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Blutleuchte * Gerhard Hallstatt (2010)

Gerhard Hallstatt (or Gerhard Petak or Kadmon) is best-known for his musical outlet Allerseelen, but for a long time he also published magazines under the titles Aorta and Ahnstern.

These “tracts” first appeared in twenty issues of Aorta and nine of Ahnstern. They were homemade bilingual booklets done with typewriter, copying machine, and stapler. The print was cramped, the illustrations blurred or blackened, and the English translations extremely quaint (in contrast to Gerhard’s beautiful German.)

So a few people set up to make new translations of Gerhard’s articles and present them in a beautiful cloth-bound book with two-colour print. What is presented is a cabinet of curiosities that go from the Cathars to crop circles and man-made UFOs. The articles are only those of Gerhard and span about the decade from 1990 to 2000. It is great to find a man with an interest in a wide variety of subjects as myself not trying to hang around in the same allies all the time. Somehow many of the articles circle around the period of the two world wars though. Through interviews and articles you will learn about Kenneth Anger and his films, a woman with stigmata, characters such as Codreanu and Willigut, musicians such as Z’ev and Michael Moynihan, magic, shamanism, the far corners of science, artists, religions and cults. Several articles are very personal accounts of travels to ancient festivals or mystical places. At least one text is a made-up story which makes me wonder about one or two other personal accounts. Gerhard introduces new terms such as panzermaterialismus and heidnat and describes visions caused by eating mushrooms. Satanism, magic, controversial elements of history it is all here in Blutleuchte. The book is a very enjoyable read with nice, short texts about subjects that I was mostly familiar with, but for example the author rekindled my desire to watch the pre-WWII films of Riefenstahl and I do not believe that I ever heard of the subterranean midget worlds called “Erdställe”. The book is not cheap, but worth the money a worthwhile homage to a lifelong traveller. Speaking of homage, the introduction that I quoted is written by noone less than Joscelyn Godwin the famous scholar on music and Western esotericism and who is apparently no longer frightened by a bit of controversy, since he also wrote introductions to English translations of Evola and articles in the Tyr Journal. I admire the man for knitting his name to such publications which will hopefully make them appear less black (and white).
To get your own copy, people from Europe best get in contact with Gerhard himself (aorta(at)gmx(dot)at), in the US with the publisher (linked below).
2010 Ajna, isbn 9780972182034

The Secret Of The Hittites * C.W. Ceram (1956)

This book was first published in 1955 under the vague title “Enge Schlucht und schwarzer Berg” (‘Narrow canyon and black mountain’), but soon translated to English. It is not a book about the Hittites, but a book about ‘Hittitology’, the branch of science that came after the investigations started with a few lucky findings. Ceram (a pseudonym for Kurt Marek) is not a ‘Hittitologist’ either, but a man who started writing for newspapers and later dedicated his skills to books. The book gives the fascinating story of the discovery of an ’empire’ that had long been thought to have been just one of the Palestinean tribes mentioned in the Bible. Different archeologists have made some lucky discoveries in areas far away from eachother in the late 19th century. Later these findings were connected to the same peoples and (falsely) called “Hittites”. As investigations continued, the Hittites proved to have been a power not only living between the Egyptians and the Sumerians, but also of comparable power and eloquence. Ceram fills his book with anecdotes about the people digging for treasures, their adventures in the inhabitable lands of nowadays Turkey, the people trying to decipher the ‘unknown script from an unknown culture in an unknown language’, the problems of dating the findings and all the problems the scholars of a new science run into. The book reads easily and is well-written. There is of course some information about the Hittites, but the Hittites themselves are not the subject of this book. Ceram’s book is an amusing read, but I hoped for other sort of information.
1956 Phoenix Press, isbn 1842122959

The Hittites * O.R. Gurney (1952/1990)

A while ago I read about the Hittites, a people who lived in Asia Minor and held the middle between Indo-European and the Sumerian peoples. After having read a book with myths, here we have a book about the Hittites themselves. Gurney wrote his book in 1952, it has been revised three times by the time the version that I bought was printed. The book is mostly a history lesson. It goes from “the earliest period” to “the old kingdom” (1680-1420), “the empire” (1420-appr. 1200) to “the neo-Hittite kingdoms”. That is the first part of the book. In the next parts Gurney continues with the subjects “Hittite state and society”, “life and economy”, “law and institutions”, “warfare”, “languages and races”, “religion”, “literature” and “art”. The Hittites are known from the Old Testament as an Israelic tribe. The summing up of the Hittites as one of those tribes does not give them the credit they deserve. In fact, the Hittites formed a mighty people, rivaling with the Egyptians and the Sumerians of their time. Actually there was no thing as the Hittites. There were different peoples with different languages and different texts living in different times. Moreover, when the Hittites were at the peak of their power, they had excellent contact with other powerfull peoples and correspondence (often chiseled in stone!) was in a variety of languages, several with cuniform letters, but also one using hieroglyphs that are not unlike the Egyptian. The same goes for the divine pantheon. Inspite of the fact that there was a state religion, which was somewhat of an artificial conglomerate of the rest, the state supported local cults and also the Gods and Goddesses of neighbouring peoples found their places in the hearts of the Hittites. Especially because of the mix of Indo-European with non-Indo-European elements, the Hittites make an interesting, but not easy subject for study. Then there is the fact that scholars have not been able to make sense of every text that was found. Several texts are found in different versions, even in different languages. Since they are found on stone tablets which have been damaged in the course of time, many texts display greater or smaller lancunas. The sort of texts that are found is of a great variety. This varries from letters of one king to another, laws, religious texts with ceremonies, stories, a few myths have been left and there are many magical inscriptions found. The latter the author shoves under the label “primitive”, a term that the author uses now and then for the “lower” elements within the “high” society. All in all this little book (just over 200 pages Penguin format) is a nice introduction to an interesting piece of history. I am personally not immensely interested in the purely historical part of what king followed who and when some tribe moved to another place, but the (short) part about religion and the quotes from the texts that are left are interesting.
1952 (1990 revised reprint) Penguin Books, isbn 0140126015

Koning Artur In De Nederlanden * J.D. Janssens (1985)

Some time ago I was rereading Koenraad Logghe’s “De Graal“, a book about the Arthurian legends that thrives heavily on the texts in the Dutch language and has a lot of references to the “Shah Nameh”, the Persian “Book Of The Kings”. While visiting a local second hand bookshop that I rarely visit these days, my eye fell on a shelf where the Shah Nameh stood right next to a little book with fragments of Dutch Arthurian texts. Coincidence? I have not yet finished the Shah Nameh, but Janssens booklet with fragments is only 200 pages so that went a lot quicker. Janssens wanted to make a book to bring the less known, but of the same age (or even older) as the famous French texts, to a larger, Dutch audience. He choose fragments of Perchevael, Ferguut, Walewein ende Key and Graalqueeste. There is a lengthy interpretative introduction which is very interesting and thought-provoking. The fragments themself are in the original language (Middle Dutch), but have ‘normalised writing’. Notes at the bottom of the pages explain uncommon words and structures. It appears that literary scholars are pleased with the fragments, personally I think it are not the most interesting passages that Janssens choose. Besides, the authors of the texts used many lines to describe the entering of a castle or whatever, the intermediating pieces in which Janssens summerises the events are more enjoyable in my opinion. It was nice to read these Dutch texts in the original language. I find this old Dutch not too hard to read, so it went pretty quickly. A nice little booklet that you will have to find second hand. It is well available from about € 10,-.
1985, uitgeverij HES

Sixty-Five Anglo-Saxon Riddles * Louis Jerome Rodrigues (1998)

Initially this was the first publications in Rodrigues’ series of Anglo-Saxon texts rendered into modern English. He completely reworked the booklet in 1998. As the title says, this booklet is filled with the famous Anglo-Saxon riddles, many of which come from the Exeter Book. I find this one of the least interesting books in the series. The texts are short, most of them not too interesting and worst of all, I do not understand the larger part of the riddles, not even with the proposed answers that Rodrigues found among different authors (up to 10 for one riddle). There is some nice word-play to be found here and there and it is amusing that one author gives the sollution “phallus” for almost every riddle. Perhaps a funny book to annoy people. I will quote one riddle that I like to give you an idea. There are 64 more of these, shorter and longer.

A moth devoured words. That seemed to me
a curious fate, when I heard of that wonder,
that the worm swallowed up a certain man’s song,
a thief in the darkness filched the fine saying
and strong man’s support. The thievish guest was
no whit | the wiser, though he swallowed words.

1998 Llanarch, isbn 1861430620

Anglo-Saxon Religious Verse Allegories * Louis Jerome Rodrigues (1996)

Next in the series of Rodrigues booklets is one with four poems, together forming an Anglo-Saxon Physiologus or Bestiary. First there is a long and very nice poem about the Phoenix with a thick religious undertone. The other poems are about the lovely panther, the dreadfull whale and two halve lines about the partridge. In the introduction Rodrigues says that the poems are very much alike more southern Physiologi so the appendices this time are Lactanius’ Carmen de ave phoenice, Ambrose’s Hexameron (the part about the Phoenix), another Anglo-Saxon text about the Phoenix (Vespasian) and two Latin Physiologi of Carmody. All texts, so also the Latin ones, are printed on the left pages in the original language and on the right in modern English. Because of the Exeter Book version of the Phoenix, this is one of the more enjoyable compilation of Anglo-Saxon texts.
1996 Llanerch, isbn 1861430223

Anglo-Saxon Elegiac Verse * Louis Jerome Rodrigues (1994)

The term ‘elegy’ used to describe a group of fairly short poems in the Exeter Book and certain other passages from longer works, was a nineteenth-century invention, since the poems and passages it collectively describes are neither ‘elegies’ nor ‘elegiac’ in the classical sense of composition in the elegiac metre nor in the tradition of later English pastoral elegy.

Rodrigues apparantly did not just try to publish the wealth of Anglo-Saxon texts, but rather present them thematically. There is an overlap in texts between this title and the earlier reviewed Anglo-Saxon Verse Charms, Maxims & Heroic Legends. After saying why the texts presented can still be called “elegiac” Rodrigues names the texts that he presents in this little (123 p.) book: The Wanderer, The Seafearer, The Riming Poem, Wulf and Eadwacer, The Wife’s Lament, Resignation, The Husband’s Message, and The Ruin. A few other texts are added and the appendix gives “some modern English verse rendering of The Ruin” in which Rodrigues writes about the difficulties of translating (ancient) poetry and the different sollutions that ‘translators’ come up with. This time the book is filled with some longer poetical texts of which I only enjoyed Resignation which is a call to God of a person who seems resently deceased and looks back at his life. The texts are obviously laments. Of course there is a lengthy introduction again and at the end a gigantic bibliography.
1994 Llanarch, isbn 1897853319

Anglo-Saxon Verse Runes * Louis Jerome Rodrigues (1992)

In July last year I reviewed another little book of Rodrigues. Already then I planned to get me some more of these books, so a while ago I found five of them from the same bookshop. The text looks like it is made with an electrical typewriter and the only ‘luxery’ is plastic around the simple, soft cover. Rodrigues made a whole range of these Anglo-Saxon textbooks. The booklets have a large variety in price, so look around well when you want to get them. They read rapidly. The current title has a lengthy and slightly too scholarly introduction, too detailed to be really interesting for a layman. The texts themselves are again printed in the original language of the left and in translation on the right. What we have here are runic verse inscriptions (the most famous that from the “Franks casket” and the Ruthwell cross), poems that contain runes, riddles, “the husband’s message”, “the first dialogue of Solomon and Saturn” and the Anglo-Saxon rune poem. For convenience sake Rodrigues also included the Norse and Icelandic rune poems. At the end there are quite a few illustrations of a photocopy quality.
Again a nice little book and an easy way to get some Anglo-Saxon material in your collection. When the other booklets read as quickly as this one, you can expect some more similar reviews soon.
1992 Llanerch, isbn 0947992944

Heidnisches Jahrbuch 2008 (2008)

It took quite a while to read this Heidnisches Jahrbuch. This is because it is the thickest so far (500) pages, but also because there are some very long essays in it which are not all too interesting. Perhaps it is also because of the fact that I read three of these Jahrbücher in line, so perhaps I got a bit Jahrbuch-weary. I am glad that Editon Roter Drache took over the publication of the defunkt publisher (and editor) Daniel Junker, because I missed this third edition. Like the other issues, this third volume is about contemporary heathenry, but mostly contains investigations of contemporary heathens. There are articles about the problems of reviving a broken tradition, the study of paganism (or pagan studies), Slavic poetry, the Wessobrun prayer, ‘the last journey’ and Franz Xaver von Unger. The articles that I remember better are Hermann Ritter’s Von Ausen Gestellte Fragen An Die Edda a perhaps not overly scholarly essay, but a nice personal text of a person who looks at the Eddas and comes up with all kinds of “why”s, “how”s and “what”s. Nicely critical, sometimes slightly provocative, showing that the Eddas are not exactly books that one should take literally. A very long, too long in fact, essay is about honour in Germanic society. I have read a few similar texts in the last year. Christian Brühning does not really come up with anything new and he jumps to sidepaths a bit. Not uninteresting though, since it brings a few things to think about. A text that I already got from the author a few years ago is Holger Kliemannel’s short text about Johannes Bureus (and “gothicism”). Kliemannel is a member of the Roter Drache, just as Thomas Karlsson who wrote several books and articles about Bureus, so Kliemannel naturally refers to texts of Karlsson that I never heard of, but he also knew my article. Kliemannel’s article is but a very rudimentary introduction into Bureus. A nice article is about werewolves (by Peter Hilterhaus) in which he goes from modern (film)versions to Männerbünde and a lot in between. The article is not groundbreaking, but a nice read and he critically refers to Kershaw on a few occasions, which is not entirely unjust. Towards the end of the book there are book-, film- and musicreviews.
The third Heidnisches Jahrbuch is not the best one, but like the other three, it is nice to read something written by ‘fellow heathens’. The fourth volume was announced to be the last one, but when I was looking for the cover of number three, I found out that volume five is also available!
2008 Daniel Junker Verlag / 2010 Edition Roter Drache, isbn 393945947X

Sleutel Tot Licht * Anne Korteweg & Helen Wüstefeld (2009)

The troubled Bibliotheca Philosophia Hermetica has a publishing house called “In de Pelikaan” (‘in the pelican’) through which a nice collection of books saw the light of day. The library contains (or by now perhaps contained) some of the earliest books of hours, 25 of which are the subject of this book. The book is magnificently printed on heavy paper with beautiful images of and from the colourfull books. Both authors are experienced investigators of books of hours and what they describe here is mostly the connection with the originally Dutch movement called “Modern Devotion” of Geert Grote (Geert Great) who died in 1384. Two major aspects of this movement were the fact that they wanted the old devotion to God back which had been lost in the church. This could for example be done by the imitatio Christi that was known from the Geman mystics. The other aspect is that Grote wanted religion closer to the common folk so he preached and wrote not in Latin, but in his native language. Korteweg and Wüstefeld made a fascinating introduction into books of hours which were originally books for laymen guiding them through religions daily life (hense: books of hours). Followers of Grote became fanatic copiers of books, making it a part of their daily duties. Therefor many books of hours came from modern devotic groups and with prayers written by Geert Grote. In short chapters the authors describe different religious movements that followed the footsteps of Grote, different kinds of spirituality and the very personal side of the books of hours with references to family, personal or regional saints, etc. as if the books were written on demand with the possibility for requests. The book reads easily, looks splendid and is highly informative.
2009 In de Pelikaan, isbn 978907608285