Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
Encyclopedia
Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel is a book by Minnesota
politician Ignatius L. Donnelly published during 1883. It is a companion to the more well-known work Atlantis: The Antediluvian World
.
hit the earth 12,000 years ago, resulting in widespread fires, floods, poisonous gases, and unusually vicious, prolonged winters. The catastrophe destroyed a more advanced civilization, causing human beings, in panic and terror, to seek shelter in caves. Here they degenerate, lose all knowledge of art, literature, music, philosophy, and engineering, and become cavemen.
He cites as evidence cracks, 900 feet deep, radiating out from the Great Lakes
, and stretching for many miles away from the lakes. He admits it has been proposed that ice-sheets caused these cracks, but makes no secret of the improbability of ice sheets producing such great cracks, which he refers to as being like 'cracks in a window which has been struck with a stone'. He also demands why, if ice sheets could produce such cracks, why said cracks can't be found anywhere else on the globe. He also brings up surface rocks in New York City, which seems to have undergone a radical chemical change---the feldspar has been converted into slate and the mica has separated out from the iron, as it would if it were undergoing tremendous heat and unbearable pressure, which would certainly be the case in the event of a comet striking the earth. He rules out other theories that could have caused this, such as nitric acid and warm rains, by pointing out that this is an isolated incident, whereas warm rains can occur at any time and place, and there's no archaeological evidence for the nitric acid's origins.
He points out many legends and myths from various cultures, such as Zoroastrian, Pictish, Hindu
, and Ancient Greece
, that are all suggestive of a comet striking the earth, the earth catching fire, poisonous gases choking people, and floods and tidal waves swamping large areas. He also points out early culture's tendency to heliotheism, which evolved from an insane gratitude to the Sun, after so many horrific days without it.
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
politician Ignatius L. Donnelly published during 1883. It is a companion to the more well-known work Atlantis: The Antediluvian World
Atlantis: The Antediluvian World
Atlantis: The Antediluvian World is a book published during 1882 by Minnesota populist politician Ignatius L. Donnelly, who was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania during 1831...
.
Author's arguments
In Ragnarok, Donnelly argues that an enormous cometComet
A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...
hit the earth 12,000 years ago, resulting in widespread fires, floods, poisonous gases, and unusually vicious, prolonged winters. The catastrophe destroyed a more advanced civilization, causing human beings, in panic and terror, to seek shelter in caves. Here they degenerate, lose all knowledge of art, literature, music, philosophy, and engineering, and become cavemen.
He cites as evidence cracks, 900 feet deep, radiating out from the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
, and stretching for many miles away from the lakes. He admits it has been proposed that ice-sheets caused these cracks, but makes no secret of the improbability of ice sheets producing such great cracks, which he refers to as being like 'cracks in a window which has been struck with a stone'. He also demands why, if ice sheets could produce such cracks, why said cracks can't be found anywhere else on the globe. He also brings up surface rocks in New York City, which seems to have undergone a radical chemical change---the feldspar has been converted into slate and the mica has separated out from the iron, as it would if it were undergoing tremendous heat and unbearable pressure, which would certainly be the case in the event of a comet striking the earth. He rules out other theories that could have caused this, such as nitric acid and warm rains, by pointing out that this is an isolated incident, whereas warm rains can occur at any time and place, and there's no archaeological evidence for the nitric acid's origins.
He points out many legends and myths from various cultures, such as Zoroastrian, Pictish, Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
, and Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, that are all suggestive of a comet striking the earth, the earth catching fire, poisonous gases choking people, and floods and tidal waves swamping large areas. He also points out early culture's tendency to heliotheism, which evolved from an insane gratitude to the Sun, after so many horrific days without it.
External links
- Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel (entire text)
- Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel, 1883 (searchable facsimile)