“Glad I could help.” laughed Daniel as he held the office doors open for Sólrun to pass through and then out into the street. They walked down a slight slope to the outermost point of the Tinganes peninsula and sat down on one of the benches in front of a large reddish-brown building, the Skansapakkhusið, the main parliament building.
“What the hell did you get involved in Daniel? You were being hunted from Pakistan to here and all because of a white stone. What was so important about it?” demanded Sólrun.
Daniel stood up, reached into a trouser pocket, removed the stone and passed it to her.
“I don’t know Sólrun, but a lot of people have died because of it and I don’t think we will ever know. I haven’t a clue what The Path of Belibasta thought what was so important about it, and the only two people who probably knew are now both dead. Maybe over time, the records and files that were discovered in the house in Montségur will reveal all one day, but I doubt we, you and I, will ever be told what that is. All I do know is that the stone has something to do with faith and belief.”
He took the stone back from Sólrun and went to place it in his inside jacket pocket. An envelope was inside and he removed it to see what it contained. It was the envelope that Debbie Gilbert had given him when he was leaving Pergamon, and he remembered her telling him to read it and saying “the covers will be lifted from your eyes”. He sat back down on the bench beside Sólrun, opened the envelope and read what Debbie had printed off for him.
Daniel,
This is an extract from the Gylfaginning Saga, Chapter XX, and is in the first part of Snorri Sturluson’s 13th century Prose Edda. I hope this explains what I was trying to tell you about all the different faiths and beliefs in the world. It’s the same story, repeated again and again over time, and then altered and amended to suit the purposes of the teller. Most religions are nothing more than attempts by mankind to reach the numinous.
I hope it helps you in your quest.
Debbie
‘Exceeding many names have ye given him; and, by my faith, it must indeed be a goodly wit that knows all the lore and the examples of what chances have brought about each of these names.
“It is truly a vast sum of knowledge to gather together and set forth fittingly. But it is briefest to tell thee that most of his names have been given him by reason of this chance: there being so many branches of tongues in the world, all peoples believed that it was needful for them to turn his name into their own tongue, by which they might the better invoke him and entreat him on their own behalf. But some occasions for these names arose in his wanderings; and that matter is recorded in tales. Nor canst thou ever be called a wise man if thou shalt not be able to tell of those great events.’
Daniel began to laugh until he was at the point of crying, and as he slowly wiped the gathering tears away from his eyes, he re-read what Debbie had given him and just smiled to himself.
She was right and he now totally understood why Debbie Gilbert had gotten so angry with him and all of his many questions back at Pergamon. He remembered back to being seated at the table inside Rifat’s house in Mirpur and what he had originally read on the computer about the possible meaning of the Perth rune. Its own interpretation added some real credence to Debbie’s note:
‘this rune teaches us that there are truly some things in life which we are not meant to understand, for it counsels us to have faith in ourselves to make the right choices in life by using the wisdom and good sense we have learned along the way.’
He passed the note to Sólrun to read the contents for herself. He explained what had been discussed by him and Debbie at Pergamon, and how everything she had told him that day, now clicked into place and made complete sense. He walked over to the water’s edge, took out the white stone, ran his forefinger along its grooves one last time, and threw it as far as he could out into the harbour’s depths.
“No mortal man should possess this stone, but if they want it, they’ll have to be a god to get it now. There’s no better place on earth to hide it than here, at the bottom of the sea in the harbour of Tórshavn, Thor’s Haven.”
Thor's Haven Page 25
