Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel

Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
by Ignatius Donnelly (#2 in our series by Ignatius Donnelly)
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Title: Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
Author: Ignatius Donnelly
Release Date: February, 2004 [EBook #5109] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on April 29, 2002] [Most recently updated on May 5, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, RAGNAROK: THE AGE OF FIRE AND GRAVEL ***

Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
Ragnarok: the Age of Fire and Gravel
[Redactor's Notes: "Ragnarok" is a sequel to "Atlantis" but goes far beyond presaging the pseudo-science of Velikovsky's "Worlds in Collision". The original scans and HTML were provided by Mr. J.B. Hare. In this edition the illustrations and figures have been replaced by the glyph "###". Because of the numerous notes, they have been retained on the original page. Searching on "[" will reveal the set of notes for the current page. The page numbers of the original have been retained as {p.117} for example. The HTML is plain vanilla with no illustrations. For a fully illustrated version the reader is referred to the website http://www.sacred-texts.com/atl/rag/index.htm where other explanatory material prepared by Mr. Hare is available.]
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RAGNAROK:
THE AGE OF FIRE AND GRAVEL.
BY
IGNATIUS DONNELLY,
AUTHOR OF "ATLANTIS: THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD."
_"I am not inclined to conclude that man had no existence at all before the epoch of the great revolutions of the earth. He might have inhabited certain districts of no great extent, whence, after these terrible events, he repeopled the world. Perhaps, also, the spots where he abode were swallowed up, and the bones lie buried under the beds of the present seas."--CUVIER._
[1883]
{scanned at sacred-texts.com, December, 2001}
###
THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE DRIFT.
{p. iii}
CONTENTS.


PART I.
THE DRIFT. I. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DRIFT 1 II. THE ORIGIN OF THE DRIFT NOT KNOWN 8 III. THE ACTION OF WAVES 10 IV. WAS IT CAUSED BY ICEBERGS? 13 V. WAS IT CAUSED By GLACIERS? 17 VI. WAS IT CAUSED BY A CONTINENTAL ICE-SHEET? 23 VII. THE DRIFT A GIGANTIC CATASTROPHE 43 VIII. GREAT HEAT A PREREQUISITE 58

PART II.
THE COMET. I. A COMET CAUSED THE DRIFT 63 II. WHAT IS A COMET? 65 III. COULD A COMET STRIKE THE EARTH? 82 IV. THE CONSEQUENCES TO THE EARTH 91 {p. iii}

PART III.
THE LEGENDS. I. THE NATURE OF MYTHS 113 II. DID MAN EXIST BEFORE THE DRIFT? 121 III. LEGENDS OF THE COMING OF THE COMET 132 IV. RAGNAROK 141 V. THE CONFLAGRATION OF PHA?TON 154 VI. OTHER LEGENDS OF THE CONFLAGRATION 166 VII. LEGENDS OF THE CAVE-LIFE 195 VIII. LEGENDS OF THE AGE OF DARKNESS 208 IX. THE TRIUMPH OF THE SUN 233 X. THE FALL OF THE CLAY AND GRAVEL 251 XI. THE ARABIAN MYTHS 268 XII. THE BOOK OF JOB 276 XIII. GENESIS READ BY THE LIGHT OF THE COMET 316

PART IV.
CONCLUSIONS. I. WAS PRE-GLACIAL MAN CIVILIZED? 341 II. THE SCENE OF MAN'S SURVIVAL 366 III. THE BRIDGE 376 IV. OBJECTIONS CONSIDERED 389 V. BIELA'S COMET 408 VI. THE UNIVERSAL BELIEF OF MANKIND 424 VII. THE EARTH STRUCK BY COMETS MANY TIMES 431 VIII. THE AFTER-WORD 437 {p. iv}
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE DRIFT Frontispiece. TILL OVERLAID WITH BOWLDER-CLAY 5 SCRATCHED STONE, FROM THE TILL 6 RIVER ISSUING FROM A SWISS GLACIER 19 TERMINAL MORAINE 20 GLACIER-FURROWS AND SCRATCHES AT STONY POINT, 26 LAKE ERIE DRIFT-DEPOSITS IN THE TROPICS 38 STRATIFIED BEDS IN TILL, LEITHEN WATER, 54 PEEBLESSHIRE, SCOTLAND SECTION AT JOINVILLE 54 ORBITS OF THE PERIODIC COMETS 83 ORBIT OF EARTH AND COMET 88 THE EARTH'S ORBIT 89 THE COMET SWEEPING PAST THE EARTH 92 THE SIDE OF THE EARTH STRUCK BY THE COMET 93 THE SIDE NOT STRUCK BY THE COMET 93 THE GREAT COMET OF 1811 95 CRAG AND TAIL 98 SOLAR SPECTRUM 105 SECTION AT ST. ACHEUL 122 THE ENGIS SKULL 124 THE NEANDERTHAL SKULL 125 PLUMMET FROM SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, CALIFORNIA 180 {p. v} COMET OF 1862 137