Let it be written that in the first decade of the second millennium a host of gods and goddesses descended on the mortal land of Broadway.
I love playing around with the music and meaning of words," says Hardinge, who has invented a host of little gods for the Fly By Night world, from Goodman Palpitattle, He Who Keeps Flies out of Jams and Butterchurns, to Goodlady Cramflick, She Who Keeps the Vegetables of the Garden Crisp.
To mark the anniversary, the organisers have lined up the biggest events programme yet, highlights of which include a Viking feast in York Minster, a candlelit performance of Beowulf in St Helen's Church and a spectacular battle re-enactment complete with 300 Viking warriors, a host of Norse gods and a firework display.
While Rome is home to the papal enclave of Vatican City, the headquarters of the Catholic Church, the city once hosted a pantheon of gods.
In the commentary to A Vision of the Last Judgment, Blake claimed that the image originated in a particular vision he experienced that allowed him to see the host of Heaven praising God.
According to the Qur'an, when God created human beings, God commanded the host of heaven to bow down to us.
No less significant is the palpable grief that an atheist or agnostic might feel when one gives up the host of characters (e.g. God, the devil or angels) that fill a religious universe.
All the humdrum, love-thy-brother, straight edge shit finally gives way to a good old-fashioned battle royale between the forces of darkness (led by a DRAGON), the army of Israel, and God's host of angels.
His valuable 2011 book "The God Species" (a host of reviews here) was the first big sign of this transformation.
