Picking up the story of the Alexander's Gate which I left halfways 1,5 years ago.
From "Sermo de fine extremo" Anderson moves on to other sources to show the historical development of the concept. He first considers the Syrian "Christian Legend concerning Alexander" which is currently dated to the first half of 7th century - not the document (there's no original document preserved), but the narrative as such. An English translation was made by Budge, available in his You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., page 144 onwards.
The very annotation specifies at once the notion of the gate: "...how he went forth to the ends of the world, and made a gate of iron..." In a few pages the Syrian story comes to the point when Alexander, travelling with his troops, enters Armenia and Azerbaijan and goes farther, and finally comes to a great mountain and has a talk with the local folks, and asks them: "who are the nations within this mountain upon which we are looking?", and the folks reply that those nations are Huns, and their kings are "Gog and Magog and Nawal the kings of the sons of Japhet..." etc. (a lengthy list follows).
Then Alexander addresses his troops suggesting that they do something wonderful in this land, and as the troops are enthusiastic, Alexander fetches 3000 (no less!) workers in iron and 3000 workers in brass, and they make a gate and also a "lower threshold from mountain to mountain", and then also an "upper threshold", and some bolts of iron, and hammer all that construction into the rocks of the mountains. And the gate and its posts are then covered with "kneaded" iron and brass "like a man when he moulds clay".
Note that no special substance is reported here as yet, brass and iron do well.
Then Alexander makes a prophetic inscription upon the gate about how Huns shall go forth and conquer the lands of the Romans and of the Persians, and after 826 years there will be quite a mess, and the rest of this dismal forecast is better consulted directly from the Budge's book, beginning from page 154.
Some authors argue that the Sermo derives from this Syrian legend, but Anderson explains that conceptually it does not look so. The major shift is that "Alexander, instead of building the gate as a pagan king, builds it as a worshipper, a champion, and an instrument of God; instead of building it to exclude the Scythians, Alans, or various tribes called Huns, he builds it to exclude their Biblical equivalents Gog and Magog... The apocalyptic versions, instead of recognizing that the gate has frequently been passed since the time of Alexander... forecast that the Huns, or Gog and Magog, would go forth through it only after a long time...; they associate its opening with the prophecy of Ezekiel, especially 38:20,... with Revelation 20:7, and even with Jewish ideas of eschatology and the Last Days" [Anderson, p. 24-25].
As we saw earlier, the Sermo features apocalyptic motifs already, but within it "Alexander is mentioned but casually and... but a pagan king" [Anderson, p.24], so it's unlikely that it post-dates the Christian Legend.
Another shift of the "apocalyptic" variants is that "the Gate itself became itinerant, and to preserve its mysterious character receded to remote places... of this both the Hereford and the Ebstorf maps give ample evidence" [p. 25]
[To be continued]
From "Sermo de fine extremo" Anderson moves on to other sources to show the historical development of the concept. He first considers the Syrian "Christian Legend concerning Alexander" which is currently dated to the first half of 7th century - not the document (there's no original document preserved), but the narrative as such. An English translation was made by Budge, available in his You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., page 144 onwards.
The very annotation specifies at once the notion of the gate: "...how he went forth to the ends of the world, and made a gate of iron..." In a few pages the Syrian story comes to the point when Alexander, travelling with his troops, enters Armenia and Azerbaijan and goes farther, and finally comes to a great mountain and has a talk with the local folks, and asks them: "who are the nations within this mountain upon which we are looking?", and the folks reply that those nations are Huns, and their kings are "Gog and Magog and Nawal the kings of the sons of Japhet..." etc. (a lengthy list follows).
Then Alexander addresses his troops suggesting that they do something wonderful in this land, and as the troops are enthusiastic, Alexander fetches 3000 (no less!) workers in iron and 3000 workers in brass, and they make a gate and also a "lower threshold from mountain to mountain", and then also an "upper threshold", and some bolts of iron, and hammer all that construction into the rocks of the mountains. And the gate and its posts are then covered with "kneaded" iron and brass "like a man when he moulds clay".
Note that no special substance is reported here as yet, brass and iron do well.
Then Alexander makes a prophetic inscription upon the gate about how Huns shall go forth and conquer the lands of the Romans and of the Persians, and after 826 years there will be quite a mess, and the rest of this dismal forecast is better consulted directly from the Budge's book, beginning from page 154.
Some authors argue that the Sermo derives from this Syrian legend, but Anderson explains that conceptually it does not look so. The major shift is that "Alexander, instead of building the gate as a pagan king, builds it as a worshipper, a champion, and an instrument of God; instead of building it to exclude the Scythians, Alans, or various tribes called Huns, he builds it to exclude their Biblical equivalents Gog and Magog... The apocalyptic versions, instead of recognizing that the gate has frequently been passed since the time of Alexander... forecast that the Huns, or Gog and Magog, would go forth through it only after a long time...; they associate its opening with the prophecy of Ezekiel, especially 38:20,... with Revelation 20:7, and even with Jewish ideas of eschatology and the Last Days" [Anderson, p. 24-25].
As we saw earlier, the Sermo features apocalyptic motifs already, but within it "Alexander is mentioned but casually and... but a pagan king" [Anderson, p.24], so it's unlikely that it post-dates the Christian Legend.
Another shift of the "apocalyptic" variants is that "the Gate itself became itinerant, and to preserve its mysterious character receded to remote places... of this both the Hereford and the Ebstorf maps give ample evidence" [p. 25]
[To be continued]
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