Zimmer: Pagan Hero Captures Past Human Connection To Animals And How They Can Help Us Transform

In Heinrich Zimmer’s book The King And The Corpse, the story of “A Pagan Hero And A Christian Saint” captures how greatly honored and loved animals where as it refers to the druid horse as “the wise and gentle animal nature represented in the rider’s mount.  The bravest beast, with its all-knowing resourcefulness and supernatural strength, has borne him [Conn-eda] through two terrific trials.  It jumped the abyss of water, passing fearlessly within reach of serpents, and it soared like a rocket through the flames of the blazing crater, all with the marvelous felicity of a dream.  Yet now, at the ultimate bound, the animal demands its own immolation” (Zimmer 43).  The druid horse becomes Conn-eda’s “gentle guide” and leads him through “a miraculous transformation and rebirth” (Zimmer 44).  In this story we see again the animal and human spirit intertwined beyond logic, time, and space, which are the walls that confine our consciousness and diminish spiritual growth in modern western civilization.