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The Sagas Of The Icelanders (Viking 1997 * isbn 0965477703)

Almost exactly a year ago I was in the USA where I bought too many books. I also had this book in my hand. Almost 800 pages for a mere $ 20,-. I paged though it and paged through it again and eventually decided not to buy it. I knew hardly any of the sagas, I already spent way too much money on books and my suitcase was starting to become pretty damn heavy. Back home for many months with much reading about our pre-Christian ancestors and their religion and mythology I wished that I could read some of their sagas, so I remembered the book in that small occult bookshop in Seattle. Amazon now has it for only $ 14,28, but to have it shipped here would cost me too, so I used antiqbook.com to locate a copy nearer-by. To my surprise I found a copy of a different printing (when you go to Amazon, you will see another cover) in a second hand bookshop in the Netherlands, so I immediately ordered it and received it within a week.

When starting to read it, I soon noticed that this is not my kind of literature. I can’t read fiction or novels and the same goes for 700-year-old stories it seems. A collection was made out of the 49 “complete sagas of the Icelanders” (also for sale) resulting in nine sagas and six tales. Each story is introduced at length with maps, drawing and a summery. At the end there is a very interesting part with extra information.

The sages are long stories (sometimes a few hundred pages), the tales are the same kinds of stories but shorter. The texts are mostly about a man, who was the son of… who was the son of… who was the son of… The man is married to …, a daughter of… a son of… You will get the idea. After such an introduction you will often read about Viking settlers, their raids, but very often social/family-affairs and there and there some warfare. This is told in narritive form with every now and then a poem, because all the great heroes were also poems. Reading the stories you will learn a lot of how the Viking stood in life, the moralilty, etc. There are a few parts with mythological references and here and there you can read about someone performing magic or some information about a ‘Thing’. Quite often you can also read about Vikings going Christian and/or the clash between the old faith and the new one. All this is quite docile, but I found myself having a hard time reading the actual stories which are mostly stuffed with uninteresting details and conversations. Still I am happy that I read the whole book and have a nice thick book on the shelf for referential purposes. Also I am sure there are many people who really like to read old texts like these. They come in very good translations by a number of people, but still in the same style. There is plenty of extra information so I can only highly recommand this book to anyone interested in old literature and/or the Vikings (and meanwhile learning about our own ancestors). Tip: you can see the contents-pages at Amazon.com so you will know which sagas and tales are in the book.

Edda * Marcel Otten (Ambo 1994 * isbn 9026316259)

This is the second pressing of Otten’s successfull translation of the Edda into Dutch. It was the first translation into my language in almost 60 years at the time. The book is enormous, 454 pages, making it much thicker than any other translation of the Edda that I know.
The Edda is of course a compilation of old-Icelandic texts. The word “Edda” usually refers to the “Codex Regius” that was given to the king of Denmark in 1662, but because there are more texts in the Codex than the Edda, Otten didn’t entirely limit himself to the Edda. The texts were written down in the 11/12th century, but are much older than that.
Otten comes with a 15-page introduction telling about the history of Iceland (how it became inhabited by Vikings) and how the texts came into being. After this comes a very well-readable translation of 37 texts, some a bit longer, most of them pretty short. The titles are translated, but also given in the original language. A strange thing is that Otten translates half of the names while others he keeps in the original language. The texts themselves are translated very well, both the more continuing stories as the more poetic ones.
In the back you get a very handy genealogy and maps, notes per text, a large bibliography and a gigantic index. Unfortunately the index refers to texts and not to pages.
After this succesfull book, Otten continued to translate more old-Icelandic texts. There are plenty of them, so he had enough to do for the rest of his life. Also see my reviews of “De Sage van de Völsungen” (“Völsungenssaga”) and “De Saga van Njal” (“Brennu Njálsaga”).

Handbuch Der Gemanischen Mythologie * Wolfgang Golther (1895 Marix Verlag 2004 * isbn 393771538X)

It was quite a read, almost 800 pages in 19th century German. Not that there is anything wrong with the language or the writing style, but this book is one in the line of books that I have been reading more, such as the two Altermanische Religionsgeschichtes that I reviewed. This book by Golther is one of the first of his kind. It came after the Deutsche Mythologie of Jacob Grimm which is also available for a low price, but comes in two books of about the size of this one. I haven’t decided yet if I want to have it. These books tend to be more of the same. Both the structure and the content are similar. The books are way too big (and of course not in my native tongue) for me to be able to find out if the ideas of the writers correspond or if and where they differ. Golther seems to think (in a way justly in my opinion) that the Germanic mythology in the way it came to us, was influenced by the Greek mythology, Roman religions and Christianity. This is not strange when you think about it that most texts where only written in the 12/13th centuries.
Like the other books of this kind, Golther begins to with giving the history of the investigation of mythology and comperative religion studies. Then follow the sources, etc., etc. Golther continues first with folk beliefs before going to the actual mythology/religion of the Germans. The information is of the kind like in the other books. What I do like in Golther is that he puts Sturluson and Gramaticus next to eachother a few times, but these two prime-sources sometimes have different versions of the same stories. The most interesting part (to me) is around the end where Golther gives a nice view of the (daily) religious lives and practices, the temples, priests and (quite extensive) magic.

A nice book for only E 10, but I wish I knew which of the other cheap similar titles that are worthwile so/or I could tell you about this.

Noord-Europese Mysteriën en hun sporen tot heden * F.E. Farwerck (Ankh-Hermes 1970 (1978 2nd print))

A while ago my eye fell on the back of this book when I visited a second-hand bookshop and passed a section that I normally don’t check out. I don’t believe I knew this book, but paging through it I already found it interesting enough to pay a relatively high price for it. “Northern-European Mysteries and their sources to the present” is a massive book of 650 pages in a very small fonttype, but with quite a lot of images. As the title suggests, it speaks about mystery-cults of Northern Europe. Of course we know about mystery religions from ancient Greece, the Middle East and northern Africa, but northern Europe? Naturally the writer speaks about Scandinavian, German and some Celtic mythology and religion and gives the little information that we have that point towards mystery-practises in these traditions. Doing this you will read a lot about folklore in the countries of the European north, Northern mythology and the like. When focussing on the religious and mystery-practises, Farwerck shows how reminiscenes of these can be found in more recent times upto the present day. This is interesting enough, but more interesting it becomes when Farwerck treats Freemasonry as the natural descendant of mysteries of Northern Europe and follows the known Masonic practises back into the past. Very interesting and this book is truely a standard-work with tons of notes for even more (detailed) information.

When I was already reading the book, I read that Farwerck had ‘spoiled past’ and some further investigation proved that he was one of the big cheeses of the NSB, the Dutch nazi-party in WWII. Farwerck was the person who wanted to replace Christianity by the ancient religion of the North. Not that you will notice much of this past in this book, but just so you know.

This review must have been written in 2002 or 2003. The date below is from when I changed from an html website to WordPress.

Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte * Richard Moritz Meyer (1910/? Athanaion/Phaidon * ISBN: 3888512107 / 3884002244)

When looking for the famous work with the same title by the Dutch scholar Jan de Vries (1890-1957), I found out that there are more works with the same title and also about the fact that there are two versions of the work of De Vries. De Vries had a pre-war version (1937) and a massively expanded and revised post-war version in two books (1956/7). I can’t find copies of either work. With the same title there is a 1934 work by Carl Clemen (1865-1940), a 1913-1953 book by Karl Helm (1871-?), many articles and coproductions with the title “Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte” and then of course this 1910 work by Richard Meyer (1860-?). Some of these works are still available in some way (second hand or in reprint), but as I said, I can’t find the De Vries version which I was actually looking for. Via Amazon Germany I found a cheap “second hand” version of the book of Meyer which proved to be a brandnew, undamaged reprint with a hard cover. E 15,- (including shipping) for a 650 page book. Not bad, right? Of course it is in German.

The book gives you exactly what the title proves “history of the old-German religion”. You get an overview of the subject, an introduction into (the investigation of) mythology in general and then Meyer starts with the history of gods and divine beings, folklore, etc. In the case of for example “Tyr” (Tiuz/Tiwaz), Meyer says that he is an Indo-European god (in contradiction to for example Wodan/Odin or Thor/Donar) who began as main god, but was surpassed in popularity by Wodan/Odin. Meyer gives the origin of his name, history of his functions, etc. Most of the book is filled with this kind of information. At the same time you of course get much information of different sources of mythology and the like. For some strange reason in the first 2/3rd part of the book, Meyer doesn’t give all of his sources (no references to places in the Edda for example), in the last part of the book this gets better. There is a massive index and even though the book isn’t exactly what I was looking for, it is extremely interesting and usefull when you want to learn more about Germanic (or “Teutonic” in English) religion, mythology and folklore. I am sure that I missed much information because of the German language. My German isn’t bad, but it is far from being being my second or third tongue, but I will just reread the book in a while.

Altgermanische Relgionsgeschichte * Jan de Vries (1970 Walter de Gruyter & co * ISBN: 3110026783)

No no, I haven’t found a new or even a secondhand copy, but I DID get a copy from the library to finally be able to read this primary source of information about the religion of the ancient Germans/Teutons. Of course (since I had the choice) I got the 1970 pressing. The work was originally published in 1934 (part I) and 1937 (part II) and then in 1956/7 De Vries made a completely new edition, heavily revised and with use of the latest archeological and scholarly findings. This second edition was reprinted after De Vries’ death (1964) in 1970. When this edition was sold out, for some reason the work was never made available again, even when for example the work with the same title by Richard Meyer was reprinted again and other late 19th century works are also still or again available.
This is truely a shame, because of all the works in this vein, this is indeed the best. Of course, because it is (as far as I know) the largest of them all. My Meyer book is 650 pages, De Vries has at least 250 pages more. Basically this work is exactly the same as all the other books with the same subject that I read so far. De Vries starts to explain what mythology is, how to investigate it, what the sources for Germanic mythology are, shallow comparisons of different mythologies and a little bit of history. Then follow chapters about folkloristic creatures such as giants, dwarves, elves and the like. All very interesting, but a bit repetative now I have read several similar books in a short time. Part one was finished rapidly, but the last chapter was getting interesting with information about temples, images of gods, priests, offerings, etc. Then in part two De Vries still follows his predecessors. He speaks about different gods separately and this at length. This fills about the whole of part two, but towards the end some other subjects are dealt with; the world we live in, its beginning and its end. The book ends with the demise of the pagan faith.
Not much different from other books, but so far one of the most recent ones (1956…) and definately the most lenghty of them. Now I only need a copy for myself!
5/11/04
Got it!

Götter und Kulte der Germanen * Rudolf Simek (Beck 2004 * ISBN: 3406508359)

The second book in the “Wissen” series of Beck publishers from Germany that I review. The title (“Gods and Cults of the Germans”) promises a bit more than the book makes true. Just like Die Germanen this is not a simple chronological overview of the subject. Still, this little book lives up to my expectations more than the other mentioned book. Simek wrote a nice little work that gives a very good overview of the world and thought of the ancient Germans. Of course there are many books with many pictures who try the same, but instead of mixing the Germans with Northern tribes and getting the information from the Medieval Eddas and Medieval churchfathers, Simek mostly uses archeology as basis and fundatings of his information.
The book opens with offerings of German cults that may or may not have been religious acts. Offerings like that of the conquered enemies weapons (which the Germans could have used in their metal-poor areas) that are dumped in swamps. Also Simek writes about ritual animal sacrifice, human sacrifice and a bit about burials, because it is hard to tell such things apart sometimes. Many recent excavations are refered to which brings the book truely into our own time and age, because many things have been discovered in the last years.
The second chapter is about “cult buildings”, but also here it is hard to say what was the exact use. It is often said that the Germans have no temples, but still they are refered to often in the writings that we have. Large buildings for collective feasting sure have excisted which are described here.
Chapter three is about the gods of the ancient Germans and the depictions of them in wooden human-formed figures and some kind of totem-poles like form. The names do not sound familiar anymore!
The subject of gods is continued, but this time the Merowinger and Viking time is the subject. Simek shows himself to be very critical against current ideas about these gods, mythology and everything we think to know about them and the origins. The writer does not blindly follow the writer of the prose-Edda (the most important source for German and Viking mythology) who he often accuses of having made things up and of putting a thick Christian sauce over it all. Also assumptions made by modern ‘Germanists’ on information of Snorri and Medieval Christian describers of the German and Viking tribes are frequently put in doubt. Simek primery used the old Skald songs on which for example Sturluson based himself and for example found no clear reference to the race of the Vaenir. Also the oldest known inscription about the origin of the runes says that not Odin, but Odin in collaboration with other gods has invented them. Also Simek shows doubts about the German trinity of Odin, Villi, Vé, which he thinks to be a heavily Christian invention/interpretation of Sturluson.
This line continues with the chapter about giants, dwarves and “Alben” (a kind of elves).
Then follows a nice chapter about magic. Here Simek disagrees with scholars who think that the runes have been of only practical use and that the magical attributions to them have been added much later. Simek gives the runes first a magical and then a practical use. Also he speaks about Seidr, witches, some folklore and the like.
The last chapter is very interesting. The largest part is about death and ‘death habbits’. There were different kinds of burials and rituals that belonged to them. Also Simek shortly speaks about ‘undead’ and the ’empire of hell’. There have been different views on life after death and our idea of Valhalla is very coloured. Thus Simek ends with his critical and interesting book. <5/7/04>

Die Germanen * Herwig Wolfram (Beck 2005 * isbn 3406449042)

The German publisher Beck has a long series of small books under the name “Wissen” which means “knowing” or “knowledge”. Recently I bought three of these books, this one, one about Germanic Gods and Cults and one about the Celts. The last two I have yet to read. The books appealed to me when I saw a few of them in a German bookshop. They are small, apparently informative and most importantly, they have a good index so they function well as reference books.

This little book (12×20 cm or so and 125 pages) is written by a professor in medieval history. I can read German quite well, but this Wolfram writes a bit too much like a professor to me sometimes. Also he obviously knows so much that he sometimes forget that his readers do not have all backgroundknowledge (at present). This makes the book a little more difficult than I expected. Also I don’t really see the structure in the book. The writer starts with a subject which developes to something else and later picks up the original subject again.

The writer with telling what made Germans German, because actually this term refers to a wide variety of clans, ‘sibbe’s’ (families so to say), peoples, etc. and not even on a small geographically-indicatable part of the world. Language proves to be the main ground for naming a people German and telling the Germans from eachother. Then Wolfram continues with telling what the ancient Germans looked like and how they lived and the results of this kind of society. The history of ‘the Germans’ is spread all throughout the book. The first Germans (“Kimbern” and “Teutonen”) would have lived around the Mediteranean Sea. Then a very long part is about the Romans and the Germans. Of course most information we have comes from the Romans, but this period is German history is a bit too much highlighted in my opinion.

In part II Wolfram speaks about the origin of the Germans, but this is not really an historical overview that will easily tell you the history of the different tribes and how them grew towards or opposital to eachother. Part III and IV is better in this. This part speaks about how the Germans became one people and obtained a feeling of nationality over ‘own people first’ and then what happens to different German folks halfway the first millenium.

All in all a nice book, but so many names pass that I still don’t know for sure what are (pre)German folks, what enemies or allies and the (of course undocumented) early history remains dark. But, for the better-known tribes such as the East- and Westgoths, the Vandals, the “Burgunder”, the Langobards, the Franks and the Anglosaxons I roughly have what I needed.

De Godsdienst Der Germanen * R.L.M. Derolez (JJ Romen en Zonen 1959)

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 Altgermanisches 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 from 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 base 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.