>?? Example: a timespan of the same duration as that of
>the Darkness, as indicated first by numbers, then by
>"what was happening then". What was happening then, in
>the civilisation I'm a part of and might remember part
>of, was the Norman invasion, so that's the example
>given: and what religions died out around that period,
>is, obviously only relevant if they're in the same
>location as me and my culture or at least linked.
>There's not likely to be thousand-year-old cultural
>echoes of something that we didn't make contact with
>for another few centuries, is there?
There are not likely to be cultural echos from any religion which has died out unless they have been absorbed into the subsequent culture/religion. So we have days of the week named after Norse Gods - a religion which was widely practiced twelve hundred years ago. Extending a few centuries further back we have the adoption of Pagan gods and goddesses as Christian saints. E.g. the church identifies St. Bridget as an itinerant nun of that name yet the saint's associations have nothing to do with the historical individual and a lot to do with the Celtic goddess Bridget.
Another angle you might want to consider is the revival of Pagan religions in the 19th Century. After over a thousand years of suppression, from fragmentry records and a lot of inspired guesswork over a century or so there now exists a group of religions which claim to be the successors of the various pre-Christian religions. Are they the same? hardly, times have changed but their followers believe they are following the same principles. Now Gloranthans can actually connect to their gods pre-darkness so they'll have a better chance of reviving pre-darkness practices but the Pagan revivial is probably a good model for the changes that ocurred during the darkness.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
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