I was wondering whether comparisons and contrastisons had ever been discussed between Gaiman's god war and other mythical clashes of gods.

What jumped to mind for me was, given my fairly narrow mythical familiarity, the Fomorians versus the Tuatha DeDaanan of Ireland, and the Titans versus the Gods of the myths of the Romans and Greeks.

In the case of the former, the outcome of consequence was not necessarily who won and lost, but the intermarriages of the two. In fact, many (if not most) of the deities of Ireland who most are familiar with are of mixed Fomorian/Tuatha lineage. Which perhaps speaks to the neverending cycle of invasion, resistance, assimilation and survival that makes the story of Ireland's myth and history. In any case, the Irish Tuatha emerged as the prevailing 'gods' (never a very precise word to apply to Celtic deities) not because they won a decisive battle (in fact they eventually lost a fairly decisive battle), but because they were sort of able to hang around.

I know less about the Titans and Gods, but as I understand it, they fought, and the Gods won, and the Titans left forever. And the Gods are Gods, and deserving of worship, because they won. And perhaps this says something about Greek and Roman culture, but I wouldn't have much of an idea what, aside from something obvious having to do with a lust for conquest.

I think that the fact that Gaiman's war was a draw - or rather just petered out - is significant, if we're looking for inspiration for thinking deep thoughts about America. I also think that the fact that the New Gods really came to prominence without needing to fight any war is significant, as is the notion that they feel they need to fight a war now though they really have no clear idea why. If the consequences of a dust up of competing Irish gods is that the essential fires of culture are kept burning with some new stuff mixed in; and the consequences of a Roman tussle of immortals is that the winner rules supreme; what does it say about America if our gods realize before the fight really gets hot that the outcome doesn't matter enough to fight for, anyway?

By the by, is anyone aware of any comparative work on stories of god wars? In a Judeo-Christian world where our God didn't come from anywhere or need to beat anyone, it's an interesting and fundamentally foreign notion.

I'm surprised you didn't think of Ragnarok. Quite a collection of battling gods at that, I'd say, although it's much more a good vs. evil, or at least honorable vs. deceitful match-up than the others you mentioned.

Realistically, Ragnarok ends in a "draw," of sorts. In some legends, only a few of the nicest gods survive to restart the world, in some everything's destroyed and, with the dawn of Christianity, some stories have a man and woman who were hiding in an apple tree repopulate the world.

Also, Christian tradition has the Apocalypse. While it's traditionally read as being a fait accompli, that's only tradition. A variety of mystic faiths have held that John's Apocalypse is only an image of a possible future, that God and Satan struggle against each other on almost equal terms. After all, not much point in being "the Adversary" if your efforts aren't adverse.

There are a lot of good books on end-time myths, but no titles other than Richard Taylor's "Death and the Afterlife" spring to mind.

Good, my dog found the chainsaw.
-Lilo

It is entirely possible that the J/C God, or Yahweh, Jehovah, YHWH, whatever, did indeed engage in war with other gods. Or at least fierce competition. Salman Rushdie, in The Satanic Verses, seems to suggest that YHWH started out as one of a number of local Arabian/Fertile Crescent pagan gods. We don't remember the others, and, as they say, history is written by the victors...

The two that sprang immediately to mind was Ragnarok (and no-one seems to know whether and to what extent that's influenced by Christian beliefs) and the Tuatha de Danaan (sp?).

Both of them pit "our guys" against "the bad guys"; though it reads to me more like "deities of human civilisation and order" vs "forces of chaos" than GvsE.

GvsE rocked! USA and Sci-Fi should not have cancelled it!

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"Shared pain is lessened, shared joy is increased, and thus do we refute entropy."-- Spider Robinson

http://lon.blogspot.com -- Its a slightly less eloquent me.

quote:

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Originally posted by Dweller in Darkness:
I'm surprised you didn't think of Ragnarok. Quite a collection of battling gods at that, I'd say, although it's much more a good vs. evil, or at least honorable vs. deceitful match-up than the others you mentioned.

Realistically, Ragnarok ends in a "draw," of sorts. In some legends, only a few of the nicest gods survive to restart the world, in some everything's destroyed and, with the dawn of Christianity, some stories have a man and woman who were hiding in an apple tree repopulate the world.

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Also, in the Roger Lancelyn Green book, Myths of the Norseman,which Neil Gaiman has said in his FAQs that he has read, it ends in an experience with Lif and Lftrasir, the two people who survived the fire of Surtur, awakening from "Hoddiminir's Holt" and they repopulate the Earth. He might have gotten quite a few of his ideas from this book.

Also, the fights between Set (bad) and Osiris/Horus (good) in Egyptian mythology was a god war.