Northern Courage.

I read this book once, called The Sea of Trolls. It was religiously pluralistic to the point of being sickening. But what stuck with me was the picture of northern culture. That Northerness that Lewis talked about loving and having in common with Tolkien. In the story, there were vikings who would tell fabulous stories that always ended with the gruesome death of the hero.

Tremendous problem, hero overcomes it in epic battle, he emerges triumphant, and trips on a shoe lace, hits his head and dies. Or, he gets one bad guy and the other one eats him. That kind of thing

Basically, it doesn't matter what the story is, it can't end well. Death or destruction always has the last word. You would think that this would be distressing, but the characters in the book loved it. They are describes as holding back the punch line, grinning with glee before announcing that the hero gets his head bashed in.

John Howe. :)

It doesn't inspire despair, but a tough kind of courage. Death is the last word for everyone, so you better prepare yourself to go in the most glorious way possible, which also might be the most gruesome way possible.
In Lord of the Rings, I always associate this kind of courage with Gandalf and called it hope. But in my Tolkien class, we have talked about it as an influence of Norse mythology. It is especially exhibited by the Rohirim.

We cannot break the armies of Mordor, but we will meet them in battle nonetheless.

...because we are just that bad ass.

This is not an argument for why it's worth it. It's not a test of strength. It's really very simple. Eomer is a courageous mortal. He stands against Mordor. Mordor has send out an army. Therefore, they go to battle, with or without hope. That's not really true. They have hope. It's just not hope of victory. They hope that Mordor's armies are at least as insignificant as they are, in the long run.

This is the sort of thing that gets labeled stupidity, or stubbornness, or even stuffiness in our very civilized society. If we are going to go out and give our very precious lives, it better be a hopeful, and worthwhile endeavor that couldn't be dealt with any other way. But I admire the training implied.

Eowyn vs Nazgul // by oliverojm
Or so said the blog where I found it. I like it.

My inclination is to become cynical when things get tough, never mind hopeless. This "realistic" view of my prospects in a given situation quickly become a paralyzing weight that makes it difficult to act in any direction at all. That interior critic tells me the paper I am writing is rubbish. But does this enable me to fix it, or throw it out and write a better one? No. It makes me slam my laptop closed and hide under my blankets, pretending that Monday will never come.

But in such a situation, Northern Courage would prompt a final defiance. I would whip that paper into whatever shape I could and turn it in on time with as much pride as I could salvage.

Nor is Northern courage a kind of unquenchable cheer leader. It can be grim. It's not about feeling happy. It's a recognition that most of my life is out of my control. In fact, the only thing I can control is how I respond to the challenges of each day, and that only when I have trained myself for such challenges.

But this courage, I begin to think, is actually necessary to do anything worth doing. The people in the world who do great things know the odds of failure, and keep going to find out the odds of success. The people in the world who don't do great things know the odds of failure, and don't care to find out if one of the chances of success is theirs.

It's almost finals week. I'm procrastinating. Also, this is the second to last finals week I will ever have to deal with. I hope to grow some courage before I get through my final finals week.

I am unemployable in a horrible economy. But I will dress up in uncomfortable shoes and turn in my resume anyway.