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In chapter 34 of Vinland Saga manga, Canute seems to realize something, and starts narrating with "this snow is love". From page 33-36,

Pg. 33 I understand. It is as though a fog has lifted from my mind. (While holding a snowball) this snow is love.

Pg. 34 This sky... this earth... the blowing wind. The trees, the mountains...

Pg. 35 ...... but... how must I express it... though this world... though the work of God holds so much beauty...

Pg. 36 Is there no love in the heart of man?

I don't quite understand what the chapter means. Is this referring to the Christian religion? Could anyone explain to me what's this chapter's wisdom?

Gagantous
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  • Preceding pages imply that the point of love (according to the priest) is impartiality. Inanimate things are completely impartial, so an embodiment of love as such. – sundowner Nov 11 '21 at 06:45

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The mountains, the snow, the wind, and all of nature don't fight to get ahead, they don't fight to gain something and they don't fight to push something away. Nature and the elements just go with the flow and this is what the Priest describes as real love. Where something is completely complacent.

When Canute asks what then does the love I felt for Ragnar means, the Priest says that is simply discrimination because Ragnar let innocent people die to protect Canute. Because for humans, love is putting someone above everyone else and that cannot be fair.

Then the priest goes on to talk about Adam and Eve, which is the story of Eve being tempted by the devil to eat a forbidden apple, she goes on to eat the apple and after she does this, god punishes the human race by making them unable to experience this true love that the priest talks about. The only way to experience this true love is to die because that is the only way a human can be totally complacent. Thus the world we live in now is the true hell, where none of us can experience this true love until we die.

So basically, what this priest describes is a story from Christianity but of his take on how god punishes us for the first sin that Eve committed.

Aki Tanaka
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user57637
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According to the father the corpse is the embodiment of love because it cannot hate, it cannot harm, it cannot kill, making the corpse the only human capable of pure love as it will feed animals and insects, and be fertilizer for nerby plants, that is unconditional love. Canute then understands that the corpse is then connected to everything, the land, the snow, the tree, the animals. It all has a place on a cycle, and none of their components have ill intentions or selfish interests, therefore everything is love. This reasoning culminates with the emotional quote that if the world is brimming to the top with love "why is there no love in the hearts of men?"

Joseph
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Snow is love because it does not hate or fight or discriminate. Humans do all those things so to canute the world is full of love but there is no love in the hearts of men.

Fred
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