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Both traditions insist the treasures of the first age were not composed by anyone living but FOUND · golden game-pieces standing in the grass, god-written slabs buried in temple foundations · physical leavings of an elder age recovered by later hands. The gap between ages is proven precisely by the finding: the knowledge did not descend by transmission, because transmission was severed; it had to be dug up.
Before the catastrophe the gods' golden age is defined by golden tafl-pieces: 'In their dwellings at peace they played at tables, / Of gold no lack did the gods then know' (st. 8). After Ragnarok, on the reborn earth: 'In wondrous beauty once again / Shall the golden tables stand mid the grass, / Which the gods had owned in the days of old' (st. 61) · the elder age survives the gap as objects found lying in the grass.
set against Book of the Dead, rubrics to…
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