Reflections on the Film, Ragnarok (spoiler alert)

I watched this wonderful film on Netflix and just had to write about it, it was so good.
It has subtitles, and I suspect it is in Swedish. I am not compensated for endorsing any movies or any place to see them but I felt this one deserved the attention. The film,while a monster movie, has very strong emotional and relational elements. 
Here is a short review and synopsis of it.

Prologue: A Viking king and a troop of his stood at the edge of a lake at night. The tied a goat to a raft and sent it out across the water. A girl was trying to discourage him from whatever plan he had, but to no avail. She said, "Your greed will be our downfall." Moments later, there was a roar, from the eye-view of something huge rearing up, presumably out of the water, the king's frightened face tells it all. Then the screen went black.

Present day:
Sigurd is a single father of two, a widower who cannot let his wife go.
He is an archaeologist, as his late wife, Maren was. They both believed that the myth of Ragnorok was based on an actual event. They thought the markings on a burial site they found held clues to the story, but they did not have proof. All they had was some shells on the bottom of a boat that only exist much farther North than the people who made it were thought to have gone, in a place called Finnmark.
After Maren died, Sigurd had barely left his office. He continuously poured over the book of notes they had complied together.
Sigurd is introduced when he is grabbing a very fast breakfast. His son, Brage, reminded him that his daughter, Ragnhild, was singing at school at 3:30. He says "I will be there," as he ran out the door.

Ragnhild was in her early teens - the age when everything is the end of the world, and nothing is forgivable. It is usually the age when a girl most needs her mother.

Sigurd gave a presentation at work in order for their research grant to be continued, and it was a complete disaster. The donors laughed at his and his late wife's and withdrew their support for his research. Sigurd's boss advised him to apply for a tour guide position in the museum - the equivalent of a police officer being permanently assigned to the school crosswalk. A dream destroyed.

His dream in ruins, the partner who shared it in the grave, Sigurd sat in his car, still pouring over the notebook. That is, until he realized he was missing his daughter's performance.
He arrived at the school to find his daughter and son in an empty parking lot, waiting for him with sour expressions. "I had a meeting at work," Sigurd lied, "It took longer than I expected."

Sigurd's children wanted to go to Spain for vacation, he was planning on the cabin where they normally went. He said, "It has a lot of great memories," The children were not old enough to have remembered their mother that well. Ragnhild corrected him, "Memories for you, you mean."
Brage had created an account for his dad on a dating site. The kids were ready to move on, and wanted their father to move on as well.
That night, Sigurd's fellow researcher, Allan, came by with their first find from Finnmark. A stone with carvings in it. Sigurd set to work scraping away dirt and silt and found a familiar shape. They retrieved some display pieces from the museum. The pieces matched the shape carved in the rock. With both these pieces together, Sigurd realized it was a code breaker, and worked to decipher the message: "Asa erected this stone in memory of her father, the King of Vestfold, who arrogantly went to find the gods" or perhaps "Who went to find the power of the gods," They could not read the entire message, some of it had faded with time, but they could pick up "Three days march from this stone  to the bottomless lake, the Eye of Odin." The stone was a map!
Sigurd's only chance to get to Finnmark was the family vacation. Ragnhild was furious, but she agreed to come peacefully if her father would give her his computer. "Absolutely, that's a deal," he said, holding his hands as if praying to her. It seems he had a bit of a roll reversal going with his daughter. She reminded him of things, made Brage's breakfast and tucked Brage in, and evidently had to approve or disapprove of vacation plans. Sigurd seemed like he was overwhelmed by the task of raising kids alone,especially Ragnhild. He was clearly very concerned about her, and at a loss how to relate to her without his wife to help. He obviously longed to be a good father and make his children happy, but nothing he did seemed to be working.
In Finnmark, Allan introduced his assistant, Elisabeth. Brage immediately started hoping she and his dad would start dating. Lief, the guide, demanded his advance payment as soon as he got out of the truck, and was generally disagreeable and rude.
While they hiked from where the stone was found, Brage was impressed that they were walking where the Vikings walked 1000 years ago. Ragnhild was annoyed that there is no cell signal.
Part way through the three day hike, they ran into the old Iron Curtain. The cold war over, they crossed the border and constantly found abandoned military bases with bunkers, and preparations for war everywhere - fortunately.
When Elisabeth helped Ragnhild with mosquito repellent, the beginnings of bonding between the two were clear. At last they find the Eye of Odin, a lake with a round island in the middle of it. When Sigurd whispered, "Okay, Maren," before proceeding to explore the island. Lief found a gun in one of the abandoned barracks. While Elisabeth and Sigurd began to discuss deeper things, Brage found a cavern.
The whole team entered the cavern with ropes and harnesses. They found a Viking helmet, and many, many swords, jewelry and other things. Sigurd's dream was beginning to come true... Until Leif pulled that gun on the whole company, demanding the priceless items. He threw down everyone's ropes as soon as he was out of the cavern and left everyone, including the kids, at the bottom of a deep cavern with no way out.

Ragnhild found a human skull and became hysterical.
Elisabeth climbed the cavern wall without ropes, set up a new line, and they finally escaped their prison. With the raft gone and their strength spent, they determined to spend the night in the abandoned soviet bunks and build a new raft in the morning.
Allan examined the skull Raghnild found. There was a gigantic tooth lodged in it. "We have to go back down," Allan and Sigurd returned to the cavern while Elisabeth and the children slept.
They found many, many more bodies, and all had the kind of same injury. They figured they must have been killed by something long since extinct. In the water, they found a dead Soviet soldier, almost, but not fully, decayed down to bone. "He died the same way the Vikings did."
"But they died 1000 years ago... He didn't."
The creature who wiped out a viking troop and perhaps as many Soviet soldiers was not extinct. It came into the cavern and they saw it pass by as they hid!
All Sigurd could think about was his children...
Brage had taken one of the monster's eggs from the cavern. I hatched in the barracks while all this was going on. It rattled and hissed all over the dark, unfamiliar structure, terrifying the children. Elisabeth trapped it in a steel box and then secured the box in a pack with tight straps - Brage's pack.
That barracks was connected to a cable, and could be carried across the water with the cable via some mechanisms, but the cable had long ago fallen into the water. The monster heard its baby crying, and pulled that cable, dragging the whole unit toward the lake.
The children and Elisabeth were trapped inside; the door was jammed.

Allan and Sigurd came out of the woods, and saw the building headed for the lake. They got broke open and got everyone out just before it entered the water. As Sigurd collapsed to the ground, he looked up, holding his weeping son, and saw the beast destroy the barracks like a tin can. They fled.

After they crossed the lake, Allan found the baby monster in Brage's pack, and chose to smuggle it back to civilization for study without telling the others. Unfortunately, these creatures were amphibious. The team learned the hard way after crossing to the other side of the lake. It came for them in their campsite, they ran into a bunker for protection, but the monster battered the door til it was nearly broken in! Only Allan knew it was looking for its baby. They were trapped.
Ragnhild lost control, she blamed her father for everything. They all believed they were just waiting to die. Sigurd clearly felt that he had failed his children utterly and that everything was all his fault.
Ragnhild calmed down and picked up her father's treasured notebook. She asked him what the runes meant. the first time she'd ever shown interest in her father's lifelong passion.
Sigurd said very slowly that what he thought was a map had been a warning. It told of a Viking king who had brought his people to this place, and "they all died because - because he did not understand that perhaps - perhaps they should not be here." Clearly, he felt he could relate, but someone found ventilation pipes then, and a way out. As they were exiting the bunker, Sigurd found the baby monster in Allan's pack. He knew the beast would pursue them to the ends of the earth, just as he would for Ragnhild or Brage. Allan was, at that moment, attacked by the creature and killed. Because the escape hatch was open, the monster got inside.
Brage came out of hiding too soon, shouting for his father and sister. Ragnhild shushed him, pulling him into the locker where she was hiding. The monster came very close but did not attack the lockers. When they thought it had left, they came out and the monster cornered them.They both screamed hysterically for their father.
Sigurd ran as fasts her could, bringing the monster's baby. He approached the beast, screaming and waving a torch til it turned away from his children and came toward him. Bravely, he approached it, face to face. It could hear its baby crying in Sigurd's luggage and did not eat him, but growled with rage, Sigurd held out the baby monster. The adult monster stopped and stared, then slowly approached Sigurd until the baby could crawl up onto its nose. Then it slunk away with a growl, its wrath appeased. Sigurd had saved his children.

After the family rescued Elisabeth, It was finally time to go home. Despite previously saying that family did not suite her, she seemed more willing to be "part of the family" now, much to Brage's delight.

There is more action, drama and intrigue than I mentioned here, this is just the gist of it. In this film, I see a powerful tribute to fatherhood and a message of hope, humility, and of healing coming from unexpected places. I also see encouragement and the promise that single-parenting need not be the end of the world. Highly recommended.
Godspeed.

~Mother Star

Adventures in RCIA - The Book of Judith

Like the books of Job and Tobit , Judith is regarded as a work of fiction. This book makes the statements about the "historical value" of the deuterocanonical/apocryphal/anagignoskomenal writings sound funny. There is no historical value to it. It is loaded with blatant historical errors. Nebuchanezzer of Babylon carried the people of Israel off into captivity after they fell away from God for some time. So began the great exile, and I  think the first in their history after they settled the promised land. The book of Judith has Nebuchanezzer the king of Assyria threatening the people of Isreal and brutally conquering the surrounding nations and striking fear into all hearts right after Isreal returned from their exile. 
So much for historical value! Really!
The book is longer than the book of Tobit, sixteen chapters, but the synopsis need not be any longer.

The book of Judith - a worthwhile Read.

Here is a brief synopsis of the book of Judith:

The Assyrian king in the story, Nebuchanezzer, gets the idea he is going to be god, basically, and run the world. He sends letters to the kings of every other nation in the known world and orders them to serve him or else, since he's the new boss in town. Why? Because he said so, and that's that.
They all blew him off because he was just one man. This Nebuchanezzer assembles an army and conquers the nation next door, then the next one, and the next. His best general, Holofernes, gathers all his best men and campaigns across the known world until they come to Israel. Israel refuses to surrender.
Inside Israel, the whole nation without an exception, even foreigners who live with them, fast and pray and wear sackcloth and ashes and beseech God for help. High up in the mountains, a little town called Bethulia sits right on the border. Holofernes and the very strongest Assyrian armies are camped outside, demanding surrender or else. A mercenary who is native to the area tells Holofernes the short version of the story of Israel - from Abraham, to the exile, to the return. He basically said, "Unless they have provoked their God, do not attack them. You will lose, because their God will deliver them and destroy you."
This ticked off Holofernes, who order that this guy be taken into the little town and held there until the whole city was being slaughtered, and he would die with the town he appeared to be working for.
So a small unit of servants took the mercenary commander to Bethulia, but the townsfolk threw stones at them with such zeal, they left him in the ravine they'd taken shelter in and then retreated.
The townsfolk came down from the mountain to check things out, and found him there. They untied him, and took him before the town magistrate. After hearing his story and learning that he at least respected the power of God, the magistrate took the man to his own house and thanked him for his courage, and how he said what he'd said about their God and their people.
Unfortunately, other people from the surrounding countryside wanted to be in the Assyrians' good graces and advised Holofernes how to could take Bethulia without a casualty. The mountains were rough and hard to ascend, so take the springs at the foot,where the people went to get their water, and they would weaken and die from thirst. No need to waste any arrows.
So that is what Holofernes did.
After several days without water, the people were starting to panic.They confronted their magistrate and demanded that he surrender to the Assyrians, lest they should die of thirst. The magistrate said he would do so if God did not deliver them in five more days.
At this point, an extremely righteous and wise widow heard what had happened. She called the leaders of the city together and said they had no business putting a time limit on God and trying to be His boss/give Him ultimatums. They said they agreed, but they had no choice because the people were thirsty, panicked, and not thinking straight; they couldn't be reasoned with.
She said she wasn't going to tell them what she had planned, but she had a plan. She asked them to pray. She prayed like crazy. Then she removed her widows garments and dressed to impress. She was vary beautiful, and wealthy. she packed up some stuff and took one very lovely maidservant down to meet Holofernes. While flattering him like crazy and stating allegiance to his king/god, Nebuchanezzer, she said the story he'd heard about their God and their people was rue, but that the people had displeased God. She said she was a seer, basically, and would tell him when the time was right to attack. He agreed, and thanked her. She was favored by all who saw her, and Holofernes promised her safety. He then hatched a plan to get her to bed. He invited her to dinner, and she went, bringing her soft woolly reclining mat (her bed, I think). She sat on the bed and they ate dinner and he drank til he passed out. Nothing else happened, as he was so busy talking and drinking and stuffing himself that he passed about before anything else took place. She then cut off his head with his own sword, and carried it out of the camp with her maid.
She took the head to the magistrates. She told them to order the armies to mobilize as if to attack, but don't attack. The armies would look for Holofernes and not find him, and panic. Then, their armies should attack.
All this happened. When the Assyrian armies saw that their commander had been beaten, and were disgraced because their pride and strength had been bested by a woman, they did indeed turn and flee. The Israeli armies did indeed attack the retreating foe and win. Messengers were sent out to all the cities, including Jerusalem,and more Israeli armies came. They decimated the enemy and there was so much plunder, because the foe had conquered so many places already, there was plenty for everybody. The mercenary captain believed fully n God after he saw all this, and heard how Gd had helped and protected Judith and had delivered a nation through this small ton, from so great an army. je was circumcised and followed God the rest of his life.
There was tremendous celebration of this victory across the nation. Judith became a household name, and the high priest met her and blessed her in person. She inherited all of Holofernes' stuff. It took her several cart to move it.
Most of the final chapter is a worship song, said to be composed and sung by Judith herself.
She dedicated all Holofernes' things to God as an offering. Her fame never ceased, but grew. She ran her late husband's estate until she died, never marrying again even though she was proposed to many times. On her death she distributed her wealth among both her own and her husband's kindred. The whole country mourned. No one troubled the nation of Israel again until long after Judith's death.

Presumably, no one bothered Israel because they feared what God could do and the embarrassment of being brought down by just one person, and a female at that.
I don't think the book is true, obviously, and I do not know if it is inspired or not. My feminist tendencies could be pulling me either way, and so I am biased and I know it, so I will not try to judge that. I am certainly glad I read it and feel edified for having done so. I can say that much.

Godspeed.

~Mother Star

Adventures in RCIA - The Book of Tobit

The book of Tobit was canonized by the early church, the Orthodox Church, the Coptic Church, and the Roman Catholic Church, and was in both the Septuagint - the Greek Bible used by first century Christians -and the Latin Vulgate - the first Bible to be printed. It was declared not to be scripture by Martin Luther in the Middle Ages, and was removed from the actual printing of Protestant Bibles as late as the 1880s. The tens of  thousands of Protestant split-offs and divisions that are collectively classified as "Protestant" all left it out too. Thus, many people who were raised Protestant now know absolutely nothing of the book of Tobit; I didn't.

Like the book of Job, Tobit is considered by scholars to be a divinely inspired work of fiction (Catholic, Orthodox, and such scholars do. Protestant scholars have varying opinions, but at the very least say it has much merit and is very good spiritual reading even they are unsure or flat don't believe Tobit is scripturally authoritative like Job is). It has similar subject matter in that two of the characters, including Tobit, lose a great deal even though they are very godly and later pray that they might die, yet they are restored to joy again. Here is a synopsis of this 14 chapter gem.

Tobit was a Jew living in Nineveh. Most of his countrymen had become part of the dominant culture and forgot God, or all but forgot God. Tobit was one of a few, a remnant basically, who did not forget God. Tobit was very generous and God blessed him. He worked for the king, and was very highly trusted and favored. When the king died, his son turned out to be a very evil and inept ruler. He committed atrocities against many Jews, and left them to rot in the sun. Tobit went in secret, by night, and buried them.
Some others in court snitched on him for this. He fled for his life. All his possessions were confiscated except his wife and son. He had to stay in Media for years, separated from his wife and their only child. When he was finally reunited with his family, his celebration feast was interrupted when his son saw another Jew laying strangled in the road. Tobit immediately began burying the dead again, despite being mocked for it by the neighbors.
While he did so, a bird above him defecated into his eyes. His eyes became infected, and treatments only made it worse until he was completely blind. He could no longer work.
One day, he had a misunderstanding with his wife, who had become the breadwinner, and she asked him what good all his alms-giving and upright behavior had accomplished? She sat accusing him. This hurt him so bad that he prayed he would die.
He began setting his affairs in order, expecting God to answer his prayer. He sent his son, Tobias, to retrieve ten talents he had left in trust with a relative in Media, many years back, when he was still rich and worked for a good king.

The very same moment Tobit prayed for death, a very upright and gentle girl in Media, named Sarah, also prayed for death. She had been married seven times, but was oppressed of a demon who killed all her husbands, so they dropped dead as soon as they entered the bridal chamber to consummate the wedding. She was still a virgin, having been the bride at seven weddings! One of her maidservants told her she had killed them all, and ought to become like them, "May we never see a son or daughter of yours!". Sarah then asked God to kill her because she hurt so bad, and if He did not see fit to do so, to please look on her affliction.

God sent the angel Raphael immediately, to take care of both problems. Raphael appeared as a man to Tobias, who was just then looking for a companion on the dangerous road to Media.
Raphael went with Tobias, masquerading as a distant relative. They caught a fish and Raphael told Tobias to keep certain parts of it, because they would be used to drive away evil spirits and to heal physical afflictions.
Raphael told Tobias that there was a kinswoman whom Tobias had the first right to marry, and that she was destined for him before the world began. Tobias had heard of the seven dead bride-grooms, but Raphael calmed his fears. He told Tobias that her house was on the way, and they needed to stop to rest there.
They spoke to her father about her hand in marriage, and her father told Tobias about the evil spirit who killed all her husbands. Tobias said he was not afraid, so preparations were made and they were married that very night. Tobias' new father-in-law, Raguel, sent servants to dig a grave to bury Tobias secretly, and hide the family's shame.
Meanwhile, in the bridal chamber, Tobias put the fish liver on the incense coals per Raphael's instructions. Then Tobias and Sarah knelt and prayed, as Raphael had instructed beforehand, for God's protection and blessing. The smoke  of the fish liver drove the demon away, and Raphael chased it down and bound it.
When Raguel's servant came to see if Tobias was dead, he found the couple sound asleep - and alive. Raguel ordered the grave filled back in by daybreak, not wanting Tobias to know about it, and sang great praises to God. He gave Tobias half his inheritance (when he married Sarah, he became Raguel's sole heir since Sarah had no brothers or sisters) up front, and ordered two weeks of feasting. Raphael was sent onward to collect the ten talents they went to retrieve in the first place, and to invite the relative who kept it to the wedding feast.
Since Tobias wasn't at liberty to go home as planned, and phones did not yet exist, his parents were worried sick. His dad said, "There must have been some delay," but his mom was essentially convinced that he was dead and was mourning for him already. She spent all day every day staring at the road he'd taken, answering to no one, and then cried all night every night and couldn't sleep.
After the two week feast, Tobias was like, "I absolutely have to get home, my parents must think I'm dead!" So his enormous new wealth was packed up. Sarah and all Tobias' new servants hit the road, led by Tobias and the angel Raphael, who was still in disguise.
When they arrived, Tobias' mother was beside herself with joy. Tobit stumbled out to greet his son, and Tobias applied the fish gall to his eyes, as he had been instructed to do, then peeled the films off his father's eyes. When Tobit saw his son, he shouted praises to God. He then heard of the marriage, and saw Sarah and all the wealth Tobias had returned with, so he also declared a long feast.
It was when Tobais and Tobit attempted to pay him that Raphael revealed his true name, nature and mission. After calming them down from their fright, he gave some exhortations for right living and promises for those who are faithful to God, and reminded them twice to worship God always. Then he departed from them. They praised God all the more.

A song that seems to fit with this story; it may be a further comfort to those comforted by it.

On his death bed, Tobit told his son to leave Nineveh as soon as he buried his mother, like the very same day, because Tobit believed the prophecies of the prophet Nahum (found in the Bible, including the Protestant canon of the Bible) about Nineveh. He was sure it was not a safe place to live.
Tobias did as he was told. The book ends with the captives of Nineveh marching past the family's home in Media, before Tobias' very eyes. And he praised God.

I hope you enjoyed this synopsis of the book of Tobit. It has been a comfort to me lately, and the more I read it, the more I feel it is indeed inspired, and should not have been thrown out. I feel a little bit cheated for not having access to it, and some other works in the "Apocrypha," all my life before. 

Godspeed.

~Mother Star