"Where am I?" I heard myself say. I was in the process of waking up. There was somebody there.
"You have arrived" said a voice.
I opened my eyes and saw that I was in a large room. The walls, the ceiling, the floor and furniture were all white. Soft and white. Comfortable white. The sheet was also white. A fantastic beautiful woman stood there with a clever smile. "I shall announce that you are awake" she said and left the room.
My mail coat, sword and gloves, pants and everything else I had brought lay beside the bed on a white stool. Newly washed and cleaned, repaired and in good condition. I searched my body and understood that it as well had been repaired. The wounds were healed. There was not even a scar to see, and no bandages.
The door opened again and a woman peeked in. "You may come now" she said. "Get dressed and come
out." I wanted to ask her how long I had slept, but she was too fast and closed the door. I dressed and remembered
why I was here.
Outside the door a corridor led me down to a large door. The woman that escorted me said to me that "Now you
are here." As if she new why I was here. I swallowed heavily and braved myself to knock on the door. She smiled
at me as I peeked at her uncertainly. "Come in" it sounded. What else could I do?
A vast hall opened itself before me. Straight ahead there was a large throne, wherein Odin himself sat. Around him sat and stood many other gods, in a crescent towards me. They were all fair and wonderful, tall and healthy. They had no faults. No visible flaws. Some bore serious facial expressions, other smiled at me. Even Odin smiled too. "Now, what does this young sir want?" he said with a false sounding strict voice. He still smiled. I felt rather small where I stood. My great ego was suddenly not that great anymore. My great self-confidence was suddenly not so great anymore.
"Well" it nearly peeped out of me.
"According to my papers you have an accusation towards us" said Odin, and demonstratively flipped
through some papers. He acted irritated, but even so gave me a feeling of security and confidence. Nothing could
go wrong here. Here was nothing to fear. I was safe.
And so it came, the accusation. In detail. I told about how unfair life was for some people, how cruel for others,
how undeserved certain people found happiness and how undeserved others did not. I spat out one accusation after
the other to a patient gathering of gods, and ended my prosecution with a why!? Odin was not stirred. Nor any of
the other gods seemed stirred.
"You ask us hard questions. To answer them I must know what you already know about earth and life on earth. For example, do you know whence the humans come?"
"Yes I do. We are your children. We are the children of the gods."
"And whence do you think the water spirits come, or the fairies and dragons, goblins and trolls?"
"I do not know."
"Let me tell you a story" said Odin. "A long story, that you might not understand."
"Try me." I had won back my self-confidence.
"There was a time when neither goblin nor troll, dragons or fairies existed. Only men and animals, only plants and mountains, ocean and heaven. Mankind had wagons to pull themselves, they had tamed vast birds that flew about in the wide world. They had dwarves forge them food, so they needed neither fields nor farmers. They raised towers that nearly reached the sky, and delved caverns so deep the flames from the inner earth came out and burned them. Ashes and smoke poured out and enveloped the cities. The animals got lost in the darkness of the smoke. The fish in the sea drowned. Birds fell as rain from the heavens, gaunt and lifeless - some with humans on their backs. Plants decayed and the earth was no longer fertile. Mankind had forgotten the gods"
"It was then that you descended and destroyed the old world?" I interrupted.
"Yes, it was then we had to descend and destroy the world of men. Because they had forgotten why they were on the earth and why they were humans. They had forgotten what they were to become and who's children they were. They married animals and had children with them. In the end there were almost no humans left; they had all mixed with animals. Only some few people were left, but also these lived like animals. It was but a matter of time before all our children would completely disappear. We had to intervene."
"But with so much cruelty? Did you have to let mountains fall over the cities? Did you have to let the ocean swallow the human masses? Did you have to let the flames burn those who were left? I have myself seen towers from the earliest times, that jag up from the earth. They are still black with soot on the inside. How many had to die?"
"It is often that someone must die so that others may live. The earth is created for our children, for humans, and all other creatures, animals and plants, fish and fowl, everything is created by us for the humans. So that man could live and grow. It was us who created the earth, it was us who placed her where she is now, between the warmth of the sun and the chill of space. We do with our creation as we want. What we have created we have the right to destroy as we see fit."
"But what about men? What about your own children? Have you no concern for them, no compassion or good wishes?"
"Children are unruleable. They often do what they themselves want, and not what their parents ask them to. What we did was to save our last surviving children from extinction, by forcing them to live differently. By forcing them to live like they should. By forcing them on to that road that leads ahead. By forcing them on the right road. We took some of the animals and from them we created new species and races. We created trolls, large, strong and stupid, to force men to fear the forest. We created goblins to give them something to varnish themselves on. The goblins are uncomfortable when they think, they therefore prefer the fight, because then they do not need to think. They hate the humans because they are themselves fallen humans. They are ugly and small, dark and foul, violent and dangerous, stupid and unwitted. But they have a purpose, like trolls, dragons and other creatures they force men to noble deed. We replaced the old and sick world with a world that gave humans a chance to become something more."
"That does not explain why you let young boys die before they get the taste of the fruits of love! Why you let infants die of sickness in their cribs, why you…"
"Yes, yes" He interrupted me. "Yes, it does explain all this too. Mankind needs to be strong,
to face future challenges it must be strong. Is it then so wrong to let the weakest die, so that in fact the rest
has an opportunity to survive the future? If everyone were to live everyone would die. Now only the weakest die,
so the rest may live. And how noble are not the youth that storm forth and crash down dead on the battlefield before
they have even tasted the fruits of love? Would the rest of the world ever know how good blood their family had,
if not these boys had proved it with their noble deed? Would their mothers ever get the chance to refine their
consciousness without this loss of a son? Is not the good man a man who has taught himself to tackle pain and to
be able to imagine others'? Women's tears are like red gold; her pain refines her consciousness.
All the pain and suffering, all the hardness we put you through is to your own good. Without this you would once
again become low life, without this you would again let the stupid and weak decide the development of the world.
Without war it is impossible to unveil the cowards, and because of that the cowards get as much to say as the brave
if there are no wars. Man becomes coward, mixes with animals and forgets the gods and the creed of the gods. What
are we then to do with men, we have after all created them for a reason. We have created them so they shall become
better, not so they shall become animals.
Look around, look at us. We are your parents. We created you. We want like other parents that you shall become like us. Just as beautiful, just as intelligent, just as strong, just as good, just as honest, just as tall, just as fair, just as creative, just as brave. You can become what I am, but then you must do as I tell you to. You must understand the necessity of the tests we put you through. No beauty comes without pain. No strength comes without hardness. Nothing noble spawns without misery."
"But why have you not told this to us? How was I supposed to know that everything that happens, no matter how gruesome and unfair it may seem, has a meaning?"
"It has no purpose. That you must understand yourselves. That is a part of our goal with you, that you shall learn to think for yourselves. You must understand on your own, without us having to tell you what is right or wrong. You have our blood; listen to the voice of the blood, listen to your intuition. Those of you who understand will guard the others, tell them what is right and wrong, and see to it that development happens as it shall."
"Is that your Guardians? But where are they? Where are these Guardians? I have sought them for years, but never found any!"
"Are you sure about that? The whole time you have searched for something you have had with you all along, in your own baggage. You must understand that you are a Guardian. A Guardian of life, a Guardian of the children of the gods. A Guardian of customs. A Guardian because you react to what is unfair and gruesome, a Guardian because you dare to travel up here, all alone, even to the gods to ask questions about our treatment of human kind. We can feel safe when we know that men are cared for by such as you, you will watch over them. You wish the best, not only for you, but for all of humanity. You will fight for people who would rather see you dead. You will fight for somebody who would fight to come first in line when you were to be stoned or hanged. You will fight for somebody who does not even deserve to lick your boots clean. But, albeit you will fight for them. You will fight because your own spirit says to you that; "forgive them, they do not know what they are doing". It is not their fault that they are like this, but you know that it is your responsibility to make their children to become something more - and then you must also fight for them. One can not hate a plant because it can not grow in dry sand, but one can take its seeds and plant them in fertile soil.
The female Guardians are too proud to defile themselves, the male too proud to lust for defiled women or others' wives. All the Guardians are noble, and always grow more noble as their lives stride forth. Some even crave answers from the gods, when they see the sufferings of man. And some get answers. Like you have today. The best of them become gods themselves, get to enter our halls and live with us like equals."