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A place for Aryan (European) Folkish Pagans
Next is the church choir performance.
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Leonid can’t do the job alone and asks his brother to find someone strong enough. He doesn’t like breaking his old word, but well-digging won’t do to repay the church.
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Nazar then starts a fire in the church which almost takes the entire building down. He wanted to burn his father’s documents which were kept there, but didn’t expect the fire to be that great. Pamfir promises the priest to repay all the damages and asks him not to tell anyone that Nazar did this.
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Olena forces Nazar to take part in the choir repetitions for the upcoming festival. He doesn’t like that, but has no choice.
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The next scene shows Pamfir’s parents getting dressed before going to the church. We can see that they are clearly very religious by numerous icons. This is also where we learn the reason why Leonid doesn’t talk with his father, even though the full story of the incident will be revealed later.
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Leonid goes on to meet his mother, but not father. As we learn later they have very difficult relationships. Next day Pamfir teaches his son the basic dowsing technique since he is going to dig up a well.
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Summary
Pamfir is a crime drama with mystical elements. The setting is a modern village in Ukrainian mountains. The main protagonist Leonid (Pamfir) returns from abroad and is very happy to see his son Nazar which serves as a beautiful opening scene and features a great Malanka costume Nazar made for the coming festival.
The review will be a detailed one and thus full of spoilers. I highly recommend watching the movie yourself before reading it.
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Of the many advantages that Christianity conferred on the Jews, none was greater than the privilege of masquerading as a religion and thus concealing their race. It ensured them the protection of both church and state as they rapaciously amassed wealth in mediaeval Europe. One has only to ask himself what would have happened, had Chinese or Malays swarmed into the cities to set up their enclaves (ghettos) to monopolise commerce, practise usury, and control finance. Even more important, it gave them perpetual access to the seats of power.
Revilo Oliver
Goði Cornwell on monism
"It is our view that there can not be an ultimate creator to all realities, as all of creation is subject to primordial Nature. Divinity is emergent from this and is the highest form of consciousness for which we, as lesser entities, can form symbiosis with. The monist worldview turns this Eddic truth on its head - stripping our Gods down to just components of a supreme creator without purpose outside of its unitary design.
In doing so, they remove their agency as tribal Gods in lieu of an incomprehensible and stagnant uniformity. Our perception becomes the only means of connection we possess, the objective truths of multiplicity and change become subjective, or just false, in such an outlook."
Here’s an example of magic displayed by Brand, one of the most mystical princes:
"His eyes burned strangely as he took another cigarette into his hand and it lit of its own accord."
I like this lack of magic because it makes everything more grounded and relatable. When Corwin breaks an arm he can’t just chant a spell and fix it or hurl lighting bolts at his enemies. Every fight is just skill and wit, every wound is dangerous, even though sons of Oberon are all very resilient, strong and have superhuman healing abilities.
The book also features a unicorn. In Amber universe there is only one unicorn and it’s more than just a rare beast, it’s a deity which will be expanded on later.
…a soft, shimmering white encompassed it, as if it were covered with down rather than fur and maning; its tiny, cloven hooves were golden, as was the delicate, whorled horn that rose from its narrow head. It stood atop one of the lesser rocks, nibbling at the lichen that grew there. Its eyes, when it raised them and looked in our direction, were a bright, emerald green.
Sign of the Unicorn
Brief plot summary
Our protagonist Corwin is now finally the king of Amber, but there’s little joy in this since he still struggles with the monstrosities from beyond as well as the enemies within. This is probably the most dialogue heavy of all the five books of Corwin. From the very beginning the book presents a murder mystery and the whole family is suspect. It’s the first time we see (almost) all sons and daughters of Oberon interacting with each other which proves an exciting read since each of them is a larger than life figure. Add suspicion on top of that and the dialogues get even better.
“It is not going to be okay until we make it so. I am trusting that you who are reading this will put on your big-boy or big-girl pants, and join me in fighting this battle - and seizing victory. You are taking up the Spear of Wotan. You are not like the masses. You, like me, were born to fight this battle. With Wotan’s might, and our indomitable will, we can do this.”
- Stephen McNallen, The Spear(2023)
Feasting with the dead is a Slavic Pagan tradition which is still practiced to this day despite chritian authorities speaking out against it.
Similar practices were observed among other Europeans e.g. utiseta.
Pamfir’s old friend nicknamed Rat provides the contraband and arranges everything mentioning that he’ll only do it once only to help Leonid.
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This situation forces Pamfir to return to crime. He calls his old smuggler friend to organize a one time job.
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Here we learn that Pamfir is not interested in visiting the church himself, yet is married to a zealous protestant. Sadly, this is not as uncommon as it may seem. As for the reasons why Leonid is so anti-christian those will be revealed later.
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We later see Pamfir’s wife Olena in a church. She is a shtundist, a rare sect of judaism especially in Ukraine. Basically they are protestants. Notice how it's all women and children (forced by their mothers). This view of christianity as something that appeals mostly to weak and submissive was shared by the ancients. We all remember Celsus saying that christianity is for women, children and idiots.
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Also Nazar receives a bike as a present. At this point of the film Pamfir is happy and ready to live a new life. The scene is perfect with long tracking shot, something we will see a lot in the movie.
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Pamfir then has a talk with his younger brother Viktor, who, as it turns out is now a smuggler. Leonid used to be one himself, but stopped and promised his wife to abandon crime.
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Pamfir is a movie which piqued my interest after I saw the first trailer and I had some high expectation from what I saw in it. Fortunately, the film did not disappoint. The cinematography and acting are great, the plot is engaging and the themes are just what I wanted (religion, tradition, masculinity, fate etc). I think it’s the best movie I saw in 2023 (though it premiered at Cannes a year prior).
With foreword out of the way, I will proceed to the analysis which obviously involves very heavy spoilers. I think the film is best seen without any and recommend you to give it a chance.
I am going to write a review for Pamfir. A movie with a lot of Pagan elements to analyze. Will re-watch and post in a day or two.
You can watch it with English subs here: https://rezka.ag/films/drama/57022-pamfir-2022.html
Thor got his hammer back
Art by Konhis
That’s all I have to say about the third book in the series. Next if the Hand of Oberon. I’m yet to start re-reading it but you can go ahead.
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In Sign of the Unicorn Corwin carries a mysterious artifact called the Jewel of Judgment. So far it’s only known function is weather control, but it’s heavily implied to be the very top of the iceberg. This brings me to the aspect of Amber Chronicles I like a lot which is it having next to no magic and spells despite the high fantasy setting. Sure there’s plenty of magical beasts such as manticoras, wyverns, demons etc but magic is so rare even the royal family of Amber (basically Gods of the universe) barely use any. They can all travel between the realms (Shadows) and can contact each other via special cards, but that’s basically it. There’s no fireballs or healing magic. The jewel (so far) is the only truly magical artifact which does give one power in exchange for life-force.
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One of the previously mentioned princes of Amber Benedict who, as I mentioned before, is inspired by Germanic Tyr and Celtic Nuadu now resembles the latter even more since he too got a silver hand prosthesis
…it slides aside, revealing a hand, an arm, a shoulder, the arm a glinting, metallic thing, its planes like the facets of a gem, its wrist and elbow wondrous weaves of silver cable, pinned with flecks of fire, the hand, stylized, skeletal…
Will continue my posts about Amber Chronicles today
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Havamal illustration by https://twitter.com/GramanhFolcwald
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Though the top of Zbruč idol probably depicts four gods - two male and two female, in fact, there is no reliable reason to designate properly any deity on this monument. The lower character, without doubt, resembling the Greek god Kronos imprisoned underground or the Scandinavian Loki – is probably a god or some olden giant, but it could hardly be Veles, as Boris A. Rybakov believed, because Veles was one of the most revered deities among the Slavs, contrary to gods’ rivals Kronos and Loki
O.Kutarev