Schoeck_2010_EnvyATheoryOfSocialBehaviour.pdf

156 THE ENVY OF THE GODS AND THE CONCEPT OF FATE
human community to find some sort of explanation for the disparate
fates, fortunate or unfortunate, of its members. This is necessary in
order that the man who is favoured by fate may not suffer too much from
a bad social conscience, that is, from the fear of being consumed by envy
of the favoured man. Some cultures have not succeeded in achieving this
either by psychological, mythological or religious means. Northern
mythology seeks to tackle it by the concept of the hour of fate. Since
every individual has his own personal and unique hour of birth, the
painful problems that face every community as a result of disparate fates
can be solved by coupling fate with the moment of birth. Simrock gives
examples of these facts:
Otherwise fate is impersonal, as the following account shows. . . . It is
said of the Valkyrie that they set out to work Orlog, to mete out fate, to
decide wars. Fates are laid and set, primeval decrees, primeval decisions,
which man cannot escape, and to which even the gods are subject.
Fortune is pre-determined and depends on the hour of birth: our fortune
is sung in the cradle, an expression that alludes to those gift-bestowing
Norns or fairies who come to the newly born child to 'create' its fortune. In
Old High German the hour itself is called hwila and the fortune linked with
it hwilsalida or vilsaelda, no doubt also imagined as personal, since it
resembles the gift-bestowing Norns. The influence of the stars is a belief of
later date, and refers to the 'star of the Wise Men' .... Those born at a lucky
hour were called children of fortune. When it was said of them that they
were born with a caul (lucky cap), also known as a helmet, the idea had
some connection with nature, since some children are in fact born with a
thin membrane round the head. This used to be carefully preserved and
buried beneath the threshold. The child's guardian spirit, or a part of his
soul, was supposed to dwell therein. 26
Shame and guilt
The psychoanalyst Gerhart Piers has thrown some light on the personality
change which helps to explain the modern creative era of relative
freedom from the fear of being envied. Piers distinguishes between two
personality types which may be seen as corresponding to two cultural
types: the person burdened by a sense of guilt and the person filled with
26 Op. cit., p. 165.