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Tetralogy #2
The Sibyl
In this powerful, poetic, and moving parable, the Wandering Jew of medieval Christian legend journeys to Delphi to consult the famed oracle of the pagans. He is turned away but not before learning that one of the most adept of the old priestesses, or sibyls, lives in disgrace in the mountains above the temple. In her rude goat-hut he seeks the meaning of his disastrous brush with the son of God. She reveals that she, too, has been touched by the son of a god, a very different son, not quite human, born of her own body. He dwells with her as a constant reminder of the betrayal of her mystical and erotic union with the divine, her punishment, and perhaps her redemption.
154 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1956
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About the author
Pär Lagerkvist
168books306followersLagerkvist was born in 1891 in southern Sweden. In 1910 he went to Uppsala as a student and in 1913 he left for Paris, where he was exposed to the work of Pablo Picasso. He studied Middle Age Art, as well as Indian and Chinese literature, to prepare himself for becoming a poet. His first collection of poetry was published in 1916. In 1940 Lagerkvist was chosen as one of the "aderton" (the eighteen) of the Swedish Academy.
Lagerkvist wrote poetry, novels, plays, short stories and essays. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1951 "for the artistic vigour and true independence of mind with which he endeavours in his poetry to find answers to the eternal questions confronting mankind."
Lagerkvist wrote poetry, novels, plays, short stories and essays. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1951 "for the artistic vigour and true independence of mind with which he endeavours in his poetry to find answers to the eternal questions confronting mankind."
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 184 reviews
November 12, 2022
[Revised, pictures and shelves added 11/12/22]
What are the gods up to? A fable/parable about the meaning of God or the gods. The book, by a classic Swedish author, was written in 1956.
We start with Christ carrying the cross to the Crucifixion. A man chases Christ away from resting in his doorway. Christ curses him to endless wandering through life. In his journeys the wandering man comes across an old woman, an outcast pythia (priestess) who used to be an oracle at Delphi. And boy does she have a story to tell.
What choice words does the author have about God or the gods? Here are some:
“…he seems to be exactly like ourselves, just as good and just as bad.�
“They did not know that it was god’s vengeance on human happiness and on his elect, who had not been willing to live for him alone.�
“Nothing makes them [the gods] so evil and cruel as that men should presume to be happy and forget them for the sake of their earthly happiness.�
“Those who say he is good do not know him. He is the most inhuman thing there is.�
“…he is both evil and good, both light and darkness, both meaningless and full of a meaning which we can never perceive, yet never cease to puzzle over. A riddle which is intended not to be solved but to exist.�
Of the pythia’s mentally disabled son the wanderer thinks: “A son who must have come into the world just to show that meaninglessness is divine.�
A strange but interesting book. Just don’t let your minister know you are reading it.
Lagerkvist, the author (1891-1974), was a prolific writer with about two dozen novels or books of poetry and a half-dozen plays. Most of his work revolves around good and evil. Only about six of his novels have been translated into English, although all his plays have been. His best-known work in English is The Dwarf, but this book, The Sibyl, is probably his highest-rated work in English on GR.
Painting at top is The Priestess of Dephi by John Collier, 1891. From Wikipedia
The author from pipoetry.blogspot.com
What are the gods up to? A fable/parable about the meaning of God or the gods. The book, by a classic Swedish author, was written in 1956.
We start with Christ carrying the cross to the Crucifixion. A man chases Christ away from resting in his doorway. Christ curses him to endless wandering through life. In his journeys the wandering man comes across an old woman, an outcast pythia (priestess) who used to be an oracle at Delphi. And boy does she have a story to tell.
What choice words does the author have about God or the gods? Here are some:
“…he seems to be exactly like ourselves, just as good and just as bad.�
“They did not know that it was god’s vengeance on human happiness and on his elect, who had not been willing to live for him alone.�
“Nothing makes them [the gods] so evil and cruel as that men should presume to be happy and forget them for the sake of their earthly happiness.�
“Those who say he is good do not know him. He is the most inhuman thing there is.�
“…he is both evil and good, both light and darkness, both meaningless and full of a meaning which we can never perceive, yet never cease to puzzle over. A riddle which is intended not to be solved but to exist.�
Of the pythia’s mentally disabled son the wanderer thinks: “A son who must have come into the world just to show that meaninglessness is divine.�
A strange but interesting book. Just don’t let your minister know you are reading it.
Lagerkvist, the author (1891-1974), was a prolific writer with about two dozen novels or books of poetry and a half-dozen plays. Most of his work revolves around good and evil. Only about six of his novels have been translated into English, although all his plays have been. His best-known work in English is The Dwarf, but this book, The Sibyl, is probably his highest-rated work in English on GR.
Painting at top is The Priestess of Dephi by John Collier, 1891. From Wikipedia
The author from pipoetry.blogspot.com
December 14, 2016
Strange tale of how man's relationship to G/god(s) can sometimes cause a crisis of faith: what do you believe about yourself after you have been cursed? Is a curse a type of redemptive act - an act that will define who you are after you know where you stand in relation to G/god(s) judgment? I do not pretend to have the answer.
June 19, 2019
The Meaning of Sibyl:
1. A woman in ancient times who was thought to utter the prophecies of God.
2. (literally) a woman able to foretell the future.
This is how I began reading the novel searching for the meaning of the term found in the title.
The Story:
This story is primarily about the two meanings of the term explained above and is added to it are various other correlatives. There is the woman who was the sybil in the shrine of Delphi and who now lives in the adjacent mountain alone with her only son. She is away now from the town because she had betrayed god and is cursed. The only place fit for the cursed ones are the places not usually visited by human beings. [An Aside: How did she betray? By loving a fellow human being and sharing human joy with him. For the pythia (the priestess) is supposed to be the bride of god and god alone.] To her comes a wandering Jew, another cursed one by God's son. He did not allow the God's Son on his way to Calvary to lean on his house wall. And so, God's Son said to him:
In search of his destiny, the future one, he has come seeking an answer to Delphi, the place of oracles where any question can be answered. In Delhi, no one answers and guided by a blind beggar he reaches the old sibyl now living in solitude with her only son. The blind beggar led him here because everyone knows that she was the best sibyl, through whom god loved to speak through.
She narrates her own story before answering. This story is very interesting. She loved to be the priestess. She loved to be possessed by god. She loved the ecstasy when god came to possess her. But being human, she also fell in love with a young man. God was enraged and he took revenge by killing the lover and raping the priestess. Out of the violent union was born a son - god's son. This god's son is very quiet and witless ('an idiot'). He just sits in a corner never speaking, never showing any inclination to understand what is spoken in his presence. But he is mysteriously young and has an enigmatic smile which is childish in nature.
Enough of her story. Now to the answer that she gives to the wandering Jew. This is what she replies:
My Sentiments:
I was stunned by these and few more revelatory passages that appeared at the end of the novel. It looked like a spiritual treatise with deep and profound reflections may be revealed to a mystic. The whole novel is dealing with god's dealing with man. It speaks of divine love and human response to it. It speaks of the mystery of god's love and our futile search to understand it. It speaks of god and his existence and our relationship to him.
The definition of god as found in the book:
My Failure:
This is not my usual style of writing a review. I hardly tell the story in a review. But here I have narrated the story in an abbreviated manner. And yet, I have not said it all. Read the story. Each word has a meaning and reason to be there at that spot in this book. You will get a different experience. The last few pages left me with spiritual kind of wonder. I decided not to write a review. For, I could not have revealed even an iota of my reading experience. Then, I decided for I wanted others to know. Here am I writing a review in a haphazard manner. In fact, love to blabber some more......Sorry guys, for the aimless wandering of my thoughts. And thanks for putting up with it.
1. A woman in ancient times who was thought to utter the prophecies of God.
2. (literally) a woman able to foretell the future.
This is how I began reading the novel searching for the meaning of the term found in the title.
The Story:
This story is primarily about the two meanings of the term explained above and is added to it are various other correlatives. There is the woman who was the sybil in the shrine of Delphi and who now lives in the adjacent mountain alone with her only son. She is away now from the town because she had betrayed god and is cursed. The only place fit for the cursed ones are the places not usually visited by human beings. [An Aside: How did she betray? By loving a fellow human being and sharing human joy with him. For the pythia (the priestess) is supposed to be the bride of god and god alone.] To her comes a wandering Jew, another cursed one by God's son. He did not allow the God's Son on his way to Calvary to lean on his house wall. And so, God's Son said to him:
"Because you denied me this, you shall suffer greater punishment than mine: you shall never die. You shall wander through this world to all eternity, and find no rest."
In search of his destiny, the future one, he has come seeking an answer to Delphi, the place of oracles where any question can be answered. In Delhi, no one answers and guided by a blind beggar he reaches the old sibyl now living in solitude with her only son. The blind beggar led him here because everyone knows that she was the best sibyl, through whom god loved to speak through.
She narrates her own story before answering. This story is very interesting. She loved to be the priestess. She loved to be possessed by god. She loved the ecstasy when god came to possess her. But being human, she also fell in love with a young man. God was enraged and he took revenge by killing the lover and raping the priestess. Out of the violent union was born a son - god's son. This god's son is very quiet and witless ('an idiot'). He just sits in a corner never speaking, never showing any inclination to understand what is spoken in his presence. But he is mysteriously young and has an enigmatic smile which is childish in nature.
Enough of her story. Now to the answer that she gives to the wandering Jew. This is what she replies:
"I can see in your face that you're under god's curse and that what you say is true. It's plain that you're not free, that you're bound to him and that he doesn't mean to let you go. He is your destiny. Your soul is filled with him; through his curse you live a life with god. you hate him, you mock and revile him. But judging by your indignant words you care for nothing in the world but him, and are filled with him alone. With what you call your hatred of him. But this very red-hot hatred of god is perhaps your experience of the divine."
My Sentiments:
I was stunned by these and few more revelatory passages that appeared at the end of the novel. It looked like a spiritual treatise with deep and profound reflections may be revealed to a mystic. The whole novel is dealing with god's dealing with man. It speaks of divine love and human response to it. It speaks of the mystery of god's love and our futile search to understand it. It speaks of god and his existence and our relationship to him.
The definition of god as found in the book:
"He is not as we are and we can never understand him. He is incomprehensible, inscrutable. He is god. And so far as I comprehend it he is both evil and good, both light and darkness, both meaningless and full of a meaning which we can never perceive, yet never cease to puzzle over. A riddle which is intended not to be solved but to exist. To exist for us always. To trouble us always."
My Failure:
This is not my usual style of writing a review. I hardly tell the story in a review. But here I have narrated the story in an abbreviated manner. And yet, I have not said it all. Read the story. Each word has a meaning and reason to be there at that spot in this book. You will get a different experience. The last few pages left me with spiritual kind of wonder. I decided not to write a review. For, I could not have revealed even an iota of my reading experience. Then, I decided for I wanted others to know. Here am I writing a review in a haphazard manner. In fact, love to blabber some more......Sorry guys, for the aimless wandering of my thoughts. And thanks for putting up with it.
August 26, 2020
1951 Nobel Edebiyat ödülünü alan İsveç’li yazar Par Lagerkvist’in teolojik ve mitolojik temeller üzerine kurduğu bir roman. Tanrı kavramını, zaman kavramını ortadan kaldırarak, paganlık-hristiyanlık-antik yunan mitolojisi tanrılarını harmanlayarak muhtemelen İskandinav mitolojisini de kullanarak okuyucuya sunuyor İsveç’li yazar. Aslında dinden kopuk (muhtemelen ateist) olan yazar çözümü olmayan ama var olan bilmeceyi çok yönlü olarak öyküleştirmiş, tek bir bakış açısıyla değerlendirmemiş. Okuyucuyu metin içinde tutabilmek için bir aşk öyküsü de yerleştirmiş romanına.
Romanı Kutsal üçlemenin (baba-oğul-kutsal ruh) ilginç bir yorumu olarak değerlendirdim. Baba-tanrının oğlu (İsa) tarafından lanetlenmiş bir adam, antik Yunan’da kutsal Delphi şehrinde rahibelik yapan ancak sonradan tapınaktan kovulan yaşlı bir kadın yani Sibyl, onun muhtemelen mongol olan oğlu, rahibeye aşık olan tek kollu bir adam ile kurgulanmış muhteşem bir hikaye. Yaşamın anlamını, insanın kötülüğünü, güçsüzlüğünü, hainliğini, korkularını, isyanlarını tanrı kavramı üstünden sorgulatıyor Lagerkvist.
Öncelikle romanın orjinal adının “Sibyllan� yani “Sibyl� olduğunu vurgulamakta yarar var, ancak çevirirken “Tanrı Gelini Sibyl� olarak çevrilmiş ki kitabı okuyunca bu ismin yadırgatıcı olmasa da yanıltıcı olduğu ortaya çıkıyor. Çünkü, “Sibyl, antik dönemlerde belli bir tapınağa bağlı olmayıp doğrudan tanrı esini altında kehanet verdiği düşünülen kadın kâhinler için kullanılan genel bir terimdir. Sibyl betimleri, pagan dönemin kâhin kadın figürleri olarak mitolojik hikâyelerle ilgili sahnelerin yanı sıra Hristiyan sanatı içinde çeşitli dinsel konulu sahnelerde de kendilerine büyük yer bulur. Zira onların da, tıpkı peygamberler gibi İsa ile ilgili çeşitli kehanetlerde bulundukları düşünülmüştür. Dolayısıyla pagan figürler olmalarına rağmen Hristiyanlığın başlangıcında adeta peygamber gibi saygı görmüşlerdir�* Kitabın ana kişisi Sibyl’in ağzından anlatılanlar metnin esasını oluşturuyor, bu nedenle yukarıdaki bilgi önemli bence.
Cümleler kısa kısa, bir kısmı aforizma niteliğinde, betimlemeler sade ama gerçekçi. Kalemi, uslubu fazla etkileyici olmasa da bazı saptamaları, özellikle Delphi rahipleri için “tanrıya değil tapınağa inanırlar� saptaması çok etkileyici. Din (tanrı) ile ticaret ilişkisini ortaya koyuşu çok zekice. Okunması çok rahat zaten çeviri Melih Cevdet Anday gibi bir ustadan. Ancak okuduğum kitap YKY 1996 1.baskı, çok küçük puntolarla yazılmış ve yazım hataları oldukça fazla. Zaten başka da bir baskısı olmamış ki bu da hayret verici bir durum, böyle nitelikli bir kitap bizde neden ilgi görmemiş anlayamadım. Okuyun bence.
*Batı Resminde Kâhin Kadının Temsili Olarak Sibyl Betimleri (Hilal Susamcı)
.
Romanı Kutsal üçlemenin (baba-oğul-kutsal ruh) ilginç bir yorumu olarak değerlendirdim. Baba-tanrının oğlu (İsa) tarafından lanetlenmiş bir adam, antik Yunan’da kutsal Delphi şehrinde rahibelik yapan ancak sonradan tapınaktan kovulan yaşlı bir kadın yani Sibyl, onun muhtemelen mongol olan oğlu, rahibeye aşık olan tek kollu bir adam ile kurgulanmış muhteşem bir hikaye. Yaşamın anlamını, insanın kötülüğünü, güçsüzlüğünü, hainliğini, korkularını, isyanlarını tanrı kavramı üstünden sorgulatıyor Lagerkvist.
Öncelikle romanın orjinal adının “Sibyllan� yani “Sibyl� olduğunu vurgulamakta yarar var, ancak çevirirken “Tanrı Gelini Sibyl� olarak çevrilmiş ki kitabı okuyunca bu ismin yadırgatıcı olmasa da yanıltıcı olduğu ortaya çıkıyor. Çünkü, “Sibyl, antik dönemlerde belli bir tapınağa bağlı olmayıp doğrudan tanrı esini altında kehanet verdiği düşünülen kadın kâhinler için kullanılan genel bir terimdir. Sibyl betimleri, pagan dönemin kâhin kadın figürleri olarak mitolojik hikâyelerle ilgili sahnelerin yanı sıra Hristiyan sanatı içinde çeşitli dinsel konulu sahnelerde de kendilerine büyük yer bulur. Zira onların da, tıpkı peygamberler gibi İsa ile ilgili çeşitli kehanetlerde bulundukları düşünülmüştür. Dolayısıyla pagan figürler olmalarına rağmen Hristiyanlığın başlangıcında adeta peygamber gibi saygı görmüşlerdir�* Kitabın ana kişisi Sibyl’in ağzından anlatılanlar metnin esasını oluşturuyor, bu nedenle yukarıdaki bilgi önemli bence.
Cümleler kısa kısa, bir kısmı aforizma niteliğinde, betimlemeler sade ama gerçekçi. Kalemi, uslubu fazla etkileyici olmasa da bazı saptamaları, özellikle Delphi rahipleri için “tanrıya değil tapınağa inanırlar� saptaması çok etkileyici. Din (tanrı) ile ticaret ilişkisini ortaya koyuşu çok zekice. Okunması çok rahat zaten çeviri Melih Cevdet Anday gibi bir ustadan. Ancak okuduğum kitap YKY 1996 1.baskı, çok küçük puntolarla yazılmış ve yazım hataları oldukça fazla. Zaten başka da bir baskısı olmamış ki bu da hayret verici bir durum, böyle nitelikli bir kitap bizde neden ilgi görmemiş anlayamadım. Okuyun bence.
*Batı Resminde Kâhin Kadının Temsili Olarak Sibyl Betimleri (Hilal Susamcı)
.
June 17, 2020
Pär Lagerkvist has always been systematic in sharing his thoughts through narrative in a rhetorical, albeit philosophical way. This is what I’ve always enjoyed about his writing, whether it be on subject matter that I’m not too interested in or truly care much about. I read The Dwarf last year as my introductory piece to his work and it was astounding in character, atmosphere and old-fashioned storytelling. With The Sibyl, Lagerkvist goes back to antiquity: Ancient Greece. A sibyl, by definition, was a prophet who was an oracle and would foretell prophecies from a god or gods. In this piece, the main character was once a pythia at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi; a priestess of importance, but also looked down upon by society, a chosen one. Presently, as an exile, she’s lived alone with her mute, invalid son for years. The story begins as seers in the city below cannot help a common man full of self-doubt and self-pity answer a question; he’s lost everything he loves and feels as though he’s been cursed by God as he had not shown sympathy towards His Son in his time of demise. The question stated is: “What value does my life hold for the future?� Through dialectic methods, this question is answered and imposed upon the man. Behind the answer is the story; the story of her life and the choices she made and how her society and culture stigmatized and scoffed at her existence and what she eventually came to be.
Lagerkvist’s use of symbolism, metaphor and eloquence to tell a story is top-notch and not one to look over.
Lagerkvist’s use of symbolism, metaphor and eloquence to tell a story is top-notch and not one to look over.
November 17, 2011
This is a grand novel in the classical European tradition by the 1951 recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, Swedish author Par Lagerkvist. It is a poetic parable, telling a mythic tale of a wandering Jew, a man who journeys to Delphi to consult the oracle. However, arriving there, he is turned away: the question he wants to pose is one that is very often asked� one that is of little interest.
And it is true; his question is one that many want to have answered. He wants to know what his destiny is. However, the question must be viewed in its context, even if it is a common one. For this particular man has been condemned by God to an eternal life without blessing � to wander through the world to all eternity, and find no rest. Probably rightfully, he regards this as a punishment; and when the reality of life eternal dawned on him, life lost its meaning for him, and he lost everything � his wife, his child, his joy in life.
“Eternity .. It has nothing to do with life, I thought; it is the contrary to all life. It is something limitless, endless, a realm of death which the living must look into with horror. Was it here that I was to dwell? .. “To all eternity ..� That was my death sentence: the most cruel that could be devised.�
The man has lost everything, he feels. His eyes are empty � they are dried up wells. There is no life inside any more.
Having been turned away from the oracle, he learns about an old priestess, a sibyl, who lives in disgrace up in the mountains; a woman that once served the oracle and had special powers� she was close to God. So he walks up the mountain to find her and pose his question.
There, he learns that she too, has had a clash with God. Like him, she has been punished. Or that she has most likely been punished. And gradually her story is revealed.
The Sibyl is a wonderful, often delightful book. Like so many of Lagerkvist's tales it is a contemplation on the nature of God and the relationship of God to man. A book about joy and sorrow, hope and hopelessness. It is beautifully written, full of heavy symbolism, quite moving and a very thought-provoking and captivating read.
And it is true; his question is one that many want to have answered. He wants to know what his destiny is. However, the question must be viewed in its context, even if it is a common one. For this particular man has been condemned by God to an eternal life without blessing � to wander through the world to all eternity, and find no rest. Probably rightfully, he regards this as a punishment; and when the reality of life eternal dawned on him, life lost its meaning for him, and he lost everything � his wife, his child, his joy in life.
“Eternity .. It has nothing to do with life, I thought; it is the contrary to all life. It is something limitless, endless, a realm of death which the living must look into with horror. Was it here that I was to dwell? .. “To all eternity ..� That was my death sentence: the most cruel that could be devised.�
The man has lost everything, he feels. His eyes are empty � they are dried up wells. There is no life inside any more.
Having been turned away from the oracle, he learns about an old priestess, a sibyl, who lives in disgrace up in the mountains; a woman that once served the oracle and had special powers� she was close to God. So he walks up the mountain to find her and pose his question.
There, he learns that she too, has had a clash with God. Like him, she has been punished. Or that she has most likely been punished. And gradually her story is revealed.
The Sibyl is a wonderful, often delightful book. Like so many of Lagerkvist's tales it is a contemplation on the nature of God and the relationship of God to man. A book about joy and sorrow, hope and hopelessness. It is beautifully written, full of heavy symbolism, quite moving and a very thought-provoking and captivating read.
July 2, 2015
But sitting here, old and alone, looking back—looking back over my life, it is you, my god, that I think of. For it is you who have been my life, you who consume and burn all things like fire. You who leave nothing in your wake. My life is what I have lived in you. The cruel, bitter, rich life you have given me. May you be cursed and blessed!
The Sibyl is a reflection on religion, on the nature of faith, a treatise on the close relationship between existence and the divine. The plot unfolds primarily through the narration of past events, through lengthy monologues of the two protagonists, that help them understand the futility of life without loyalty to God.
The Sibyl is a reflection on religion, on the nature of faith, a treatise on the close relationship between existence and the divine. The plot unfolds primarily through the narration of past events, through lengthy monologues of the two protagonists, that help them understand the futility of life without loyalty to God.
July 21, 2009
I had never heard of Lagerkvist when I picked up this book a few months ago from a free books pile. I finally cracked it a couple weeks ago I found it had belonged to my old poetry professor from college.
One of my favorite reads in a long time.
It is a slow, small book - meditative and unafraid to be quiet and still when it needs to be, yet also able to pull off a sex scene with a goat god (scary) and a very vengeful cameo by Jesus.
Other reviews call it allegorical (on the the inscrutability of divine love?) I am happy just to see it as a beautiful, lyric, poetic work.
One of my favorite reads in a long time.
It is a slow, small book - meditative and unafraid to be quiet and still when it needs to be, yet also able to pull off a sex scene with a goat god (scary) and a very vengeful cameo by Jesus.
Other reviews call it allegorical (on the the inscrutability of divine love?) I am happy just to see it as a beautiful, lyric, poetic work.
June 21, 2008
If I had gotten out of this book what other people seem to have then I'd like it a lot more. Instead of an interesting meditation on the nature of faith, I felt the book covered well worn territory (well worn even at the time the book was written), and was relatively transparent. After about thirty pages or so I had a very good idea where the book was going, and what the themes in the book were, and to me little was added to this for the rest of the book. Instead I felt the woman's story dragged on quite a bit, and at about the hundred page mark I started to feel the book to be tiresome. Her story is disproportionately longer than his, and makes the book feel very stilted.
May 8, 2015
I've heard that, along with the complete works of Kevin Trudeau and Nicholas Sparks, this book is in the library of Hell.
Tags: pythia, god, sex, retardation, childbirth, goats
February 5, 2014
The Sibyl is a delightful book. Like so many of Lagerkvist's tales it is a contemplation on the nature of God and the relationship of God to man. A book about joy and sorrow, hope and hopelessness. It is beautifully written, full of heavy symbolism, quite moving and a very thought-provoking and captivating read.
On one of the last few pages of The Sibly, Lagerkvist writes "And so far as I comprehend it he is both evil and good, both light and darkness, both meaningless and full of a meaning which we can never perceive, yet never cease to puzzle over. A riddle which is intended not to be solves but to exist. To exist for us always. To trouble us always"
October 10, 2019
I am having a lot of trouble coming up with actual reasons why I liked this book so much. I think it's the character of the Sibyl which is so powerful and unique. The beginning outline of her story follows a realistic one, with a virgin in the village being chosen to be the sibyl for the temple and how all was accomplished in the temple. But it's really her feelings and religious devotion which make the book what it is. All her love mixed with rage jumped off the page and grabbed me. I really enjoyed the book.
January 25, 2020
This is a deeply philosophical reflection, limited essentially to two characters, about the meaning of life. Both of them are in different ways confused and despairing in their quest.
June 17, 2008
Read this for a class and was struck at how beautiful and bizzare this book was while remaining lucid and interesting.
Really, Lagerkvist is hard to review without just spewing adjectives.
Really, Lagerkvist is hard to review without just spewing adjectives.
June 18, 2018
4.5 stars
April 21, 2015
This is my stock answer for "What is your favorite book?" I don't really have one, but this is close enough. This is a novel about the nature of the divine and about love--love of god, love of the impossible, love of other people--it is through love and all its many forms that the "action" of The Sibyl is driven. It begins, “In a little house on the mountain slopes above Delphi lived an old woman with her witless son,� and this tone of soft pain and endless beauty holds throughout the rest of the work. The language is poetic and precise; I commend both Lagerkvist and his translator for passages like
God's love is destructive, barring the nameless (all the characters are nameless) Sibyl from any sort of earthly peace and happiness , but it also brings her a sort of glorious joy in its pain. This leads into the exploration of the divine. God can be small or large, kind or cruel, safe or wild, and still be god. The sibyl tells of a solitary tree to which her father always prayed, and of the sacred spring where in one place grains of sand “whirled gently around, moved by an invisible finger of god.� She says that her parents� god was the world all about them, the holy groves, and the “little turf altar� where her parents made offerings each day, but she also tells of another god. Her god. God for her was never the security and peace of her parents� life; her god was the god of the temple where she was the pythia. Her god was the violent ecstasy that she felt when she prophesied, the pain and excitement of the oracle pit. Her god did not live in a cool, clear, spring, but in a black goat and in a cleft in the ground from which noxious fumes poured. She loved and was terrified by her god. Her god was fear and uncertainty and wildness.
She is visited by a man from Jerusalem at the beginning of the novel, a man who has also seen god.For him, god was the angry criminal who cursed him, a great and powerful enemy against whom to fight. God was the unhappiness that plagued the young man, the force that caused his wife to say, “How old your eyes have grown.�
God was all of these things and more. The young man says that the great and mighty anger of his enemy did not seem to be his usual expression, and that those who believe in the crucified man say that their god is a god of love who blesses his followers with eternal happiness. The sibyl describes her god as a god of rapture and fire and heat and pain, but his priests worship him as a gentle god of light. Jesus is an angry god in his brief appearance. He curses the man to a fate worse than death for an affront as small as denying him rest on the way to his crucifixion. This is contrary to his traditional portrayal, as a loving, gentle god, as the man the wanderer hears about in his journeys.
The sibyl claims that god is neither good nor evil, but only divine. When the man asks her if she hates god for what he did to her, for taking away her chance at a normal, human life with all the earthly joy and sadness that accompany it, she tells him, “I believe I neither hate him nor love him,� that god is incomprehensible and so cannot be judged. His cruelty and his love were one for her, he stole her away from life, but gave her himself in all his fire. God is inhuman, she tells the man, and so cannot be thought of in human terms. She agrees with the man that god cares little for humanity and envies humanity its happiness, but she tells the young man, “He has made me very unhappy. But he has also allowed me to know a happiness passing all understanding.� She tells the man that she does not forgive her god, yet it is he to whom she owes the most. She decides that god is merely god, a being that she both hates and loves, that she wishes all the good and all the evil in the world.
The man, too, is full of his experience of god. He hates god, hates him for everything he has done, everything that has been taken away, yet no person, no thing, no city, no land, means anything to the man except god and his hatred of god. His destiny is as tied to god as hers was, and god is there, always near to him. Neither the man nor the sibyl will be released by god, and neither one can forsake him, even as they may wish for nothing more dearly than for god to abandon them to the world.
As the characters struggle with their experiences of the divine, they ask themselves and each other about the nature of god. The reader is forced to consider their volatile, painful, and all-encompassing relationships with god. When the sibyl and the man finally answer their own questions, determining that god is nothing but himself, not good or noble or truly evil, then the reader is left wondering. They are content with their inhuman god, with their god of cruel love, of hatred that is itself divine, but is the reader? Their answers to the question of god’s nature force readers to consider their own thoughts on the divine and ask themselves what has shaped those thoughts.
Pär Lagerkvist’s The Sibyl is elegant and compelling. Each description is clear and natural, each image vivid. Both the man and the sibyl draw readers into their stories, walking with them through their experiences with god. The story, although a tale of few places, of few people, where there is no hero to come and do great deeds and no grand quests to be completed, engages readers completely. The small doings, the vastness of god, the places and times of a few people’s lives, these are what matter. The sibyl never leaves Delphi and its surrounding area; readers care about nowhere but Delphi when they are with her. Readers are not waiting for the next great battle, but rather are waiting to discover the sibyl’s past, the how and why of her current situation. Every occurrence, every thought, is important; readers are merely waiting to receive all the pieces of the puzzle so that they can watch them assemble themselves as they pass through the mouth of the sibyl.
All in all, a completely satisfying and haunting read.
What would my life have been without him?...If I had never felt the bliss that poured from him, the anguish and pain that is his also, and the wonder of being annihilated in his blazing arms, of being altogether his? Of feeling his rapture, his boundless bliss, and sharing god's infinite joy in being alive?
God's love is destructive, barring the nameless (all the characters are nameless) Sibyl from any sort of earthly peace and happiness , but it also brings her a sort of glorious joy in its pain. This leads into the exploration of the divine. God can be small or large, kind or cruel, safe or wild, and still be god. The sibyl tells of a solitary tree to which her father always prayed, and of the sacred spring where in one place grains of sand “whirled gently around, moved by an invisible finger of god.� She says that her parents� god was the world all about them, the holy groves, and the “little turf altar� where her parents made offerings each day, but she also tells of another god. Her god. God for her was never the security and peace of her parents� life; her god was the god of the temple where she was the pythia. Her god was the violent ecstasy that she felt when she prophesied, the pain and excitement of the oracle pit. Her god did not live in a cool, clear, spring, but in a black goat and in a cleft in the ground from which noxious fumes poured. She loved and was terrified by her god. Her god was fear and uncertainty and wildness.
She is visited by a man from Jerusalem at the beginning of the novel, a man who has also seen god.For him, god was the angry criminal who cursed him, a great and powerful enemy against whom to fight. God was the unhappiness that plagued the young man, the force that caused his wife to say, “How old your eyes have grown.�
God was all of these things and more. The young man says that the great and mighty anger of his enemy did not seem to be his usual expression, and that those who believe in the crucified man say that their god is a god of love who blesses his followers with eternal happiness. The sibyl describes her god as a god of rapture and fire and heat and pain, but his priests worship him as a gentle god of light. Jesus is an angry god in his brief appearance. He curses the man to a fate worse than death for an affront as small as denying him rest on the way to his crucifixion. This is contrary to his traditional portrayal, as a loving, gentle god, as the man the wanderer hears about in his journeys.
The sibyl claims that god is neither good nor evil, but only divine. When the man asks her if she hates god for what he did to her, for taking away her chance at a normal, human life with all the earthly joy and sadness that accompany it, she tells him, “I believe I neither hate him nor love him,� that god is incomprehensible and so cannot be judged. His cruelty and his love were one for her, he stole her away from life, but gave her himself in all his fire. God is inhuman, she tells the man, and so cannot be thought of in human terms. She agrees with the man that god cares little for humanity and envies humanity its happiness, but she tells the young man, “He has made me very unhappy. But he has also allowed me to know a happiness passing all understanding.� She tells the man that she does not forgive her god, yet it is he to whom she owes the most. She decides that god is merely god, a being that she both hates and loves, that she wishes all the good and all the evil in the world.
The man, too, is full of his experience of god. He hates god, hates him for everything he has done, everything that has been taken away, yet no person, no thing, no city, no land, means anything to the man except god and his hatred of god. His destiny is as tied to god as hers was, and god is there, always near to him. Neither the man nor the sibyl will be released by god, and neither one can forsake him, even as they may wish for nothing more dearly than for god to abandon them to the world.
As the characters struggle with their experiences of the divine, they ask themselves and each other about the nature of god. The reader is forced to consider their volatile, painful, and all-encompassing relationships with god. When the sibyl and the man finally answer their own questions, determining that god is nothing but himself, not good or noble or truly evil, then the reader is left wondering. They are content with their inhuman god, with their god of cruel love, of hatred that is itself divine, but is the reader? Their answers to the question of god’s nature force readers to consider their own thoughts on the divine and ask themselves what has shaped those thoughts.
Pär Lagerkvist’s The Sibyl is elegant and compelling. Each description is clear and natural, each image vivid. Both the man and the sibyl draw readers into their stories, walking with them through their experiences with god. The story, although a tale of few places, of few people, where there is no hero to come and do great deeds and no grand quests to be completed, engages readers completely. The small doings, the vastness of god, the places and times of a few people’s lives, these are what matter. The sibyl never leaves Delphi and its surrounding area; readers care about nowhere but Delphi when they are with her. Readers are not waiting for the next great battle, but rather are waiting to discover the sibyl’s past, the how and why of her current situation. Every occurrence, every thought, is important; readers are merely waiting to receive all the pieces of the puzzle so that they can watch them assemble themselves as they pass through the mouth of the sibyl.
All in all, a completely satisfying and haunting read.
December 20, 2021
Tanrıların, insanlara ve insani mutluluğa olan tavırlarına ve “lanetlenme� konusuna değişik yönlerden bakan bir kitap Tanrı Gelini Sibyl (orjinal adı Sibyllan).
Çok keyifle okudum👌🏻
Türkçe’de çok okunana bir yazar olmayan, çevirilerinin yeni baskıları bulunmayan 1951 Nobel Edebiyat Ödülü’nü alan İsveçli şair ve yazar Pär Lagerkvist ile ilgili okuduğum metinlerden edindiğim bilgileri toparladım;
▪️Eserlerinde, yaşamın anlamını, insandaki kötülüğü, korku, güçsüzlük, yalnızlık gibi duyguları Kuzey mitolojisine ve Hıristiyanlık tarihine dayalı hikayelerle simgesel olarak işlemiş.
▪️Alman ekspresyonistlerinin tesiriyle, yaşattığı karakterleri isimlendirmeyip onları sadece insan, kadın, dilenci, allah gibi çok umumi sıfatlarla ifade eden yazar her mücadelede nihai zaferin ruhta kalacağına inanmış ve eserlerinde hep bu temayı işlemiş.
▪️Yazarın eserleri II. Dünya savaşı sırasında sakıncalı bulunarak yakılmış.
Yazarın en çok bilinen romanı Barabbas’ın (sahaflardan bulunabilir) önsözünde Melih Cevdet Anday “sadelik, süsten pisten kaçınma, olayları kişilerin açısından, onların karakterleri ve yetenekleri ölçüsünde dile getirmek Lagerkvist’in üslubunun başlıca özellikleridir� diyor.
Barabbas ve Cüce romanlarını da mutlaka okuyacağım�
Çok keyifle okudum👌🏻
Türkçe’de çok okunana bir yazar olmayan, çevirilerinin yeni baskıları bulunmayan 1951 Nobel Edebiyat Ödülü’nü alan İsveçli şair ve yazar Pär Lagerkvist ile ilgili okuduğum metinlerden edindiğim bilgileri toparladım;
▪️Eserlerinde, yaşamın anlamını, insandaki kötülüğü, korku, güçsüzlük, yalnızlık gibi duyguları Kuzey mitolojisine ve Hıristiyanlık tarihine dayalı hikayelerle simgesel olarak işlemiş.
▪️Alman ekspresyonistlerinin tesiriyle, yaşattığı karakterleri isimlendirmeyip onları sadece insan, kadın, dilenci, allah gibi çok umumi sıfatlarla ifade eden yazar her mücadelede nihai zaferin ruhta kalacağına inanmış ve eserlerinde hep bu temayı işlemiş.
▪️Yazarın eserleri II. Dünya savaşı sırasında sakıncalı bulunarak yakılmış.
Yazarın en çok bilinen romanı Barabbas’ın (sahaflardan bulunabilir) önsözünde Melih Cevdet Anday “sadelik, süsten pisten kaçınma, olayları kişilerin açısından, onların karakterleri ve yetenekleri ölçüsünde dile getirmek Lagerkvist’in üslubunun başlıca özellikleridir� diyor.
Barabbas ve Cüce romanlarını da mutlaka okuyacağım�
September 10, 2014
Lagerkvist has given us a tale of two tormented, direct experiences with the divine: Ahasuerus (the Wandering Jew) who had a brief unhappy encounter with Jesus and the Sibyl who became a famous Oracle of Delphi for many years spouting messages from Apollo.
Lagerkvist made an intriguing story pairing these two traditions, the meeting taking place at the crossroads of history when there was a changing of the guards of god, so to speak. And yet age-old questions remained, like how to endure the whims of god, and then how to endure the absence of god.
Ahasuerus was neither good nor bad, but a rather ordinary man living an ordinary happy life who, in one unwitting moment was unkind to Jesus as he was on his way to crucifixion, then was cursed by god's son to roam the earth for eternity, alone, unblessed. He was seeking the Sibyl to tell him his future -- hoping, I'm sure, to see some end to his suffering.
The Sibyl, who as a young country girl felt a vague lacking, was transformed when she was chosen to be a Pythia for Apollo. She gave it her all, accepted being a vessel to be used, and became one of the best ever Oracles, all without reward. In her 30s (the age when most priestesses were replaced but she was not because she was too profitable for the temple), she committed a crime against god by falling in mortal love with a one-armed man. Her punishment was the death of her lover, being violently raped by Apollo via a goat, and conceiving a half-witted, half-god (and half-goat!) son.
This is clearly not the experience one seeks when wanting to be closer to god. And is the sobering reminder of god's inscrutable and, from a human perspective, fickle nature.
The Sibyl had observed others, including her own parents, living quite peaceably and sincerely with god, and observed others living peaceably (and profitably) without god. There didn't seem to be a clear-cut right way or wrong way to garner a peaceful mortal life. Her hard-earned wisdom was whether god blesses, curses, or ignores, we are all under an erratic god. (And she experienced all three.) Thus she ultimately answers Ahasuerus,
"Perhaps one day he will bless you instead of cursing you. I don't know. Perhaps one day you will let him lean his head against your house. Perhaps you won't. I know nothing about that. But whatever you may do, your fate will be forever bound up with god, your soul forever filled with god."
I'm not sure that will be a comfort to Ahasuerus. But it is the Sibyl's advice that acceptance is the only course for humans whether living under Olympian or Heavenly rule.
Lagerkvist made an intriguing story pairing these two traditions, the meeting taking place at the crossroads of history when there was a changing of the guards of god, so to speak. And yet age-old questions remained, like how to endure the whims of god, and then how to endure the absence of god.
Ahasuerus was neither good nor bad, but a rather ordinary man living an ordinary happy life who, in one unwitting moment was unkind to Jesus as he was on his way to crucifixion, then was cursed by god's son to roam the earth for eternity, alone, unblessed. He was seeking the Sibyl to tell him his future -- hoping, I'm sure, to see some end to his suffering.
The Sibyl, who as a young country girl felt a vague lacking, was transformed when she was chosen to be a Pythia for Apollo. She gave it her all, accepted being a vessel to be used, and became one of the best ever Oracles, all without reward. In her 30s (the age when most priestesses were replaced but she was not because she was too profitable for the temple), she committed a crime against god by falling in mortal love with a one-armed man. Her punishment was the death of her lover, being violently raped by Apollo via a goat, and conceiving a half-witted, half-god (and half-goat!) son.
This is clearly not the experience one seeks when wanting to be closer to god. And is the sobering reminder of god's inscrutable and, from a human perspective, fickle nature.
The Sibyl had observed others, including her own parents, living quite peaceably and sincerely with god, and observed others living peaceably (and profitably) without god. There didn't seem to be a clear-cut right way or wrong way to garner a peaceful mortal life. Her hard-earned wisdom was whether god blesses, curses, or ignores, we are all under an erratic god. (And she experienced all three.) Thus she ultimately answers Ahasuerus,
"Perhaps one day he will bless you instead of cursing you. I don't know. Perhaps one day you will let him lean his head against your house. Perhaps you won't. I know nothing about that. But whatever you may do, your fate will be forever bound up with god, your soul forever filled with god."
I'm not sure that will be a comfort to Ahasuerus. But it is the Sibyl's advice that acceptance is the only course for humans whether living under Olympian or Heavenly rule.
May 31, 2009
I had a hard time reading this book, and I am still not sure why. I loved Barabbas and The Eternal Smile by the same author, but I got bogged down in the middle and set this one aside for quite some time. But then one day, I just picked it back up and finished it in one sitting. The second half really flew by like I was reading some great secret to existence. Very powerful, haunting and strange... it asks more questions than it gives answers in the end, but that fact is what makes it so great. What is the true meaning of God's love? A question that can only be answered individually... not universally...
January 29, 2012
I liked this book a lot but I am tempted to look for a different translator if it is available or learn Swedish so I can read it as it was originally written.
I am a big fan of reading books multiple times if I think I will get more out of it that way and this is definitely one that I will read again. It is not a very long book but it is pretty deep.
Pär Fabian Lagerkvist (23 May 1891 � 11 July 1974) was a Swedish author who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1951. (from Wikipedia)
I am a big fan of reading books multiple times if I think I will get more out of it that way and this is definitely one that I will read again. It is not a very long book but it is pretty deep.
Pär Fabian Lagerkvist (23 May 1891 � 11 July 1974) was a Swedish author who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1951. (from Wikipedia)
October 14, 2008
This is my favorite book. It is odd and of course why I loved it.
I had never really read anything about being an oracle before this book. It was fascinating to be introduced to here and then to read about the transformation of this little girl.
I had never really read anything about being an oracle before this book. It was fascinating to be introduced to here and then to read about the transformation of this little girl.
January 12, 2020
I read my books in alphabetical order by author, close to it anyway. So if I'm in a bookstore and see a book that looks wonderful to me and bring it home it still might be months and months if not years until I get to it; for example, if I'm currently in the letter "c" and it's a novel by Zola or Balzac (two of my favorite authors) I won't be reading them for a long time. My point is that sometimes until I get to the book I have absolutely no idea why I have it on my shelf in the first place. That's how it is with "The Sibyl" by Par Lagerkvist. While reading the novel I found myself looking up quite a few things since the book was totally unknown to me. The first thing I looked up was Par Lagerkvist himself. Lagerkvist was a Swedish author who received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1951. According to the Swedish Academy of Letters he received the award "For the artistic power and deep-rooted independence he demonstrates in his writings in seeking an answer to the eternal questions of humanity."Lagerkvist wrote poems, plays, novels, stories, and essays.
His novel "The Sibyl"was published in 1956. The first line of the novel is: "In a little house on the mountain slopes above Delphi lived an old woman with her witless son." It tells us that they live all alone, seldom leaving the small one-room hut with no contact with anyone...."no one would have any dealings with them."Her son sits, as always "a smile on his downy, childish face."
One day a stranger comes to their hut. He was a tall man with a brownish beard in the prime of life. He tells her that he had come to Delphi to consult the oracle but he had been turned away. They told him no oracle in the world could answer his question. He then wandered at random about the city until he met a blind man who told him that one of the old priestesses, or sibyls, lives in disgrace in the mountains above the Temple. The blind man said no priestess had ever been so great, so beloved by god. She had sinned against god and man and had been cast out, but he should seek her out, she is the only one that could answer his question.
He finds our cursed sibyl, living in her hut and tells her his story. This man lived happily with his wife and son in the city he had been born in. He had no plans to ever leave it, he was content with his life. One day while standing at his door he sees a condemned man carrying his cross to his place of crucifixion. The "criminal" stops for a moment along the way to rest on the side of this man's house. The man tells the "criminal" to move on and not to bring ill-will to his house by leaning his cross against it. The condemned man looks at him and curses him saying:
"Because you denied me this, you shall suffer greater punishment than mine: you shall never die. You shall wander through this world to all eternity, and find no rest."
This is what happens. Our "wandering jew" finds out later that the condemned man is believed to be the son of God. This was whispered in the streets and talked about in secret. Our cursed man doesn't believe it, but his life falls apart from this point. He becomes "empty and desolate", his wife leaves him taking his son with her. He can no longer work, neighbors avoid him, then one night he leaves the city to begin wandering through the ages. He wants to know what his future will be.
Now the old woman tells her story, which is the majority of the novel. Our old woman, our Sibyl, had been “chosen� as a poor, young and sheltered girl by the Delphi priests to serve the great honor of being a pythia. She has been chosen to be god's instrument, to speak his words and be filled with his spirit. She is frightened but also filled with happiness. To be god's Sibyl she is ceremoniously fasted for three days, bathed, dressed as a bride, led through the temple down a narrow, dim stairway into the holy of holies. The "holy of holies" seems to be a small, dark room lit only by two oil lamps. The air was oppressive and musty, the floor was uneven and slimy. There was a faint, sour smell of goats. She was drugged with a blend of laurel leaves and ashes and made to inhale the smoke from a bowl of embers. All to serve as the oracle of god. After all this god possesses her and she becomes filled with his spirt. She feels an indescribable feeling of delight, happiness, joy and rapture. She is tossed to and fro and shrieks and screams, words she didn't understand, but that's ok because the priests were there and they could understand them. Oh, and during all this there was a he-goat with unusally large horns brought in and they poured water on its head. Beats me why. This, or something close to this is what happened every time god wanted to talk to her.
When she's not at the temple with the priests and goat and god, she is at home with her parents, and that's where she meets a man who has lost an arm in the war. I don't know which war, I never tried to figure that out. His parents lease a small piece of land near her parents. I don't think I'll tell you more of the story, by this time I thought I had it figured out, old cursed woman with a son, a one armed man? I was close, but it didn't end exactly the way I thought it would end.
Now to some of the things I looked up while I read the story. The first thing was, just where was Delphi anyway? The answer:
" Delphi, located near the foot of the south slope of Mt. Parnassus, was the seat of the Delphic oracle, the most famous and most powerful of ancient Greece. It was the preeminent shrine of Apollo."
This also answered my next question, who was this god they were worshipping in the temple at Delphi? I was certain pretty early in the story it wasn't the same God I worship. Next question: What exactly is a Sibyl? The answer:
"Apollo spoke through his oracle: the sibyl or priestess of the oracle at Delphi was known as the Pythia. The oracular messages were spoken by a priestess seated on a golden tripod, who uttered sounds in a frenzied trance. The inspired trance was said by the ancient Greeks to be induced by vapors from beneath the temple's floor; these may have been ethylene or other petrochemical fumes rising through faults that ran beneath the temple. The priestess's utterances were interpreted to the questioner by a priest, who usually spoke in verse. "
Then I looked up "the wandering jew" and found that "The Wandering Jew is a figure whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 13th century. The original legend concerns a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion and was then cursed to walk the earth until the Second Coming."
I thought about giving the book four stars. It certainly got me interested in things like Delphi, and temples, and sibyls. Also, I read it in one afternoon, however whether that's because the book was so good I couldn't put it down or because it was a short book isn't certain. I liked the book, I personally don't believe that when Jesus was on His way to be crucified He would have cursed the man for chasing Him away; so sitting here thinking about that, the book gets three stars. Happy reading. :-}
His novel "The Sibyl"was published in 1956. The first line of the novel is: "In a little house on the mountain slopes above Delphi lived an old woman with her witless son." It tells us that they live all alone, seldom leaving the small one-room hut with no contact with anyone...."no one would have any dealings with them."Her son sits, as always "a smile on his downy, childish face."
One day a stranger comes to their hut. He was a tall man with a brownish beard in the prime of life. He tells her that he had come to Delphi to consult the oracle but he had been turned away. They told him no oracle in the world could answer his question. He then wandered at random about the city until he met a blind man who told him that one of the old priestesses, or sibyls, lives in disgrace in the mountains above the Temple. The blind man said no priestess had ever been so great, so beloved by god. She had sinned against god and man and had been cast out, but he should seek her out, she is the only one that could answer his question.
He finds our cursed sibyl, living in her hut and tells her his story. This man lived happily with his wife and son in the city he had been born in. He had no plans to ever leave it, he was content with his life. One day while standing at his door he sees a condemned man carrying his cross to his place of crucifixion. The "criminal" stops for a moment along the way to rest on the side of this man's house. The man tells the "criminal" to move on and not to bring ill-will to his house by leaning his cross against it. The condemned man looks at him and curses him saying:
"Because you denied me this, you shall suffer greater punishment than mine: you shall never die. You shall wander through this world to all eternity, and find no rest."
This is what happens. Our "wandering jew" finds out later that the condemned man is believed to be the son of God. This was whispered in the streets and talked about in secret. Our cursed man doesn't believe it, but his life falls apart from this point. He becomes "empty and desolate", his wife leaves him taking his son with her. He can no longer work, neighbors avoid him, then one night he leaves the city to begin wandering through the ages. He wants to know what his future will be.
Now the old woman tells her story, which is the majority of the novel. Our old woman, our Sibyl, had been “chosen� as a poor, young and sheltered girl by the Delphi priests to serve the great honor of being a pythia. She has been chosen to be god's instrument, to speak his words and be filled with his spirit. She is frightened but also filled with happiness. To be god's Sibyl she is ceremoniously fasted for three days, bathed, dressed as a bride, led through the temple down a narrow, dim stairway into the holy of holies. The "holy of holies" seems to be a small, dark room lit only by two oil lamps. The air was oppressive and musty, the floor was uneven and slimy. There was a faint, sour smell of goats. She was drugged with a blend of laurel leaves and ashes and made to inhale the smoke from a bowl of embers. All to serve as the oracle of god. After all this god possesses her and she becomes filled with his spirt. She feels an indescribable feeling of delight, happiness, joy and rapture. She is tossed to and fro and shrieks and screams, words she didn't understand, but that's ok because the priests were there and they could understand them. Oh, and during all this there was a he-goat with unusally large horns brought in and they poured water on its head. Beats me why. This, or something close to this is what happened every time god wanted to talk to her.
When she's not at the temple with the priests and goat and god, she is at home with her parents, and that's where she meets a man who has lost an arm in the war. I don't know which war, I never tried to figure that out. His parents lease a small piece of land near her parents. I don't think I'll tell you more of the story, by this time I thought I had it figured out, old cursed woman with a son, a one armed man? I was close, but it didn't end exactly the way I thought it would end.
Now to some of the things I looked up while I read the story. The first thing was, just where was Delphi anyway? The answer:
" Delphi, located near the foot of the south slope of Mt. Parnassus, was the seat of the Delphic oracle, the most famous and most powerful of ancient Greece. It was the preeminent shrine of Apollo."
This also answered my next question, who was this god they were worshipping in the temple at Delphi? I was certain pretty early in the story it wasn't the same God I worship. Next question: What exactly is a Sibyl? The answer:
"Apollo spoke through his oracle: the sibyl or priestess of the oracle at Delphi was known as the Pythia. The oracular messages were spoken by a priestess seated on a golden tripod, who uttered sounds in a frenzied trance. The inspired trance was said by the ancient Greeks to be induced by vapors from beneath the temple's floor; these may have been ethylene or other petrochemical fumes rising through faults that ran beneath the temple. The priestess's utterances were interpreted to the questioner by a priest, who usually spoke in verse. "
Then I looked up "the wandering jew" and found that "The Wandering Jew is a figure whose legend began to spread in Europe in the 13th century. The original legend concerns a Jew who taunted Jesus on the way to the Crucifixion and was then cursed to walk the earth until the Second Coming."
I thought about giving the book four stars. It certainly got me interested in things like Delphi, and temples, and sibyls. Also, I read it in one afternoon, however whether that's because the book was so good I couldn't put it down or because it was a short book isn't certain. I liked the book, I personally don't believe that when Jesus was on His way to be crucified He would have cursed the man for chasing Him away; so sitting here thinking about that, the book gets three stars. Happy reading. :-}
March 5, 2024
This is the second Lagerkvist work I've read recently, the other Barabas, both novelized character studies of marginal characters from ancient literature. Somehow, in both cases, he used is unrestrained powers of creativity to write something significantly less engaging than the source material.
September 12, 2024
I protagonisti di questo romanzo sono un uomo e una donna le cui vite sono state segnata da Dio. Il primo personaggio è l'ebreo errante, un uomo che è stato condannato a vivere in eterno per non aver permesso a Cristo di poggiare il capo sulla propria casa. Dopo l'incontro con Cristo, nulla gli basta, neppure il rapporto con la moglie. Ciò è vissuto dall'uomo come una maledizione.
La sibilla è una donna che si unisce al divino nel suo ruolo di oracolo di Delfi. La sua è una storia d'amore tormentata, in cui il divino le toglie tutto ciò che ha.
I due hanno vissuto delle vite molto dure. L'uomo ritiene che Dio sia vendicativo e crudele. La sibilla non riesce a perdonarLo per il male ricevuto, ma ripensando alla propria storia si accorge che Egli è tutta la sua vita.
"Egli mi ha resa molto infelice" afferma la sibilla "Ma mi ha pure concesso di conoscere una felicità che superava ogni immaginazione, e questo non posso dimenticarlo [...] Che cosa sarebbe stata la mia vita senza di lui? [...] Che sarebbe stato di me se non avessi provato la sua estasi, la sua sconfinata beatitudine, e non avessi diviso con lui la felicità di esistere?".
Sentendo le parole della sibilla, l'uomo capisce che è possibile una nuova interpretazione del proprio destino e le chiede consiglio. La sibilla gli fa capire che anche il suo odio per Dio ha un significato."Quello stesso odio è l'esperienza del divino [...] Può darsi che un giorno tu gli conceda di appoggiare il tuo capo al muro della tua casa e può darsi che no, non posso prevederlo; ma qualunque cosa farai, il tuo destino sarà legato a Dio per sempre, la tua anima sarà pervasa da Dio per sempre".
La sibilla è una donna che si unisce al divino nel suo ruolo di oracolo di Delfi. La sua è una storia d'amore tormentata, in cui il divino le toglie tutto ciò che ha.
I due hanno vissuto delle vite molto dure. L'uomo ritiene che Dio sia vendicativo e crudele. La sibilla non riesce a perdonarLo per il male ricevuto, ma ripensando alla propria storia si accorge che Egli è tutta la sua vita.
"Egli mi ha resa molto infelice" afferma la sibilla "Ma mi ha pure concesso di conoscere una felicità che superava ogni immaginazione, e questo non posso dimenticarlo [...] Che cosa sarebbe stata la mia vita senza di lui? [...] Che sarebbe stato di me se non avessi provato la sua estasi, la sua sconfinata beatitudine, e non avessi diviso con lui la felicità di esistere?".
Sentendo le parole della sibilla, l'uomo capisce che è possibile una nuova interpretazione del proprio destino e le chiede consiglio. La sibilla gli fa capire che anche il suo odio per Dio ha un significato."Quello stesso odio è l'esperienza del divino [...] Può darsi che un giorno tu gli conceda di appoggiare il tuo capo al muro della tua casa e può darsi che no, non posso prevederlo; ma qualunque cosa farai, il tuo destino sarà legato a Dio per sempre, la tua anima sarà pervasa da Dio per sempre".
February 21, 2012
I feel that, in the couple of days since I finished reading this, that I am still not completely sure what I take away from it. The novel embodies many contradictions that feel hard to resolve, particularly that God is both love and evil, and that God is also completely impossible for us to understand because it is not human, and cannot be judged by human standards.
I do like the idea here that nothing is ever forever, even if the overseeing power has called it so. That one is cursed does not mean anything, other than you may have a long way to go before you can be saved. This has the same ramifications to me as Revelations, in that the damned will not always be damned, which gives the sense that God, in the Christian sense, is eventually forgiving of everyone.
But then, the Sybil does not believe in this Christian God. She is instead ruled by a nature god, one prone to irrational and uncaring lusts. Hence her belief about God being incomprehensible. That Christians try to portray God as having some human characteristics is completely alien to what a god would be in terms of traditional belief. It is the only way to explain the kind of unrealistic expectations made upon religious people.
Anyway, the fact that I am still thinking about the possible meanings of this book is a good thing.
I do like the idea here that nothing is ever forever, even if the overseeing power has called it so. That one is cursed does not mean anything, other than you may have a long way to go before you can be saved. This has the same ramifications to me as Revelations, in that the damned will not always be damned, which gives the sense that God, in the Christian sense, is eventually forgiving of everyone.
But then, the Sybil does not believe in this Christian God. She is instead ruled by a nature god, one prone to irrational and uncaring lusts. Hence her belief about God being incomprehensible. That Christians try to portray God as having some human characteristics is completely alien to what a god would be in terms of traditional belief. It is the only way to explain the kind of unrealistic expectations made upon religious people.
Anyway, the fact that I am still thinking about the possible meanings of this book is a good thing.
August 25, 2020
This story was rather dark and slightly depressing in my opinion.
Lagerkvist's writing is very fluent and easy to read (though there aren't any chapters, which kinda suits the story, it's just a bit unpractical sometimes).
Despite being a short book, the message and the theme are very big, and I think this is the type of story that's supposed to make you think. It mainly made me feel a bit unsettled and left with questions.
I can only recommend this book if you're into serious and 'heavy' books.
Lagerkvist's writing is very fluent and easy to read (though there aren't any chapters, which kinda suits the story, it's just a bit unpractical sometimes).
Despite being a short book, the message and the theme are very big, and I think this is the type of story that's supposed to make you think. It mainly made me feel a bit unsettled and left with questions.
I can only recommend this book if you're into serious and 'heavy' books.
February 21, 2017
Something rather lovely and different about this book and story. I quite loved it. It has a mystical feeling to it that fiction of this age doesn't always have.
It's short and fantastic and simple as a read.
It's short and fantastic and simple as a read.
February 24, 2016
Does anyone read Lagerkvist still? He was pretty great. This one is a sorta holy horror story, brief, pithy, at times frightening.
July 7, 2023
this shit was cray. a man comes seeking -the- sibyl as he has been cursed by jesus himself, for not allowing him to lean on his home. now he lives a life with no love, no joy, no end. the sibyl lives with her middle aged son who SPOILER ALERT is literally just another child of god idk how many there are but apparently a lot. this woman has been through HELLLLLLL. HELL!! okay i could go on and on and on about this book but the moral of the story is god is just like us he’s a huge fucking dick that will only reward the ones who love him but like also maybe help you if fucks u over like rlly bad. this book was so good so real i want everyone to read it but judging but the number of ratings uh no one will
uh edit i just read the synopsis and it says that hes the child of god like immediately so. lowkey the synopsis spoils the whole book but uh anyway who am i but a mere foolish mortal
uh edit i just read the synopsis and it says that hes the child of god like immediately so. lowkey the synopsis spoils the whole book but uh anyway who am i but a mere foolish mortal
August 13, 2019
"Não odeias o deus que te tratou dessa maneira, que te fez tudo isso? Não odeias esse ser tão absurdamente cruel?
A velha esperou um pouco antes de responder: parecia refletir. Depois, disse:
Não sei quem ele é. Como poderia, assim, odiá-lo? Ou Amá-lo? Em verdade, parece-me que não o odeio, e que não o amo.
Pensando bem, acho que tais palavras não têm sentido quando se trata dele. Não é como nós e não podemos compreendê-lo. É incompreensível, insondável. É deus."
A velha esperou um pouco antes de responder: parecia refletir. Depois, disse:
Não sei quem ele é. Como poderia, assim, odiá-lo? Ou Amá-lo? Em verdade, parece-me que não o odeio, e que não o amo.
Pensando bem, acho que tais palavras não têm sentido quando se trata dele. Não é como nós e não podemos compreendê-lo. É incompreensível, insondável. É deus."
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