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De Godsdienst Der …

De Godsdienst Der Kelten * J.P. Boosten (1950)
De Godsdienst Der Romeinen * J.L.M. de Lepper (1950)
De Godsdienst Der Germanen * R.L.M. Derolez (1959)
De Godsdienst Der Slaven * F. Vyncke (1969)

I was looking for descent books about the religion/worldview of the traditional peoples of my native area (North-West Europe). There are many cheap books with many pictures about the Viking and Celtic mythology and the like, but serious books? There are a few classics about the Germans/Teutons in German of course, but like I said in my review of the “Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte” of Richard Meyer, they are out of print and almost impossible to get. Besides, something in my own language would be welcome too, because my German surely isn’t bad, but I definately miss information when reading in that language. A while ago I was in my usual and local second hand bookshop and saw the first two books from the series “De Godsdiensten Der Mensheid” (“The Religions Of Mankind”) of which “The Religion Of The Celts” seemed very interesting (the other is “The Religion Of The Primitive Peoples”). A whole range of upcoming titles was anounced, under which “The Religion Of The Germans, Slaves, Lithouanians and Lets” and “The Religion Of The Romans”.

Kelten
The first title about the Celts is so far the only serious book about the Celts and their religion that I know. It was released in a softcover, while from number three on, the series come in a hardcover. J.P. Boosten did a wonderfull job explaining how he got his information, who the Celts actually were, he gives a lengthy explanation about the religion with an historical overview, speaks about the temples, rites and magic, druids, afterlife, folklore, etc., etc. The book is only 240 pages, but extremely informative. I am not familiar with the subject enough to know if in the last 50 years information has been disproved or enlarged, but I am very satisfied with this book, also because it has many wonderfully-looking pictures, which seems to be characteristic to the series.

Romeinen
So I decided that I also needed the other two titles that are of interest. On the internet I found secondhand versions of “The Religion Of The Germans” and that of the Romans. The last seems to be published not too long after the book about the Celts. It was the third that I read and it speaks about old information and new (classical writers versus modern scientific (archeological) investigation), that religion for the Romans was something personal, but also a matter of the state, feasts around the year, the many gods, the way they were worshipped, priests and priestesses, mystery-cults, the high level of tolerance towards other religions and so on. Also very informative with many wonderfull photos and a good index.

Germanen
After reading the massive “Altgermanische” by Meyer I didn’t really know if a similar, but much thinner, Dutch book would bring anything new. Well, it does and it doesn’t. Derolez seems to have made a readable summery of the different “Altgermanische”s that had appeared in his time. He of course read the more modern books such as that of Jan de Vries. Also he is very familiar with (also then of course) more modern investigations in comperative religion like those of Dumezil. Derolez did a fine job and however his book has by far not as many pages and the “Altgermanische” that I have, it seems that most information and theories are dealt with. Also Derolez proves himself critical towards the authorities that most people based themselves on in that (and this!) time and shows their flaws and insecurities, but highlights the goods points. This makes this book not only interesting from informational viewpoint, but also for those who want to study the available information critically. Of course -again- the book is 45 years old.

Slaven
Of the books in these series that I now have I find ‘the religion of the slavs’ the least good. The structure is about the same as the others. First something about the peoples and their history, then the sources of the investigation and then a rather structured part with information and at the end a good index and a long bibliography.
Vyncke has split the books in a part about the East Slavs (Russians) and the West Slavs (from halfway nowdays Germany towards the Baltic area). It appears that the history and the convictions are about the same. For sources there are mostly Christian writers, a little bit of archeology, folkore and comparison with other Indo-European religions. According to Vyncke the Slavic religions were “not polytheistic, nor monotheistic, but had elements of both”. The writer (or editor) keeps repeating that there was probably one god who was worshipped under a variety of names in the different tribes. He calls them “clannumina”. Also the writer says several times that the Christians who wanted to convert the Slavs said that they “worshipped creation, not the creator”. On a few occasions he says that the Slavs worshipped nature (trees and animals) and that the clannumina originally had fertility-functions. “The cult of nature was an essential part of this religion because the numina did not trancendent matter.” (p. 120). Vyncke gives four stages for the development of both Slavic religions. 1. Animism (belief in spirts, etc.) and manism (worship of ancestors); 2. clan-gods; 3. more individual gods for protection of families; 4. forming a counter-balance against Christianity (making of idols and temples, etc.).
Not the best in the series, but still an informative book about Slavic paganism and a good reference book with descriptions of gods and holy places.

I was in doubt whether or not to review these titles. They are no longer in print and you will have to search for them second hand. I can advice the website www.antiqbook.nl for that. Also because the books are 50 years old, they may very well be surpassed by newer investigations, but on the other hand, Jan de Vries’ “Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte” is still an authority while the reworked version is of the same time. Also as far as I know, these are the only good books about the subjects in Dutch and there haven’t been much basic books made available after them (as far as I know). So when you are also still looking for something serious about the Celts, Germans/Teutons and Romans, and you can read Dutch of course, these are titles that you may want to look out for.

Godenschemering – een inleiding tot Wagners Ring Des Nibelungen * Willem Bruls (ISBN: 9026318391)

Not the first book about the Ring by Wagner, not even in Dutch. Still Bruls made a very nice book about it. The little book is divided in three parts. In the first part you get the story behind the Ring in the form of a tale which is very nicely done. Then you can read about how Wagner composed his Ring and what happened to it after Wagner died. In the last part Bruls analyses both the story as the music. All through the book Bruls proves himself well-acquinted with German mythology, Wagners philosophy and that of his time and the time and music in general. Highly informative both for newbies and the more advanced readers and as well as when you know the opera and when you don’t.

Colonia Ulpia Traiana Götter & Kulte * Michael Zelle (ISBN: 3792717840)

Colonia Ulpia Traiana was a Roman city and is nowadays Xanten in Germany. Xanten is not too far from the Dutch border near Nijmegen, which was also a Roman city a few thousand years ago. I thought to have information that a Mithras-temple has been found in Xanten (see my article on this subject), so I visited what is nowadays the archeological park Colonia Ulpia Traiana. On this site the ancient city is slowly excavated and the findings are partly rebuild, and visitors can walk around and look at the remains of a massive temple, smaller temples, a large amphitheatre and other buildings. There proved to be no Mithraeum in Xanten, but since my interest is raised over the question whether Mithraism mixed with local beliefs (as Cumont suggests), I was delighted to find this publication from the archeological park.

Götter & Kulte is written in German and is a square book of 150 pages. It starts with a nice account of the different peoples in low Germany of the Roman period. There were not only Germans/Teutons there, but also Gaulls (?: “Gallier”). Zelle tells a bit about the belief of the Germans and then about the beliefs of the Romans. Then follows a piece about the Gaulls and the Romanisation of the German and Gaullish faiths. It is interesting to see how syncretistic the Roman conquerers were.

The main part of the book is of course about the religions and cults in the city of Colonia Ulpia Traiana. Zeller speaks at length about the findings, links it with pieces in different museums and explains everythings wonderfully. Typical Roman, but also German and Gaull cults are dealt with, because they were obviously still practiced, both ‘in pure form’ as mixed with Roman (folk)beliefs. The most interesting part is about “oriental cults” being the mystery-religions that were practised. Unfortunately not all known mysteries were practised in CUT, so you get information about Mithraism, the Dionysus/Bachus-mysteries and Iupiter Dolichenus, but for example not the mysteries of Isis or Kybele.

Also space is made free for family- or personal religious practises and then how all this developed towards Christianity. Zeller is open about the questions that he could not answer and things that need further investigation and ends with a magnificent overview of all the gods and goddesses that something has been found off in and near CUT. The origin, nature, iconography and findings of a long range of gods and creatures is given: Aesculapius (Greek god), Alateivia (only known in CUT), Ambiamarcae (probably German goddesses), Amor (Roman god), Apollo (Greek god), Apollo Dysprus (local military god), Bacchus (Italian/Roman god), Bonus Eventus (Roman god), Ceres (Italian/Roman goddess), Concordia (Roman god), Diana (Italian goddess), Dioskuren (Greek twin-gods), Epona (Celtic goddess), Fides (Roman god), Fortuna (Italina/Latin goddess), Gabiae (German goddesses), Genius (Roman gods), Gorgo (Greek goddesses), Hercules (Italian god), Hercules Magusanus (Germanic mix), Hludana (Germanic goddess), Isis (Egyptian goddess), Iuno (Italian/Roman goddess), Iunonae (Gaull/Germanic gods with Roman name), Iuppiter (Roman god), Iupiter Ammon (mix with Egyptian god), Iupiter Dolichenus (mix with Syrian god), Lar (Roman creatures), Luna (Italian goddess), Kybele (small-asian goddess), Mars (Roman god), Mars Cicollvis (mix with probably Gaull god), Matres (goddesses in both Gaull and German folk beliefs), Matres Annanptae (probably Germanic), Matres Marsacae (Germanic), Matres Brittae (Brittish), Matres Frisaviae Paternae (Frisian), Matres Treverae (Gaull), Matronae (Germanic), Matronae Aufaniae (Germanic), Mercur (Italian/Roman god), Methe (Ebrietas) (Greek), Minerva (Roman version of Italian goddess), Mithras (“originally a Persian god”), Neptunes (Italian/Roman god), Numen (Roman creatures), Pan (Greek god), Pluto (Italian/Roman), Priapos (small-Asian god), Quadruviae (Latin/Germanic gods), Silen (Greek), Silvanus (Italian god), Sol (Italian), Spes (Roman goddess), Tarvos Triganaros (Celtic), Tellus (Roman goddess), Venus (Italian/Roman goddess), Vesta (Roman goddesses) and Victoria (Roman goddess).

Very informative booklet!

Ontslaap Nu In Mijn Armen, Mijn Lief * Koenraad Logghe (1996)

The complete title of this booklet is Ontslaap nu in mijn armen, mijn lief – het doodsgebeuren: een heidens alternatief. The first word is a Dutch word that isn’t used very often. It is a beautifull word which means something like ‘pass away’, ‘to fall asleep’. Then the title of this booklet means ‘Pass away in my arms, my dear – the befall of death: a pagan alternative’.

The booklet is written by Koenraad Logghe of Werkgroep Traditie from Belgium. It was published by Traditie itself and can only be ordered by Traditie. I suppose that you have guessed that it is written in Dutch. As the title suggest the booklet is about dying, death, rituals, etc. in a ‘pagan perspective’. The writer starts with discribing how illness and death are hidden away in our society. Not that long ago a person died in company of his/her loved ones who knew what to do in the periode of dying and thereafter. Nowadays many people die in a hospital and special companies take care of the burial or cremation.

Then Logghe continues to explain the difference between burial and cremation, speaks about ancient burial rituals (like with the use of cromlechs or burial mounds) and how our ancestors (might have) looked at this important face of life. Then follows detailed information about the Norse/Germanic symbols around death, rituals, the different ‘souls’, heilagr, örlogr, etc., etc. This part is a very nice compilation of this information together. The second half starts with a more psychological part about how relatives experience the death of a loved one, followed by a long part with possible rituals, songs, poems, information for speeches, etc.

Ontslaap is a very nice booklet to give you ideas about how the forgotten practices around death and dying can be revived and given meaning again. Also the first half is very helpfull to get a quick idea how our ancesters actually saw this whole process and how it fitted in their worldview. A very nice little book (about 150 pages), but you will have to contact Traditie to get a copy of it.

Tussen Hamer en Staf * Koenraad Logghe (1992)

This book was published in 1992 and has been long sold out. The writer doesn’t want it republished in this form, but hopes that some day a reworked version will be available. I was lucky enough to run into a second hand copy at antiqbook.com and I think I paid more for this second hand copy than it has costed new in 1992. The book is in Dutch (eh, Flemish) and the title means “Between hammer and staff”. The subtitle of the book is “pre-Christian symbolism in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe”. (“The Netherlands is pluriel in Dutch, so the writer means Belgium and the Netherlands.) Koenraad Logghe has investigated the pagan origins of various forms of ‘folkish art’ such as on houses, rooftops, fenses, doors, gravestones, etc., etc. You will read about the dividing of the year (summer side and winter side), the world-tree or Irminsul, mother earth symbols, acre-symbols, etc. The 187 page book is stuffed with images which serve as examples for the text. This way you will get an idea of some symbolism and possibly recognise it yourself when you run into it. Reading the book you will not only get an idea of the worldview or our ancestors, but also how elements of this worldview have survived until the present day. Often people know that certain things were used by the parents or grandparents, but they forgot the meaning of such ornamentations. Logghe gives you back the key to understand this kind of expressions. A wonderfull and very handy book if you have interests in this field. Just keep checking a site such as Antiqbook.com if you want to get a copy too. Maybe you can get a copy from a libarary and photocopy it (there are 13 Dutch libraries which have it). And even more maybe, a new version will be made available some day.
ISBN 9072100425 / 9030406666

Heidens Nederland * Judith Schuyf (ISBN: 9053450637 * 1995)

“Heathen Netherlands, visible remains of a not-Christian past” is a nice little book that was ten years ago. The second printing of 1997 is available here and there, but it seems that you can’t just order this book anywhere. I have seen second hand copies a few times, but bought a new copy last week at a museum.

As the (sub)title suggest, the writer will take you on a tour through the Netherlands looking for pre-Christian sites or symbols. When I first heard about the book, I expected some kind of catalogue which lists such sites by area with a short explanation. When I ran into a copy I couldn’t see what could be found where and I put the book back disappointed. So for start: don’t expect a catalogue with pagan remains!

What the writer probably did is make such a catalogue for herself, but she put it in the form of a book. She starts explaining what it is that she investigated, giving the religion and cults of what is now the Netherlands, saying something about this religion and cults and in the meantime noting a few places where things can still be seen.
Part II may be called “catalogue”, but it is not the catalogue that I hoped for. It is a catalogue by subject, but then in an ongoing ‘story’ and not systematically given. Schuyf tells about heathen mountains, so called ‘table mountains’, sacred trees, offering stones, devil stones, wells and pits and also a range of folkloristic (even Christian) habbits that have a pre-Christian source, such as the offering of nails, the ligate (?) of illnesses, healing trees and wells, protective crosses, tribunal places (-stones, -trees), etc. etc.

All this is -like I said- explained and the examples of (possible) remaining places all throughout the country are mentioned in the text. Sometimes there is a photo with a discription how to get there. But if you want to know what can be found in the area where you live, you will have to scan the book for place names that sound familiar or you know where they are.

All in all there are not too many, but quite a few nice things to be found in my country beside the famous burial mounds and hunebeds. These are often places of which the name suggests that in pre-Christian times they had a special significance, but here and there there are some nice (mostly folkloristic) remains that are worth checking out.

So for those interested in these kinds of things either living in or visiting the Netherlands may have to look around a bit to find this book, but it is not too expensive and a nice read with good suggestions for being/becoming tourist in the Netherlands.

Rituele Repertoires * Gerard (G.W.J.) Rooijakkers (ISBN 906168403X * 1994) & Eer en Schande * Gerard Rooijakkers (ISBN 9061684471 * 1995)

A while ago I saw Gerard Rooijakkers giving a lecture about “Volksgerichten In Zuidoost Brabant” which means something like “peoplescourts in Southeast Brabant”. “Noord-Brabant” is a Dutch province in the south. The lecture was about how the closed village-communities of a few centuries ago, made their members clear if they did something that the communitie could not agree with. Nowadays we go to court or send the police to a wrongdoer. In the 17th century this was a possibility, but in practise the communities wanted to solve things themselves. The spokesman mentioned a book of his a few times, so I looked it up and got it from the local library.

Rooijakkers wrote his thesis about the folklore of the area that I live in. The writer has a preference for what he calls “black folklore”, the part of folklore that we (try to) forget about. This was already heard in the lecture. The bookform of Rooijakkers thesis “Rituele Repertoires” is a large one (700+ pages) with a lot of information about the social, political and clerical history of Southeast Brabant. You can read about the customs of the common people, the reactions of the Catholic south to the reformation, the counter-reformation, etc. The information is about the time 1559 to 1854. Is was interesting to read such a detailed history of the area that I live in, how the southern Netherlands were formed, the invasions of the French and the Spaniards, the changes of Christianity and especially what happened in this period in the small villages where all this took place. In different ways -for example- the Catholic people tried to make clear that the Protestant priests were not welcome. This could vary from shitting in the church to molesting the priest and even ‘banishment rituals’. Rooijakkers keeps highlighting the ritual meanings of such actions and gives a wide variety of examples and quotes many old texts (in old Dutch). It is easier to give the idea by returning to the subject of his lectures about ‘peoplescourts’.

When a man did not treat his wife well, the community put him to shame to show him his place. An often-used method was the so-called “ploegspannen”. The man was bound in front of a plough (instead of a horse) and forced to plough the field in front of his house. The purpose of this method is plural. First of course physical punishment, but more important is the element of shame. The whole village (and of course the surrounding villages) knew about the incident. Even if they didn’t know what the man had done, they know now, because only in the ‘bad husband case’, the man got this kind of punishment. Further shame is the field in front of the house that was wracked up, so passers-by knew for the weeks to come that something had happened here.

The customs of the local people did of course not only deal with punishment, but the line is sometimes thin. For example, when a man and a woman wanted to marry, the unmarried male part of the community wanted something in return for the woman, because their ‘market’ had become smaller. Usually the groom was supposed to give away beer. Should he not do this, the “jonkheit” (an old word for ‘youth’, but it refers to all unmarried males) would come to his house and make noise. If the beer still didn’t come, there were ways to spoil the marriage day in such a way that everybody would know that the groom had been a cheap-ass.

More of such customs and situations are spoken about (but the range of subjects is much wider). In “Rituele Repertoires” at length, in “Eer en Schande” (which means ‘honour and shame’) in a more modest booklet (176 pages). The dissertation is no longer in press, but the smaller booklet is. “Eer en Schande” has all the interesting and funny information of the large book, is a lot cheaper and has images that are not found in the large book. Besides what is mentioned above, you can read about rituals around death, swearing, seasonal customs, the ‘sociability’ (youth-culture of the earlier mentioned ‘jonkheit’), etc.

Rooijakkers follows the old customs to more recent times and he is about the only one who does this. The cover of ‘Eer en Schande’ shows a slaughtered dear nailed against the churchdoor of Hoogeloon in 1994. It was obvious to people that this was bad news, but noone really knew what this action meant. Rooijakkers had more of such recent examples of ‘black folklore’. It seems that he and certain individuals (the dear was put on the church door as a warning by poachers against people who had warned the police about their actions) want to keep the memory of this side of the folklore alive. Rooijakkers describes the elements and ritual value of this and other folkloristic actions.

Very interesting, especially when you live in Brabant, because it all takes place in the Southeast part of Noord-Brabant.

Die Kelten * Alexander Demandt (ISBN: 3406447988)

In set-up this book holds the middle between the other two books that I reviewed in this series, “Die Germanen” which is a scholarly book about this ancient peoples and “Götter und Kulte der Germanen” mostly based on archeological findings. Demandt deals with the Celts and mostly uses archeological findings for his ideas, but also uses the scriptures of especially Ceasar about the Celts. The book mostly speaks about the history and also political history of the Celts. A hard-to-answer question is who the Celts exactly were and where they came from. Demandt supports the idea that they originally came from south-west Germany, but quickly went to north-east Germany and from there, northern France, the Brittish isles and the rest of Europe. Unlike the Germans, the Celts were good enough warriors to make the lives of the Romans miserable. They even managed to take in Rome for a short while. At the peak, the Celts inhabited an area from Great Brittain to Romenia. When the Romans regained power, the Celts were drawn back. Also the (quite similar, but not quite the same) upcoming Germans took (back) much land.

Even more contrary to the Germans, the Celts were a flexible folk who adjusted to new surroundings. They took the good things from the Romans, blended well into the Italian and near-Eastern peoples just to name two examples. Still this couldn’t prevent them to become parias in the Roman empire and being pushed back as far as Ireland and Scotland. There they met a new treat: Christianity and also here (as we all know) the Celts (outwardly) adjusted their convictions and way of living.

The worldview, myths, religion and folklore is shortly dealt with. At the end you can read a bit about the Celtic revival in the Romantic periode and in our own day and time.

Tacitus: De Opstand Van De Bataven * Vincent Hunink (transl.) (athenaeum 2005 * isbn 9025353347)

However the revolt of the Batavians was actually just a short rebellion against the Roman occupators, this history is often displayed as being a part of the glorious past of the Dutch peoples. The only information about this period in history comes from the Histories of Publius Cornelius Tacitus (ca.55-117). Hunink is translator of more classical texts and is working on a translation of the complete works of Tacitus. For the purpose of the Batavians, he only used the three parts of the Histories in which Tacitus writes about the Batavians. This Germanic tribe came to live on what is now Dutch soil. They cooperated with the Romans, but revolted and eventually came back on friendly terms. This history can be found in this nice, small and cheap book. Hunink made a nice introduction and a register/glossery. That register is not too handy, because when Tacitus writes: “Civilis and Classicus were happy because…” and you want to look up who these two persons were again, you have to scan the entire register, because the names are listed under the J of “Julius Civilis” and “Julius Classicus”. For the rest, a very nice booklet in a luxery publication.

Commentarii De Bello Gallico * Gaius Julius Caesar (Vincent Hunink, translator) (51 BCE / 1997/2004 athenaeum * isbn 9025306667)

This new (1997) Dutch translation comes in a nice and small hardcover booklet for a more than reasonable price. For a long time I had wanted to read it, just to have read it. When I eventually bought the book it took me relatively long to read it. Not because it is a boring book, but just because I read small parts of it every now and then. This is of course the famous book about Julius Caesar’s wars in Gaul, a book that is often quoted as a source of information on Celts and Teutons. The book (or at least this translation) reads very easily, almost like a novel. Caesar is regarded as a gifted writer and I can only agree with it. Together with information about wars and expeditions, Caesar gives information about Germanic and Celtic tribes, the way they live, their gods (but of course with the famous ‘interpretatio Romana’), how bridges are built, how battles are prepared. A very nice read! Hunink (who also translated Tacitus for us Dutchmen) added the additions by Aulus Hirtius who filled the gap until the end of Caesars book and the end of Caesar’s reign. After this follows a very informative text of the translator of how this book is extremely coloured and not at all a reliable source of information, nor even does it give a good image of the Gaulic campaign of Caesar. With such information, this is a must-read for everybody interested in (Roman) history and prechristian Northern Europe. I am sure (or at least hope) that there is a comparable English (or whatever language is your own) version available. Dutch readers are lucky to be able to buy something like this.