»Links between the viking' Ragnarök and the dawn of Neo...«

At the end of the Ragnarök (viking prophecy telling the Dawn of Gods), we have that very interesting text (I translated since the original text was in french) :

" ... then will happen the greatest miracle, for before dying, the Sun will beget a girl who will rise to the skies to ligthen the glorious dawn, hailing the birth of that world regenerated and freed of its chains".
(thanks to correct any grammar mistake I made).
We'll all make the link with Sati here I guess

The proper translation of the "Götterdämmerung" is not only "twilight of gods" or "dawn of gods", but rather the "destiny of the power that be".

The Ragnrök tells us how the old gods will die/desappear, to free the man of its chain. Was it not what happened when Jesus arrived ? The one God arrived and swept aside the many gods, ending their worshipping.

Most of Matrix fans have translated "NeoDämmerung" by "Neo's dawn" while in fact in german, it simply means the "new dawn". I guess that, again, the brothers have purposely choosed that name for its multiple signification.

We know that the brothers have been inspired by the "Götterdämmerung", the famous opera of Wagner. One of his best friend, Friedrich Nietzsche, inspired himself by the opera, wrote the "Götzen Dämmerung" (dawn of idols).
Nietzsche stated that we had to forget all these fale gods we believe in, and to teach the man how to take his own destiny in hand.
Was not that the message of Neo's path ? Free your mind, know yourself, and fullfill your destiny, negotiate with the idols but do not worship them, don't be a slave where you can be your own master.

Don't you think that it was the meaning of Neo's journey in the movie ?

source : matrix-happening.net...

I like it.

Quote:

Most of Matrix fans have translated "NeoDämmerung" by "Neo's dawn" while in fact in german, it simply means the "new dawn".

Considering Neo isn't a word in german, i'm not so sure about that. But if you wanted to stretch it into the word "neu" i suppose you could say that.

Keeping in mind the eclectic array of sources the Wachowskis used for The Matrix movies, I'd say that using the Greek 'neo' with the German 'Dammerung' is no stretch at all.

Nice work, Apocryphe, I like it, too! I think the 'Dammerung' (sorry, no umlauts today) is meant to call to mind the 'Gotterdammerung' of Wagner, which means 'twilight,' (am Abend) but the alternate meaning of 'dawn' ('Morgenrot') is a nice allusion to the sort of 'Ouroboros' idea (I think) - birth and death are not separate occurrences; they are one and the same.

Thanks guys ! For the "Neo", well it was said by the author of the link above that it could be translated as new dawn. I'm not a german geek, but I guess that Neo can be used in any language since it is a greek prefix like in "neo-nazi".

Btw, did you know that Neo is a kind of cancer too (short for neoplasm) ?

Apocryphe wrote:

" ... then will happen the greatest miracle, for before dying, the Sun will beget a girl who will rise to the skies to ligthen the glorious dawn, hailing the birth of that world regenerated and freed of its chains".

very nice, just look at the imagery:
a girl will rise to the skies - it reminds me of the final flight of Logos, when Trinity saw the sun ... and also, it is before her death (I know, it seems to be the sun or Gods that are dying in that sentence above, but I don't know the original ...)

But I thought about this similarity in wider sense too, similar mythos is very typical for indoevropean mythologies - I mean the rise of new world in the moment of death or the occurence most crucial problems of the old world. You can find in in Ragnarok, in the Revelation of John, or in taosim where yang changes to yin, also the stories about ancient deluges of the world are much of this sort.

Another thought: the dawn of Gods means the end of the old rulers of the world - of machines in context of Matrix.