The Divine Thunderbolt: Missile of the Gods

By J.T. Sibley

The divine thunderbolt is one of the most ancient and pervasive religio-folkloric symbols of the human race.
The divine thunderbolta sudden, never-missing missile of supernatural firehas been a universal worldwide phenomenon since prehistoric times. Some thunderbolt motifs were indigenous to a given locale; others can be traced to far-distant lands. This volume will examine the development and dispersion of symbols, folklore, and religious aspects of such a divinely generated thunderbolt, focusing on the Near East and Europe. Emphasis will be placed on the thunderbolt-wielding sky gods, their thunder weapons and the graphic symbols for them, and the role of the supernatural thunderbolt in magic, religion, myth, superstition, and folklore.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 31, 2009
• ISBN: 9781462832941

J.T. Sibley

Jane T. Sibley, Ph.D. (author) is a specialist in Norse mythology, folklore, and runes. She did part of her work at the University of Oslo, and currently teaches and writes. This is her first published book, although more are on the way. Joel A. Leib (illustrator) has taught at the Bradley Academy for the Visual Arts since 1994. His work has also been seen in Harley training manuals, McMillan Publishers/Progressive Typographers, and the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center, to name a few. Both of us have had fun exploring a humorous side of Norse mythology.

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Copyright © 2009 by J.T. Sibley.

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Contents

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1

THE SCIENCE OF LIGHTNING, THUNDER, AND CERTAIN OTHER NATURAL PHENOMENA

CHAPTER 2

THUNDERBOLT BELIEFS

CHAPTER 3

THUNDERSTONES AND OTHER ARTIFACTS

CHAPTER 4

THE NATURE AND FORM OF THUNDERBOLTS IN ANTIQUITY

CHAPTER 5

EARLY CIVILIZATIONS: THE NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST

CHAPTER 6

THE LEVANT, ARABIA, AND EGYPT

CHAPTER 7

EARLY CIVILIZATIONS: BACTRIA AND SCYTHIA

CHAPTER 8

THE GREEK WORLD: MYCENAEA AND CRETE

CHAPTER 9

THE GREEK WORLD: THUNDERBOLT DEITIES

CHAPTER 10

HELLENISTIC GREECE

CHAPTER 11

THE ROMAN WORLD: THUNDER LORE AND GODS

CHAPTER 12

THE ROMAN WORLD: MITHRAISM

CHAPTER 13

THE ROMAN LEGIONS

CHAPTER 14

THE CELTIC WORLD AND THE BASQUE

CHAPTER 15

ANGLO-SAXON AND EARLY MEDIEVAL BRITAIN

CHAPTER 16

SCANDINAVIA: NEOLITHIC PERIOD AND THE BRONZE AGE

CHAPTER 17

ROMAN IRON AGE AND MIGRATION PERIOD NORTHERN EUROPE

CHAPTER 18

NORTHERN EUROPE: THE DIVINE THUNDERBOLT AND RUNES

CHAPTER 19

NORTHERN EUROPE: EARLY PERIOD THUNDERBOLT SPELLCRAFT

CHAPTER 20

THE GERMANO-SCANDINAVIAN THUNDER GODS: THOR

CHAPTER 21

ODIN, FRIGG, THE VALKYRIES, BALDER, LOKI

CHAPTER 22

NORTHERN EUROPE: MEDIEVAL TO MODERN TIMES

CHAPTER 23

THE SÁMI, FINNS, ESTONIANS, AND WESTERN SIBERIANS

CHAPTER 24

THE BALTS: LITHUANIA, LATVIA/ LIVONIA, AND THE OLD PRUSSIANS

CHAPTER 25

THE SLAVS

CHAPTER 26

18th-20th CENTURY CONTINENTAL EUROPE AND THE UNITED KINGDOM

CHAPTER 27

THUNDERBOLT ROCKS, PLANTS, INSECTS, AND BIRDS

CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

THE LAWS OF MAGIC

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

FIGURE CREDITS

PREFACE

This volume has been over a decade and a half in the making. There are many people and institutions that should be thanked, most notably Professor Emeritus Odd Nordland (University of Oslo), whose wonderfully wide-ranging folklore and mythology classes introduced me to the topic, the Geology Department and the Numismatic Collection at Yale University, Alexei Kondratiev for his expert critical reading of the manuscript, Virginia Fair Richards-Taylor for the superb cover art, and the late Richard H. Eney for his encouragement and good advice. The Library of Congress and Yale University’s Sterling Memorial and Mudd libraries, as well as the Internet, have been excellent sources for hard-to-find material. And, of course, I especially want to thank my family, who are finally getting used to me having at least three manuscripts in various stages of preparation at a single time.

This survey is by no means absolutely definitive. Each culture mentioned herein has a huge corpus of thunderbolt-related lore which could fill a multivolume set on its own. Needless to say, only a small part of the total lore for each of these cultures can be included in a volume of this size. Also, since my field of study focuses on Scandinavia, those sections will be more in-depth than others, such as continental Europe. It’s simply amazing how much thunderbolt lore there is in the world!

Please note that the author proposes a number of theories and interpretations of some thunderbolt (or possibly thunderbolt-related) archaeological finds, concepts, spells, etc.—many of which may not agree with the heretofore accepted ones. The day that a scholarly concept cannot be challenged will be a sad day indeed. Once upon a time, it was sincerely accepted that the earth was flat and that the sun rotated around it. It may be that my theories are absolutely correct, somewhat right, or downright wrong, but at least they are being put forward; thrown into the maelstrom of critical analysis. Someone has to tilt at windmills now and again.

April 2007

INTRODUCTION

The divine thunderbolt is one of the most ancient and pervasive religio-folkloric symbols of the human race.

The divine thunderbolt—a sudden, never-missing missile of supernatural fire—has been a universal worldwide phenomenon since prehistoric times. Some thunderbolt motifs were indigenous to a given locale; others can be traced to far-distant lands. This volume will examine the development and dispersion of symbols, folklore, and religious aspects of such a divinely generated thunderbolt, focusing on the Near East and Europe. Emphasis will be placed on the thunderbolt-wielding sky gods, their thunderweapons and the graphic symbols for them, and the role of the supernatural thunderbolt in magic, religion, myth, superstition, and folklore.

The divine thunderbolt is a primary aspect of a supreme deity, as well as of certain other gods (and in some cases, goddesses) of the sky, weather, sun, thunder and lightning, sea, war, and fate/destiny. It was the most visible form of direct communication between the celestial world inhabited by the gods and the human world. People saw lightning and firmly believed that only a god could control and aim these discharges. And thunder? That was, of course, the roaring of the mighty Sky Bull/Beast, or the rumbling wheels of the wagon or chariot carrying the thunderbolt wielder careering about in the dark thunder clouds that cloaked it from the sight of mortal men.

Demons and devils, too, might wield analogs of the thunderweapon or thunderbolt. Symbols and simulacra of the divine thunderbolt/ thunderweapon have long been associated with magic (battle, healing, warding) and with primary rulers (emperors, caesars, kings and/or queens). Fertility-bringing divinities and great heroes, demigods, and other beings have also been actively overseen and aided by the primary sky god.

Thunderbolt and thunderweapon amulets, talismans, symbols, charms, and thunderbolt cores have been popularly used since prehistory to ward off lightning strikes, fire, sudden disaster, and evil spirits that might attack with no warning. We also see thunderbolt cores, symbols, and spells on or in buildings, on weapons and armor, in graves, and as an integral part in religious practice.

The earliest concept of a divinely created and thrown thunderbolt was probably that the sky god generated them in the heavens as he needed them. Certain items, thought to be spent cores of such a thunderbolt, could be found and picked up by any mortal. As religions became more sophisticated, there developed a trend toward more complex thunderweapon beliefs. A single male sky god who oversaw all celestial phenomena as well as the hunt, battle, and other male-oriented functions, gave way to specialized pantheons containing several gods and demigods who ruled portions of this job.

The original sky god was probably believed to have instantaneously created his thunderbolt and its physical core in the instant of casting it to earth. He didn’t worry about divine bureaucratic oversight committees or if he had enough bolts in his larder. He threw as many as he wanted to, as required.

As human civilization became more complex and bureaucratically hierarchical, its religions followed suit. In some cases, the actual thunderbolt was no longer necessarily made by the god who wielded it. A divine smith forged them, using his unique smithcraft magic in the process. The smith was frequently disfigured, lame, a dwarf, or imprisoned. He was the sole source of these supernatural weapons. He could forge a weapon that generated thunderbolts at the user’s will, or manufacture a cache of one-shot thunderbolts. In some cases, the supernatural thunderbolts were emitted from a divine smith-made weapon, while others were intrinsic manifestations of the user’s mana and were directly generated by the user.

There are symbols depicting the thunderbolt’s manifestations in the divine and transitional planes of existence. The physical thunderbolt core existed in this world, but graphic images were needed to show a thunderbolt before and during its use by the sky god(s). Some were simple, such as the lightning whip, a single-or double-bladed axe, or the crossed-flame keraunos. Others were highly stylized, like the Indo-Tibetan vajra/dorje or Greco-Roman keraunoi. Distinctions were made between celestial thunder/lightning, seismic/volcanic rumbles or static electrical discharges, sheet lightning, or heat-generated electrical discharges due to physical friction and kinetic energy such as that caused by the movement of herds of large animals during certain meteorological conditions, corona discharges (St. Elmo’s fire), meteorite falls, etc. Where seismic activity was low, there was little or no thunderbolt lore relating to it. In areas of high seismicity that also saw thunderstorms, such as Greece or Japan, two separate thunderbolt concepts with the appropriate god(s) and iconography could generally be found.

In many lands where Stone Age techniques, cultures, and lore were totally supplanted by those of the Bronze and/or Iron Age, a ceraunic tradition may be found. Here, a stone tool or weapon, which had either been shaped during the Stone Age or by using Stone Age techniques and materials, was believed to be the physical residuum of divinely generated lightning. Since in most cases, these later cultures had no notion that their many-times-removed ancestors had fashioned these stone artifacts, any such items found were generally ascribed to supernatural manufacture. Eurasia and parts of Africa fall into this category. In those lands that have continually maintained some Stone Age technology, such as Polynesia, the New World, much of Africa, and the Australia-New Zealand region, relatively few ceraunic thunderweapon beliefs were apparently established. Here, the ancient knowledge and skills remained in place to some extent, and these people knew that stone points, axes, etc., were of human, not divine manufacture. The thunder and/or lightning divinity/ies was/were frequently manifested in other ways, and produced thunder and/or lightning by other means.

Supernatural thunderweapon lore was also transported from one area to another. Traders, immigrants, tourists, and military troops were especially responsible for this. In some instances, thunderbolt and related religio-folkloric motifs and/or graphic symbols may be traced in a nearly unbroken succession from prehistoric times to the present day. A given thunderbolt motif may wander far from its original home, winding up halfway around the world.

Despite the historical importance of the supernatural thunderbolt, there has been little emphasis on it in the literature. Most of the few major treatises on the subject appeared before 1925. Other published works concerning the divine thunderbolt have appeared as short notices and papers in scholarly publications, as parts of chapters, asides, and footnotes, or as brief commentaries in archaeological reports. Much of the story of the origins, development, and spread of the various thunderbolt (and related) concepts and symbols has not appeared in anything resembling a comprehensive form to date. This volume will address part of the story, focusing on the Indo-European traditions in the Near East, western continental Europe, Great Britain, and Scandinavia.

The divine thunderbolt is only one of a related complex of symbols, artistic depictions, and religio-folkloric elements. Some of these motifs will be discussed in this volume as they relate to the divine thunderbolt. A given theme may occupy only one node on a three-dimensional network of cultural motifs, and identification and some comprehension of its nearest neighbors in this web may lead to a better understanding of the symbol or motif at hand. Documentation of religio-folkloric motifs can point to the existence of hitherto unidentified cultural contacts or series of interactions between disparate peoples. We are just now beginning to appreciate the true extent of long-distance trade and intercultural contacts in prehistoric and early world history. By tracking the most widespread graphic symbols/motifs such as those depicting the divine thunderbolt, we may be able to identify some of these elusive contacts, as well as to broaden our understanding of certain religious, folkloric, and superstitious elements in early and prehistoric times.

This volume will begin with European Stone and Bronze Age archaeological evidence of thunderbolt-related artifacts and their posited usage, and then present various thunder gods and graphic symbols for the divinely generated thunderbolt in Mesopotamia, Bactria, and other Near and Middle Eastern lands. Scythia, Thrace, and Greece are also important to this account, as are the Roman Republic and Empire. The latter refined the Mediterranean version of the divine thunderbolt and began to use it regularly in battle magic. The Celts and Germanics, who had their own indigenous thunderbolt traditions, quickly picked up elements of Roman lore, incorporating them into their own. There were prolonged mercantile and cultural contacts between the Romans, Celts, and Germanics with the Slavs and Balts. The Norse and Swedes also interacted freely with the Finns and the Sámi (Lapps) who, in turn, had long-duration cultural and trade contacts to the East and South.

Other elements of the thunderbolt motif may have come to Northern Europe from the Scythians and Thracians via the Greeks, Romans, and

Celts. There were also multistage trade contacts with the Orient, India, and Africa. As a matter of fact, it’s quite difficult to pick out a cultural group which did not have cultural ties with its neighbors and, via trade or tourism, with some unusually distant folks.

In the early stages of the development of Christianity as a religion, many elements of the ancient pagan thunderbolt lore were adopted wholesale into this new faith. There are frequent references to divinely generated thunderbolts in the Torah/Old Testament. Islam has relatively few thunderbolt traditions and essentially no thunderbolt iconography. This is doubtless due to the strict prohibition on worshiping graven images and to the low frequency of thunderstorms and seismic activity in the original Arabian birthplace of Islam.

There has apparently been little or no proscription on Christians’ belief in and use of thunderbolt lore, charms, and artifacts whatsoever, if aforesaid thunderbolts were considered to have been generated by Jehovah. In fact, when fossils and Stone Age artifacts previously classified as God’s Thunderbolts were reevaluated by eighteenth-century naturalists, they were reassigned to great antiquity and, in some cases, to human manufacture. The entrenched orthodox Christian establishment labeled this as rank heresy. According to the then-current doctrine, the world was created far later than the time frame determined for these artifacts by the scientists. The fact that fossils and Stone Age ceraunia (flint, obsidian, or other stone tools, primarily axes, hammers, arrowheads, and spear points) were found over a far wider geographical expanse than that assigned in the Bible also led to ecclesiastical fuming, sputtering, and name-calling aimed at the scientific heretics. It was not until the tenure of Pope Clement VIII that the Church finally yielded its position to the wealth of unimpeachable scientific data.

There has been a continuous and active use of thunderbolt lore, symbolism, and magic throughout most of the world’s civilizations. To this day, people carry thunderbolt amulets, and the divine thunderbolt still plays a central role in major modern religions.

Please note that the references to Judaic/Semitic, Islamic, and Christian thunderbolt lore do not reflect the entire spectrum of modern practice or religio-folkloric thought regarding those religions. JHWH/God/Allah , according to the Torah/Bible/Koran, may communicate in a variety of ways, and is not necessarily limited to thunder/lightning or to other meteorological or seismic events. The same may be said of the other supernatural beings mentioned in this work.

The divine thunderbolt or thunderweapon was activated in the divine plane of existence by a god, but it directly impacted the lives and doings of ordinary humans here on earth. Such a supernatural phenomenon was commonly seen by ordinary folks, and not limited to the clergy or élite. The divine thunderbolt, as a paramount, highly visible, dramatic, and sudden input to mortals from an aerial divinity, would naturally have become a singularly important symbol, as well as solid proof of that deity’s existence and especial concern with terrestrial events. It is one of the most significant concepts in the history and evolution of folklore and religion on planet Earth.

CHAPTER 1

THE SCIENCE OF LIGHTNING, THUNDER, AND CERTAIN OTHER NATURAL PHENOMENA

Celestial and electrometeorological phenomena have long been regarded with superstitious awe. Once upon a time, thunder and lightning were firmly believed to have been generated by a god. This god could use his thunderbolt as a weapon, as a means of communication, or for a variety of other purposes aimed at other supernatural beings or at mortal humans. The activation of such a divinely created thunderbolt would have presaged or identified some event, message, or object which was out of the ordinary; something which had aroused the sky god’s attention. Today, we have the benefit of sophisticated instrumentation, satellite imagery, and detailed scientific understanding of these events. But this understanding is relatively recent, as far as human existence goes. For thousands and thousands of years, thunder and lightning were total enigmas, explainable only as the work of some divinity or supernaturally endowed being.

Thunderstorms are found over almost the entire globe. Some regions are very thundery, most notably Malaysia, central/south Florida, parts of Southeastern Asia, Madagascar, and south Central Africa. Other regions, such as the Arctic, Antarctic, and the Sahara have almost no such activity. In Europe, the most thundery regions are southern France and eastern Spain, Italy, Greece, and up the Balkans into Russia. Also thundery is a narrow coastal strip along the southwestern 2/3 of the Sinai peninsula. There are two subtropical belts of minimum thunderstorm activity which coincide with circa 30 degrees north and 30 degrees south latitudes. Thunderstorms arise most frequently in the afternoon and early evening, especially during the summer, due to solar heating of the ground. Continental profiles, mountain ranges, and ocean currents also influence storm frequency.¹

Hail may be generated within a very active thunderstorm. Hailstones have a lamellar structure similar to that of a pearl, and may easily be two inches or more in diameter. One hailstone that fell in Aurora, Nebraska, on June 22, 2003, measured 7 inches in diameter and 18.75 inches in circumference.² Hailstones fall suddenly and with no warning, and can injure or kill exposed animals or people. During a severe hailstorm, roofs can be destroyed, windows shattered, and the family car take on the topography of a golf ball.

Tornadoes and waterspouts too may be produced by thunderstorms. These rapidly swirling columns of air can totally destroy anything in their path. Houses are shattered and scattered, surface-swimming shoals of small fish can be sucked up out of the water and later deposited miles inland in a kind of piscine rain, and carrots pelt unexpectedly down from the heavens,³ trees wrenched out of the ground, and even the earth itself churned into a rubble-littered path. Fortunately, tornadoes are relatively rare in most parts of the world.

The genesis and maturation of a thunderstorm occurs when a rapidly moving cold front runs into hot, humid air. The cold air pushes under the hot, moist air, forcing the latter to rise. If the temperature differential between these two air masses is fairly wide, tall anvil-shaped cumulonimbus clouds, some reaching as high as 30,000 feet, can quickly form.

As electrical potential differences build up between cloud and earth, positively charged leaders nose upward from the ground. If a downward-seeking negatively charged cloud leader finds such a step leader, a lightning stroke will take place.⁴ If the electrical differential is unusually large or builds up rapidly, multiple strikes along the same path may occur. These multiple strikes are usually much too fast for a human eye to distinguish; all we can usually see is a flickering or pulsed discharge. In some cases, the conduit itself may drift sideways, producing ribbon lightning.⁵

Thunder is produced when the lightning channel is rapidly heated by these electrical discharges. The air expands, producing a compression wave that is propagated outward at the speed of sound. Most of the noise in thunder lies in the range below that which humans can hear; these are the frequencies that rattle dishes, shake the house, and panic the dog. Since a lightning channel is usually quite crooked, thunder generated from the nearer portion will arrive before that generated by a more distant portion. Therefore, its perceived duration will be much longer than that of the actual lightning stroke itself.⁶

At close-up range, thunder arrives very quickly and as an explosive clap, followed by a longer rumble. If the intervals between each stroke of lightning are nearly equal, a very brief musical note may immediately precede the thunderclap.⁷ When lightning strokes are distant, this thunderclap echoes off terrestrial features such as mountains, valleys, buildings, etc., producing a long, low grumbling sound. In earlier days, this sound was likened to that of a heavy chariot or wagon traveling on a hard-packed or stony roadway. If conditions are right, thunder can be heard for some fourteen miles or more from its source.

The most common forms of lightning are air-to-earth and air-to-air (cloud flashes). The first type forms an air/ground conduit between a tall/prominent/highly positively charged object and a highly negatively charged zone in the base of the cumulonimbus cloud. The second is a kind of short circuit between the positively and negatively charged zones within the cloud itself. This type is most common in arid climates.

Other kinds of lightning or meteorological electrical discharges include the bolt from the blue, in which a descending lightning flash assumes a horizontal path below the thundercloud, finally striking the ground some five to as much as thirty miles away.⁸ Bead or chain lightning is a transitory pearl necklace effect, apparently produced when selective areas along the path of a lightning stroke maintain an energy field longer than adjacent areas. Unlike a standard lightning flash that has an average lifetime of ca. 0.2 seconds, bead lightning may persist for one or more seconds.⁹

Ball lightning is more highly charged and can be even longer-lasting than bead lightning. It usually appears as a single globule or teardrop-shaped glowing form, and may fall slowly toward the ground from some altitude. In structure, it may appear as a solid ball with a dull or a reflective surface, as a solid ball inside a larger translucent shell, or as a flickering sphere or teardrop. The spheroid form may measure ca. 10-40 cm in diameter; the teardrop is usually less than 20 cm wide.¹⁰

Ball lightning has also been observed to hover or travel horizontally as it nears the ground. It can hop, roll, take a spiraling or random path, emit smoke, and/or scorch wood. It can also rise slowly in the air, sometimes hissing or crackling as it does so. This electrical phenomenon may occur independently of any recognizable lightning strokes, or even of a thunderstorm overhead. It may also change color during its lifetime from violet/pink/red/orange/yellow/green to white or blue white. If ball lightning strikes the ground, it may explode or vanish with a pop! Sometimes ball lightning will hop along the ground or ricochet around a room. It has also been known to flow down or along a wall, wire, or other structure, and can be very scary to a witness, especially if that witness and the ball lightning are together in a small room with the door closed. Ball lightning is a rather unusual form of atmospheric electrical discharge which occurs most frequently in Central and Western Europe. It was generally regarded as a dramatic portent that the sky god was giving an important warning, pronouncement, edict, or wake-up call. In modern times, ball lightning has been the actual source of some UFO sightings.

Violent lightning discharges may occur during volcanic activity due to friction and release of static electricity as hot ash clouds move upward through colder-air layers, even in clear-sky conditions.¹¹ Such lightning displays are especially spectacular during pyroclastic flows and Plinian (catastrophic explosive) eruptions of heavy, huge ash clouds. Here, the plume of smoke from the erupting volcano will be full of lightning, flashing between points within the particle-laden cloud or dashing from the plume to the ground. This phenomenon was photographed during the formation of Surtsey (Iceland) and during the recent eruptions of Mount St. Helens, Mount Pinatubo (Philippines), and Mount Sakurajima (Japan). Other volcanoes (Mauna Loa, for instance) erupt in a different fashion and may not exhibit these lightning discharges.

Earthquake lights, which are glowing fields resembling ball lightning, are produced just before and during some seismic events. They may bounce like basketballs along the line of an actively moving fault, and are produced by kinetic energy released during fault stress relief.¹² Since much of Greece lies within active fault zones, the sight of these phenomena coupled with the audible booms, groans, and other sounds associated with seismic activity, would have encouraged belief in a subterranean smithy in which the divine smith forged thunderbolts and other items for the gods.

Another celestial phenomenon, meteors and meteorites, may be seen from any spot on the planet. In the case of meteoritic fireballs (bolides), a coincident noise (swishing, humming, rumbling, whining, popping, or crackling sounds) may sometimes accompany the fall.¹³ This electrophonic sound may be heard simultaneously with the descent of the fireball through Earth’s atmosphere, even from miles away. It is apparently due to ELF/VLF electromagnetic radiation caused by the passage of the bolide through variations in Earth’s magnetic field and transduced into the audible range via resonant or receptive objects, including frizzed-out hair, structural members of a building, trees, etc.¹⁴ This phenomenon may occur over a large area, and people miles away from a descending bolide have heard and made note of these noises. Electrophonic sound is quite different from audible sound such as sonic booms caused during the bolide’s entry into atmosphere, which are propagated at the much slower speed of sound. These two classes of sounds associated with a meteoritic fireball would logically reinforce the concept in early societies that such a fireball, literally screaming or sizzling down from the heavens and followed seconds later by one or more sonic booms, was very definitely a supernaturally caused event.¹⁵ It is perhaps one of the most dramatic aerial natural phenomena known to man.

A very early account of such a bolide may be found in the Bible, Acts 2:1-3: And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them. Here is an excellent description of the fall and fiery fragmentation of an electrophonic meteorite at such a close range or brilliance that its light reflected from the awed faces of the onlookers. If a bolide enters the atmosphere on a shallow trajectory, the luminous phase may last as long as thirty seconds—time enough for twelve people to scuttle out of a modest building, look overhead, and see fragments of a disintegrating fireball appear to rain down on them. Such a bolide is one of the most awesome natural spectacle that a human being can witness, unless the bolide enters the atmosphere at a steep angle and explodes violently, in which case the observers would be lucky to survive to tell the tale.¹⁶

Saint Elmo’s fire, also called corposant (from corpo santo, the body of the saint), is another type of meteorological electrical event. This is a corona discharge which forms a luminescent glow about an object, especially those which are carrying a positive charge, and which are spiky or oriented vertically. Bushes and masts fall into these categories. The folklore and superstitions surrounding St. Elmo’s fire, however, are generally quite different from that pertaining to a lightning bolt or meteorite fall. In at least one case, however (the burning bush witnessed by Moses on Mount Sinai), St. Elmo’s fire has assumed the role of the divine sky god’s presence, attention to, and communication with a human being.¹⁷

Until relatively recent times, all of these phenomena were regarded as having been generated by some kind of divinity, rather than as natural occurrences in the physical world. Wherever humans have settled, some kind of supernatural explanation has arisen for them, explanations that have been incorporated into the very cores of religion, folklore, superstition, and magic.

CHAPTER 2

THUNDERBOLT BELIEFS

At the end of the last Ice Age, nomadic hunters and herders migrated north into Central Europe, closely following the retreating ice. The northernmost of these, the Siberians and Sámi (Lapps), moved laterally as well, following their herds and trading for goods from their neighbors. South of them, the hunting-fishing people began to raise crops, settle in communities, and establish themselves in specified geographical areas. Populations expanded and occupied increasingly large tracts of land. Trade routes were developed, sometimes spanning entire continents and crossing significant bodies of water. Trade, élite alliances, and military adventures became primary means by which foreign merchandise, fashions, and cultural ideas were transmitted. Concepts and popular graphic symbols for the divine thunderbolt were also exported far and wide.

Many of these ancient people lived in lands that were subject to thunderstorms. A good thunderstorm is a dramatic and impressive event, especially when experienced in an outdoor situation. Certainly these post-Ice Age people were highly aware and fearful of such atmospheric convulsions, sure in their hearts that these storms with their concomitant thunder crashes and lightning flashes came directly to them, personally, from their gods. When they saw the blue-black anvil clouds pile up, felt the electricity in the air, and tried to shelter from the pelting rain or hail, they knew to the core of their beings that the god was right there above them in the sky. And if the tall tree they cowered under took a direct strike, they knew firsthand and without a doubt that the Big Sky Father was seriously annoyed with something on earth—in this case, very likely with them! They saw the lightning, smelled the ozone, heard the ear-splitting rolls of thunder (the wrathful god shouting at them? the flight of the terrible bolt of fire?), felt the rain and hail pummel their bodies, and knew that this was a direct divine communication. Of course, they would make haste to fervently pray, chant, make promises, offerings, and suchlike to the thunder god in the hopes that he would go elsewhere as soon as possible. And in time, the thunderstorm would pass by, leaving our soaked and bruised friends (if they survived) cowering amid the wreckage of what had been a mighty oak tree, or fearfully peering out of caves and low thatched-roofed dwellings. They would certainly have been highly impressed by this meteorological temper tantrum, and would remember it. What’s more, they would probably embroider their tales regarding the sky god’s anger and his dramatic use of divine thunderbolts. Any fisherman or golfer knows how such a tale might be amplified.

They would pass these stories on to their children, who of course also witnessed similar storms, thus bringing about the belief, nay, unshakable knowledge that thunder and lightning were surely of supernatural origin. Both phenomena were obviously wielded by an incredibly powerful god who lived in the sky, a god who was the actual source of these bolts and who took personal interest in certain individual people, rocks, trees, or dwellings.

One of the first things in the creation of a myth or belief of this type was to define, as much as possible in those unscientific times, the nature of the thunderbolt. It obviously had to be a projectile weapon like a spear, slingshot, axe, or arrow. It surely had a core that was a physical component, and a magical power source that impelled it from point A (the god) to point B (the target). This core was generally believed to sink deep into the earth, but during each year following the strike, it would work its way up toward the surface. Some folks believed that it took seven years to emerge onto the surface; others said it took three, or five, or six, or some other determinate number.¹ In other cases, the thunderbolt was sunk seven (or another number) miles (or another measure of distance) deep in the earth and ascended one mile per year until it lay upon the surface of the earth. If one were very lucky, he or she might find the physical artifact, which was the spent core of such a thunderbolt. This artifact, which still retained divine mana, would then be treasured as a sacred lightning/fire/sudden disaster-preventative object of the first order. Keeping a thunderbolt core on one’s person or in one’s dwelling would therefore logically confer immunity to those situations.² Back then, people firmly believed that lightning never struck twice in the same spot. The Empire State Building in New York City, however, disproves this theory. Records indicate that it has been struck by lightning at least sixty-eight times within the span of three years.³ As a matter of fact, it is the most frequently struck building in the world.

Placing a thunderbolt core (or its simulacrum) on an altar or other hallowed location and worshiping it was believed to give the worshiper enhanced access to