Post traumatic stress in Mesopotamia

[Sharur]

This kind of behaviour by Odin or his lookalike would presumably not be interpreted as mass PTSD on the part of Styrbjörn and his army.  (As Andreas notes, there seems to be a general absence of mountains to create avalanches in the area.)

Though the more selective battle-blindness/deafness/terror striking might be interpretable thus.

For the mountainous terrain, and assuming the battle site has been correctly located, the text seems a little ambiguous (possibly because of its translation into English) but might be taken to imply the avalanche actually brought the mountain down too. It reads a little like some of the folkloric explanations for terrain oddities elsewhere. Blinding the host and Styrbjörn just before the avalanche seems a trifle overkill, though again, it might be taken as a reference to the darkening that happens just before someone's buried by a severe avalanche rather than "true" blindness.

[Patrick Waterson]

Blinding the host and Styrbjörn just before the avalanche seems a trifle overkill, though again, it might be taken as a reference to the darkening that happens just before someone's buried by a severe avalanche rather than "true" blindness.

Although first-hand accounts of such a phenomenon might be hard to come by without a spaewoman: knowledge of such a 'darkening' would seem to be confined to those who did not survive the 'severe avalanche'.

Anyway, Odin's habit of selective blinding, slaying et. al. seem to have been replicated by Epizelus' mysterious large bearded man at Marathon.  Whether this indicates that a rogue deity was in the habit of clandestine slaughter at varying times and locations I do not know; whether Epizelus had incurred previous traumatic experiences at the hands of large bearded men is a question I leave open for those who may wish to dwell upon it.

[Sharur]

Although first-hand accounts of such a phenomenon might be hard to come by without a spaewoman: knowledge of such a 'darkening' would seem to be confined to those who did not survive the 'severe avalanche'.

Though nowadays, we can find out by watching a video by someone unlucky enough to be caught in one, and lucky enough to have been rescued, like this one.

[Patrick Waterson]

That would be a bit worrying, certainly.