# Worldview
## Tolkien on the AS
Tolkien remarked [about the poem the Seafarer]
"the poet who spoke these words saw in his thought the brave men of old walking under the vault of heaven upon the island earth (ftn. middangeard), beleaguered by the Shoreless Sea (ftn. gārsecg) and the outer darkness, enduring with stern courage the brief days of life (ftn. lǣne līf 2845), until the hour of fate (ftn. metodsceaft 1180, 2815) when all things should perish, lēoht and līf samod [ftn. "light and life together"]." [The Keys of Middle Earth, 343]
## Germanic & Indian
"More than any other European or Indo-European mythology, Germanic mythology of the Norse tradition is in tune with the ancient Indian sense of life--including that of the gods--as being part of a larger process of creation, preservation, and destruction. For many this is an essentially pessimistic mythology, reflecting the long dark days of the seemingly endless northern winters. Others might see it in the Indian way, as the natural history birth, death, and rebirth in the cosmic context." p.105
From Olympus to Camelot by David Leeming