A Grove of Ashes and Aspens

Now Playing: Reader of the Runes – Book II by Elvenking

Stories have been a part of human culture since time immemorial, and nowhere is that more clear than in the realm of religion. Every religion has their own stories, telling of both gods and mortal heroes, as they attempt to make sense of the world around them. Though these stories do not represent the scientific explanations we have behind many of these phenomena, they are still important in understanding the world and those who came before us.

But the telling of stories within the realm of a given faith is not limited to the past. Authors, both religious and non-religious, will forever be influenced by their worldview, and that includes their experiences with faith. The amounts of Christian fiction we see in the modern landscape, though not as widespread as fiction and fantasy that are not marketed as such, are still present and often contain Christian messages and themes.

But where to pagan stories come into this? Yes, many pagan faiths have the stories of deities and mortal heroes said to be descendants of said deities, and though many of these stories have been lost to time or forced conversion to Christianity, many modern pagans have begun writing our own stories, whether it be in the form of poetry and music about connection with nature, heroic anthems of celebration with the gods, fictional novels of journeys and quests ordained by the gods, or, in my case, relating our own personal stories to others in a public forum. These stories, however, are not often told in the same way as many Christian stories.

When someone is telling a story, their worldview, beliefs, and values will always influence the way they tell it. As such, it’s always important to take that into account when looking at something critically. (Obviously, if you’re reading something purely for enjoyment, then it’s unlikely to affect much, I think.) These biases don’t inherently make a work bad, as bias is a constant part of the human experience. It is, however, always good to be aware of bias when reading something with a critical lens, as that can help inform the perspective the work is coming from, as well as our own analysis of said work.

But what does this mean for the difference in pagan storytelling against Christian storytelling and how they’re different? That’s a good question, and one that still deserves to be explored more than I am able to in a weekly shitpost blog. A lot of what I’ve noticed in the difference between the two comes down to one central idea: morality. (No, this won’t turn into a giant morality debate on why Christianity is terrible, don’t worry.)

I find that within a lot (not all, there is nuance here) of Christian stories, there’s an emphasis on doing good to try and get the good afterlife. The goal is often trying to do good because God (or whoever, depending on the story) is trying to convey that the only reason to do good is because there’s some higher force watching and that if you do good things, by the judgement of that higher power, you get the good afterlife, but otherwise you get damned to hellfire for all eternity.

Conversely, in many pagan stories (many fantasy stories also fit into this, regardless of the author’s faith), the morality found within the book is a lot more grey, and not nearly as intense as that found in Christian stories. The morality in many pagan stories is not about trying to do the right thing by the judgement of some higher power with the hopes of getting into a “good” afterlife. It’s far more often about doing whatever it takes to protect those you care for, without worrying about what is waiting after death. There is far more in the way of nuance and sometimes having to make hard choices that go beyond “do I take part in this activity God has deemed wrong or do I pray?” There is, generally, far more acceptance within pagan stories that sometimes, people want to make the world a better place by their own standards, but others will see it as a worse place, or they will go about it in a way that doesn’t always work out for everyone.

In all fairness, this is just what I’ve noticed, and it’s far from a black and white thing. There is a lot of nuance to it, especially more than I’ve been able to go over here. It’s a very complicated topic and you could probably do an entire PhD dissertation on morality in literature between different faiths.