> It is also worth keeping mind that the Darkness
> lasted a long time.
> According to one story, more than fifty generations
> spanned the time
> between the destruction of the Vingkotlings in the
> Sword and Helm
> Saga and the birth of Heort. During all that time
> (and more),
> sacrificing to the gods would have been a waste of
> increasingly scarce resources.
Quick sums - if you estimate 20 years between generations, that's a thousand years. Trying to find a comparison here - a thousand years ago, that's roughly Norman invasion of England time. To what extent would any of us living here now recognise any of the rituals carried out then? The Christian ones, probably in part (though with language difficulties), but that's a religion that's continued throughout the intervening time. I can't, unfortunately, think of a religion or anything else that required ritual that got "dropped" in that sort of time-period, but there are better historians than me around. Any ideas, anyone?
And by the way, are we quite sure about this business of people dropping a religion just because it gives them no benefit? I agree that that would be the rational thing to do, but there seem to be an awful lot of people around who follow what they call religions without getting or expecting anything from them.
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