Amethyst

Amethyst (pronounced am-uh-thist)

(1) A purple or violet transparent variety of quartz used as a gemstone.  The color is caused by the presence of iron compounds in the crystal structure.

(2) As the oriental amethyst, a purple variety of sapphire.

(3) A variety of shades of purple; darker hues of fuchsia.

(4) A thing containing or set with an amethyst or amethysts.

(5) A nymph from Greek mythology.

1250-1300: From the Middle English amatist, from the twelfth century Old French ametiste (the Modern French being améthyste) and directly from the Medieval Latin amatistus, from the Classical Latin amethystus, from the Ancient Greek αμέθυστος (améthystos) (amethyst) a noun use of the adjective which translated literally as "not intoxicating; not drunken", the construct being a- (not) + methyskein (make drunk) from methys (wine (and a variant stem of methýein (to intoxicate), the source of methylene)) + -tos (the Latin verbal adjective suffix); the source was the primitive Indo-European root medhu- (honey; mead), famous as the nectar the Valkyries would serve to fallen warriors in the halls of Valhalla.  The meaning in Ancient Greek was literal, the belief being that the stone prevented drunkenness, the link to reality being the color which resembled red wine diluted with water which was of course less intoxicating; chemistry then rather than magic but those who took their wine pure were still inclined to wear rings with an amethyst stone in the hope of avoiding a hangover.

One (dodgy) legend of Amethyst

Lindsay Lohan in amethyst-colored tank-top.

In antiquity, the Greeks believed amethyst could prevent intoxication and the practice was to wear the gem in a ring if the drinking session was to be epic although some maintain there were those who kept a stone in their mouth which seems not a good idea when taking strong drink.  As was often the case, later writers also created their own Greek "myths" and one was the story of the how the beautiful nymph Amethyst, while walking to worship at the Temple of Diana, had the misfortune of crossing paths with Bacchus, the god of wine.  Angry (as often he was), he had vowed vengeance on the next person he met so unleashed his two guardian tigers upon the poor nymph.  As the great beasts bounded towards her, the goddess Diana intervened and to spare her from her terrible fate, transformed her into a pure, clear stone.  Remorse immediately seized Bacchus and in an attempt to atone, poured his wine over the stone, staining the crystal a deep, violet hue and that's how Amethyst lent her name to the crystal.  Although presented in Classical guise, this "myth" dates only from the Renaissance, the French poet Remy Belleau (1528-1577) creating the tale in 1576.

1994 Porsche 911 Turbo 3.6  (964) in Amethyst Metallic over Classic Gray.

The presence of manganese in clear Quartz produces Amethyst, while additional amounts of iron vary the purple coloration. It ranges in hue from pale red-violet to deep violet and may be transparent or opaque. In addition, it is sometimes layered with white Quartz (as Chevron Amethyst), found in combination with Cacoxenite, mixed with Citrine as Ametrine, or in rare cases, “rutilated” with Goethite.  In the modern system of, it's a semi-precious stone but to the ancients it was a “gem of Fire" and at some points in history has been as highly valued as diamonds.  Anglican bishops wear an episcopal ring often set with an amethyst, an allusion to Acts 2:15 in which the Apostles are noted to be sober at nine in the morning, the piece of scripture from which is derived that measure of English respectability: never taking a G&T before noon.  Medieval European soldiers wore amethyst amulets into battle in the belief the stone had healing properties and in several cultures, they were a popular burial stone, found most often in Anglo-Saxon graves in England.  Faith in the healing power of the stone is maintained by the new-age movement, something probably no more nutty than their other beliefs.

An amethyst crystal cluster.

In the weird word of the new age, crystals are of great significance and each is said to be imbued with its own unique properties, the amethyst known often as the “stone of the dreamers”, apparently because it can inspire positive thoughts and inspire one to go forth and turn one’s dreams into reality.  Long associated with February, the month the Romans dedicated to the water god Neptune, it’s the stone of Saint Valentine and faithful love, signifying ecclesiastical dignity as the Bishop’s Stone.  To new agers, it carries the energy of fire and passion, creativity and spirituality; yet bears the logic of temperance and sobriety and crystal specialists among the practitioners extol its properties:

"In the modern world, Amethyst’s healing properties and meanings are similar to their historic roots and it remains a remarkable stone of spirituality and contentment; known for its metaphysical abilities to still the mind and inspire an enhanced meditative state.  Its inherent high frequency purifies the aura of any negative energy or attachments, creating a protective shield of light around the body, allowing one to remain clear and centred while being open to spiritual direction.  Amethyst stimulates the Third Eye, Crown, and Etheric Chakras enhancing cognitive perception as well as accelerating the development of intuitive and psychic ability. It initiates wisdom and greater understanding and is a stone of comfort for those grieving the loss of a loved one.  Amethyst’s ability to expand the higher mind also enhances one’s creativity and passion, strengthening the imagination and intuition while refining the thinking processes. It helps in the assimilation of new ideas, putting thought into action, and brings projects to fruition; amethyst is also well-known as a talisman of focus and success.  Amethyst is an exceptional crystal for wearing on the body, for use in healing rituals, and for enhancing one’s environment.  It has however been known to fade if left in direct sunlight so care should be taken and it’s wise from time to time to clear its energies by holding the stone under running water for short periods.  Remarkably, an unpolished amethyst also has special properties which can recharge other crystals so keep one in a dark space and leave some crystals with it to re-energize."

Valhalla

Valhalla (pronounced val-hal-uh or vahl-hah-luh)

(1) In Norse mythology, a dwelling in Asgard, the Norse heaven, the hall of Odin, reserved to receive the souls of those who fell in battle and others who died heroic deaths.

(2) In casual use, by extension from the classic meaning, an abode of the gods or afterlife in general.

1696: From the New Latin Vahalla, from the Old Norse Valhöll, the construct being val(r) (the slain in battle (and cognate with the Old English wæl)) + höll (hall).  The heavenly hall in which Odin receives the souls of heroes slain in battle appears often in Norse mythology and the word Vahalla was introduced into English in Archdeacon William Nicolson’s (1655–1727) English Historical Library (1696).  Valr (those slain in battle) was from the Proto-Germanic walaz (source also of Old English wæl (slaughter, bodies of the slain)) from the Old High German wal (battlefield, slaughter), from the primitive Indo-European root wele (to strike, wound (source also of Avestan vareta- (seized, prisoner), the Classical Latin veles (ghosts of the dead), the Old Irish fuil (blood) & the Welsh gwel (wound)). Höll (hall) is from the primitive Indo-European root kel- (to cover, conceal, save).  Nicolson’s work was long known only to scholars and it wasn’t until the word was re-introduced in the eighteenth centuries by antiquaries there was any revival of interest but it was the work of Richard Wagner (1813–1883) in the next century that popularised the Norse myths and, in some circles, made Valhalla a cult.  The familiar figurative sense has been used since 1845.  Vahalla was also spelled Valhall, Walhalla & Walhall; the plural is Valhallas (and not always with the initial capital).

Hermann Burghart's (1834-1901) design of Valhalla and the rainbow bridge for the staging of Das Rheingold, Bayreuth, 1878.

Valhalla is the great hall where the god Odin houses the dead whom he deems worthy of dwelling with him.  In the Old Norse poem Grímnismál (The Song of the Hooded One), the architecture of Valhalla is described as honouring military tradition, the roof of the “gold-bright” Valhalla made from the shields of fallen warriors with their spears its rafters.  Around the many feasting tables are chairs made from breastplates and the gates are guarded by wolves, eagles circling above but there are different depictions and there's no one view of where Valhalla was.  In some Old Norse literature, it’s said to be located in Asgard, the gods’ celestial fortress yet other texts suggest it was underground, one of the many places of the underworld.

The dead who reside in Valhalla, the einherjar (the ɛinˌherjɑz̠, (those who fight alone, literally "army of one")), live on as warriors, fighting among each-other and enjoying vivid adventures during the day.  Yet every evening, their wounds are healed, and, restored to full health, they feat on roasted wild boar (Saehrimnir (from the Old Norse Sæhrímnir of unknown origin)) and a mead from the udder of the goat Heidrun (from the Old Norse Heiðrun of unknown origin), all the while waited on by the same beautiful Valkyries who circled the battlefields on which they were slain.  But the einherjar are doomed because Odin has recruited only the bravest soldiers for he wants them for his army in his struggle against the wolf Fenrir during Ragnarok, a battled which Odin and the einherjar are fated to lose.

Robert Lepage's (b 1957) design of Valhalla for the staging of Das Rheingold, Met Opera, New York, 2010.

Like the mythology of Greek and Roman antiquity, it’s possibly some of what was passed down during the middle ages is just one variation of the original myth(s) and it’s only in the poetry of Icelandic historian Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241) that there’s a statement of the path of the fallen to Valhalla.  Snorri’s Prose Edda (circa 1220), a four-volume work drawn from many sources remains the most complete and extensive collection of the Norse mythology known still to exist but the author was also a lawyer and politician and scholars have noted he wrote long after the old Norse paganism had been replaced by Christianity; there’s the suspicion this may have been an influence in the way he synthesized strands from earlier traditions with Christian teaching.  Snorri said those who fell on the field of battle ascend to Valhalla, while those who die a less heroic death are consigned to hell, the underworld.  That does seem unfair (and probably bad public policy) and elsewhere in the Edda, he’s not above allowing the odd fudge, just as Roman Catholic theologians would invent limbo, their own medieval conjecture to tidy up the margins of God’s mysterious ways.  Snorri makes no attempt to justify his (actually quite blatant) contradictions and it’s thought what he wanted to achieve was a kind of lineal alignment between the pagan ways and the Christian, Valhalla and Hel the same diametric opposite as Heaven and Hell in Christian eschatology.  However, as many surviving fragments from earlier texts attest, the tidy, systematized paganism described by Snorri was not entirely that which had been practiced.

Twilight

Twilight (pronounced twahy-lahyt)

(1) The soft, diffused light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon, either from daybreak to sunrise or, more commonly, from sunset to nightfall.

(2) The period in the morning or, more commonly, in the evening during which this light prevails.

(3) A terminal period, especially after full development, success, etc.

(4) A state of uncertainty, vagueness, or gloom.

(5) Of or relating to, or resembling twilight; dim; obscure:

(6) Appearing or flying at twilight; crepuscular.

(7) The period of time during which the sun is a specified angular distance below the horizon (6°, 12° and 18° for civil twilight, nautical twilight, and astronomical twilight respectively)

1375-1425: From the Middle English twyelyghte (twilight) from the Old English twēonelēoht (twilight), the construct being twi (double, half) +‎ light, literally “second light, half-light”.  Light was from the Middle English light, liht & leoht, from the Old English lēoht, from the Proto-West Germanic leuht, from the Proto-Germanic leuhtą, from the primitive Indo-European lewktom, from the root lewk- (light).  It was cognate with the Scots licht (light), the West Frisian ljocht (light), the Dutch licht (light), the Low German licht (light) and the German Licht (light).  It was related also to the Swedish ljus (light), the Icelandic ljós (light), the Latin lūx (light), the Russian луч (luč) (beam of light), the Armenian լույս (luys) (light), the Ancient Greek λευκός (leukós) (white) and the Persian رُخش‎ (roxš).  It was cognate with the Scots twa licht, twylicht & twielicht (twilight), the Low German twilecht & twelecht (twilight), the Dutch tweelicht (twilight, dusk) and the German zwielicht (twilight, dusk).  The exact connotation of twi- in this word remains unclear but most etymologists link it to "half" light, rather than the fact that twilight occurs twice a day.  In that twilight may be compared with the Sanskrit samdhya (twilight, literally "a holding together, junction") and the Middle High German zwischerliecht (literally "tweenlight").

Enjoying the crepuscular: Lindsay Lohan at twilight.

The meaning "light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon at morning and evening" dates from the late fourteenth century, used often in the form "twilighting").  It was used originally (and most commonly) in English with reference to evening twilight but occasionally, beginning in the fifteenth century, referred also to the light of dawn.  The figurative extension dates from circa 1600.  The "twilight zone" is from 1901 (in a literal sense of the part of the sky lit by twilight), the use extended after from 1909 to refer to topics or cases where authority or behavior is unclear, the origin of that probably the 1909 novel In the Twilight Zone by Roger Carey Craven, the reference is to the mulatto heritage of one character, the idea of what used to be called the "half-breed", one who might be equally be claimed or disowned by either race.  The name was re-used in 2016 by Nona Fernández (b1971) (translated into English by Natasha Wimmer (b 1973)) in a novel about Chile under the dictatorship (1973-1990) of General Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006).  The US TV series of that name is from 1959.  The connotation of “twi” in this context is uncertain with most etymologists concluding it appears to refer to "half" light, rather than the state of twilight which occurs twice a day although in Sanskrit samdhya (twilight) was literally "a holding together” or “junction”, a formation known also in the Middle High German zwischerliecht, literally "tweenlight".  Twilight today is most commonly used with its original meaning of the evening light but from the mid-fifteenth century to the mid-twentieth, it was used also to refer to the morning twilight.  The figurative extension is first recorded circa 1600.

Götterdämmerung

Richard Wagner (1865) by August Friedrich Pecht (1814–1903), oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ney York.

Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods), is the fourth and final part of Richard Wagner's (1813-1883) Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung, usually known as The Ring or Ring Cycle).  Lasting some fifteen hours and usually presented over several days, its debut performance was at the Bayreuth Festival on 17 August 1876.

A great set piece drama and the grandest moment in Opera, the Ring Cycle is about the destruction of the gods and in a final battle with evil powers and although based on an old Norse myth, a dubious translation of the Old Icelandic Ragnarǫk (fate of the gods) meant it entered Modern German as Ragnarökkr (twilight of the gods).  In the Norse, the story was of "ancestral voices prophesying war" between mortals and the gods, a conflict ending in flames and flood but leading finally to the renewal of the world.  Wagner's work differs much from the Old Norse.

Part 1: Das Rheingold (Rhinegold)

The Rig Cycle begins with the dwarf Alberich seizing the gold of the Rhinemaidens. Alberich denounces love to gain possession of the magic ring which gives its wearer ultimate power; the ring is the world’s most desired object.  Rhinegold is the story of the gods; one learns of the suffering of Wotan and the problems the gods have in repaying Fafner and Fasolt, the giants who built Valhalla.

Part 2: Die Walkure (The Valkyries)

Brunnhilde and her father Wotan struggle with their pride to decide the ultimate destiny of mortals, the Valkyries being about the deep, tortured relationship between gods and mortals.  The gods also war with each-other but nobleness, especially in love, prevails over the oaths and the divine promises of the gods. Siegmund, the mortal hero, dies because his father, Wotan, is obliged to obey his wife, Fricka.

Part 3: Siegfried

This is the story of the hero, Siegfried, how he grows to manhood, how he discovers love and loss.  Raised by the Nibelung Mime, Siegfried is young, innocent and fearless and with help from a mysterious wanderer (Wotan in disguise), Siegfried finds the pieces of his father's sword.  Notung reforges the blade and Siegfried kills the dragon Fafner who guards the hoard of Nibelung gold stolen from the Rhinemaidens, taking possession of Alberich's cursed ring.  Siegfried is then drawn to follow a birdsong to find the sleeping Brunnhilde whom fate has destined him to awaken and fall in love with.  Waking her, Siegfried gives the ring to Brunnhilde to symbolize his oath of undying love and fidelity.

Part 4: Götterdämmerung (Twilight of the Gods)

Under an ambiance impending doom, all face the consequences of their choices; the Nibelung Alberich's curse upon the Ring proving prophetic for whoever holds the ring is ultimately destroyed.  Although Wotan's disempowerment was, in part three, foreshadowed by Siegfried breaking his spear, the doomed fate of the gods is sealed when Alberich's evil son, Hagen dupes and cruelly murders the brave mortal hero Siegfried.  Devastated, Brünnhilde has a huge funeral pyre built by the river, takes the ring and tells the Rhinemaidens to claim it from her ashes.  Brünnhilde then mounts her horse and rides into the flames.  As she burns, the Rhine overflows, quenching the fire and the Rhinemaidens swim in to claim the ring.  Hagen tries to stop them but they drag him to his death in the depths.  As they celebrate the return of the ring and its gold to the river, a red glow fills the sky for Valhalla, the last resting place of the gods is ablaze and the gods are consumed by the flames.

Valkyrie

Valkyrie (pronounced val-keer-ee, val-kahy-ree, vahl-kerr-ee or val-kuh-ree)

(1) Any of the twelve beautiful war-maidens attendant upon Odin who rode over battlefields, gathering the souls of slain warriors chosen by Odin or Tyr and taking them to Valhalla, there to wait upon them.

(2) Code name for the civil-military conspiracy against the Nazi German government, culminating in the attempt coup d'état of 20 July 1944 during which an attempt was made to assassinate Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945).

(3) A frequently used name for high performance machinery (eg Aston Martin Valkyrie, North American XB70 Valkyrie).

1768: From the Old Norse valkyrja (literally "chooser of the slain") and cognate with the Old English wælcyrie (witch).  The construct was valr (those who fell battle, slaughter (and cognate with Old English wæl)) + kyrja (chooser (and cognate with Old English cyrie)).  Kyrja was from the ablaut root of kjosa (to choose), from the Proto-Germanic keusan, from the primitive Indo-European root geus- (to taste; to choose).  The Old English form wælcyrie, strangely was less prevalent in Anglo-Saxon tales than in Scandinavian myths although linguistic anthropologists have suggested this may be a consequence of the better preservation of old texts.  Köri was an alternative Norse form of kyrjam, from the ablaut root of kjosa, from the Proto-Germanic keusan, the earlier form of which was geus (to taste; to choose) from which English ultimately gained gusto.  Richard Wagner's (1813–1883) modern German Walküre was directly from the Norse while the word was first noted in English as a proper noun (valkyries) in the 1770s and as a common noun (valkyries) since the 1880s. Valkyrie is a noun & valkyrian is an adjective; the noun plural is valkyries.

Rides of some Valkries

Valkyries Riding into Battle (1838) by Johan Gustaf Sandberg (1782–1854).

The Valkyries now get quite good press but in heathen times they were thought rather more sinister.  The literal translation of their name (choosers of the slain), referred to them choosing who gains admittance to Valhalla, the Norse resting place of fallen warriors, but in some tellings of the myth they decided also who died in battle and used their malicious magic to ensure their preferences were brought to fruition.  The tales of them writing their ledger of death are recounted in Edda, (an Old Norse term that refers to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic literary works: the Prose Edda and an older collection of poems now known as the Poetic Edda.  Assembled in Ireland during the thirteenth century and written in Icelandic, they comprise material reaching back to the Vikings and are the main sources of medieval skaldic tradition in Iceland and Norse mythology), their most gruesome side illustrated vividly in the Darraðarljóð, a poem contained within Njal’s Saga.  In the saga are depicted a dozen Valkyries prior to the Battle of Clontarf, sitting at a loom and weaving the tragic fate of the warriors using intestines for their thread, severed heads for weights, and swords and arrows for beaters, all the while chanting their intentions with ominous delight.  That might delight some radical feminists but part of the myths is also that having carried the fallen to Valhalla, there the twelve beauties waited upon them hand and foot, attending to their every whim.  Readers have always been able to take from mythology what they will.  The artists of the nineteenth century however were always evocatively romantic when depicting the Valkyries, perhaps recalling the  Nietzschean visions in the thirteenth century Norse Saga of the Volsungs in which beholding a Valkyrie is compared with staring into a flame.

Valkyrie and a Dying Hero (circa 1877) by Hans Makart (1840-1884).

The imagery exists also in the folklore of other Germanic peoples.  In the Anglo-Saxon tradition, the valkyries (wælcyrie in the Old English) were female spirits of carnage and the Celts, with whom the Norse and other Germanic peoples associated for centuries, had in their mythology similar beings such as the war goddesses Badb and the Morrígan.  Whether in their loving or bloodthirsty modalities, the valkyries are part of the complex of shamanism that permeates pre-Christian Germanic religion. Much like the ravens Hugin and Munin, they’re projections of parts of Odin, semi-distinct entities part of his larger being.

Hitler’s other Valkyrie

Unity Valkyrie Mitford (1914–1948) was one six daughters of a right-wing father from the English aristocracy, five of whom, had they lived in the modern era would have been among the most prolific on social media and staples of celebrity gossip sites; they were “content providers” and “click bait” before their time.  Diana (1910–2003) became the wife of Sir Oswald Mosley (1896–1980), founder and leader of the British Union of Fascists and the mother of Max Mosley (1940–2021; president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) 1993-2009); on the day she died she was the last person alive to have known both Adolf Hitler (1889-1945; Führer (leader) and German head of government 1933-1945 & head of state 1934-1945) and Winston Churchill (1875-1965; UK prime-minister 1940-1945 & 1951-1955).  Jessica (1917-1996) became a communist, Nancy (1904-1973 an author of note and Deborah (1920–2014) ended her life as Dowager Duchess of Devonshire.  Only Pamela (1907-1994) enjoyed what might be thought a “normal” rural life.  The only brother (Tom, 1909-1945) was killed while on active service with the British Army in Burma, one of several theatres in which he fought, declining to take up arms against Nazi Germany, his choice of deployment the sort of indulgence the establishment were extended.

Adolf Hitler & Unity Mitford taking tea during the annual Wagner Festival, Bayreuth, Germany, July 1936.

Unity became besotted with admiration for Hitler and although various theories have been offered to account for the attraction which seems to date from her attendance at the 1933 Nuremburg Rally, there’s no doubt about her methods.  While the legend was that after taking up residence in Munich in 1934, she stalked him, making her presence known at the restaurants & cafés where he was a habitué until she gained an invitation to his table, she was a socialite who knew how the system worked and actually gained a meeting by more traditional “networking”.  Hitler was intrigued, not only by her obvious personal (the depth of her political knowledge is contested) devotion but also her family’s historic connections with notable figures of importance in German culture including the composer Richard Wagner (1813–1883) and the proto-Nazi author Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927).  Telling one confidant that being next to Hitler was “like sitting next to the sun”, she became part of the court circle which surrounded Hitler where the Wagnerian touch of her middle name gained her the nickname “the Valkyrie” and some historians have speculated the second (and rather-half-hearted) of Eva Braun’s (1912–1945) two suicide attempts during the 1930s was at least partially motivated by her jealousy of Unity.

Perhaps already mentally unstable, Unity was distraught at the thought of Britain and Germany being at war and on 3 September 1939 (the day the British declaration of war was delivered), shot herself in the head.  She joined the surprisingly long list of those who survived such an act although, badly injured, she was never again the same; repatriated to the UK via Switzerland, she died in 1948 from complications related to the bullet which remained lodged in her brain.  Even in the 1940s conspiracy theories were a thing and there were several about the already strange tale of Unity Mitford, something encouraged by veil of secrecy her family draped around her.  The most bizarre was that shortly after returning to England she was admitted to a private maternity hospital in Oxford where she gave birth to Hitler’s child.  The origin of the claim was said to have been the sister of the hospital’s former manager who passed it on to her daughter, the niece revealing it some years later.  Unfortunately, it appears the hospital “neglected to register” babies born during the war, something quite unusual and another element onto which the conspiracy theorists latched.  Historians have dismissed the possibility Hitler had a child.

North American XB-70 Valkyrie.

Even while the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (1952-1962) was in still in production, the Pentagon was planning its successor.  The North American XB-70 Valkyrie was nuclear-armed, long-range, deep-penetration strategic bomber, capable of cruising at Mach 3+ (circa 2000 mph (3,200 km/h)) at an altitude of 70,000 feet (circa 24 km), performance which would have rendered it close to invulnerable to both ground-based anti-aircraft fire and short-range fighter interceptors.  However, by the late 1950s, while the XB-70 was still in the prototype stage, the introduction of surface-to-air missiles put this near-invulnerability in doubt and this, coupled with the advent of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) meant the brief era of dominance by the big strategic bomber was over although the platforms, re-purposed, remain in use to this day.  In 1961, after two Valkyries had been built (one of which was lost in an accident), the project was cancelled, viewed as a flying dreadnought overtaken by technology.  President Dwight Eisenhower (1890-1969; US president 1953-1961), a practical military man who had over the decades seen many weapons rendered obsolete by advances in technology, thought the Valkyrie was like "bows and arrows in the gunpowder age".  The end of the dominance of the big strategic bomber had earlier been predicted by the man who more than any remains associated with the once often-expressed advocacy of the platform which alone could win wars: Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris (1892–1984; head of RAF Bomber Command 1942-1945) noted during World War II (1939-1945) the "...day of the heavy bomber will pass as it did for the cavalry charge and soon will for the battleship".  The admirals weren't best pleased to hear that but he was right although, seventy-odd years on, the B-52, much updated, remains in service but it has been re-purposed, no longer envisaged as something to fly over Russian or Chinese targets, dropping gravity bombs.     

North American XB-70 Valkyrie Specifications

Length: 189 ft 0 in (57.6 m)

Wingspan: 105 ft 0 in (32 m)

Height: 30 ft 0 in (9.1 m)

Wing area: 6,297 ft2 (585 m2)

Airfoil: Hexagonal; 0.30 Hex modified root, 0.70 Hex modified tip

Empty weight: 253,600 lb (115,030 kg; operating empty weight)

Loaded weight: 534,700 lb (242,500 kg)

Take-off weight: 542,000 lb (246,000 kg)

Fuel capacity: 300,000 pounds (140,000 kg) or 46,745 US gallons (177,000 L)

Powerplant: 6 × General Electric YJ93-GE-3 afterburning turbojets

Dry thrust: 19,900 lbf (84 kN) each

With afterburner: 28,800 lbf (128 kN) each

North American XB-70 Valkyrie Performance

Maximum speed: Mach 3.1 (2,056 mph (3,309 km/h))

Cruise speed: Mach 3.0 (2,000 mph (3,200 km/h))

Range: 3,725 nautical miles (4,288 mi (6,901 km)) on combat mission

Service ceiling: 77,350 ft (23,600 m)

Wing loading: 84.93 lb/ft2 (414.7 kg/m2)

Lift-to-drag: About 6 at Mach 2[116]

Thrust/weight: 0.314

End of an era: The Aston Martin Valkyrie

The days of such things may be numbered but the manufacturers of petrol-fueled hypercars are hastening, while they still can, to offer the rich a way amusingly (and given the aftermarket, often profitably) to spend the quantitatively-eased cash governments have given them this past decade.  In August 2021, Aston Martin unveiled the Valkyrie Spider, an open-roof version of the Formula One-inspired hybrid hypercar, the coupés produced in 2022, the Spiders the following year.  Revealed at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in California, the Valkyrie Spider differs from the coupé in having a removable carbon-fibre roof panel, two hinged polycarbonate side windows and front-hinged dihedral doors rather than the closed version’s gull-wings.

The powertrain of both is essentially the same, combining a 6.5 litre (397 cubic inch), Cosworth-designed, naturally-aspirated V12 and a single electric motor for a total output of 1160 bhp (865 kW) in the coupé and 20 bhp (15 kW) less in the spider, Aston Martin not commenting on the difference.  Drive is to the rear wheels through what’s described as a seven-speed “automated manual” transmission and though the coupé is slightly lighter, performance for both is said to be similar with a 0-60 mph (100 km) time around 2.5 seconds and a top speed around 217 mph (350 km/h) although it’s noted removing the roof sacrifices about 12 mph (20 km/h).  Eighty-five Valkyrie Spiders will be built, these in addition to one-hundred and fifty coupés and twenty-five race-track only specials and while pricing hasn’t been announced, leaks from the factory suggest something over US$3 million.  Interest is said to be strong although the loss of the lucrative Russian market presumably saw some adjustments in national allocations.  On the car's webpage, the factory summed up its estimate of the performance by concluding "Any faster and it would fly."

Less is more: Underside of the Aston Martin Valkyrie. 

Actually, even were it able to go faster it still might not leave the ground.  While the aerodynamic techniques visible in the bodywork are orthodox by contemporary standards, the Valkyrie also generates much "virtual downforce" by the sculpturing of the underside, significant parts of which are effectively "hollow", the channels using the fluid dynamics of the air-flow to "suck the car to the ground".  The technique has been used for decades but the Valkyrie is the most extreme implementation yet seen on a road car.

Heaven & Hell

Heaven (pronounced hev-uhn)

(1) In theology, the abode of God, the angels, and the spirits of the righteous after death; the place or state of existence of the blessed after the mortal life.

(2) The celestial powers; God (initial capital letter and often in the plural).

(3) A metonym for God.

(4) In architecture, as heavens (used with a singular verb), a wooden roof or canopy over the outer stage of Elizabethan theatres.

(5) In poetic and (mostly historic) scientific & legal use, often in the plural, the sky, firmament, or expanse of space surrounding the earth, including the moon, Sun, planets & stars.

(6) A place or state of supreme happiness, often expressed as “heaven on earth”.

(7) A component of expression (variously singular & plural), used in exclamatory phrases of surprise, exasperation, emphasis etc.

(8) In mythology, a place, such as Elysium or Valhalla, to which those who have died in the gods' favour are brought, there eternally to dwell in happiness.

Pre 900: From the Middle English heven, hevin, heuen & hewin (heaven, sky), from the Old English heofon (home of God (and earlier) the visible sky, firmament), probably from the Proto-Germanic hibin (heaven, sky), a dissimilation of himin and source also of the Middle Low German heven, the Old Saxon heban, the Old Swedish himin, the Low German heben, the Old Norse himinn, the Old Danish himæn, the Gothic himins, the Old Frisian himul, the Scots heaven & hewin, the Dutch hemel and the German Himmel (heaven, sky).  The mysterious Proto-Germanic hibin (which existed also as hebn) is of uncertain and disputed origin.  It was cognate with and possibly the rare Icelandic and Old Norse hifinn (heaven, sky), which may be dissimilated forms of the Germanic root was more familiar in the Old Norse himinn (heaven, sky).  Among etymologists, the most popular alternative root is the Proto-Germanic himinaz (cover, cloud cover, firmament, sky).  A now archaic alternative spelling (in both sacred and secular writing) which persisted in poetry into the twentieth century because of the rhythmic advantages was heav'n.

Stairway to Heaven, sculpture by David McCracken, Bondi, Sydney, Australia.

From the late fourteenth century, the word in English assumed the meaning "a heavenly place; a state of bliss”.  The plural use in sense of "sky" may have emerged from a simple habit of use influenced by other words although a link has been suggested with the Ptolemaic theory of space as composed of many spheres.  It had also been used in the same sense in the singular in Biblical language, as a translation of Hebrew plural shamayim.  The earliest adjectival sense “heaven-sent” is attested from the 1640s.

Hell (pronounced hel)

(1) In theology, the place or state of eternal punishment of the wicked after death; the abode of evil and condemned spirits; Gehenna or Tartarus.  The ruler of hell is said often to be Satan; the Devil.

(2) Any place or state of torment or misery; something that causes torment or misery.

(3) The powers of evil.

(4) The abode of the dead; Sheol or Hades.

(5) Extreme disorder or confusion; chaos.

(6) In informal use, something remarkable of its kind (as in “one hell of a…”).

(7) A receptacle into which a tailor throws scraps and off-cuts (a practice in many industries).  In commercial printing, as the hellbox, a box into which a printer throws discarded type.

(8) A general purpose utterance of in swearing or for emphasis, now generally regarded as not actually obscene; used as an intensifier to express surprise, anger, impatience etc; an general intensifier in many phrases.

(9) A gambling house or booth in which bets are placed (archaic).

(10) In metal-working, to add luster to, burnish silver or gold (now rare).

Pre 900: From the Middle English, from the Old English hel & hell (nether world, abode of the dead, infernal regions, place of torment for the wicked after death), it was cognate with the Old High German hella & hellia (source of the Modern German Hölle), the Icelandic hella (to pour), the Norwegian helle (to pour), the Swedish hälla (to pour), the Old Norse hel & hella and the Gothic halja.  It was related to the Old English helan (to cover, hide) and to hull.  The Old English gained hel & hell from the Proto-Germanic haljō (the underworld) & halija (one who covers up or hides something), the source also of the Old Frisian helle, the Old Saxon hellia, the Dutch hel, the Old Norse hel, the German Hölle & the Gothic halja (hell).  The meaning in the early Germanic languages was derived from the sense of a "concealed place", hence the Old Norse hellir meaning "cave or cavern", from the primitive Indo-European root kel (to cover, conceal, save).  In sacred art, hell, whether frozen or afire, is almost always depicted as a cavernous place.

The English traditions of use may have been influenced by Norse mythology and the Proto-Germanic forms.  In the Norse myths, Halija (one who covers up or hides something) was the name of the daughter of Loki who rules over the evil dead in Niflheim, the lowest of all worlds (nifl "mist") and it was not uncommon for pagan concepts and traditions to be grafted onto Christian rituals and idiom.  Hell was used figuratively to describe a state of misery or bad experience (of which there must have been many in the Middle Ages) since the late fourteenth century and as an expression of disgust by the 1670s.  In eighteenth century England, there were a number of Hellfire Clubs, places where members of the elite could indulge their immoral proclivities.  They were said to attract many politicians.

Lindsay Lohan at a promotion for John John "Made in Heaven" jeans, Rua Oscar Freire, Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 2013.

It proved adaptable in the English vernacular.  To have all hell break loose is from circa 1600; to hell in a handbasket is attested by 1867 (an in a context implying earlier use) although it may simply have been derivative of to heaven in a handbasket from 1853 which was a happy phrase implying an easy passage to a nice place.  Hell or high water from 1874 seems to have been a variation of the earlier between the devil and the deep blue sea and the first recorded instance of wishing someone would go to hell seems to have been in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice although it’s hard to believe it hadn’t before then been a familiar oral form and one with which the bard may well have been acquainted.  The snowflake’s (later snowball's) chance in hell meaning "no chance" is from 1931 and till hell freezes over meaning "never" is documented from 1832.  To do something just for the hell of it is from 1921, to ride (a horse) hell for leather is from 1889 and hell on wheels was noted (in the US) first in 1843, a reference to the river steamboats which, for propulsion, used large wheels rather than propellers and gained a general popularity after 1869 after it was used in reference to the temporary vice-ridden towns established along the path of the US transcontinental railroad.  Unrelated to this was the earlier (1580s) Scottish hell-wain (a phantom wagon seen in the sky at night).

What happens to snowflakes and snowballs in hell is interesting.  In the writings drawn from the Abrahamic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, hell is certainly a hot place, the “fire and brimstone” of the New Testament used in the US as a description of a certain type of preacher.  However, in the Divine Comedy (1320), Dante Alighieri (circa 1265–1321) located hell in Earth’s innermost core and he wrote of its characteristics in ways consistent with Aristotelian dynamics; it was mostly hot and fiery but in some places frozen and immobile:

When we were down in that ditch’s darkness, well below the giant’s feet, my gaze still drawn by the wall above us, I heard a voice say: ‘Watch where you walk. Step so as not to tread upon our heads, the heads of wretched, weary brothers.’ At that I turned to look about. Under my feet I saw a lake so frozen that it seemed more glass than water. Never in winter did the Austrian Danube nor the far-off Don, under its frigid sky, cover their currents with so thick a veil as I saw there.

This prison of ice is reserved for a variety of different species of traitors. Depending on the severity of their offense, they may only be frozen from the waist down; or, they may be completely immersed.

A vision of Hell: Pandæmonium (1841) by John Martin (1789–1854).

Dante lists the intricate layers of location for the punishment of sinners and evildoers and while some are hot, the ninth and innermost circle, reserved for the worst of the worst, is icy cold.  Dante goes further, noting that even within the ninth circle, there are gradations, the worst and coldest spot kept for Judas Iscariot.  A colder conception of hell than that familiar from scripture but the idea of a cold hell exists also in Buddhism and some Christian texts of the first millennium.  Dante’s marvelous work was however for centuries neglected and others took the chance to make sure the Biblical stories held sway, John Milton (1608-1674) in Paradise Lost (1667-1674) having the last word, convincing all that Hell was no place for snowflakes.  So today it remains.

“At once, as far as Angel’s ken, he views

The dismal situation waste and wild.

A dungeon horrible, on all sides round,

As one great furnace flamed; yet from those flames

No light; but rather darkness visible

Served only to discover sights of woe,

Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace

And rest can never dwell, hope never comes

That comes to all, but torture without end

Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed

With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed.”

For those wondering about the fate of certain friends and family members or contemplating their own eternal fate, Dante’s Lonely Planet Guide to Hell summarizes the nine circles thus:

(1) Limbo: The first circle of Hell is Limbo, where the souls of the unbaptized and virtuous pagans reside; while there are no actual punishments, those in Limbo are forever denied the joy of God's presence.  Limbo, frankly, was a bit of a fudge, concocted by medieval theologians as a work-around to avoid the worst injustices of strict Christian rules (notably the souls of the stillborn being sent to Hell on the basis of being unbaptized).  Still it was orthodox Christian thought in Dante’s time and although in subsequent centuries there was much debate, it never went away.  Benedict XVI (1927–2022; pope 2005-2013, pope emeritus 2013-2022), no stranger to dancing on the head of a pin, seemed both to clarify and cloud the waters by saying limbo was only ever “medieval conjecture” and given there is no explicit answer from Scripture, people seem still free to make of it what they will.

(2) Lust: The second circle is for the lustful.  They are punished by being blown around in a violent storm, symbolizing their lack of self-control.  Perhaps surprisingly, given the fixation many modern denominations seem to have upon anything to do with sex, historically the Christian churches regarded lust usually as the “least to be condemned” of the seven deadly sins, the basis of that, as Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) pointed out: it was a sin “of the flesh and not the soul” and thus both understandable and forgivable as would one forgive one’s pet cat for eating the meat; it’s just what cats do.  Lust (sometimes expressed as “lechery) included not only fornication but also rape, adultery and “unnatural acts upon beasts of the field” so it was an uncharacteristically generous view from the pulpit.  Of course, given the well-documented predilection of priests, bishops and the odd pope to lustful ways, the relaxed view may have been corporate self-interest.

(3) Gluttony: The third circle is for the gluttonous. They are forced to lie in a vile slush of filth, symbolizing the garbage of their excessive consumption.  Theologians had a broader view of gluttony than is now current in that they were thinking also in terms of social justice; one person’s excessive consumption meant there were others who went hungry.  Some also explored aspects of gluttony as an example of “the idolatry of food” and thus a violation of one of the Ten Commandments.  One improbable supporter of this was Benito Mussolini (1883-1945; Duce (leader) & prime-minister of Italy 1922-1943) who re-purposed the notion in his forlorn attempt to convince Italians it was time to re-create the Roman Empire, lambasting his countrymen for “…following the French into the decadence of elevating cooking to high art while letting the blade of the sword fall to rust.”

(4) Greed: The fourth circle is for the greedy. They are divided into two groups and forced to push heavy weights, symbolizing their excessive desire for material wealth.  Again it’s linked to worship of a “false idol”, the “worship of money” being the “root of all evil” long accepted as orthodox Christian theology (often acknowledged rather than practiced) although the distinction seems lost in many of the modern evangelical congregations (notably those which sing, clap and strum guitars) where it’s made clear McMansions, surf-skis and a big TV in as many rooms as possible is most Godly.

(5) Wrath: The fifth circle is for the wrathful. They are submerged in the river Styx and must fight each other on the surface.  Wrath does seem a curious basis on which to be condemned to Hell, if only because if too rigorously enforced there would be few not damned.  The point seemed to be that the Christian message was not that one should never feel anger (indeed the Church would clarify this by saying mere anger was “neutral”) but that one should “practice Christian charity” and never allow wrathful thoughts to lead to the harming of one’s neighbour. 

(6) Heresy: The sixth circle is for the heretics. They are trapped in flaming tombs, symbolizing their rejection of God's love.  Heresy really is about as bad as it gets because it means one has disagreed with what the priest says and that means defying the pope who, as the “Vicar of Christ on Earth” is uniquely able to express the thoughts of God.  So, what the pope says goes which is why he is “infallible” in such matters; the internal logic is perfect.  While wrathful souls may end up in the fifth circle, a wrathful God is going to punish heretics by sending them for eternity to the sixth: “Vengeance is Mine” said the Lord.

(7) Violence: The seventh circle is divided into three rings, each for a different type of violence: against others, against oneself, and against God. The punishments include being boiled in blood, being transformed into trees and bushes, and being chased and mauled by dogs with sharp teeth.  It’s been hard for critics to resist the feeling Dante enjoyed writing of the sufferings in the seventh circle more than any other, possibly because of the exalted positions many of the victims enjoyed during however many of their four score & ten they managed.  The sanction of violence against self (suicide & attempted suicide) entered the criminal law systems in many jurisdictions and it’s only in recent decades that in some places it has been reclassified from crime to health condition of some type.

(8) Fraud: The eighth circle is for the fraudulent. It is divided into ten bolgias (from the Italian bolgia used here in the sense of “ditch”), each for a different type of fraud. The punishments include being whipped by demons, being immersed in excrement, and being transformed into reptiles.  In the matter of fraud, Dante casts a wider net than the offence captures in the modern imagination where it ranges from shop-lifting to Bernie Madoff’s (1938–2021) Ponzi scheme.  Instead of involving just financial matters, Dante encompasses fraud in a kind of omnibus bill which captures sins as diverse as those who corrupt others with flattery, those who seduce the innocent with lies and deception, those who practice magic & sorcery, those who corrupt the truth by the pedalling of fake news as well as, most obviously, thieves.

(9) Treachery: The ninth circle is for the treacherous. It is divided into four rounds, each for a different type of treachery. The punishments include being frozen in ice, being gnawed on by a three-headed demon, and being devoured by Lucifer himself.  Dante makes clear the sin of treachery is the worst of all and because there’s obviously some overlap with the offences which justify being sent to the other eight, the ninth is reserved for the worst of the worst.  Interestingly, the ninth circle is the part of Hell Dante describes as an icy, frozen place, something usually ignored in pop-culture, film-makers and Satanists staging their video clips almost always preferring fire, molten lava and red-hot pokers.  It could though be worse still because in the centre of Hell sits miserably the Devil, cast there for committing the ultimate sin: his personal treachery against God which saw him forever banished from Heaven.

Benedict XVI looking for Cardinal George Pell (1941-2023).  Canto XVIII, part of the eighth circle of Hell, in Divine Comedy (circa 1494), illustrated by Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi; circa 1445–1510).

Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos

The legal doctrine cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos (whoever's is the soil, it is theirs all the way to Heaven and all the way to Hell) is a historic principle of property law which holds the owner of a piece of land enjoys rights not just to the defined soil but to the air above (stretching to Heavens, ie to infinity) and what lay below (as far as Hell, ie all the way down); the legal shorthand is ad coelum.  Developments in technology, such as radio waves and flight, have much modified the doctrine but it continues, with limitations, to operate.  Some of the airspace above a piece of land can be recognized as a property right and as something therefore transferable but the right does not extend far, a position modified also in international law as long ago as the 1950s to accommodate the implication of satellites and, later, space flight, realizing the implications of discussions which had been going on since the advent of flight.  The rights to ownership of what lies below the soil and even the right to deny access to others now varies between jurisdictions but has long since ceased to be absolute.

Although there are no specific references in the record, it may be the origin of the maxim lies in in Roman or Jewish law, or at least customary practice.  The earliest surviving mention in English law is recorded in Bury v Pope (1587) Cro Eliz 118, [1653] EngR 382, (1653) Cro Eliz 118, (1653) 78 ER 375 (B), the Chief Justice, Sir Edward Coke (1552–1634), holding “the earth hath in law a great extent upwards, not only of water as hath been said, but of aire, and all other things even up to heaven, for cujus est solum ejus est usque ad coelum, as it is holden.”, finding for a plaintiff seeking to erect a structure which would block to his neighbor’s window the light which had fallen there for thirty years.  Even then however, limits were noted, Sir Edward saying ad coelum might be defeated if a claim for a right in conflict could be found to have existed prior to 1189, the significance of the date being the beginning of the reign of King Richard I (1157–1199; King of England 1189-1199) and, mentioned here as a legal fiction, the end point of time immemorial.

English law seems to have picked it up from the writings of thirteenth century Italian jurist Accursius (circa 1182–1263), and is said to have been used in common law during the reign of Edward I (1239–1307; King of England 1272- 1307) and the legal framework (air above and ground below) was defined by William Blackstone in his treatise Commentaries on the Laws of England (1766).

Land hath also, in its legal signification, an indefinite extent, upwards as well as downwards. Cujus est solum, ejus est usque ad coelum, is the maxim of the law, upwards; therefore no man may erect any building, or the like, to overhang another's land: and, downwards, whatever is in a direct line between the surface of any land, and the center of the earth, belongs to the owner of the surface; as is every day's experience in the mining countries. So that the word "land" includes not only the face of the earth, but every thing under it, or over it. And therefore if a man grants all his lands, he grants thereby all his mines of metal and other fossils, his woods, his waters, and his houses, as well as his fields and meadows.

Heaven and Hell: Google and Bing

In a study hardly scientific but with a consistent methodology, a Google search for Heaven yielded 1.1 billion results and one for Hell, 784 million.  The same search using Microsoft’s Bing engine delivered 51.4 million hits for Heaven and 48.9 million for Hell.  Noting the method in the search engines' algorithm which underpins how results are delivered, this suggests 58.82% of Google’s users favor God and 41.18% prefer the Devil while Microsoft’s users are more evenly divided, 51.25% being godly and 48.75% Satanists.  Given the state of the world, both God and Satan might have hoped for better numbers but the results are unlikely greatly to have surprised either and it seems to confirm what Google have long said: Use Bing and burn in Hell.