If These Walls Could Talk
According to one Norse story, the gods required a wall. Asgard, their kingdom, had once been encircled by barricades, however a war had destroyed them. once the gods set to erect a replacement wall, a builder appeared out of obscurity and offered his services. Loki, the trickster, recommended that the gods settle for his proposal however set associate degree not possible point in time. once time ran out, they may send him on his means, thereby obtaining the lion’s share of the wall without charge.
The builder accepted the terms and set to figure. in the midst of his honorable horse, he created fast work of the wall; he was dangerously near finishing the stone loop round the kingdom before his time was up. Desperate, Loki remodeled himself into a mare to lure away the builder’s horse. The builder was angry. This was once the gods completed, to their horror, that he was truly an enormous — their sworn enemy — in disguise.
Thor bludgeoned the intruder to death together with his hammer. The wall remained, however the gods’ dishonest dealings set in motion Ragnarok: the autumn of the empire and therefore the finish of the cosmos.
Border walls are around as long because the gods themselves, guarding our cities and castles. They fell shortly out of favor, however at the instant, they appear to be enjoying exaggerated quality in such far-flung locations as Myanmar, France, Bulgaria, Pakistan, and, of course, the us. in contrast to those of past, erected to stay out predatory invaders, today’s walls square measure designed to protect against desperate refugees and migrants. Governments square measure launching efforts to strengthen loaded down borders as folks obtain to flee everything from war and famine to drought and rising seas.
This revival comes at a time once the argument against walls looks notably convincing: consultants have found that walls have not extremely worked, and that they usually appear to presage not associate degree empire’s sempiternity however its collapse. Walls supply the promise of absolute protection, however they nearly always fail to deliver. Still, we have a tendency to build them once more and once more. Last winter, I traveled to Noreg to check one in all Europe’s newest and most ill-famed comes in hopes of learning what it might tell United States of America regarding our antique impulse to each wall ourselves off and wall ourselves in.