H R Ellis DavidsonReseñas

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copy-pasted from my Librarything account: Very interesting book, offers a great deal of info regarding Norse/Germanic mythology. A must for any one interested in this matter.

copy-pasted from my Librarything account: very scholarly, not easy-reading and it is advised to read this book a few times to grasp it all. But it IS very interesting to see how the pagans relied on the gods and what influence these gods had.

Interesting, but somewhat disorganized. Unfortunately the lost beliefs of Northern Europe still remain lost.

A very interesting and scholarly look at the myths and deities of northern Europe - both the continental, Anglo-Saxons and Norse (aka Vikings). The author describes the various gods and goddesses, and attempts to trace their origin. She then attempts to related the cults of these mythological characters to the daily lives of the people, and provides some ideas on why these heathen beliefs gave way to the Christian faith. This is an introductory text with many nuggets of interesting ideas and connections. Readers should have some familiarity with Norse myths before tackling this book - the author discusses the myths of northern Europe, she doesn't deal with the stories in full detail as is provided in books like [b:The Penguin Book of Norse Myths: Gods of the Vikings|10060707|The Penguin Book of Norse Myths Gods of the Vikings|Kevin Crossley-Holland|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1329819840s/10060707.jpg|25499] or similar.

The many scholarly books written by [a:Claude Lecouteux|434420|Claude Lecouteux|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/authors/1355108680p2/434420.jpg], as well as, [b:Pagan Magic of the Northern Tradition: Customs, Rites, and Ceremonies|22748240|Pagan Magic of the Northern Tradition Customs, Rites, and Ceremonies|Nigel Pennick|https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1406525695s/22748240.jpg|42293072] may be of interest to readers who enjoyed this book.

These weapons have had a place in both literature and the history of technology since the second millenium BCE. The killing in the Iliad is mostly done with spears but there are enough mentions to believe the weapons were around by 800 BCE, if not before. Mr. Davidson concentrates on the weapon in England, with some mention of Ireland, Wales and Scotland. The references are well assembled, and the processes he surmises and describes are quite likely, so it is no surprise this book has been reprinted in this millenium. The prose is not lively.

For such a potentially interesting book, this is excruciatingly boring to read. To be fair, I suspect that's what often happens with papers from a conference - they probably sounded more interesting when listening live.

3 and a half stars. a collection of her essays on folklore; more of a set of odds and ends than a solid presentation, but certainly interesting all the same.½

A man's heroic deeds will win renown, and his fine qualities will be passed on to his descendents. Such is the noblest form of immortality, and the great gods themselves achieved no more. [217]

Readable and clear, Davidson's slim narrative is not shallow summary but a muscular outline of the achievement and character of Norse mythology. The emphasis is analytic: Davidson identifies themes across myths and deities, summarises archaeological evidence and source materials, traces broad influences in modern belief and religion. Myths are not retold so much as characterised, and the people who believed and lived these stories are considered at the level of individual tribes and communities. Davidson avoids glossing over discrepancies, pointing out contradictory aspects of stories and especially of deities, reinforcing the major gaps in the historical record. For example, in the case of almost any deity except Odin, Thor, and Freyr, there is virtually no archaeological evidence of worship or cults, making clear how oversimplified are the popular characterizations of Heimdall, Loki, Balder, and others.

We find in the myths no sense of bitterness at the harshness and unfairness of life, but rather a spirit of heroic resignation: humanity is born to trouble, but courage, adventure, and the wonders of life are matters for thankfulness, to be enjoyed while life is still granted to us. [...] The dangers of this view of the world lay in a tendency towards lack of compassion for the weak, an over-emphasis on material success, and arrogant self-confidence: indeed the heroic literature contains frank warning against such errors. [218-19]

Undoubtedly some conclusions are dated but it should be fairly easy to determine which, based on where new evidence or sources became available since 1964. I suspect that Davidson will be wrong, when she is wrong, because pertinent source materials simply aren't available: she'll be wrong for what's requisite yet missing, and not wrong for making an untenable reading, or for neglecting some pertinent theme. All considered, a fine entry point for my renewed interest in the Norse tradition.

Man must not take himself or even his gods too seriously, and this is an attitude which goes deeper than the wit of Snorri, it is part of the spirit of the myths themselves. The exuberant exaggerations of the Irish sagas are not for the northern gods; Freyja, Thor, Loki have the robust common sense which the Vikings themselves admired hugely. [...] This sense of proportion ... helps to preserve in the myths a keen realization of the strength of fate. [217]

//

To be confirmed: apart from Valhalla, open to a select minority, there is no afterlife for Vikings, nor immortality for their gods. There is, however, a conviction that life follows a cycle, that the Nine Worlds will be destroyed (including Valhalla) only to make way for something new, once again with Yggdrasill at the center.

Extensive notes, glossary, and bibliography suggest further reading and avenues of exploration.

We can see the myths as a vigorous, heroic comment on life, life as men found it in hard and inhospitable lands. The gods never cease their struggle against the creatures of cold and darkness. Thor, perhaps the best-loved deity of the north, is characteristic of the Vikings in his resolute pertinacity. The values for which he stood—law and order in the free community, the keeping of faith between men—were those by which the Vikings set great store, even though they themselves often appeared to the outside world as the forces of destruction unleashed. Odin represented the other side of life, the inspiration granted to the warrior and the poet, and the secret wisdom won by communication with the dead. In his cult and in the religion of the Vanir we see most clearly the shamanistic tendencies of northern religion, the emphasis on man's powers to reach out beyond this harsh and limited world. Above all, the northern myths are clear-sighted in their recognition of the reality of the forces of destruction. The fight in a narrow place against odds, which has been called the ideal of heroic literature in the north, is given cosmic stature in the conception of Ragnarok, the doom of the gods, when Odin and his peers go down fighting against monsters and the unleashed fury of the elements.

I have just finished a re-read of this book, which I first read in 1995/6. It was published in 1964, so there are probably more up to date books on the same subject, but it is a very interesting study of the Norse Gods and their Germanic counterparts.

Starting with what Snorri Sturluson wrote about the Gods and Giants and the structure of the mythological worlds linked by the World Tree Yggdrasill, the authors discusses what is known about each of the main Gods and some of the more obscure ones, how they may have developed from what was known about the Gods of the Germanic tribes on the borders of the Roman Empire, links to the Shamanism of Northern Europe and Asia, and the ways in which the representation of the myths may have been affected by contact with the new religion of Christianity.

I am left wanting to visit the Viking Age Gosforth Cross in Cumbria, and the Old Manor House at Knaresborough in Yorkshire, which was built round an oak tree whose branches used to form ceiling beams until they had to be removed in the late 20th century due to rot.½

Gods and Myths of Northern Europe attempts to tease out the traditional beliefs of the Germanic peoples from antiquity until the last conversions to Christianity in the Middle Ages. Unlike with other strands of paganism, such as the ancient Greek and Roman religions, there is much less material to work with and much of it is either fragmentary, written by outsiders, or set to paper only in the Christian era when widespread belief in the old gods and goddesses was gone.

This doesn't stop Davidson, and she manages to produce a thorough of what we do know as well as provide much food for thought in terms of what has probably been lost to the ages. Starting with a basic overview of Snorri's Prose Edda, the author continues with biographies of all the major deities known to us and describes their roles in society. Suffice to say it wasn't all Vikings and Valhalla. From the beginnings of the world tree to the end of Ragnarök, it is all covered here.

Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the northern gods and goddesses, there is so much we don't know that it will only leave you wanting to learn more.

The great Scandinavian ship-burials must have been planned with deliberate use of religious symbolism, and one contemporary account by an Arab writer of the early tenth century certainly confirms this. In Ibn Fadlan’s detailed account of a cremation funeral on the Volga by Swedish merchant-adventurers in 921, we find reference to complex funeral rites, including songs, ritual actions and animal and human sacrifice. Of especial interest is his description of the ceremony where the girl who was to be offered up as a sacrifice as the bride of the dead chief was made to look through a frame into what appears to represent the Otherworld; she described it as green and fair, claiming to see her husband and her dead kinsfolk awaiting her.

This book attempts to answer the question of how we should "approach a religion of the past when it has left no creed for us to study, no sacred books or descriptions of rituals, no life of its founder and, indeed, little trace of the religious leaders and thinking minds who contributed to its development?" The author's answer is to put together a jigsaw puzzle from archaeological finds, extant myths and legends, sagas and poetry, the sparse historical descriptions of religious practices left by Tacitus, Ibn Fadlan and others, and tales of Christian saints destroying temples and toppling idols.

One of the archaeological finds mentioned is the Viking Age memorial stones of Gotland, which include this picture of Odin's eight-legged horse Sleipnir: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ardre_Odin_Sleipnir.jpg

An interesting book that makes it clear how incomplete our picture of the pagan religions of Northern European and their entanglement with Dark Ages Christianity actually is.½

I have not found too many books on Viking mythology. This is important from the point of view of contrast with Christianity. My own interest comes from a desire to find more information on Valhalla. This book is a summary broken down into topics with very brief quotes from source texts. For my interest level, this book was what I was looking for.

De nordiska gudarna dukade relativt snabbt under för Vite Krist: bristen på samordning och tydligt kraftcentrum som kunde organisera motstånd gjorde sig snabbt bemärkt nästan överallt, möjligen undantaget Svealand, och även där lades till slut Uppsalas tempel i aska (om det nu alls existerat). Visserligen levde vaga minnen kvar även långt efter att tron dött: det berättas till exempel att Oden red ut för att en sista gång avgöra en strids utgång inför uppgörelsen i Lena mellan kung Sverker den yngre och Erik Knutsson, och när de normandiska trupperna stormade Jerusalems murar under första korståget skall deras stridsrop ha varit en bön till Tyr om hjälp som ärvts och förvanskats – en bild som skulle ha varit rätt festlig om inte för det blodbad som följde denna stormning. Likväl är materialet som finns kvar om de gamla gudarna sprött och fragmentariskt, och inte mycket bättre blir det när det dessutom skall användas för att undersöka all förkristen germansk religion, låt vara att det finns lite spridda reminiscenser på kontinental och brittisk botten.

Just sådant totalgrepp försöker H R Ellis Davidson ta i sin numera nästintill klassiska Nordens gudar och myter, ett översiktsverk över vad som är känt om dessa gestalter och myterna kring dem (och alltså inte så mycket om myter med mänskliga protagonister); materialet är brett och kan ibland överraska även hyfsat belästa nordbor just genom att det inte bara är ännu en återberättelse av de få historier Snorre bjuder på: sådant finner man visserligen också, men man får även läsa om diktfragment från Tyskland, Saxos visserligen formellt oklanderliga men annars rätt hopplösa framställning (tillnamnet grammatikern ger ju förvisso en aning om att han utmärktes av pedantism snarare än berättarglädje). Möjligen är några av de enskilda slutsatserna mer långtgående än vad forskare idag skulle gå med på: i synnerhet litar Ellis Davidson på Snorres och andras framställning av nordisk historia mer än vad jag vant mig vid.

Även i andra stycken finns en viss känsla av ålder: inledningen talar mycket om förfäder och nordisk anda på ett sätt som numera knappast är kutym, och även om detta aldrig riktigt slår över i det pinsamma så skruvar man ändå en aning på sig. Vad gäller själva mytologin verkar det finnas en vilja att ställa upp tydliga kategorier, asar och vaner, dödsgudar, fruktbarhetsgudar och gudar för upprätthållande av världsordning (eller snarare en gud för detta ändamål: Tor), liksom ständiga jämförelser med andra religioner. Och låt gå för kelter och samer – dessa lär ju förkristna nordbor ha träffat på – men när man måste ta sig till Borneo för att finna lämplig parallell för en viss bild blir det kanske väl långsökt.

Nordens gudar och myter är inte en bok för den som vill läsa något lättsamt om Tors fiskafänge eller hur världen en gång skall gå under efter fimbulvintrar och brödrastrider; det är helt klart en akademiskt upplagd bok (tack och lov är de ganska sparsamma noterna placerade på tillbörlig plats: sidfoten), och även om den inte för sig med alltför mycket jargong antar texten att man vet att Kastor och Polydeuke och dioskurerna är identiska eller att ktoniska gudar har med underjorden att göra, samtidigt som den som sagt försöker föra in alla berättelser i ett större religionsvetenskapligt sammanhang. För den som är på jakt efter något mer teoretiskt men ändå relativt lättillgängligt om förkristna nordiska religionsföreställningar är den dock troligen ett utmärkt val, trots att åldern troligen gjort att arkeologiska fynd gjort att vissa teorier inte längre är giltiga.

Ze zijn nog te vinden in de namen van de dagen van de week: Tius, Wodan, Donar en Freya, godheden die door onze verre voorouders te hulp werden geroepen in de strijd of bijvoorbeeld voor een goede oogst. Veel weten we er niet van, want onze voorouders schreven niet. De kennis die we van hun godsdienst hebben, komt voornamelijk uit Tacitus' Germania (1e eeuw) en uit Scandinavische verhalen waarvan de meeste zijn opgetekend toen men al op het Christendom was overgestapt en de oude goden in de ban waren gedaan.

Hetzelfde geldt voor onze Keltisch sprekende buren: Julius Caesar nam 2000 jaar terug wat stukjes op over de godsdienst van de Galliërs in zijn De bello gallico (waar hele generaties gymnasiasten mee zijn geteisterd) en na de bekering tot het Christendom werd er een aantal Ierse en Welshe heldendichten op perkament gezet, waaruit we met de nodige voorzichtigheid het nodige kunnen afleiden over de geloofswereld van de inwoners van de Britse eilanden vóór de invasie van de Angelsaksen.

Aan de hand van voornamelijk deze bronnen heeft Hilda Davidson een uitgebreid en erg interessant beeld in elkaar gezet van de mythologie en de godenwereld van de Germaans en Keltisch sprekend volkeren, die trouwens qua cultuur sterk op elkaar leken. Davidson heeft niet alleen erg veel kennis van haar bronnen, maar wat dit boek vooral iets extra's geeft, is dat ze ons er goed van bewust maakt dat we geneigd zijn met verkeerde ogen naar de religie van onze verre voorouders te kijken. Van enige vorm van organisatie was nauwelijks sprake en van een canonieke versie van de verhalen al helemaal niet. Er was veel variatie in de tijd en per plaats. Vroomheid was een onbekend begrip. Je moest op de juiste wijze offeren aan de goden en andere mythische figuren, omdat jij en je gemeenschap anders het onheil over zich afriepen, en veel mystieker werd het echt niet. Heel praktisch.

Aan de andere kant zijn de verhalen over al die bovennatuurlijke figuren ook heel verbeeldingsvol en aansprekend - en niet te vergeten vaak bloedstollend. De reuzen en de sprekende dieren en de magische zwaarden zijn bewaard gebleven in onze sprookjes, maar maakten lang geleden deel uit van de Andere Wereld, die voor de inwoners van Noordwest-Europa net zo levensecht was als de gewone wereld. Sommige bijzonder personen (zoals koningen) konden er mee in contact komen of er zelfs naar toe reizen door bijvoorbeeld op een grafheuvel te slapen, zodat ze van de bewoners van de Andere Wereld (vaak als helden vereerde voorouders) kennis over de toekomst op konden doen. Want dat was vitaal belang in deze onzekere tijden waarin men sterk afhankelijk was van de willekeur van de natuur: te weten komen wat de toekomst zou brengen, zodat men zich kon voorbereiden.

Dieren gaven ook vaak tekenen van die toekomst voor wie vaardig genoeg was om te te lezen. De vlucht van een raaf kon bijvoorbeeld iets vertellen over de uitkomst van de strijd. Maar ook zieneressen werden om deze reden in ere gehouden. Ik wil niet zeggen dat de maatschappelijke verhoudingen destijds zo vrouwvriendelijk waren, maar afgaande op de rol van vrouwen in allerlei mythes en het grote respect voor zieneressen werden ze in ieder geval nooit gezien als tere poppetjes die overal buiten gehouden moesten worden. Persoonlijk doet me dat wel deugd.

Ik ben geen kenner van dit onderwerp, maar heb begrepen dat dit boek als één van de standaardwerken op dit gebied wordt gezien. Terecht lijkt me. Ik heb het ervaren als een verhelderende, zeer informatieve en goed leesbare inleiding in een onderwerp dat me al heel lang interesseert, maar waar ik me nu voor het eerst eens een beetje in verdiept heb. Davidson heeft voor mij een andere wereld geopend, waarmee ik geboeid heb kennis gemaakt.
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To be honest, the book didn't hold my attention. I read about 50 pages and it seemed it was much more about what we don't know than about what could have been.

This is a very interesting read into what we know about mythology in Northern Europe in both pre- and viking age. The author does tend to do some hypothetical guesses that are presented as evidence, so do be careful if you use this as a source. This book did make me think, and it helps to get a better understanding of mythology/religion in general and the Northern Germanic mythology in particular.

Still the standard book for analogues.

My very first book on Norse mythology. I have since then acquired more detailed ones and most of them in German. But this one is still one I pick up often as it gives a good overview and it has a really good glossary at the end.

Good book, pretty pictures.

Another classic by H. E. Davidson; a shame she feels the need to distance herself from recons, though.

A classic - useful information for anyone interested in Asatru or other northern paths.

Contents: 1. Muhammad's Journey to Heaven, 2. The Thirteenth-century Mongols' Conception of the After-Life: The Evidence of Their Funeral Practices, 3. Other World Journeys in Japan, 4. The Ship of the Dead. 5. West County Entrances to the Underworld, 6. The Phantom Coach in the West Country, 7. The Hero's Descent to the Underworld, 8. Underworld Themes in Modern Fiction

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