When the
basic work had been completed, or perhaps when the harvest was
in, they all took time off to feast and make merry. And we are
told that some had their wives with them - but these were probably
only the local tribesmen.
This was
Archadian idyll- this was the Garden in Eden in its earliest
days. This was the perfect, peaceful scene; but we know that
it was not to last. From the following Epic, we learn that sickness
overtook the Settlement; and from the alternative Hebraic account,
it will be learnt that the next reinforcements of angels [the
Watchers] were to bring terrible troubles to the Lowlands. In
the Epics which follow, further troubles occur - mounting to
the final, awful destruction. But, for the present, there is
an air of peace, plenty, and good fellowship that inspired the
chronicler to heap praise on the alien benefactors.
Towards the end of the last Epic, there occurs this pregnant
phrase: In this land - this created place ...
The emphasis, here, is meant to draw attention to the specific
reference to creation. It is from ancient comments of this kind,
that the religious concepts of the 'gods', or God, creating
Earth, came to be adopted. At Kharsag, the Anannage did create
the fields. the plantations and the Settlement - before their
arrival there were no such amenities - but they did not create
the land, Itself. We still carry the misunderstanding in our
language, today, with earth - the soil in which we grow our
food - being synonymous with Earth, the planet on which we live.
When it is realised that the Highlands of Eden were referred
to as 'heaven' by ancient chroniclers, and the adjacent Lowlands
as 'earth', the limited creation of 'heaven' and 'earth' becomes
perfectly understandable.
