| Research Abstract |
In 1999, I firstly focused on the Old Nordic gods, who reportedly ride on horses, to investigate the original figures of the gods visiting from the other world. The Geatish hero Beowulf, who successfully returns to his country with the splendid gifts, in reward for having vanquished the monsters among the Danes, seemingly reveals the aspect of a "terrible stranger", in breaking the established order, while assuming that of a "fortunate stranger" in setting up long peace during his reign. Such ambivalent character can be observed in the chief god Othin who was believed to preside over the raging army and souls of the dead warriors, and also to invite fertility of the land.
In 2000, I conducted a comparative research into Scandinavian stories, in which a divine infant, coming over the waves, would be brought up among the local people and grow up to be a progenitor-king who reportedly rules his country in peace and fertility. Thus I explicated my view that the old belief in some visiting d
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ivinities or Nordic Mare bito figures, in association with the cult of Njorδr and Freyr, would lie behind these analogues. With regard to the church-building stories in medieval Scandinavia, I examined the basic theme of conflicts between the "strangers of the sea and of the mountains", the motif of which distinctly bears a structural resemblance with that of the construction myths of the fortresses Asgarδr and Troy.
In 2001, I offered my view that Freyr and Baldr can be defined as the twin gods who were originally assigned to protect the divine world from an onslaught of strangers. Then I focalized the dragon-conquest stories, in which the heroes, such as Sigur∂r of the Volsungs, Ragnarr lo∂brok, Beowulf and Thor, assume the common character of a stranger. Finally I proceeded to my arguments about Njor∂r who was believed to relieve the seafarers or travelers from miseries and crises in their journey. Such a concept of Njor∂r as the savior, in my view, goes back to the Bronze Age, when the cremation became prevalent in accordance with the development of the belief in eternity of soul Probably the perspective that Njor∂r shares some common aspect with Nestor in ancient Greece would be a sort of Ariadne's thread to probe further into the scrutiny of strangers and Mare-bito hereafter.
T. Shimoda has been engaged in deciphering the fragments of Greek comedy, and continues to translate Heliodorus' Aethiopica "An Ethiopian Story" which includes various accounts of cultural contact between the local people and strangers, not only in Ethiopia and Greece, but also in Egypt and Persia. His translation work is to be published around September this year. Less
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