Heracles was not aware that the horses, called Podargos (the swift), Lampon (the shining), Xanthos (the yellow) and Deinos (the terrible),
[1] were kept tethered to a bronze manger because they were wild; their madness being attributed to an unnatural diet of human flesh.
[2] Some versions say that they expelled fire when they breathed. They were man-eating and uncontrollable, and Heracles left his favoured companion, Abderus, in charge of them while he fought Diomedes, and found out that the boy was eaten.
Curiosamente, Hades (e outros reis dos mortos), também montavam cavalos incomuns. No caso de Hades eram imortais.
Na tradição católica, a alma penada podia tomar a forma eqüídea do desejo irrefreado, e da paixão incendiária, do espírito condenado que se moldava na forma da lenda da "Almamula", da mula-sem-cabeça, etc... Aqui nesta lenda a criatura, do tipo "mula sem cabeça", produz ruídos apavorantes e insuportáveis (que recordam a aproximação dos Nazguls).
Its color is most commonly given as brown, sometimes as black. It has silver (or iron) horseshoes that produce a hideous trotting, louder than any horse is capable of producing.
Despite being headless, the Mule still neighs (usually very loud), and sometimes it moans like a crying woman
Dos nórdicos, temos que cavalos serviam como interface entre o mundo dos mortos e dos vivos e eram uma fonte de augúrios ao terem o comportamento monitorado igual aos pássaros do céu, os peixes dos rios, como as "pedras da fome" que surgiam quando as águas abaixavam demais e prenunciavam calamidades em sociedades agrárias.
De fato, em SdA, as montarias dos Nazguls cumprem um papel de terem os instintos extremamente sensíveis às mudanças próximas delas, ainda que não deixassem de lado o tormento.
The Horses Role as a Shaman
Marold (1983:119
-
20) believes that
the horse was a psychopomp between conscious and
unconscious realms, and that a psychopomp could fulfill the role of a shaman. Marold refers
to a passage in
Ynglingatal
, which suggests
the horse
w
as a p
sychopompo
s animal: “
kveðkat
dul, nema Dyggva hror, Gl
itnis Gná, at gam
ni
hefr, þvít jódís, ulfs ok Narfa, konungmann,
kjósa skyldi, ok allvald, Yngva þjóðar, Loka mær, at leikum hefr
” (
ÍFXXVI.17.33
-
4).
The
relationship of horses to
dísar
and other female deities is significant since most hu
man
psychopomps
are female.
Hultkrantz
(1973:34) defines a shaman as a social functionary who,
with the help of guardian spirits, attains
ecstasy
in order to create a rapport with the
supernatural world, on behalf of his group members.
Though many peoples across the Vikin
g
world had a spiritual practitioner, maintaining and manipulating contact with the spirit world,
problems of definition arise (Tolley 2009:66). Though very
vague
definitions, to some overly
complicated defi
ni
tions, exist, it is also possible to accept tha
t there were different types of
shamans within each culture, and cultural variations of shamans within each society, and
horses, like Sleipnir, can certainly be considered one type of animal shaman in Old Norse
mythology
.
We can break down
Hultkrantz def
inition into four defining
traits
, each of which can
exist independently, but the coincidence of all of them together creating the phenomenon of
shamanism
:
1.
The shaman has contact with the supernatural world
2.
The shaman acts on behalf of a human group
and me
diates for them
3.
The shaman is granted inspiration by helping spirits
4.
The shaman attains
extraordinary ecstatic experiences
A participação dos cavalos se torna notável na passagem da companhia cinzenta quando Aragorn precisa conquistar Pelargir. Incrivelmente o exército dos mortos também tem cavalos ainda que as almas livres apresentadas no Cânon sejam as almas dos ainur e dos 4 povos livres.
Seriam aqueles cavalos dos mortos a materialização do desejo deles? Ou seriam almas de cavalos? Sauron, ao fornecer uma montaria a Boca de Sauron tinha como trazer para o mundo dos vivos formas de pesadelo.
The Role of Horses in the Old Norse Sources - Transcending worlds, mortality, and reality
https://skemman.is/bitstream/1946/16675/1/Horses in the norse sources MIS thesis.pdf
The Medieval in Middle-Earth: Horses!
https://dutchanglosaxonist.com/2017/06/05/horses/
What Was Tolkien’s Inspiration for the Mearas?
https://middle-earth.xenite.org/what-was-tolkiens-inspiration-for-the-mearas/
Alma-mula, la condenada
https://sobreleyendas.com/2008/10/08/alma-mula-la-condenada/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mare_(folklore)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nightmare
http://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/HaidesTreasures.html#Chariot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarm_intelligence
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_horses
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mares_of_Diomedes
