On September 10th around 3 a.m. CDT, I was as usual sitting at my computer with Poser open tweaking a character I had been working on. All of the sudden my monitor blinked off, popped and smoke started pouring out of it. I woke Parker up and he quickly took it apart to make sure the fire was out. Later that morning he informed me that the horizontal hold transistor or something like that must have gone out but my monitor still worked limited to a smaller resolution. As if that were not bad enough, that evening we tied our two dogs out in the side yard to get some exercise and left to get a part at the hardware store. When we came back, one of the dogs had wrapped herself around the water faucet and pulled the pipe out of the ground making us a nice pretty fountain in the side yard. No water for the rest of the evening.
That night I spent awake as usual working on poser with my limited monitor capabilities till the wee hours of the morning so when Parker left for the hardware store early on the 11th I was asleep. He woke me when he got back followed by a call from my mother. Parker turned on the TV and I, like most people that day watched in shock and horror at the images on the screen. I logged on line after a bit, can't remember when exactly, that day is a blur and honestly I probably didn't look at a clock. One of the moderators for an e-group I (still) run had suggested that we suspend the rules to allow free conversation and the other mods agreed. We needed that contact. The rest of the day was spent reading email from friends all over the world not only on that group but other email lists as well. I hugged my babies a little tighter that day when the got home from school and the evening was spent explaining the ugliness of the world to them and making patriotic t-shirts because it was all we could do at the time. I still have my shirt packed away.
I was asleep when it happened. I went to bed upset that my dog had broken a water pipe and that my monitor was burned out and was limited to an 800x600 resolution and woke up to a nightmare where my pipes and viewing resolution didn't matter so much. I will always remember, I will never forget.
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I don't really remember a lot of details from that day - it's very much a blur in my mind in many ways. One thing I do remember, though, is when my husband came it to wake me up, he was trying to tell me what had happened and I simply could not make sense of what he was saying. Planes hitting the towers? The towers collapsing from it? In my mind I saw little planes and couldn't figure out how they could have damaged the building very much. He told me about the Pentagon and that a plane had crashed "somewhere else" and they weren't sure if it was part of what was happening or something else all together.
I finally pulled my head together enough to turn on the TV, I understood better what he'd been saying, but I still couldn't believe it.
The next day, I wrote a Nid - or a ritual Heathen curse - directed at the terrorists - mainly because I just had so much anger I had to do something to direct it rather than just lash out at the world in general.
Here's the introduction to the Nid that I posted:
**A Nid Raised on the Terrorists Involved in the Horrors of September 11, 2001**
In addition, I am raising the Nidstang against those who were knowingly involved in any way, shape or form, with this horrific act.
It is important to understand that the Nidstang does NOT stand against those who may have unknowingly aided in the training the terrorists obtained, such as those who worked at private and jet pilot training schools who were unaware of the terrorists goals and had no reason to be suspicious - they are, in their own way, victims of these criminals as well.
I also want to make it clear that this Nid is NOT intended to be placed against anyone on the basis or their race or religion alone. There are many, many, many in the Arab world and among the millions of Muslims around the world, who are every bit as shocked, saddened, sickened, angered and befuddled by these kind of actions as those of us in the US are, and who are hurting right now, not only for the obvious victims of these acts, but also for the name and honour of their people as a whole. Whether it is Osama bin Laden or someone else who is behind these atrocities, we need to remember that the reason "ordinary" citizens were targeted is that those who do thinks kind of things believe that ALL Americans are "valid" targets, by virtue of our nationality alone - regardless of what our own personal beliefs may be. If we, in turn, take out our anger on Arabs and Muslims in general, rather than only taking it out on those who have earned the brunt of our wrath, we then act no differently than they have - and in doing so, we let them win.
To put a "nid" on someone was a form of verbal curse, a magic ritual that was considered very powerful during the Viking age, and before that. The power of words was not taken lightly by these efficient warriors, so a curse of this kind was something very serious to send, not to speak of having a "nid" spoken over oneself.
In the Saga of Egil Skallagrimsson (an Icelandic/Norwegian story from the 10th century) a dispute is told about Egil and the King Eirik Blodyx ("Bloody axe"), who treated Egil wrongly, and also made him an outlaw. This turned out to become a rather bloody situation, with many dead on both sides.
When Egil has slain a large number of King Eiriks subjects and allies on the island of Herdla (outside Iceland), in anger he placed a hazelwood pole on the top of this island, and on the top of the pole he places a cut off horse's head, aimed towards land. On the pole he carves sacred runes, with a curse upon King Eirik. He also speaks this curse, this "nid":
"Here I place this "nidstang" ("curse-pole"), and turneth it against King Eirik and Queen Gunnhild - turneth I this against all the gnomes and little people of the land, that they may all be lost, not finding their homes, until they drive King Eirik and Queen Gunnhild out of the country."
According to the legend, the curse soon had it's effect, and King Eirik and his Queen Gunnhild fled to the British Isles.
And this is the Nid itself:
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The Nid
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Upon those who seek to strike
Under the cover of secrecy
Who will not show their faces
Or admit that they take these actions
Upon those who kill the innocent
Who consider "ordinary" citizens
Who do not make the decisions of the leaders
Who may or may not support those policies
Who may or may not even understand what those policies are
To be "valid targets" of their hatred and anger
Upon those who would trick other people
Into teaching them the skills they need to kill
Who take advantage of the willingness of strangers
To provide services that may not be available in other nations
Upon those who believe that to cut off the "head of the snake"
To strike at the heart of our symbols
To try and kill our leaders
To destabilize our economy
To break the spirit of our nation
Upon those who give knowing shelter and aid
Who protect these creatures of cowardice
And refuses to allow them to face the consequences of their action
Most specifically
Upon those who knowingly planned
Participated in
Sheltered
Or otherwise, with knowledge and intent,
Assisted those who brought about the decimation
of September 11, 2001, in the United States of America
I call upon these nithings the full wrath of Thor
The Protector and Defender of the common man
I call the fullest measure of the Justice of Tyr
Who allowed himself to be maimed in an act of courage and honour
In order to save the order of the Gods
I call the fullest judgment of Odin
The Allfather, the God of War
Who leads the Gods in the battles against the Jotuns
Including these Jotuns of hate
I call the dominion of Hella
Who keeps all nithings within the horrors of Nifelheim
May those who meet the criteria of this Nid
Never known the comfort and succor of their own God
Only the might, the wrath, the Justice and the punishment of mine
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