses, the Sun eclipses
for them. Yet, not all these I things agree exactly. They
themselves often see partial eclipses of the Sun when none of
the Moon fails us. On the contrary, they are often exempt from
eclipses of their Volva when we have partial eclipses of the
Sun. They have eclipses of their Volva in full Volva just as we
have ours of the Moon in full Moon; they have eclipses of the
Sun in new Vulva as we have in new Moon. Because they have long
days and nights, they experience most frequent eclipses of both
heavenly bodies. A great number of our eclipses cross over to
our antipodes, and of theirs, to their antipodes. The
Privolvans see none of these, but the Subvolvans alone see
everything.
The Subvolvans never see a total eclipse of their Vulva, but
through the body of the Vulva there crosses over them a certain
small spot, reddish in its borders, dark in the center. This
small spot makes its entrance from the eastern section of the
Volva and leaves through the western edge; the same is true of
the natural spots of the Volva, speedily anticipating them. The
duration extends to a sixth part of their hour or four of ours.
The cause of the Subvolvans' solar eclipse is the Vulva, as our
Moon causes ours. This cannot occur, because their Volva
measure four times greater than the Sun, without having the Sun
cross from the east through the south behind the immovable Vulva
into the west. The Sun would then disappear very close behind
the Vulva with the result that part or the Sun's whole body
would be hidden from it. Frequently there is a very notable
eclipse of the Sun's whole body because it lasts for several of
our hours, when the light of both the Sun and the Volva is
eclipsed at the same time. This is an important experience for
the Subvolvans who have other nights not as dark as their days
because of the brilliance and magnitude of their ever-present
Vulva. In the Sun's eclipse both heavenly bodies, the Sun and
the Vulva, are hidden from the Subvolvans.
As regards the Subvolvans, the eclipses of the Sun have this one
point in common. It quite frequently happens that the
brilliance rises on the opposite side when the Sun has scarcely
been hidden behind the body of the Vulva, as if the Sun had
expanded and embraced the whole body of the Vulva; yet, at some
other time and in so many sections the Sun appears less than the
Vulva. Complete darkness does not always occur, unless the
centers of the bodies coincide closely together and the regular
arrangement of the diaphanous centers Unite. The Vulva does
suddenly disappear so that it cannot be discerned at all,
although the Sun completely hides itself behind the Vulva,
except in the very moment of the longest eclipse. At the
beginning of a total eclipse, however, the Vulva still remains
white in some sections of the divisor as if there it were a
living coal present after the flame was extinguished. After
this whiteness disappears, the midpoint of the longest eclipse
is present; (for this is not extinguished in
anything less than the longest eclipse.) When the Volva's
whiteness returns (in opposite places of the circle's divisor),
the view of the Sun also draws near. Somehow both bodies
disappear in the midst of the longest eclipse.
These are the appearances in both hemispheres of Levania: the
Subvolvan as well as the Privolvan. From these considerations
it is not difficult for me to pass silent judgment on how
greatly the Subvolvans differ from the Privolvans in other
respects.
A Subvolvan night, even if it is 14 of our nights long, lights
up the land and keeps it from cold by the presence of its Volva.
Such a great mass, so much brightness cannot but keep it warm.
Although the Subvolvan day has the annoying presence of the Sun
throughout our 15 or 16 nights, yet, the Sun has no less hostile
forces. The united luminaries attract all the water into that
hemisphere until the land has been completely covered, so that
very little of it is visible. On the contrary, when all the
water has been removed from the Privolvan hemisphere, it becomes
dry and cold. Because the hemispheres have the luminaries
divided among themselves, night comes upon the Subvolvans, day
upon the Privolvans. The waters are divided so that the
Subvolvan fields are stripped of everything while the Privolvans
enjoy an abundance of moisture as a negligible relief from the
heat.
The whole of Levania stretches out no further than 1400 German
miles in circumference, a fourth part of our Earth. It
possesses very high mountains, very deep and wide valleys and in
consequence yields much to our Earth in perfect roundness. The
entire surface is porous, as it were pierced through with hollow
caverns and continuous caves, especially prolonged through the
Privolvans. These hollow places are the principal means that
the Privolvans have to ward off the heat and cold.
Whatever springs from the land or walks upon the land is of a
monstrous size. Increases in size are very rapid. Life is of
short duration because all living things grow to such an
enormous bodily mass. The Privolvans have no fixed dwelling
place. In the space of a single day, they traverse the whole of
their world in hordes, following the receding waters either on
legs that are longer than those of our camels, on wings, or in
boats. If a delay of very many days is necessary, they crawl
through the caves according to each one's nature. There are
many divers among them and all their living creatures breathe
very slowly. By combining nature with art, they can take refuge
at the bottom of the deep waters. They say that those in the
very depths of the water endure the cold, while the upper waves
are boiling hot from the Sun. Those that remain on the surface
are boiled by the midday Sun and serve as nourishment for
wandering colonists. In general, the Subvolvan hemisphere
compares favorably with our
cantons, towns and gardens while the Privolvan resembles our
fields, forests and deserts. Other creatures who find breathing
more necessary, retreat into caves which are supplied with water
by narrow canals so that the water may gradually cool on its
long way; but when evening comes, they go out for food. The
bark on trees, the skin on living creatures, or if anything else
takes their place, takes up the greater part of the corporeal
mass because it is spongy and porous. If any creature is taken
by surprise in the heat of the day, his skin becomes hard and
scorched and falls off in the evening. Plants in the earth, and
there are a few on the mountain tops, spring up and die on the
same day, daily making room for new growing things.
Their nature is generally like a snake's. They have a strange
love for basking in the noonday Sun, but only close to their
caves, so that they can make a swift and safe retreat.
Others whose spirits have been exhausted by the heat of the day
lose their life, but return through the night, on account of
some paradoxical cause like the production of flies here on
Earth. Here and there all over the ground are scattered masses
in the shape of pine cones. Their rinds are sun-burnt through
the day and die, but in the evening produce living creatures
when the hiding places are opened.
In the Subvolvan hemisphere, a special means of alleviation from
the heat are the unbroken clouds and storms which sometimes take
hold of half or more than half of the region.
When I had come to this part of my dream, the wind rose with
rumbling rain which disturbed my sleep and ended one of the last
books I had brought from Frankfurt. When the Daemon, the
speaker, and Duracotus, the son with his mother Fiolxhilda, the
listeners, had been left behind, just as they had been with
their heads covered, I came back to my senses, found that my
head was on a cushion and my body wrapped up in a blanket.
Rudolph and the Archduke Matthias, the populace scrutinized
their actions, comparing them with examples taken from Bohemian
history. At that time I was driven by the same curiosity to
apply myself to the study of Bohemian legends. When I chanced
upon the legend of the Libyan virago, so celebrated in the art
of magic, something happened. On a certain night after I had
attentively contemplated the Moon and the stars I peacefully
settled on my couch and fell into a rather deep sleep. In my
sleep I seemed to have picked up a book, from the bookshelf to
read it through. The drift of the book was as follows.
My name is Duracotus and my fatherland Iceland called Thule by
the ancients. My mother, Fiolxhild who died recently left me at
leisure to write something which I already ardently desired to
do. While she lived she diligently saw to it that I did not
write, for she said that there were many malicious usurpers of
the arts, who, because they did not understand anything, on
account of the ignorance of their mind, misrepresented them and
made laws detrimental to the human race. Under these laws, many
men would assuredly have been condemned and swallowed up in the
abysses of Hekla. What my father's name was she never told me.
She asserted that he was a fisherman who had die at the age of
one hundred and fifty when I was three years old. He had been
married for seventy years more or less.
In my early childhood, my mother led me by the hand or, lifting
me up in her arms frequently brought me to the lower ridges of
Mount Hekla especially around the feast of Saint John when the
Sun, visible for 24 hours, leaves no room for night. She gather
many herbs and at home cooked them with various religious rites.
She made small sacks from goat skins and when these were
inflated with herbal concoctions, she brought them to the
neighboring harbor to be sold to placate the captains of the
ships. Thus she provided herself with the means of sustenance.
Out of curiosity on one occasion I had opened one of the sacks.
My mother unaware of what had happened sold it. I had taken out
the herbs from the linen cloth, ornamented with needlework and
displaying various symbols. By opening this sack I had
defrauded her of her profit. My mother, inflamed with rage,
said that she would give me to the skipper as his own in place
of the sack, so that she could keep the money. On the next day
he unexpectedly set sail from the harbor under a favorable wind
bound for the Island of Norway. After several days under the
rising north wind, he was brought between Norway and England.
He passed through the channel and made his way towards Denmark
because he had letters of an Icelandic Bishop to be delivered to
Tycho Brahe, the Dane, who lived on the Island of Hveen. Then a
fourteen year old boy, I was growing seriously ill by reason of
the tossing of the ship and the unusual temperature of the air.
When the ship had been landed, along with the letters the
skipper left me
there in the home of an island fisherman and set sail again with
the promise of returning.
After the letters were handed over, Brahe in a very cheerful
mood began to ask me many questions. I did not understand him
because I did not know the language except for a few words. He
gave all his time to his students, whom he cared for in large
numbers. Through Brahe's liberality they could frequently speak
to me. With a few weeks' practice I began to speak Danish in a
tolerable way. I was no less prepared to answer them than the y
were to question me. I marveled at many unfamiliar objects. I
recounted many recent happenings in my fatherland to my
admirers.
Finally, when the ship's captain returned to take me back, Brahe
kept me. This made me exceedingly happy.
Astronomical exercises pleased me to an extraordinary degree.
For whole nights Brahe and his students devoted themselves to
the study of the Moon and the stars using wonderful machines.
This practice brought my mother back to mind since she also
frequently conversed with the Moon. By this stream of events,
although I was considered a semi-barbarian on account of my
birthplace and indigent circumstances, I came to a knowledge of
the most divine of sciences, which prepared my way for greater
accomplishments.
After living on this island of Hveen for several years, I
desired to revisit my native land. On account of the science I
had acquired I supposed that it would not be difficult me to
rise up to some degree of honor in my own nation of unskilled
men. I asked a obtained permission to depart from my patron,
bade him farewell and came to Copehagen. My traveling
companions freely took me under their protection because of my
familiarity with their language and country. I returned home
five years after I had left.
My first source of joy upon my return was to find that my mother
was still living and rendering the same services that she
formerly did. Since I was still alive and provided with a means
of livelihood, I put an end to her continual sorrow for having
abandoned her son in a fit of anger. Autumn was approaching and
those long nights of ours were drawing near. In December the
Sun, scarcely rising a little at noon, is again hidden from
sight. My mother stayed close to me now that she was free from
her work and did not leave me no matter where I went. Because
of my letters of recommendation, I was questioned about the
lands I had visited, and even questions concerning the heavens.
My mother took pleasure in comparing the extent of knowledge I
had gathered and what she herself discovered as true. She
declared that she was now ready to die so that she could leave
her son heir to that information which she alone possessed.
By nature I had a real thirst for learning new things. So I
asked my mother about her art and which teachers in her country
stood out above the rest. Then, on a certain day, when there
was leisure for her to speak, she repeated in this manner all
she knew from the very beginnings: Duracotus, my son, knowledge
is available not only in other provinces to which you traveled
but also in our own homeland. You have made me realize the
enchantment of other regions. But even if we have coldness,
darkness and other discomforts which I now feel oppress us, we
still abound in people with talent. We have among us very
gifted spirits who shunned the greater light of other regions
and the chattering of men and they sought our shaded areas to
converse familiarly with us. Of these spirits nine were
important. One of these, by far the gentlest and most innocent,
was particularly known to me. This spirit was disclosed by 21
marks. Often, in a split second, I was transported by its power
to other shores which I
selected for myself. If I were kept away from certain places on
account of their distance, I gained ground by questioning about
those places just as if we were present there. He reviewed for
me very many facts about those objects that you had examined
with your eyes, accepted from report, taken out of books. I
would especially like you to become a spectator, my companion,
of that region concerning which he told me. How wonderful were
those things which he told me about it. He conjured up Levania.
Without delay, I agreed that she should summon her teacher. I
sat in council, prepared to hear both the entire purpose of the
journey and the description of the region. Spring was upon the
region. As soon as the Moon was in crescent, it began to shine
forth since the Moon was in crescent, it Sun had hidden under
the horizon joined to the planet after the Sun had hidden under
the horizon joined to the planet Saturn in the sign of Taurus.
My mother, withdrawing from me into the nearest crossroads and
uttering cry few words in a loud clamor set forth her request.
After she completed the ceremonies, she returned and demanding
silence with the palm of her right hand outstretched she sat
down near me. Scarcely had we hidden our heads with a cloth (as
was the custom) when behold, there arose the hawking of a hoarse
lisping voice and immediately it began to speak in this way, but
in the Islandic language.
THE DAEMON FROM LAVANIA
The island of Levania is located fifty thousand German miles
high up in the air. The journey to and from this island from
our Earth is very seldom open; but when it is accessible, its
easy for our people. However, the transportation of men, joined
as it is to the greatest danger of life, is most difficult. We
do not admit sedentary, corpulent or fastidious men into this
retinue. We choose rather those who spend their time
persistently riding swift horses or who frequently sail to the
Indies, accustomed to subsist on twice-baked bread, garlic,
dried fish, and other unsavory dishes. There are dried up old
women especially suited for our purpose. The reason for this is
well known. From early childhood they are accustomed to riding
goats, or on mantles, and to travel through narrow passes and
through the immense expanse of the Earth. Although Germans are
not suitable, we do not reject the dry bodies of Spaniards.
The whole journey, far though it may be, is completed in four
hours at most. Our departure time happens when we are busiest,
before the Moon begins its eclipse in its eastern section. If
the Moon becomes full while we are still on our way, our return
journey is impossible. The occasion becomes so brief that we
have few humans and not any other beings except the most helpful
toward us. Forming a column we seize any man of this kind and
all of us pushing upward raise him to the heights. The initial
shock is the worst part of it for him, for he is spun upward as
if by an explosion of gunpowder and he flies above mountains and
seas. On that account he must be drugged with narcotics and
opiates prior to his flight. His limbs must be carefully
protected so that they are not torn from him, body from legs,
head from body and so that the recoil may not spread over into
every member of his body. Then he will face new difficulties:
intense cold and impaired respiration. These circumstances
which are natural to
spirits are applied force to man. We go on our way placing
moistened sponges to our nostrils. With first section of the
voyage complete, our conveyance becomes easier. Then we expose
our bodies freely to the air and withdraw our hands. All these
persons are gathered into a ball within themselves, by reason of
pressure, a condition which we ourselves produce almost by a
mere sign of the head. Finally, on arrival at the moon, the
body is directed into its intended place by its own accord.
This critical point is of little use to us spirits because it is
excessively slow. Therefore, as I said, we accelerate by
gravity and go in front of the man's body, lest by a very strong
impact into the Moon he might suffer any harm. When the man
awakes, he usually complains that all his members suffer from an
ineffable lassitude, from which, however, he completely recovers
when the effect of the drugs wears off, so that he can walk.
Numerous other difficulties occur which would take too long to
recount. Nothing happens to us that is entirely evil. How long
those shadows of the Earth are which we inhabit on the moon in a
compact manner! When these men have reached Levania, we are at
hand. They seem to be climbing from a ship on to land. There
we speedily withdraw into the caves and gloomy places lest the
Sun at present in the open but about to eclipse a little later
from a pleasant resting place, casts us out and forces us to
follow the departing shadow. Our ingenuity exercises itself in
moments of decision. We join ourselves to the daemons of this
province and a society begins when the Sun first begins to fail
the locality. Gathered together in crowds we deviate from our
course into the shadow. And if the shadow hits the Earth with
its sharp point, which often happens, we shall fall heavily upon
Earth and our fellow soldiers, for we are allowed no other
result when men have witnessed the Sun's eclipse. From this it
follows that
the eclipses of the Sun are dreaded.
As a consequence, these comments shall be made about the journey
into Levania. I shall speak about the shape itself of the
province, beginning as do geographers with those things which
happen to it from above.
Even if the whole of Levania has the appearance of fixed stars
in common with us, yet one observes very many movements and
numbers of planets different from those which we see from Earth
so that all of their astronomy has another meaning.
Just as geographers divide the Earth's globe into five zones due
to celestial phenomena, so Levania consists of two hemispheres,
the one of the Subvolvans, and the other of the Privolvans. Of
these two hemispheres, the Subvolvans always see their Volva, or
our Earth, which to them is like our Moon, and the Privolvans
are completely deprived of the sight of their Volva. The circle
dividing their hemispheres, similar to our solstices' colure,
passes through the poles of the world and is called divisor.
I shall explain first what is common to both hemispheres. All
Levania suffers the same alternations of day and night as we do,
but during the year they lack other annual changes. Throughout
Levania its days are almost equal to its nights, except for the
fact that for the Privolans each day is regularly shorter than
its own night whereas the Subvolvans' day is regularly longer.
What is altered in an eight-year cycle will have to be mentioned
later on. Under both poles half of the Sun is concealed for the
equalization of the night, the other half shines, forming a
circle around the mountains. Because the stars are moving,
Levania seems to stand no less motionless to its inhabitants
than our Earth to us. One of our months equals one of their
nights and a day. When the Sun is going to rise early in the
morning, almost a completely new sign of the zodiac is more
apparent the day after rather than the day before, Just as in
one of our years the Sun revolves 365 times and the orbits of
fixed stars 336 times;
or more precisely, in four years the Sun revolves 1461 times but
the orbits of fixed stars 1465 times for us, so for them in one
year the Sun goes around 12 times, the orbit of fixed stars 13
times; or more precisely, in 8 years the Sun goes around 99
times, the orbits of fixed stars 107 times. But they are more
familiar with a 19 year cycle. In that number of years, the Sun
rises 235 times and fixed stars 254 times.
The Sun rises in the central or innermost parts of the
Subvolvans when the last quarter is visible to us; then to the
innermost parts of the Privolans when the first quarter appears
to us. What I say about the central parts must be understood of
all the semicircles led through the poles and the middles at
right angles to the divisor. You can call them the semicircles
of the Medivolvans.
The circle that is the intermediate between poles producing the
same effect as the equator of our Earth will be called by the
same name. It cuts the divisor into equal parts and the
Medivolva in opposite points. The Sun passes over some places
on the equator on two opposite days of the year precisely at the
point of noon. At midday the Sun digresses from the zenith to
the others dwelling on both sides of the poles.
On Levania there is some variation of summer and winter but that
must not be compared with our own nor as we have in the same
places at the same time of the year. In a ten-year period their
summer changes from one part of the star-year to the opposite
part, from the same intended place. In a 19 star-year cycle or
in 235 days, summer occurs 20 times and winter just as often
towards the poles, and at the equator 40 times. Just as we have
our months they have 6 days in all during the summer, the rest
belong to winter. The same alternation is scarcely felt around
the equator because the Sun does not digress to the sides beyond
50 backwards and forwards from those places. It is felt more
next to the poles and those places that have or lack the Sun
alternately at six-month intervals just as there are on Earth
those of us who dwell under one of the two poles. Levania's
globe is also divided into five zones corresponding somewhat to
our terrestrial zones; that is, the Torrid and Frigid Zones have
scarcely 10
degrees each; all the rest falls in proportion to our Temperate
Zone. The Torrid Zone passes over through the middle parts of
the hemisphere, half its length through the Subvolvans, the
other through the Privolvans.
There are four cardinal points to the sections of the equator's
and the zodiac's circles. We call these points equinoxes and
solstices, and from these sections is the start of the zodiacal
circle. From its beginning to its consequence the motion of
fixed stars is very swift, namely twenty tropical years, that
is, defined by one summer and one winter. Fixed stars cross
through the whole zodiac which we do in about 26,000 years, So
much for its first motion.
The cause of their secondary motions differs no less from those
which appear to us although much more intricate. Besides the
many inequalities existing between ourselves and all six
planets, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, they
have three others that occur; namely, two of longitude, one
diurnal, the second through the cycle of 8 1/2 years and the
third of latitude through a 19-year circuit. The Privolvans'
centers have the Sun at noon more than their other counterparts
whereas the Subvolvans have it less than if the Sun rises. Both
are of the same opinion that the Sun inclines towards the
Subvolvans for a few minutes, back and forth from the ecliptic
and then among those fixed stars. These variations, as I have
said, are restored in the space of 19 years into their former
marks. This wandering takes hold of the Privolvans somewhat
more, somewhat less of the Subvolvans. Although the Sun and the
fixed stars are set to fall equally around Levania by its first
motion, yet the Sun increases
for the Privolvans at midday but nearly nothing beneath the
fixed stars. At midday the Sun appears very swift for the
Subvolvans although the contrary is true about the middle of the
night. As a result, under the fixed stars the Sun is seen to
make certain leaps as it were, separate ones for each individual
day.
The same is true on Venus, Mercury and Mars, but on Jupiter and
Saturn they are almost imperceptible.
Yet every day's motion is not even the same each day at similar
hours. However, it is sometimes slower with the Sun than with
all the fixed stars, yet faster in the opposite part of the year
at the same hour. This lassitude goes back and forth through
the days of the year in such a way that it now occupies summer
then winter which feels the swiftness in another year. All this
occurs in one absolute cycle through a little less than nine
years. The day becomes longer than the night (by a natural
slowness, not as we have it on Earth by an unequal section of
the orbit of a natural day).
Though the slowness falls upon the Privolvans in the middle of
the night, it accomplishes its deviation before another day; if,
on the other hand, it is completed during the day, then night
and day are equal because it happens once in 9 years. This is
completely changed for the Subvolvans.
Such characteristics are found common to both hemispheres.
CONCERNING THE PRIVOLVAN'S HEMISPHERE
What belongs separately to each hemisphere is the great
diversity between them. Not only the presence and absence of
Volva display quite dissimilar spectacles, but these common
phenomena themselves differ so greatly here and there in their
effects that one could perhaps more correctly call the Privolvan
hemisphere intemperate the Subvolvan temperate. The Privolvans'
night lasts 15 or 16 of our days, terrible with never-ending
shadows, as are our moonless nights. The rays of the Volva
never light upon them. For this reason everything becomes stiff
from the ice, the frost and from the sagest and most powerful
winds. One day ensues, 14 of our days long, or a little less
than that in which the Sun appears larger. The Sun is slow
under fixed stars and there are no winds. Then, it becomes
intolerable hot. Thus for the space of one of our months or of
one Levanian day and in one and the same place, the heat becomes
15 times hotter than our Africa, and the cold, unbearable.
Especially should it be noted that the planet Mars is sometimes
observed by those in the central parts of the Privolva at
midnight and for others at the beginning of their own night, as
almost greater than double what we see.
CONCERNING THE SUBVOLVANS' HEMISPHERE
As I cross over to this hemisphere, I begin with its
frontiersmen who inhabit the divisor circle. Particular to them
is the fact that they observe the digressions of Venus and
Mercury from the Sun as much greater than we do. To these same
people Venus appears at certain times as greater than double our
view of Venus, especially to those who live at the North Pole.
The most pleasant of all occupations on Levania is the
contemplation of its Volva. Levanians enjoy the sight of their
Volva as we do our Moon which the Privolvans lack completely
because they are deep within. Because of their Volva's
perennial present this region is called Subvolva just as the
rest is called Privolva because it has bee deprived of the view
of its Volva.
When our Moon rises full and goes over distant homes, we
Earth-dwellers see it as equal to open circle of a large wooden
keg. When it rises to the middle of the sky, the Moon brings to
mind something like the form of a human face. The Subvolvans
see their Volva in the middle of their own sky. (The Volva
takes this position for those who dwell in the middle or the
navel of this hemisphere) with a diameter a little less than
four times longer than our Moon to us so that if we set up a
comparison of disks, their Volva's surface is fifteen times
greater than our Moon. To those whose Volva continuously
cleaves fast to their horizon, it appears in the shape of a
distant fiery mountain.
Just as we differentiate our regions by means of greater or
lesser elevations of the pole although we do not necessarily
seethe pole itself with our eyes, so the altitude of their
ever-present Volva fulfills the same need for them, varying as
it does in different places.
As I said, the Volva hangs directly over certain place s whereas
it seems to have been suck down close to the horizon's circle
for the remaining regions. In every place it gives evidence of
an ever constant altitude.
Still the Subvolvans have their own poles which are not among
those fixed stars, where we have the poles of the world but
around other fixed stars, then these are ecliptic signs of the
poles for us. In 19 lunar years these poles pass through small
circles around the poles of the ecliptic under the constellation
Draco and its opposites, Xiphias [Dorado] and Passer [Piscis
Austrinus] and Nebecula Major [Large Magellenic Cloud]. When
these poles, in one-fourth of a circle, are away from their
Volva, so that the regions can be classified both according to
the poles and according to the Volva, it is apparent how great
is the advantage with which they surpass us. These poles mark
the longitude of places by their immobile Volva and mark the
latitude by both their Volva and their poles. This differs for
us because we have no means of obtaining our longitudes except a
most subservient and scarcely distinguishable inclination of a
magnetic needle
The Subvolvans' Volva remains as it were fixed with a nail to
the heavens and is immobile in this place. Other stars and the
Sun itself cross over from sunrise to sunset. Nor is there any
night in which none of the fixed stars in the zodiac hide
themselves behind this Volva and emerge once again from the
opposite region. Although the same fixed stars not accomplish
this every night, still they all change completely among
themselves; is, those that move up to 6 or 7 degrees from the
ecliptic. In 19 years the whole circuit is made so that they
return exactly to their original positions.
The Subvolvans' Volva neither increases no decreases any less
than our Moon. The same cause exists for both the presence of
the sun or the digression from the Volva. If study its nature,
the time is the same; but the Subvolvans measure them by one
method, we do so by another. Subvolvans think that one day and
one night is the space of time during which all the increases
and decreases of this Volva are completed. We call this space
of a time a month. The Volva rarely hides itself from the
Subvolvans even in new Volva on account of its size and
brightness, especially for the Subvolvan polar dwellers who lack
the Sun at the time. At midday the Volva turns its extremities
upwards for the Subvolvans in the intervolvian period itself.
In general, for those who dwell between the Volva and the poles
under the medivolvan circle, the new Volva is the sign of noon
and the first quarter of evening. The full Volva separates
equal parts of the night, and the last quarter brings the Sun
back. Those who have the
Volva and the poles set on the horizon live at the intersection
of the equator with the divisor. Their morning and evening
comes in the new and full Volva, their midday or midnight, in
the quarters. From these observations we can draw conclusions
about those who dwell between those places described above.
The Subvolvans differentiate the hours of the day by means of
these and other phases of their Volva so that the closer the Sun
and Volva come so much the closer is midday for the Subvolvans
and evening or sunset for the Medivolvans. The Subvolvans are
much better equipped than we are to measure out the periods of
night which regularly last 14 of our hours. We said that
outside that sequence of phases of the Volva, whose full Volva
marks the middle of the night for the Medivolva itself, the
Volva already distinguishes their hours. Although the Volva
seems in no way to change place, yet our Moon, on the contrary,
revolves within a place and adequately explains the surprising
number of marks which persistently change from its rising to its
setting. When the marks return after one such revolution, the
Subvolvans have one hour in time equal to a little more than one
of our days and nights. This then is the only uniform measure
of time. We have indicated above that the Sun and the stars
daily go around the
Moon-dwellers in an uneven way from the fact that this
perturbation of the Volva especially projects itself, if you
compare it with the prolongations of fixed stars from the Moon.
The upper northern section of that Volva seems to have two
halves; that is, one that is rather hidden, as it were covered
with continuous marks, and the other somewhat clearer, spreading
in the north a bright cincture on the dividing line of both.
The figure is difficult to explain.
On its more easterly section we perceive something like the
front of a human head, cut off at the shoulders, bending over to
kiss a little girl clothed in a long robe while her arm
stretches backward and lures a leaping seducer. The wider and
larger part of the spot projects itself toward the west without
any visible shape. In the other half of the Volva a brightness
is spread more widely than the spot. You might call it the
image of a bell hanging down from a rope swinging toward the
west. The upper and lower parts cannot be compared with
anything.
It is not sufficient that the Volva distinguishes the Subvolvan
hours of the day in this way, but rather that it give clear
indications of the parts of the year if anyone pays attention to
it or if the purpose of fixed stars escapes anyone. When the
Sun passes into Cancer, the Volva clearly indicates the North
Pole of its perturbation. There is a certain small dark spot
above the image of the girl, inserted into the middle of the
brightness. This brilliance is moved from the highest and
furthest section of the Volva toward the east; and from here,
once it has made the descent into the disk, is moved toward the
west. The mark again withdraws from that last position into the
top of the Volva toward the east and always appears there. But
when the Sun goes into Capricorn this spot cannot be seen
anywhere because the entire circle together with its pole hides
behind the body of the Volva. During these two parts of the
year the spots fall directly toward the west. During the
intervening periods placed in the
east or in Libra, and the spots either sink down crosswise or
climb up in a curved line. This presentation teaches us that
when the center of the Volva's body remains at rest, the poles
of the perturbation on the arctic circle go around those poles
once in a year's time.
The more diligent observers see that this Volva does not remain
the same size. During the hours of the day when the stars move
swiftly, the diameter of the Volva is much greater so that it is
then clearly four times larger than our Moon.
Now, what shall I say about the Sun's and the Volva's eclipses
which occur on Levania at the same time as the eclipses of the
Sun and Moon occur here on Earth's globe, but evidently for
different reasons? When we see the Sun's total eclipse, their
Volva eclipses, whereas when our Moon eclipses, the Sun eclipses
for them. Yet, not all these I things agree exactly. They
themselves often see partial eclipses of the Sun when none of
the Moon fails us. On the contrary, they are often exempt from
eclipses of their Volva when we have partial eclipses of the
Sun. They have eclipses of their Volva in full Volva just as we
have ours of the Moon in full Moon; they have eclipses of the
Sun in new Vulva as we have in new Moon. Because they have long
days and nights, they experience most frequent eclipses of both
heavenly bodies. A great number of our eclipses cross over to
our antipodes, and of theirs, to their antipodes. The
Privolvans see none of these, but the Subvolvans alone see
everything.
The Subvolvans never see a total eclipse of their Vulva, but
through the body of the Vulva there crosses over them a certain
small spot, reddish in its borders, dark in the center. This
small spot makes its entrance from the eastern section of the
Volva and leaves through the western edge; the same is true of
the natural spots of the Volva, speedily anticipating them. The
duration extends to a sixth part of their hour or four of ours.
The cause of the Subvolvans' solar eclipse is the Vulva, as our
Moon causes ours. This cannot occur, because their Volva
measure four times greater than the Sun, without having the Sun
cross from the east through the south behind the immovable Vulva
into the west. The Sun would then disappear very close behind
the Vulva with the result that part or the Sun's whole body
would be hidden from it. Frequently there is a very notable
eclipse of the Sun's whole body because it lasts for several of
our hours, when the light of both the Sun and the Volva is
eclipsed at the same time. This is an important experience for
the Subvolvans who have other nights not as dark as their days
because of the brilliance and magnitude of their ever-present
Vulva. In the Sun's eclipse both heavenly bodies, the Sun and
the Vulva, are hidden from the Subvolvans.
As regards the Subvolvans, the eclipses of the Sun have this one
point in common. It quite frequently happens that the
brilliance rises on the opposite side when the Sun has scarcely
been hidden behind the body of the Vulva, as if the Sun had
expanded and embraced the whole body of the Vulva; yet, at some
other time and in so many sections the Sun appears less than the
Vulva. Complete darkness does not always occur, unless the
centers of the bodies coincide closely together and the regular
arrangement of the diaphanous centers Unite. The Vulva does
suddenly disappear so that it cannot be discerned at all,
although the Sun completely hides itself behind the Vulva,
except in the very moment of the longest eclipse. At the
beginning of a total eclipse, however, the Vulva still remains
white in some sections of the divisor as if there it were a
living coal present after the flame was extinguished. After
this whiteness disappears, the midpoint of the longest eclipse
is present; (for this is not extinguished in
anything less than the longest eclipse.) When the Volva's
whiteness returns (in opposite places of the circle's divisor),
the view of the Sun also draws near. Somehow both bodies
disappear in the midst of the longest eclipse.
These are the appearances in both hemispheres of Levania: the
Subvolvan as well as the Privolvan. From these considerations
it is not difficult for me to pass silent judgment on how
greatly the Subvolvans differ from the Privolvans in other
respects.
A Subvolvan night, even if it is 14 of our nights long, lights
up the land and keeps it from cold by the presence of its Volva.
Such a great mass, so much brightness cannot but keep it warm.
Although the Subvolvan day has the annoying presence of the Sun
throughout our 15 or 16 nights, yet, the Sun has no less hostile
forces. The united luminaries attract all the water into that
hemisphere until the land has been completely covered, so that
very little of it is visible. On the contrary, when all the
water has been removed from the Privolvan hemisphere, it becomes
dry and cold. Because the hemispheres have the luminaries
divided among themselves, night comes upon the Subvolvans, day
upon the Privolvans. The waters are divided so that the
Subvolvan fields are stripped of everything while the Privolvans
enjoy an abundance of moisture as a negligible relief from the
heat.
The whole of Levania stretches out no further than 1400 German
miles in circumference, a fourth part of our Earth. It
possesses very high mountains, very deep and wide valleys and in
consequence yields much to our Earth in perfect roundness. The
entire surface is porous, as it were pierced through with hollow
caverns and continuous caves, especially prolonged through the
Privolvans. These hollow places are the principal means that
the Privolvans have to ward off the heat and cold.
Whatever springs from the land or walks upon the land is of a
monstrous size. Increases in size are very rapid. Life is of
short duration because all living things grow to such an
enormous bodily mass. The Privolvans have no fixed dwelling
place. In the space of a single day, they traverse the whole of
their world in hordes, following the receding waters either on
legs that are longer than those of our camels, on wings, or in
boats. If a delay of very many days is necessary, they crawl
through the caves according to each one's nature. There are
many divers among them and all their living creatures breathe
very slowly. By combining nature with art, they can take refuge
at the bottom of the deep waters. They say that those in the
very depths of the water endure the cold, while the upper waves
are boiling hot from the Sun. Those that remain on the surface
are boiled by the midday Sun and serve as nourishment for
wandering colonists. In general, the Subvolvan hemisphere
compares favorably with our
cantons, towns and gardens while the Privolvan resembles our
fields, forests and deserts. Other creatures who find breathing
more necessary, retreat into caves which are supplied with water
by narrow canals so that the water may gradually cool on its
long way; but when evening comes, they go out for food. The
bark on trees, the skin on living creatures, or if anything else
takes their place, takes up the greater part of the corporeal
mass because it is spongy and porous. If any creature is taken
by surprise in the heat of the day, his skin becomes hard and
scorched and falls off in the evening. Plants in the earth, and
there are a few on the mountain tops, spring up and die on the
same day, daily making room for new growing things.
Their nature is generally like a snake's. They have a strange
love for basking in the noonday Sun, but only close to their
caves, so that they can make a swift and safe retreat.
Others whose spirits have been exhausted by the heat of the day
lose their life, but return through the night, on account of
some paradoxical cause like the production of flies here on
Earth. Here and there all over the ground are scattered masses
in the shape of pine cones. Their rinds are sun-burnt through
the day and die, but in the evening produce living creatures
when the hiding places are opened.
In the Subvolvan hemisphere, a special means of alleviation from
the heat are the unbroken clouds and storms which sometimes take
hold of half or more than half of the region.
When I had come to this part of my dream, the wind rose with
rumbling rain which disturbed my sleep and ended one of the last
books I had brought from Frankfurt. When the Daemon, the
speaker, and Duracotus, the son with his mother Fiolxhilda, the
listeners, had been left behind, just as they had been with
their heads covered, I came back to my senses, found that my
head was on a cushion and my body wrapped up in a blanket.
MovingTarget
Diamond Member
- Jun 22, 2003
- 9,002
- 115
- 106
meltdown75
Lifer
- Nov 17, 2004
- 37,548
- 7
- 81
There was a bad storm so I retired to my bunk early.
I had a dream that I dropped my Arc 4+ overboard.
It went up instead of down and traveled all the way to the moon.
I woke up.
I still cannot find my light and we're in the Bermuda Triangle.
hzl eyed grl
Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
- Dec 28, 1999
- 13,106
- 64
- 91
Originally posted by: bootymac
Do you really put Vaseline on your son's bumhole
i read the that thread, and if ppl dont know about this thread, they will be confused.
Originally posted by: Zanix
Originally posted by: MrYAK
Originally posted by: bootymac
Do you really put Vaseline on your son's bumhole
i read the that thread, and if ppl dont know about this thread, they will be confused.
Very very confused.
Don't worry, it just means bootymac likes it without any lube.
working under truck
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