Dokein: A Journal for Tactical Theology
74:2 (February 2017), pp. 15-49.
© Foundation Publishing (Site-43), 2017.
doi: 491802131745650
A Once and Future King: The Intersection of Folklore and Popular Religion in the Field of Tactical Theology
Ariadne M. Cooper, PhD.
I. Abstract
In this article, I seek to explore the many ways that traditional approaches to anomalous theology have excluded popular and/or folk religious practices - particularly in the nascent discipline of Tactical Theology.1 The influence and importance of cultural or legendary heroes, superstitions and fables, as well as non-Western oral traditions remains woefully esoteric to many researchers in anomalous religious warfare, due large part to the complex legacies of postcolonial globalization, particularly in the Twentieth Century. However, modern era anomalous events such as the successful summoning of at least five Bergentrückung during the First World War clearly indicates the significant power of these nontraditional concepts of divine authority, and the need for Tactical Theology to pivot and incorporate a broader definition of religious expression and ritual in order to be prepared for future containment needs and conflict resolution.
II. Folklore, Oral Traditions, & the Bergentrückung
In 1955, American Folklorist Stith Thompson created a motif-index system to identify tropes and constants across legends and mythology within ethnic and historical groups.2 Thompson catalogued splinter motifs within folklore tales, particularly amongst those of legendary heroes, identifying thousands of categories and subcategories within regional iterations of similar tales, which has allowed for both literary and historical analysis of the manner in which these tales spread between peoples, as well as the cultural beliefs represented by the surviving elements in each saga.
One prominent motif which often repeats in folklore is that of the Bergentrückung, or 'king asleep in the mountain'.3 In these stories, a mythical hero or ruler from the past has gone to a remote place to sleep and wait for the time that they are once more needed to save their people from unspecified but great danger.4 Arguably the most famed versions of the motif are those of King Arthur and Frederick Barbarossa of the Holy Roman Empire, however there are well over a hundred versions of similar heroes in repose worldwide, with varying augers of events which would be required to predicate their return. Although none of these Bergentrückung have established what would be considered cults of worship in the traditional sense of the term, a lasting belief in the supposed aid that they could provide in a time of cultural crisis has persisted into the modern era through the stories and sagas passed down through history.
During the early stages of World War I, at least five Bergentrückung were successfully awakened to defend their ancestral lands, identified collectively by the Foundation as SCP-4918.5 Of particular interest is the fact that in at least two cases, the Bergentrückung summoned had previously been considered to be fictional constructs rather than historical personages, while two others appear as they did the prior to their documented demises.6
While the details of the rituals used in these resurrections are still poorly understood, interviews and incidents with the entities have indicated that although successful in their execution, circumstances were less than ideal for the return of these entities and in some cases may have been directly orchestrated in order to ensure a positive result. Of particular note, Barbarossa7 stated to the Foundation that upon his awakening, he found the dead ravens which had been stated as the augur for his return shot by German soldiers. While the sustained cultural belief of the ability to return "at the moment of their people's greatest need"8 was noted as a necessary predicate of the successful Bergentrückung summoning, it is surprising that other parts of the ritual could be coerced via direct manipulation into functionality.9 Thus, a clear link could be established between the conceptional definition of a religious entity and humanity's interaction with it. This represented an important pivot in the approaches of applied and tactical theology, not only for the Foundation in their continued containment efforts but for global geopolitical and military actors as well.
III. Defining Theological Anomalies
As with most academic fields, Tactical Theology has continually grappled with taxonomy and categorization when attempting to define its own ideological boundaries. Since its founding in 1951, disagreements about the classification of parareligions10, the lack of research into non-Western traditions (as well as the concurrent issues of Orientalism and colonialist mindset), along with prescriptive classifications of deific beings often stymied the work of parahistorians and theologians, particularly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Ironically, the discovery of Akiva radiation and its role in the interaction of worship, faith, and reality initially limited the scope of research as the focus on overcoming the 'generation question'11 as well as the interaction with known anomalous markers12 in the hopes that standardization of scientific theory around faith-based anomalies would result in greater understanding and ease of containment. Unfortunately, as is often the case with discovery, research did not uncover a single answer but instead dozens of avenue of future inquiry, and an answer for the Generation Problem remains elusive.
However, rather than be frustrated by the lack of a unified theory, researchers were instead presented with clear evidence that the boundary between organized and popular religious belief is far more fluid than once thought. The Bergentrückung of SCP-4918 represent but one modern example of belief having an anomalous impact upon reality, the intersection of popular religious and cultural traditions harnessed deliberately for use during conventional warfare.13 The historical worldview which traditionally excluded popular religious expression, cultural heroes and folk legends, and other outsider delineations of what might 'count' as religion is one that can no longer be afforded.
IV. Conclusions
The purpose of this argument is not to discourage the pursuit of further understanding in any form, particularly the desire to move towards a standard theory even of the anomalous world. One could successfully argue that there are few things more human than the continued desire to know with certainty how their surroundings work, and it would be just as foolish to discount the quantifiable components of theology than it would be to write off belief itself as entirely unworthy of study. However clinical the tactical calculus of the military leaders in World War I could claim to be, there were at least five successful resurrections of kings and cultural heroes of the glorious past by those same leaders, made ultimately possible by the power of belief.
The intersection of science and faith has always been contentious, the resulting discoveries and innovations often seem to work to invalidate one view or the other. In order to properly contextualize the research in the field of tactical theology - past, present, and future - it falls upon all of us to recognize that if we fail to acknowledge and correct for implicit biases, we may fail in our stated mission entirely to secure, contain, and protect against the anomalous. As T.H. White once famously stated (using the voice of Merlin), "There is only one thing for it then — to learn… That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting… Look what a lot of things there are to learn."14