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Sayings and Beliefs

Below, the reader will find a selection of sayings and beliefs concerning the house and its inhabitants. The frequency of omens will leap out and the reader will see the veritable monopoly held by the many recommendations aimed at ensuring happiness, health, and protection. The references in parentheses refer to the bibliography. I have drawn from the collection of Johann Georg Schmidt (eighteenth century) in particular as it is so rich and allows comparisons to be made with the beliefs of other countries.

1. A house without a spirit is cursed (Honko, 174).

2. To keep a cat or dog from getting out, make them walk around the hearth three times then rub them against its wall (Schmidt, II, 63)!

3. You should not throw out the hot water when sweeping the common room; otherwise a quarrel will ensue (Schmidt, VI, 12).

4. It is not a good idea to sweep the house after sunset. This runs the risk of sweeping away, along with the dust, the souls of the dead who often obtain permission to return to their former homes at this time (Le Braz, 268).

5. In the Breton area of the Côtes-du-Nord, it is still believed today that the souls of the dead often return to their former residence at this time, and one risks sweeping them out with the dust: if the wind brings them back, one should take special pains to avoid expelling them a second time. Those who fail to heed these instructions will be vulnerable to being awakened at any time by dead souls (Paul Sébillot, Folklore de France, vol. 1, 136).

6. The threshold must be swept thoroughly so that laime (happiness or good fortune) can enter (Johansons, 147).

7. Whoever has dough in the kneading trough should not sweep the room before taking it out; otherwise the bread will be swept away as well (Schmidt, I, 33).

8. As long as the corpse has not been removed from the mortuary house, the floor should not be swept or the furniture dusted, nor should any dust or sweepings be thrown away, for fear of also evicting the soul of the dead person and drawing his vengeance down on your head (Le Braz, 153).

9. Many houses and stables cannot bear white livestock, who will die or be crushed (Schmidt, V, 3).

10. When carpenters cut the wood for a new construction, the building will burn down if sparks fly from the first blow of the ax (Schmidt, V, 94).

11. When a man you love tries to leave the house, he can be kept there by brandishing the chimney hook around his head three times (Johansons, 134).

12. You should remain with your guest so he cannot steal the chimney hook (Johansons, 133).

13. When the drac brings back eggs, butter, cheese, and lard to people who scorn him, yell the name of our Savior several times and it will let everything fall (Grimm, no. 520). 14. If you wash your money in pure water that has had salt and bread thrown into it, the drac and evil folk will be unable to carry it away (Schmidt).

15. Whoever enters a new dwelling must begin by throwing a living thing like a cat or dog inside, because whoever enters first dies first (Grimm, no. 499).

16. You should never enter a newly built house for the first time without having some kind of domestic animal go in before you, be it a dog, chicken, or cat (Le Braz, 96).

17. The bride should not move in when the moon is waning; whosoever moves in when it is raining will be rich (Grimm, no. 498).

18. When the young couple returns from the church, they should allow a black chicken to go before them into their house; all misfortune will fall upon it (Schmidt, IV, 90).

19. Whoever enters a new home or dwelling for the first time and sleeps there, whatever he dreams of that evening will come true (Schmidt, II, 30).

20. One must move in during the new moon; this will cause food to increase (Schmidt, III, 55).

21. When taking an infant to church to be baptized, he should be taken outside the home through the window! This will make him healthier and he will live longer (Schmidt, III, 85).

22. For people who have lost children, while carrying the newborn they should have the infant baptized not by the door but by the window (Grimm, no. 843).

23. When a person dies, the windows of the house should be opened so that the soul can leave (Schmidt, III, 3).

24. As long as the dead person has not been laid in the coffin, one of the openings of the house must remain unclosed, unless there is one of those gaps in the door called a cat hole or a pane is missing from the window frame, as is frequently the case even among the well-to-do. If this is not done, it is said that the soul of the dead person will roam around the house until he causes the death of another family member (Le Braz, 159).

25. You should never leave the house empty during the burial, otherwise the dead person, whose remains you believe are accompanying to the cemetery, will remain there to guard it (Le Braz, 175).

26. A woman in labor should never look out the window; else the first animal-drawn vehicle that passes will carry off her happiness (Grimm, no. 782).

27. It is not good to let a stranger carry fire or light outside of the house, for this is how food will leave it as well (Schmidt, I, 97).

28. The tutelary spirit of our huts keeps watch on the fire (Johansons, 126).

29. The fire never goes out in a house where the cat, dog, and rooster are black (Grimm, no. 1056).

30. When fire is burning in the hearth, lightning will not strike the house (Schmidt, II, 34).

31. When fire crackles in the stove, a quarrel will follow (Schmidt, IV, 45).

32. The new maid should immediately look through the stove hole; in this way she will quickly become acclimated (Schmidt, I, 98).

33. If many chickens, ducks, pigs, and so forth are dying one after another, light the fire in your oven and cast an animal of each species inside: the witch will die as they die (Grimm, no. 569).

34. If someone steals something from you, attach a horseshoe found by chance at the place where the fire always is burning: you will get it back (Schmidt, III, 35).

35. There is a spirit living in every hut; when there is only one stove (meaning only one heated room), the spirit will stay in it (Honko, 167).

36. When a candle goes out by itself in the house, one of its inhabitants will die (Schmidt, IV, 48).

37. At night, a candle should never be stuck in upside down on the candle holder; if a thief comes in, no one in the house will wake up (Schmidt, II, 74).

38. The corpse being taken out of the house should be placed on the sill three times; once the corpse has been taken away, the gate should be closed and three piles of salt placed in the deceased’s room. They should then be swept up and both broom and sweepings tossed into a field (Grimm, no. 846).

39. When the house is finished, no one who lives there should dare enter first. Whoever does shall be the first to die (Honko, 199).

40. Whoever begins a construction will die shortly thereafter (Schmidt, V, 58).

41. When the peasant dies on his farm, the spirit either mourns or leaves (Honko, 221).

42. If someone [on his or her deathbed] is unable to die, then three tiles should be pulled off the roof (Grimm, no. 721).

43. There where a life has just been born, another should be sacrificed in thanks, otherwise the mâju gars will be furious because it has been neglected and will soon carry off the child’s spirit (Johansons, 185).

44. If a mole pushes up the dirt inside the house or if the cricket sings, someone is going to die; it is the same when the chicken crows or the owl hoots (Grimm, no. 555).

45. When entering the common room, do not look back when going through the door frame (Grimm, no. 360).

46. The spirits are granted the space between the doors; they should therefore never be slammed, or they will be harmed (Grimm, no. 892).

47. When an infant is taken out of the house, the top half of a double door should not be closed, otherwise he will not grow any bigger (Grimm, no. 345).

48. Whoever makes off with the measure used to measure a dead man and presses it at night against the entry door can rob the inhabitants without waking them (Grimm, no. 849).

49. Whoever places a wheel above the main door will enjoy good fortune in the home (Schmidt, IV, 30).

50. If you draw crosses on the doors before Walpurgis Night, witches cannot harm you (Schmidt, I, 93).

51. If a stranger looks into the common room through its door on a Monday, the man will beat his wife (Schmidt, I, 15).

52. If a serving maid wishes to learn whether she will have her position for a long time, she should turn her back to the door on Christmas night and toss the shoe off her foot over her head; if the tip is pointed toward the door, she should leave; if it is the heel, she will stay (Schmidt II, 5).

53. An elder planted in front of the stable door will avert evil spells (Grimm, no. 169).

54. When you place a broom upside down behind the entry door, no witch can enter (Grimm, no. 1007).

55. In the spring, when it is time to let the livestock out, they bury axes, hatchets, saws, and other iron objects in front of the stable door, which can then be no longer bewitched (Grimm, no. 516).

56. Service berry branches, which are still called “dragon tree,” hung over the house and the entry door of the stable on Saint Walpurgis night prevent the flying drac from entering (Grimm, no. 971).

57. He who is visited by the mar (the nightmare), a large woman with thick tresses, should pierce a hole in the bottom of the door and stick as many hog bristles as needed to plug it up. He can then sleep peacefully and promise a gift to the mar if she comes; she will leave and return the next day in human form, seeking the present (Grimm, no. 878).

58. Writing Nicaise in chalk on the door on that saint’s feast day will drive mice away (Schmidt, II, 81).

59. If one draws a pentacle on the door, witches have to stay away (Grimm, no. 644).

60. Whoever trips over the sill when leaving should immediately turn around; otherwise misfortune will befall him (Grimm, no. 895).

61. If someone chops twigs on the door sill, the drac will carry laime (happiness) off and set fire to the house (Johansons, 147).

62. If when leaving early in the morning, you touch the threshold with your right foot, you will have good fortune all day long (Schmidt, IV, 81).

63. Light should not be cast beneath the table where people are sitting; otherwise a quarrel will break out (Schmidt, I, 48).

64. Nothing should be left on the table before going to bed; otherwise the eldest or the last born will be unable to sleep (Grimm, no. 1004).

65. Nothing should be left on the table overnight; otherwise the angels will not protect us (Grimm, no. 572).

66. When someone on their deathbed cannot pass over, the table should be put in a new place or a shingle on the roof turned over (Schmidt, VI, 37).

67. Whoever is planning to leave on a journey should wait for the table to be cleared; otherwise the travel will be difficult (Grimm, no. 442).

68. Houseleeks planted on the roof avert lightning (Schmidt, I, 61).

69. If the stork builds its nest on the roof or chimney, the master of the house will have long life and wealth (Schmidt, II, 15).

70. You should not put the grill and trivet on the fire without putting something on it; the woman who does this shall gain a wrinkle (Schmidt, II, 18).

71. When the trivet is left on the fire, poor souls are in torment (Le Braz, 267).

72. Shards that break off from the slabs of the floor of the common room indicate that a visitor is coming (Schmidt, I, 73).

73. If magpies are squawking in the yard or on the roof, if the embers of the fire fly behind it, it means guests are arriving (Grimm, no. 889).

74. A swarm of bees that alights on a house means fire (Schmidt, II, 68).

75. Whoever harms a domestic viper, or simply looks at one, shall die in the coming year (Schmidt, II, 51).

76. Swallow nests and cricket nests are a blessing on the house (Schmidt, V, 39).

77. The calls of cranes around the house means a corpse, even if only the cadaver of an animal (Grimm, no. 496)

[cult-of-death-blog]

Geiler von Kaiserberg and the Furious Army by Claude Lecouteux

Und es war die Zeit des Vollmonds In der Nacht vor Sankt Johannis Wo der Spuk der Wilden Jagd Umzieht durch den Geisterhohlweg [And it was the time of the full moon, In the night before Saint John’s, When the apparition of the Wild Hunt Moved through the haunted hollow.] —Heinrich Heine, Atta Troll, XVIII

For more than two thousand years, legends have been circulating that tell of the passage of a troop of the dead, either by land or through the air, on certain dates of the year.(1) Depending on the form of the narratives, the country, or region, this phenom­enon has been referred to as the Wütendes Heer [Furious Army], the Mesnie Hellequin [Retinue of Hellequin], or the Chasse Artus [Arthur’s Hunt], among others. For more than a century, scholars and researchers—following the lead of Jacob Grimm and Elard Hugo Meyer—have asserted that Wotan/Odin was the leader of this dead host, but Lutz Röhrich, bringing clarity to the matter, quite rightly notes that “In no instance is the equivalence of Wode [the Low German name of the wild huntsman]—and Wotan certain.”(2 )Leander Petzoldt correctly distinguishes between the Wild Hunt and the Cursed Huntsman in his Dictionary of Demons and Elementary Spirits.(3 )The confusion between the two legends is based on a body of beliefs maintaining that the dead can come back, which has then been coupled with a Christian interpreta­tion of the facts: these dead are sinners who are going through purgatory as members of this host, or they are, quite simply, the damned. These beliefs took the form of legends that cross-con­taminated one another to form, at the turn of the fifteenth to sixteenth century, a complex web whose various threads can be delineated as follows:

1. The belief in nocturnal hosts led by Diana, Hecate, or Herodias, and the belief in revenants. 2. The belief that the spiritus, or psyche, remained near the body for thirty days immediately following death. 3. The belief that death only entailed an exile to the grave or to another world, during which time the deceased person retained all faculties, kept watch over the activi­ties of friends and family, and intervened in human affairs, either in corpore or in spiritu (as is the case with dreams).(4 )

This type of belief concerning death, which went hand in hand with ancestor worship and specific funerary rites, was too deeply anchored in people’s minds to disappear when they were converted to Christianity. The Church had to make do with it and divert these beliefs for its own benefit. As a result, a compound legend arose that concerned the damned who wander the earth on certain dates,(5) and the notion of impiety punished (which is the source of numerous legends, including those of the Cursed Huntsman and of the Man in the Moon).

The two variants of pagan folklore that had been Christianized continued to influence each other and, because they provided an open narrative structure, receptively incorporated motifs from other legends relating to death and to the beyond (for example, the legends of Mount Venus and of “Loyal Eckhart”). The Christian texts are starkly didactic and deliver a clear message: there is no prayer of posthumous salvation for those who have not respected the commandments of God and his Church. They fall into the category of “pedagogy through fear,” similarly to the literature of revelations (incidentally, the last example of the latter genre, and a humorous one at that, is Alphonse Daudet’s Le Curé de Curcugnan).

In order to rediscover the primary meaning of the Furious Army (I will use this name here to avoid any confusion), a distinc­tion must be drawn between the original content of the legend and the later accretions. For example, we must avoid blending— as was so often the case until now(6) —this theme with that of the Cursed Huntsman who succumbed to his passion for hunting on a day sacred to the Lord, or who unwittingly swore an oath committing him to this activity for eternity. If I must venture a simple definition of the Furious Army, I would say that it was originally a group of revenants which had the right to leave the Other World for a limited time, as was the case with the ancient Greek festival of Anthesteria (February 11–13). The last day of this festival (chytroi) was dedicated to propitiating the dead and their leader, Hermes Chthonios. In ancient Rome, the festival of Lemuria on May 9, 11, and 13 was an occasion for the dead to burst into homes.

We can refine this definition in accordance with its histor­ical evolution. While in the Greek festival all the dead were involved, in Rome the revenants were recruited exclusively from the ranks of those who had died prematurely—including suicides and the victims of violent death—and those who had not received a ritual burial.(7) In the Middle Ages, the members of the Furious Army were sinners first and foremost. In contrast with the “normal” dead who appeared during Anthesteria or Lemuria, medieval revenants could surge out on any date, but this occurred individually and not as a group. I believe that a shift between the regular dead and revenants took place here, with the latter collected together to form a troop, perhaps under the influence of other beliefs, traces of which can be found in the Germano-Scandinavian world. Here, the dead who are unhappy with their fate and are moved by feelings of vengeance gather together under the leadership of the first to die. This can mainly be seen with occurrences relating to epidemics, as we find in the Eyrbyggja Saga.

In short, whether in Greece, Rome, or the Germanic coun­tries, we encounter the essential elements of something that can be condensed into a narrative of purportedly true events. The first detectable amalgam is that of the immaturi (aori, biothanati) with the common dead leaving the Other World in February or May. Here, the Church first adopted characteristic elements from this narrative—it retained the notion of the troop, essentially a nocturnal host—but made the members of this troop into the damned or the inhabitants of Purgatory.(8) If they made an appear­ance, it was to reveal their torment and beseech the living for suffrages so that they might find redemption and be freed. In his Liber visionum,(9) written between 1060 and 1067, Otloh of Saint- Emmeram reported what he called a memorable exemplum: two brothers spied a large host in the sky; evoking protection with the sign of the cross, they requested that these people tell who they were. One of them, their father, informed them of the sin for which he was being punished.(10) He had stolen the property of a monastery and would only be redeemed when that prop­erty had been returned. In Orderic Vitalis’s work (11) (circa 1092), a certain Robert, son of Ralph the Fair-Haired, told the priest Gauchelin (or Walchelin): “In addition, I have been allowed to appear to you and show you how wretched I am” (Mihi quoque permissum est tibi apparere, meumque miserum esse tibi manifestare). He owed his torment “to his sins” (pro pecatis) but had “hopes for deliverance” (anno relaxationem ab hoc onere fiducialiter exspecto). Another one of the dead had a similar desire—“Exactly a year after Palm Sunday I hope I will be saved” (a Pascha florum usque ad unum annum spero salvari)—and added that Gauchelin should also seek atonement: “You should truly worry about yourself, and correct your life wisely” (Tu vero sollicitus esto de te, vitamque tuam prudenter corrige). Ekkehard, the Abbot of Aura, reported that a member of the Furious Army who appeared near Worms in 1123 said: “We are not ghosts (phantasmata) . . . but the souls of recently slain knights (animae militun non longe antehac interfecto­rum).”(12) The arms they bore were responsible for making them sin (instrumenta peccandi) and are therefore a torture for them (material tormenti). The chronicler adds that Count Emicho (died 1117) was said to have appeared with such a troop and declared that he would be delivered from his torments by prayers and alms (ab hac pena orationibus et elemosinus se posse redimi docuisse).

Starting at the onset of the eleventh century, several types of tales coexisted with the sort attested by Orderic Vitalis and Ekkehard. These include: the legend of King Herla; legends of demoniacal hunters (whose appearance is confirmed by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for the year 1127 (13) and by The Chronicle of Hugh Candidus for the same date (14); legends of friends who have sworn a mutual oath that if one dies, he will return and tell the surviving friend about the fate he has experienced after his death (this is the theme of the Reuner Relation (15) written between 1185 and 1200, as well as of a passage by Hélinand de Froidmont [1150–1221/29]); and legends of armies that continue waging their battles after death.(16)

An important motif emerges from the Christian legends: one of the members of the Furious Army speaks up to explain his fate. In the Reuner Relation, the dead individual appears on a moun­tain where his still-living friend had arranged their meeting. The friend “heard the mingled voices of a throng like a host hastening to some siege. Shortly he saw a large multitude which appeared to be riding and they were all armed” (audit cuiusdam multitudinis voces confuses quasi exercitus ad aliquam obsidionem festinantes. Videt post modicum quasi equitum grandem multitudinem et hii omnes armigeri). Two hosts emerge, followed by a third made up of the principes et rectores tenebrarum (princes and leaders of darkness). But the motif of the “revealer” broke away from the theme of the Furious Army. In the work by Pierre le Chantre (died 1197), master Silo (Siger of Brabant) beseeches one of his students to come visit him after his death to relate the situation in which he found himself; soon afterward, the other appeared and shared news of his torment.(17) Hélinand de Froidmont provides a good glimpse of how the legendary traditions spread their influence. In the eleventh chapter of De cognitione sui, transmitted by Vincent de Beauvais in the Speculum historiale XXIX, 118, he records the  story that Henri of Orleans, Bishop of Beauvais, heard from the mouth of the canon, Jean. The first part of this chapter is similar to the Relation de Reun and can most likely be traced back to the same source: the two friends swear that the first to die will come visit the other within thirty days, if he is able (intra XXX dies, si posset, ad socium suum rediret). In his conversation with the deceased Natalis (Noel), the living friend, Burchard, asks, “But I beseech that you would tell me if you are deputies in that army called the Hellequins?” Natalis responds “No,” because the phenomenon stopped once his period of penitence was over. This indicates that the militia Hellequini is a wandering Purgatory.(18)

This long preamble is necessary if we truly wish to grasp what Geiler von Kaiserberg (1445–1510) recorded at the beginning of the sixteenth century. Born in Schaffhausen, Geiler left behind a significant body of work: speeches, translations of Jean Gerson’s sermons, and most importantly Das buoch von der Omeissen (known as the Emeis), a collection of sermons published in 1515 by the Strasbourg printer Johann Grüniger and republished in 1517. In 1856, August Ströber, well known for his interest in Alsatian legend, extracted everything from these sermons relating to folk belief that was condemned as superstitions, believing this comprised a good description of persistent mental attitudes that were closer to paganism than Christianity.(19 )The very long full title of the Emeis further points in this direction: Gibt vnder­weisung von den Vnholden oder Hexen vnd von gespenst der geist vnd von dem Wütenden heer wunderbarlich vnd nützlich ze wissen was man davon glauben vnd halten soll. . . (Provides education about the Demons or Witches and about spirit ghosts and the Furious Army, wondrously and usefully for knowing what is believed of them and how one should deal with them. . .).

We will examine here what Geiler said of the Furious Army, which will allow us to raise the question of the transmission of so-called folk beliefs, with the understanding that a belief is never set in stone, but rather evolves over time.

In 1508, Geiler gave a sermon on the Thursday following Reminiscere (the second Sunday of Lent), in which he stated: “You ask, ‘What shall you tell us about the Wild Army?’ But I cannot tell you very much, as you know much more of it than I.” Such a formula is a standard classic in preaching and can often be found coming out of the mouth of Bertold of Regensburg: (20) the preacher sets himself apart from his audience, emphasizing the gap that separates him from the unfounded beliefs that smack of paganism. In a nutshell, he announces that what he is about to say is merely an echo of widespread rumors, but we shall see what kind of credence we can give him. Geiler immediately adds, “This is what the common man says: Those who die before the time God has fixed for them, those who leave on a journey and are stabbed, hung, or drowned, must wander after death until the date that God has set for them arrives. Then God will do for them what is in accordance with His divine will.” This belief is extremely old and can be seen in ancient Rome where premature deaths produced revenants. It made its way into the Medieval West by way of Tertullian (De anima 56): “Those souls which are taken away by a premature death wander about hither and thither until they have completed the residue of the years which they would have lived through, had it not been for their untimely fate” (Aiunt et immature morte praeventas eo usque vagori istic donec reliquatio compleatur aetatum quacum pervixissent, si non intempes­tive obissent).

It would take too long to follow its meandering course through the ages, so we satisfy ourselves with the testimony of William of Auvergne, whose De universo was written between 1231 and 1236. William knew of the existence of the Mesnie Hellequin (De Universo III, 12), which had been brought out of the shadows by Orderic Vitalis at the end of the eleventh century  and enjoyed a much larger impact than what is claimed by Jean- Claude Schmitt, who, ignoring many accounts, has a tendency to restrict the legend to Normandy. William says (III, 14):

On the point that these [knights] appear in the shape of men, I say: of dead men, and those most often slain by iron, we can undoubtedly, based on the advice of Plato, consider that the souls of men thus slain continue to be active the number of days or the entire time it was given them to living in their bodies, if they had not been expelled by force. (De hoc autem, quod in similitudine hominum apparent, hominum dico mortuorum et maximo gladio interfectorum, videatur forsitan alicui iuxta sententiam Platonis, quod agere viderentur numeros dierum vel temporum debitorum animae mortuorum huiusmodi, temporum dico, quibus in corporibus victurae erant, eas nisi mortis huiusmodi violentia expulisset.) (21)

There is nothing “folkloric” about this notion because the men of this time had other explanations, a glimpse of which is provided above. Geiler goes on to say that the Furious Army made its appearance during the Ember Days and especially at Christmas, which is entirely in keeping with the beliefs of the time. Christmas, and more specifically the Twelve Days (Rauhnächte), is a period when the Other World is open, which is to say that a free passageway has been established between the realm of the dead and that of the living. Geiler next states: “And each proceeds in the dress of their status: a peasant in peasant garb, a knight as a knight, and they race therefore bound to the same rope. One is holding a cross in front of him, the other a head in his hand.” Here our preacher follows Hélinand de Froidmont or Vincent de Beauvais, in any case a written source from clerical literature. In Vincent de Beauvais’s book (Speculum historiale, XXIX, 118), which borrows a passage from Hélinand’s De cognitione sui, we read:

But this false opinion … that souls of the deceased, lamenting punishments of their sins, are in the habit of appearing to the masses in the style of dress in which they had formerly lived: that is to say, country folk in rustic clothing, soldiers in military dress, just as the masses are wont to claim about the family of Hellequin. (Haec autem falsitas opinio . . . quod animae defunctorum suorum peccatorum poenas lugentes multis apparere solent in eo habitu, in quo prius vixerant: id est rustici in rusticano, milites in militari, sicut vulgus asserere solet de familia Hellequini. . .)

Here again, the blending of popular and scholarly assump­tions is clearly apparent. Ancient Scandinavian literature, which is our best witness of things relating to revenants, indicates on numerous occasions that the dead return in the same appearance as they had at the time of their death. (22) In Germany, the testi­monies are much rarer (which in no way means that this vision did not exist), but fraught with significance. In a charm from the fourteenth or fifteenth century, the speaker requests God’s protection from:

Wutanes her und alle sine man, Dy di reder und dy wit tragen, Geradebrech und irhangin. . .(23 ) [the Furious Host and all its men, who carry wheels and fetters, broken apart and hung]

The members of the Furious Army appear here bearing the instruments of their torment. The Zimmern Chronicle describes one of the members of this procession in this fashion: “His head had been split in two down to the neck” (Dem ist das haupt in zwai thail biß an hals gespalten gewesen).”(24 )

The only motif yet to be explained by scholars is the rope mentioned by Geiler. This could be a recollection from Lucian of Samosata (Discourses, Hercules 1–7), who depicts the god Ogmios, an infernal psychopomp, pulling along “a large number of men attached by the ears with bonds of tiny gold and amber chains that resembled beautiful necklaces.” It so happens that in Albrecht Durer’s Kunstbuch of 1514, he depicted the allegory of eloquence as the god Hermes pulled humans by chains that connected his tongue to the ears of his captives.25 I offer the hypothesis for what it’s worth, but these parallels merit pointing out.

"One came before the rest,” added Geiler, shouting: “‘Get out of the road so that God may spare your life!’ This is what the common man says.” This new motif of the figure sounding the alarm comes directly from Orderic Vitalis’s narrative in which the priest Gauchelin saw the Mesnie Hellequin. Here, a giant man holding a club broke from the host and approached him saying: “Stay where you are. Do not move!” (Sta, nec progrediarius ultra). The figure delivering a warning quickly became quite popular; Jacob Trausch (died 1610), the author of the Strasbourg Chronicle, borrowed this figure and had him shout: “Get back, back, so that nothing happens to anyone!”26 In this instance, however, the legend is re-contextualized into the polemic between Catholics and reformers: such deceptions and superstitions have ceased ever since Dr. Martin Luther attacked Papism. The motif can also be found in the work of Johannes Agricola, this time with  the addition of a novel element: the warning figure is named the Loyal Eckhard (der treüwe Eckart).(27) This latter example attests to the contamination of the Furious Army by the Venusberg legend (Tannhäuser).(28)

To illustrate his point, Geiler did as all good preachers do: he repeated a story—an exemplum or historiola. In this case, he borrowed it from Hélinand de Froidmont, undoubtedly by way of the Speculum historiale by Vincent de Beauvais. His text follows the source so closely it could be called a literal translation, as the end of the story shall prove.

[Geiler:] Bist du auch in dem wütischen her gelaufen, von dem man sagt? Er sprach: Nein, Karolus Quintus hat sein penitens erfült, un hat daz wütisch heer vff gehört. (“Are you also proceeding in the Furious Army that men talk about?” He spoke: “No, Karolus Quintus has fulfilled his penitence and has ended the Furious Army.”) [Hélinand:] sed obsecro ut dicatis mihi, si vos estis deputati in illa militia quam dicunt Hellequini. Et ille: Non, domine. Illa militia jam non vadit, sed nuper ire desiit, quia poenitentiam suam peregit. (“But I beg that you would tell me if you are deputies in that army they call the Hellequins?” “No, sir. That army does not advance now, but recently ceased marching because it fulfilled its penitence.”)

The sole modification—Karolus Quintus for militia Hellequinus— stems from the fact that Geiler was using a gloss by Vincent or Hélinand, which stated: “Corruptly, however, ‘Hellequinus’ is said by the common people instead of ‘Karlequintus’” (“Corrupte autem dictus est a vulgo Hellequinus pro Karlequintus”).

In light of the preceding information, it is easy to see how clerics worked and, more importantly, the omnipresence of the scholarly and bookish tradition. Thus, when a belief or legend is encountered in the religious texts of the late Middle Ages, it is necessary to be very prudent before asserting that the author was faithfully echoing reality. The sole reality is that men believed the dead returned on certain dates. Recontextualized by the Church, the belief was incorporated into the great cycle of the punishment of sin.

What is the case with the other folk traditions recorded by Geiler? Comparative analysis allows us to see that the preacher always worked in the same way: he took a “superstition,” then reduced and destroyed it with the help of the clerical literature. But did the object of his efforts correspond to a local reality? In the case of the werewolf,29 this is subject to doubt. In the case of witchcraft, the answer can be in the affirmative if we recognize that the Church contributed greatly to forging the belief—but we can only confirm the latter and not take the descriptions at face value. Researchers have indeed provided evidence that the catalogs of beliefs were accumulated bit by bit over time and that they were recapitulations of everything lurking in the writs of councils and synods, in the penitentials, and in the treatises on the Decalogue.(30) This was how the various Mirrors of Sin were born, such as the one by Martin von Amberg,(31) as well as the great fifteenth-century collections of “superstitions.” Narrative literature followed this same evolution, as is evident from the  works of Michel Behaim (32) and Hans Vintler.(33) On the other hand, all these texts document the enduring nature of beliefs and practices—an enduring nature encouraged by the preachers who never stopped talking about them and therefore giving credence to those things they took to be errors, sins, and idolatry. The exempla with which they embellished their sermons then came into the public domain and gave birth to new narrative tradi­tions. When Geiler speaks of a haunted house in the Mainz bishopric, in his sermon “Am mitwoch nach Occuli,” his inspi­ration is The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine,34 and when he mentions “the wax that runs from the manes of horses,” he is following a passage from William of Auvergne’s De Universo. In order to establish the difference between local traditions and scholarly traditions, it is necessary to work diachronically, which is the only means for avoiding errors.

(Translated by Jon Graham)

This article originally appeared in French in the journal Études Germaniques 50 (1995): 367–76. The translation here is published by kind permission of the author.

1. Hans Plischke, Die Sage vom Wilden Heer im deutschen Volk, Dissertation, Leipzig, 1914; Alfred Endter, Die Sage vom Wilden Jäger und von der Wilden Jagd, Dissertation, Frankfurt, 1933; Michael John Petry, Herne the Hunter, a Berkshire Legend (Reading: William Smith, 1972).

2. “Nicht einmal gesichert ist die Gleichung Wode–Wotan.” Lütz Röhrich, Sage, 2nd ed. (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1971), 24.

3. Leander Petzoldt, Kleines Lexikon der Dämonen und Elementargeister (Munich: Beck 1990), 186–90.

4. Cf. Claude Lecouteux, Geschichte der Gespenster und Wiedergänger im Mittelalter (Cologne and Vienna: Böhlau, 1987); Claude Lecouteux and Phillipe Marcq, Les Esprits et les Morts, Croyances médiévales (Paris: Honore Champion, 1990).

5. During the Ember Days, Christmas, the three final Thursdays of Advent, Saint Sylvester’s Day, Saint John’s Day, Saint Martin’s Day, Saint Walpurgis’s Day, Saint Peter’s Day, Pentecost, etc.

6. Cf., for example, Gustav Neckel, Sagen aus dem germanischen Altertum (Leipzig: Philip Reclam, 1935), 21–56. 4 Claude Lecouteux

7. Cf. Claude Lecouteux, Fantômes et Revenants au Moyen Âge (Paris: Imago 1986), translated into English as The Return of the Dead (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2009); and Lecouteux, “Fantômes et Revenants,” in Denis Menjot and Benoît Cursente, eds., Démons et Merveilles au Moyen Âge (Nice: Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, 1990), 267–82. 

8. Jacques Le Goff, La naissance du purgatoire, Paris, Gallimard, 1981.

9. Paul Gerhard Schmidt, ed., Liber visionum, MGH: Quellen zur Geschichte des Mittelalters 13 (Weimar: Böhlau, 1989), 67ff. Geiler von Kaiserberg and the Furious Army 

10. Jean-Claude Schmitt, Les Revenants, les Vivants et les Morts dans la Société médiévales (Paris: Gallimard, 1994), makes a mistake and reverses the meaning in the text (p. 63) when he says a “knight came out of the this troop and asked them on the part of their father…” The text says: Ego pater vester rogo. . . . 

11. Orderic Vitalis, Historia ecclesiastica, ed. Auguste Le Prévost, (Paris: J. Renouard, 1838–1855), vol. III, 367–77. 

12. Franz Josef Schmale and Irene Schmale-Ott, eds., Frutolfs und Ekkehards Chroniken und die anonyme Kaiesrchronik (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1972), 362. 6 Claude Lecouteux 

13. Charles Plummer, ed., Two of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles Parallel (Oxford: Clarendon, 1892), vol. I, 258. 

14. W. T. Mellows, ed., The Chronicle of Hugh Candidus (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1949), 76ff. 

15. Hans Gröchenig, Die Vorauer Novelle und die Reuner Relation (Göppingen: Kümmerle, 1981), 29ff. 

16. Vincent de Beauvais, Speculum historiale, XXX, 200, (Douai, 1624), 1225ff. 17. Jacobus de Voragine, Légende dorée [The Golden Legend], trans. J. B. M. Roze, (Paris: Garnier- Flammarion, 1967), vol. II, 326.Geiler von Kaiserberg and the Furious Army 

18. Phillipe Walter, Mythologie chrétienne (Paris: Imago 1992), cf. index 285. Translated into English as Christianity: The Origins of a Pagan Religion (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions, 2006). 

19. Cf. August Stöber, Die Sagen des Elsasses (St. Gallen: Scheitlin and Zellikofer, 1852) and August Stöber, Zur Geschichte des Volksaberglaubens im Anfange des XVI. Jahrhunderts. Aus Dr. Joh. Geilers von Kaisersberg Emeis (Basel: Schweighauser, 1856). The text can also be found in Karl Meisen, Die Sagen vom Wütenden Heer und Wilden Jäger (Münster i.W.: Aschendorf, 1935), 96ff.8 Claude Lecouteux 

20. Cf. Claude Lecouteux and Phillippe Marcq, Berthold de Ratisbonne, Péchés et Vertus. Scènes de la Vie au XIIIe siècle (Paris: Desjonquères, 1991). Geiler von Kaiserberg and the Furious Army 

21. William of Auvergne, Opera Omnia (Paris, 1674), vol. I, 1074. 10 Claude Lecouteux

22. Claude Lecouteux, “Fantômes et Revenants germaniques, Essai de Présentation,” Études Germaniques 39 (1984): 227–50; 40 (1985): 141–60; and Lecouteux, “Altgermanische Gespenster und Wiedergänger: Bemerkungen zu einem vernachlässigten Forschungsfeld der Altgermanistik,” Euphorion 80 (1986): 219–31.

23. Johannes Franck, “Geschichte des Wortes Hexe,” in Joseph Hansen, Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Hexenwahns (Hildesheim: Olms, 1963), 614–70, here at 639ff.Geiler von Kaiserberg and the Furious Army 11

24. Karl August Barack, ed., Das Zimmersche Chronik, 2nd. ed. (Freiburg and Tübingen: Mohr, 1881–1882), vol. IV, 122–27.

25. Cf. Friedrich Winkler, Die Zeichnungen Albrechts Dürers, vol. III, 79. This matter is discussed, with a bibliography, in Françoise Le Roux, “Le Dieu celtique aux Liens,” Ogam XII (1960): 212–18.

26. The reader may also refer to Johannes Geffken, Der Bildercatechismus des fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts und die catechetischen Hauptstücke in dieser Zeit bis auf Luther. I: Die Zehn Gebote (Leipzig: T. O. Weigel, 1855), 37ff.12 Claude Lecouteux

27. Text in Karl Meisen, Die Sagen vom Wütenden Heer, 98ff. It will be noted that this individual has become a figure of legend; cf. Lütz Röhrich, Das große Lexikon der sprichwörtlichen Redensarten (Freiburg im Bresgau, Basel, and Vienna: Herder, 1991–1992), vol. I, 350ff.

28. Cf. J. M. Clifton-Everest, The Tragedy of Knighthood: The Origin of the Tannhäuser-Legend (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979). Geiler von Kaiserberg and the Furious Army 13

29. Cf. August Stöber: Zur Geschichte des Volksaberglaubens, 31 (“werewolf”); 11ff.; 12; 17ff., 33ff. (“witch”). Regarding the werewolf, however, Geiler was inspired by Vincent de Beauvais, Valère Maxime, and William of Auvergne.

30. Cf. the fine studies in Marianne Rumpf, Perchten: Populäre Glaubensgestalten zwischen Mythos und Katechese (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 1991) and Karin Baumann, Aberglaube für Laien. Zur Programmatik und Überlieferung mittelalterlicher Superstitionenkritik (Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, 1989).

31. Stanley N. Werbow, ed., Martin von Amberg. Der Gewissensspiegel (Berlin: Schmidt, 1958). 14 Claude Lecouteux

32. Cf. Ernst-Dietrich Güting, “Michel Behaims Gedicht gegen den Aberglauben und seine lateinische Vorlage. Zur Tradierung des Volksglaubens im Spätmittelalters,” in Dietz-Rüdiger Moser, ed., Glaube im Abseits (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgellschaft, 1992), 310–67.

33. Cf. Max Bartels and Oskar Ebermann: “Zur Aberglaubensliste in Vintlers Pluemen der tugent,” Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde 23 (1913): 1–18; 113–36. Cf. also the article by Anton E. Schönbach, “Zeugnisse zur deutschen Volkskunde des Mittelalters,” Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde 12 (1902): 1–16. On the list of superstitions in the work of Thomas de Haselbach, see Franz-Josef Schweitzer, Tugend und Laster in illustrierten didaktischen Dichtungen des Spätmittelalters (Hildesheim: Olms, 1993), 180–84.

34. Who drew his material from the Chronicle of Sigebert de Gembloux for the year 858, cf. J. C. Migne, ed., Patrologia Latina 160, col. 163. This information can also be found in Vincent de Beauvais (Speculum historiale XXIV, 37) and in the works of many other authors.

[cult-of-death-blog]

Garden Dwarves and House Spirits by Claude Lecouteux

The impression that we have of dwarves from fairy tales is essentially based upon nineteenth-century folk literature. In fact, once upon a time they were a fantastical people that lived in wild and uncultivated regions, some of whom entered into the service of lords or heroes.

According to the Poetic Edda, dwarves were originally born out of the decomposing body of Ymir, the primordial giant, although the traditional accounts are hardly unanimous. These children of Ymir who created a race in their image were named Móðsognir and Durinn. They were not the only ones, however, since the gods took Ymir’s skull to use as the celestial vault, set it atop four columns, under each of which they placed a dwarf. These dwarves bear the names of the four cardinal points: Norðri, Suðri, Austri, Vestri.

In the tenth century, the various Germanic terms for a dwarf—such as Old High German zwerc, Old Norse dvergr, and Old English dweorg—were portmanteau words that concealed all manner of figures from folk mythology. The names designate elves as well as nightmares, howlers, fauns, satyrs, ogres, goblins, and brownies. The dwarf’s own image suffers as a result of this, and a number of its actions can only be explained in the light of such conflations.

The first dwarf turns up in medieval German literature between 1023 and 1050, but other non-literary evidence exists to show that dwarves were present long before this. As a result, it becomes apparent that the medieval romances drew upon folk traditions, among other things.

In this same geographical region, the Heldenbuch (Book of Heroes), printed in Strassburg around 1483, puts a Christian spin on the earlier mythological material when it relates how God peopled the earth that he had just created. God first made dwarves to develop the earth; afterward he created the giants whose duty it was to protect the dwarves against the then teeming population of dragons. But the giants turned treacherous and began oppressing the dwarves, at which point God created heroes to restore and keep secure His order. Another very old text, the thirteenth-century Middle High German translation of the Magnificat, says: “God distributed the demons among the entire earth. In the waters and mountains lived the Nixies and the Dwarves, in the forests and swamps the Elves, the Thurses, and other spirits.” We should note that an Icelandic tale collected in the nineteenth century, Huldumanna genesis (The Origin of the Hidden Men), made dwarves the children of Eve. Because they were unwashed, Eve hid them from the eyes of God, who then decreed: “Whatever should be hid from my sight should also be hid from that of men.” These children were therefore invisible: they dwelt in the hills and mountains, in holes, and among the rocks.

Illustration by Helen M. Armstrong, from “The Peasant and the Brownies,” Swedish Fairytales, 1901.

There are three major types of dwarves in the Germanic regions. The first is the old, bearded figure, who is somewhat rare but whose existence is attested to by the figure of Alberich in the Nibelungenlied; this type of dwarf is ubiquitous in folktales and, much later, in European gardens. Next, there is the extremely beautiful child, a type for which the sole evidence is found in the thirteenth-century epic romance Ortnit, but this depiction actually corresponds with that of an elf. Finally, there is the figure of the dwarf knight, which appears quite frequently and is a diminutive version of a human hero.

Dwarves reside in hollow mountains, have hierarchical systems and families, and their society is similarly structured to that of humans. Like human beings, dwarves fall prey to their passions, wage war, become jealous, and so on.

Originally, the dwarf had no set size, but rather could transform at will to whatever size he desired. Furthermore, we constantly come across expressions in the Middle Ages like “little dwarf” or “miniscule dwarf,” as if it was necessary to indicate that a given dwarf was a small or tiny figure. The small size of the dwarf undoubtedly stems from the influence of the scholarly tradition regarding the pygmies, which were called Trispithames because they measured three spithames, in other words, around three feet tall. Generally speaking, dwarves measured between two to four feet in height.

The dwarf possessed the strength of twelve to twenty men, which is sometimes explained by their ownership of magic objects such as a belt, a helmet, or a ring.

As a cave dweller and a subterranean inhabitant of wild and rocky places, the dwarf knew all the secrets of nature: the virtues of plants, waters, and minerals. For this reason, he is an excellent smith, although the weapons that he manufactures under coercion—often after having been captured—turn out to be malevolent in nature. He can go wherever he pleases in the blink of an eye, knows the future, is the keeper of great wealth, and sometimes kidnaps women to be his brides. His hereditary enemies are dragons and giants. In Germanic mythology, dwarves and giants often bear the same name, and giants have dwarves for sons. A figure like Regin, the smith who took in the young Siegfried, was even described as a giant with the size of a dwarf. Again it becomes apparent that “dwarf” and “giant” do not connote the size of the creatures they designate; these are the generic names of mythological races.

Names That Speak

Thanks to the names of dwarves, we are able to see that these creatures are regularly confused with elves—one is named Gandálfr, for example, which literally means “Elf with the magic wand.” Elves are typically craftsmen and more especially smiths, and we find dwarves with names like Sindri (“Spark Sprayer”), or even simply Brokkr (“Blacksmith”). The harmful nature of dwarves is evident from names like Alþjófr (“Master Thief”), Ginnar (“Deceiver”), Þráinn (“Threatener”), Dori (“Damager”), Eitri (“Poisonous One”), or Mjǫðvitnir (“Mead Wolf”). They know magic, as is evident in such names as Galarr (“Enchanter”) or Finnr, Fiðr (“Finn,” i.e., Sámi or Laplander, a people who were regarded as sorcerers). Their physical nature is displayed in such names as Dúfr (“Twisted”), Bǫmburr (“Fatty”), Hárr (“Hoary”), and Blindi (“Blind”). This last name refers to a very specific characteristic of dwarves: the sun blinds and petrifies them. Undoubtedly even more interesting are the names that clearly show that dwarves represent a mythical vision of the dead, or, at the very least, that they have a very close bond with the dead. 

Here are several of them: Dáinn (“Died”), Nár and Náinn (both meaning “Corpse”), Frosti (“Cold”), Funinn (“Decomposed”), Dvalinn (“Torpid”), Hornbori (“Pierced by a Horn”), Haugspori (“The One Who Enters the Burial Mound”) and Búinn (“Ready for- Departure,” i.e., for burial). To this list we can also add Nýi (“Dark”) and Niði (“New Moon”), since this planetary body is that of the deceased, and Ái (“Ancestor”), which clearly indicates the transformation of the dead into dwarves. Furthermore, the natural habitat of the dwarves is the lithic realm, which is of course that of the deceased. We should note that the malevolent dead (those who experienced a premature, violent, or unusual death) become dwarves and revenants. The good dead, as I have shown in another study, Fantômes et Revenants au Moyen Âge, become elves. One final detail is that whoever follows a dwarf into his kingdom never returns, as is related in the legend of the Scandinavian king, Sveigdir, and, with a subtle difference, in the legend of King Herla in England, the leader of the Infernal Hunt, which is also known under the name of Mesnie Hellequin.

Freya in the cave of the dwarves.Illustration by HLM, Asgard Stories, 1901.

Dwarves are fabulous artisans who forged various instruments and objects owned by the gods: Thor’s hammer, Odin’s spear, Njord’s boat, the ring Draupnir, and Freyr’s boar. All of these items are magical. But it was dwarves, too, who crafted the grate that seals off the underworld, Hel, and the chain that shackles the wicked Loki. When they forge things for men, their wickedness comes to the fore: the weapon is baleful. As for their treasures, whoever makes off with them will die, the best example being the cursed gold in the legend of Siegfried. In short, what is predominant among the “true dwarves” is their sly and ill-scheming nature, a quality that reappears in the romance literature. It is this character attribute that distinguishes them from elves.

Household Deities

Garden dwarves have adopted some of their traits from goblins and from spirits of the mines: their red caps come from the former and their lanterns from the latter. The beard is an old attribute intended to represent their great age and therefore their erudition and wisdom. The pipe is an element that was apparently added to this figure during the nineteenth century. But the garden dwarf has another, much more profound meaning, in that it actually represents the household deity: a creature that oversaw the proper functioning of the house and the well-being of its inhabitants on the condition that they granted it their respect, gave it regular offerings of food (broth or dairy products), and made sure never to set foot in the territory reserved for it, such as a corner in the attic. There is a spirit that lives in the main house, and others reside in the outlying farm buildings. All of these spirits have various names in the Germanic countries and are characterized by their physical aspect. Names referring to objects are not uncommon, such as “Piece of Wood” (Poppele) or “Block” (Butz); these beings were originally amorphous and gradually were given human features. In earlier times they were certainly idols. Their generic names may also refer to anthropomorphic features., such as Junge (“Youngster”), Kerlchen (“Little Fellow”), Männchen (“Little Man”), or, in the case of Grieske and Schrättli, connote the idea of deformation. They can refer to their color (which may be gray, white, or red), or a distinctive feature of their dress, such as Hödeken (“Little Hood”), Blauhösler (“Blue Pants”), or Stiefel (“Boots”); or simply their vague and indefinite nature such as Umg’hyri (“Disturbing Monster”) or Spuk (“Phantom”).

The majority of these spirits are of male gender and their names, which are quite often diminutives, suggest the notion of their small size as well as that of familiarity and affection. Beyond the aforementioned sorts of names, we come across those that simultaneously designate spirits, deities, and the dead who are predisposed to smoothly running households.

A house can have one or more spirits. When they are numerous, a family of spirits may be involved, although this notion seems due to a contamination with the dwarves. A Frisian account relates how a poor peasant finally managed to finish building his house thanks to the gifts from his neighbor. To ensure his good fortune, he invited the Puke [spirits] to live with him. They soon arrived to inspect the new house, and danced about it until one of them, about three inches high, decided to stay there and chose a hole in the beam for his home.

Typically, each individual building of a homestead is inhabited by its own spirit. This explains the multiplicity of names that we find for these spirits in a single geographic area.

These spirits that we see today, frozen in our gardens and reduced to the status of simple decorations, are the misunderstood vestiges of a former time when they were vitally alive and participated in the lives of men. They have lost their names and are now little more than generic dwarves. Since men no longer believe in them, and because our habitat has profoundly changed, they have abandoned us—they no longer perform any domestic duties, and, with their disappearance, part of a dream has vanished.

(Translated by Jon Graham)

A version of this article originally appeared in La Grande Oreille 35 (2008): 52–55. For publication in English, it has been slightly expanded in collaboration with the author.

Selected Works by Claude Lecouteux on This Theme:

Claude Lecouteux. Nos bons voisins. Nains, elfes, lutins, gnomes, kobolds et compagnie, textes réunis, présentés et annotés. Paris: Corti, 2010. ———. Les nains et les elfes au Moyen Âge. 3rd edition. Paris, Imago, 2004. ———. Eine Welt im Abseits. Studien zur niederen Mythologie und Glaubenswelt des Mittelalters. Dettelbach: Röll, 2001. ———. “Zwerge und Verwandte.” Euphorion 75 (1981): 366–78

[cult-of-death-blog]

People should really learn how to defend themselves for when (or if) civilization falls. Learn how to fight using guns and other weapons. They should also study the tactics of guerrilla warfare by reading and studying groups like The IRA etc. The following list of books will be helpful to people:

1. The IRA by Tim Pat Coogan

2. Michael Collins by Tim Pat Coogan

3. The IRA Green Book vols. 1 & 2:

4. Handbook For Volunteers Of The Irish Republican Army: Notes On Guerrilla Warfare

5. Minimanual of the Urban Guerrilla by Carlos Marighella

6. On Guerrilla Warfare by Mao Tse-Tung

7. Guerrilla Warfare by Ernesto Che Guevara

8. War of the Flea: The Classic Study of Guerrilla Warfare by Robert Taber

9. On War, Indexed Edition by Carl von Clausewitz (Princeton University Press)

10. The Art Of War by Sun Tzu

11. The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi

12. The Life-Giving Sword by Yagyu Munenori

13. Hagakure by Yamamoto Tsunetomo

14. The One-eyed God: Odin and the (Indo-) Germanic Männerbünde by Kris Kershaw

P.S. I am not advocating armed criminal action or any other type of illegal activities.

[cult-of-death-blog]

Frigesbed "Frige's Prayer"

Hal Fríge Módor---myge Wódnes, léof mid þín léodum---léohtmód bist, rúne hieldst---rúmheort bist, mearum ond máðmum---meduradenne, for gesiðmægen--- symle aghwar; eodor æþelinga---arest gegretest, forman fulle---to Fréan hond, ricence geracst--- ond rad witst mann, Frige eallcnáwestre ---fræfel gyden, Ésageardes cwén--- cwémlic hláfidge. Biergst byrdum--- bearn weardst, Agnar Gárgiþes sunu ---setede cyning, Wódne tacede---wealdend wæs.

Hail Frigga Mother--- Woden's mirth, dear to the folk ---you are light hearted, hold secrets---and generous are, with mares and treasures---when the mead is dealt out, for warriors---at symbel together; always the princes---you greet first, first the full---to the lord's hand, greatness you attain---and for Man counsel know, Frigga all knowing ---cunning goddess, Asgard's queen ---pleasing lady. You guard births---ward the young, Agnar, Gearöth's son---you sat as King, Woden you showed---who the ruler was. (lines 2-7 based on Maxims II)

http://web.archive.org/web/20140220054103/http://www.englatheod.org/frigesbed.htm

#fuckwhitemarshtheod

[cult-of-death-blog]

Tiwesbed "Tiw's Prayer"

Æwe god---hál ábéode! Þinges Tíw---þrymcyning, þú fédest þone wulf---þe óðera gefærte, þú nóme his tréwðe---þe getí wæs hé, þín hand nóm wolf---hwonne bande þu wearg swá ánhende ós---híe inclypiað þé. Tíw þú bist tácna---healdest tréwða well, wið æþelingas---þú bist on færelde, ofer nihta genihtu---næfre swícest. Sigebéacn tó manigum---swicléas lædere síða, þá híe riht déore healt---þín hand onccegað tó sóþe---tó lage and léafe, tó mærum dædum---ond mihitigum wordum, léode laðað Heargwearde---ond lofiað þínne nama Sigedryhten---Sóðfæer, Ánhende ós---Aewe god; Dém gód úrum dædum---ond úrum drengum!

Law god ---whole abide. thing god---strong king, You fed the wolf--when others would not, you took his troth---when tied was he, your hand took the wolf---when you bound the outlaw, so one handed god---they call you. Tiw you are a symbol---you hold troth well, with the princes---when you travel, over night's mists---never do you mislead. Victory symbol to many---loyal leader on paths, those whom right hold dear---Your hand call on, for truth---for law, and for what's dear, for great deeds---and mighty words. The poeple praise you Temple---and praise your name, Victory lord---Truth father, One handed god---law god; Deem good our deeds---and our warriors.

http://web.archive.org/web/20130225213002/http://www.englatheod.org/tiwesbede.htm#

#fuckwhitemarshtheod

[cult-of-death-blog]

Wéonede Song

The Wéonede Song is used to create sacred space so that a ritual can be performed. The principle behind it is based on the land taking ceremonies for Heathen temples found in the Icelandic Landnamabok and some of the Icelandic sagas as well as the phrase "Þorr uiki " "Thunor make sacred" found on runestones. We can only assume similar methods were used by the Anglo-Saxon Pagans. Fire is carried around the space to be made sacred (in the form of a torch or candle( while reciting or singing the following:

Fyr ic bere ymb friðgearde, Ond béode men frið fremman, Líeg ic bere ic belúce, Béode ælwihta fléogan aweg. Þunor wéoha, Þunor wéoha, Þunor wéoha þisne ealh.

Fyr ic bere ymb friðgearde, Ond béode men frið fremman, Líeg ic bere ic belúce, Béode utlaga féran aweg. Þunor wéoha, Þunor wéoha, Þunor wéoha þisne ealh. Þunor wéoha, Þunor wéoha, Þunor wéoha þisne ealh.

Fire I bear around this sacred site, And bid all men make peace, Flame I bear I enclose, And bid evil spirits to flee Thor make sacred, Thor make sacred, Thor make sacred this holy site

Fire I bear around this sacred site, And bid all men make peace, Flame I bear I enclose, And bid outlaws fare away. Thor make sacred, Thor make sacred, Thor make sacred this holy site. Thor make sacred, Thor make sacred, Thor make sacred this holy site.

https://theodishheathen.wordpress.com/category/anglo-saxon-heathenry/

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The Havamal: Translation by James Chisholm

1. Watch out and check all gates before faring forth. One should spy around, one should pry around. Hard to know what foe sits before you in the next room.

2. Hail the givers! A guest has come where shall he sit? Hard pressed is he, who tests his luck by the fire.

3. Fire is needful for those who arrive with cold knees. Food and clothing is needful to men who have fared over the fells.

4. Water is needful, for he who comes for a meal, drying and friendly words as well, and, if he can get them, kindness, good words, and welcome again.

5. Wits are needful to he who travels far. The dull should stay home. He will be mocked, who cannot sit with sages.

6. Let a man not be boastful about his wisdom, but watchful instead. The wise and silent are seldom harmed when wary in the hall. A more trustworthy friend, a man cannot have, than understanding.

7. The wary guest who comes to the feast listens in silence, casts his eyes about and pricks up his ears. Thus the wise ward their ways.

8. Happy is he who gets praise and knows liking staves. He has it hard, who must get these things by the help of another.

9. Happy is he who gets praise and has wit throughout his life. A man often gets evil counsel from the heart of another.

10. A man bears no better burden on the wilderness ways than great wisdom. It will prove better than wealth in an unknown homestead.

11. A man bears no better burden, when on the wilderness ways than great wisdom. One can have no worse fare, on road or field, than too much ale.

12. Ale is not so good as they say for the sons of men. A man’s mind knows less, the more he drinks.

13. The heron is called mindlessness who hovers over men stealing their minds I was bound by that fowl’s feathers when I was in Gunnloth’s garth.

14. I became drunk, roaring drunk, with wise Fjalar. The best wassail is that which a man leaves with his wits.

15. Silent and attentive, and battle bold should a chieftain’s son be. A man should be glad and happy until defeated by death.

16. The unwise man thinks he will live forever by avoiding battle But old age will give him no rest though he be spared from spears.

17. The fool gapes when among the folk. He mutters and mopes, and soon it is seen, when he gets drunk, what his mind is like.

18. He alone knows, who has wandered widely and has fared over the fells what mind stirs in each man if he himself has wits.

19. A man should not refrain form the cup though he drink mead in the hof let him say what is needful or be silent. No man shall call you ignorant if you go to bed early.

20. The greedy man, without mind’s wits eats himself in sorrow. Often he brings ridicule on himself when he is among wise men who mock the man’s belly.

21. The herd knows when to go home and leave the grazing ground behind. The unwise man never knows how much to eat.

22. Ill tempered the wretch, who laughs at everyone. He cannot recognize, as he should, that he is not without faults.

23. The stupid man lies awake all night and thinks about everything and is tired in the morning though all is as it was.

24. The stupid man thinks that all who laugh at him are friends He does not notice how the talk goes when he sits with wise men.

25. The unwise man thinks that all who laugh at him are friends. But when he is at the thing he finds few spokesmen.

26. The stupid man thinks he knows all when he is at home. But he does not know what to say when men test him.

27. When the fool fares among folk it is best he stay quiet. No one knows that he knows nothing unless he talks too much.

28. Wise seems he who knows how to ask and answer. What goes about among men, cannot be hidden from men.

29. He who never shuts up blathers powerless staves. The speedy tongue that never stops often brings itself harm.

30. Do not ridicule another man, though he is kin. He oft seems wise who is not questioned, and leaves dry skinned.

31. He is wise who leaves the flyting when guest mocks guest. He who grins at the feast does not know that he chatters among foes.

32. Many a man is being friendly when he teases at the table. There is always strife when guest clashes with guest.

33. A man should often get his meal early. When he visits friends. Otherwise he sits and idles, eats like he were starving without even asking.

34. It is a long way to the false friend though he dwell by the road. But a straight way lies to the good friend, though he lives far away.

35. Then the guest should go. He should not stay too long in one stead. When one stays too long in another’s house, love turns to loathing.

36. One’s home is better though it be small. To each, home is hall. Though he owns but two goats, and a thatched roof, it is better than begging.

37. One’s own home is best, though it is small. To each, home is hall. His heart will bleed who has to ask for each meal’s meat.

38. A man should not step one foot forth in the field without weapons. One cannot know, when on the road, when he will need his spear.

39. I never found a generous man who was so free with his food, that he would turn it down, or so generous as to loath a gift were it given.

40. One should not have too much need of the goods he has gotten. Often one squanders on enemies what was intended for loved ones. Many affairs go awry.

41. Friends should share joy in weapons and clothes that are evident to one another. Those who share gifts stay the fastest friends, when things go well.

42. A man shall ever be a friend to his friends and give gift for gift, laughter for laughter, but give lies for lies.

43. A man shall always be a friend to friends and to the friend of a friend but never a friend to a friend’s enemies.

44. If you know that you have a friend and that he is true, and that you will get good from him, share your mind with him, exchange gifts, and visit him often.

45.  If you know another and trust him not and you want to get good from him speak fair to him while thinking falsely and give him lies for lies.

46. If you do not trust a man, and he speaks his mind with you laugh with him, but speak not your mind and deal fitting rewards for his gifts.

47. When I was young, I once traveled alone and lost my way. I thought myself rich when I found another, man rejoices in man.

48. He who gives gladly lives the best life, and seldom has sorrow. But the unwise suspect all and always pine for gifts.

49. I gave my clothes to two tree-men in the field. Men they seemed with clothes. Shameful the naked hero.

50. The young fir tree dies that stands sheltered by neither bark nor needle in the field Such is a man whom none love. Why should such a man live longer?

51. Hotter than fire friendship burns for five days between false friends. But it slackens on the sixth and the friendship goes awry.

52. Give not great gifts. You can win praise with little. Half a loaf and half a cup won me fellowship.

53. A small lake has a little sand. The minds of men are small and not all men are equally wise. No man is whole.

54. Middle wise should each man be and not over wise. The fairest life is had by the one who knows many things well.

55. Middle wise should each man be and not over-wise. A wise man’s heart is seldom glad when he has got himself great wisdom.

56. Middle wise should each man be and not over wise. He who knows not his orlog may sleep untroubled.

57. Brand burns brand and is so burned. Fire is kindled from fire. A man is known by his talk and the dull man is known by his nonsense,

58. He should rise early who wants to take the life or property of another. Seldom does the lying wolf get the lamb or the sleeping man victory.

59. He should rise early who has few workers to see to his work himself. He loses much who sleeps in the morning. Half of wealth is gotten by initiative.

60. Dry firewood and birch bark for roofing a man can measure, for wood to last in the winter time.

61. Well fed and washed fare to the thing. A man should ride to the thing though his clothes are well worn. A man should not be ashamed of his shoes and breeks, or even less of his horse, though they are not the best

62. The eagle snuffles and droops when he fares over the waves of the sea. So fares a man in a throng where few will plead his case.

63. Each shall ask and answer who is wise and wishes to be called wise. Let none know, not even a second. All will know, if three know.

64. All who are wise in rede shall not be overly forceful. He finds, who walks among the stout, that no one is the strongest.

65. — — — — Words spoken by one to another often bring an evil reward.

66. Far too early I arrived at many steads, But too late at others, The ale was already drunk or yet unbrewed. The loathed find little among the folk.

67. Here and there they had me in their homes, if I was not hungry for meat or hung two hams for the true friend for the one I had eaten.

68. Fire is better for the sons of men and the sight of the sun. Good health also, if a man can keep it and live without shame.

69. A man is not entirely bereft though his health is poor. Some are blessed with sons, some by friends, some by wealth and others by good works.

70. Better to be alive and happy. The quick always get the cattle. The fire burned for the wealthy man, but the dead man lays outside.

71. A halt man can ride a horse. The handless can be herdsmen. The deaf can fight bravely, a blind man is better than a burned man, and a dead man is of no use.

72. Better to have a son, though born late after the father has passed away. Stones seldom stand by the roads unless raised by kin for kin.

73. Two take on one. The tongue is the head’s bane. I expect fists under every fur coat.

74. Night is joyful if provisions are adequate. The cabins of ships are cramped. Fall nights pass and weather changes many times in five days, even more in a month.

75. He who knows nothing does not know that many men become apes. One man is rich and another poor. There is no blame in that.

76. Cattle die, kinsmen die, and you yourself shall die. But fair fame never dies for the one who wins it.

77. Cattle die and kinsmen die and you yourself shall die. But I know one that never dies that is the doom of each one dead.

78. The store rooms of Fitjung’s sons were full. Now they bear the beggar’s staff. Thus flies wealth in the twinkling of an eye, the falsest of friends.

79. The unwise man only grows arrogant when he wins himself wealth or a woman’s love. His wisdom never increases, only his pride.

80. It is found when you ask the runes which are known to the Regin made by the Ginnregin drawn by Fimbulthul, it is best to keep silent.

81. Praise the day in the evening, a torch when it is burned, a sword when it is tried, a maid when married, ice when crossed, ale when drunk.

82. Hew wood in the wind, row out to sea in good weather, play with a maid in the dark, for many are the eyes of the day. Look for speed in a ship, and for cover from a shield. Get a sword for hewing and a maid for kissing.

83. Drink ale by the fire, skate on the ice, buy a lean steed, and a rusty blade, feed your horse at home and your hound at home.

84. Let no man trust a maiden’s words,nor the talk of a woman, for their hearts were shaped on a spinning wheel,mand falsehood lurks in their breasts.

85. A brittle bow, a burning fire, a grinning wolf, a singing crow, a grunting boar, a rootless tree, a swelling wave, a boiling kettle,

86. A flying arrow, a crashing wave, night old ice, a coiled snake, a bride’s bed talk, a broken sword, the play of bears, a king’s son,

87. A sick calf, an uppity thrall, the pleasant talk of a volva, the fresh fallen warrior.

88. Early sown acres should no man trust, nor too soon a son. Weather ruins the acres, and stupidity the son. Each of these is a risk.

89. Your brother’s slayer, though met on the road, a half-burned house, or too swift a horse. A steed is worthless, if it breaks on foot. One must not be so trusting, as to trust in these.

90. Such is the love of a woman whose heart is false. Like riding unshod horses over slippery ice, or poorly trained two year olds, or drifting rudderless on heavy seas, or like a halt reindeer on a slippery fell.

91. I say this openly, for I know both. A man’s heart is false with women. Our hearts are most false when our words roost fair, which deceive the hearts of the wise.

92. He shall speak fairly and deal wealth who will win a woman’s love. Praise the looks of the bonny lass. Win by wooing.

93. No man should ever ridicule another’s love. The lure of a beautiful woman often snares the wise while leaving the fool.

94. A man should not heap abuse on another for something that happens to many men. Powerful love makes fools of heroes and sages.

95. Only your own mind knows what is dearest to your heart. Each counsels himself. There is no worse illness for a sage than losing love for himself.

96. I found that out, when I sat in the reeds and waited for my heart’s delight. The heart and body of the wise maid were dear to me, but I had not my will with her.

97. Billing’s daughter I found on her bed. The sun-white maid slept and a Jarldom seemed nothing to me if I lived without her love.

98. “Come back near evening Odin, if you would speak with me. It would be entirely unfitting unless only the two of us know of this deed.”

99. I went back thinking she loved me, but I was misled. I thought that I would have great pleasure and all her heart.

100. So I came the next night and the warriors were all awake bearing bright brands, their torches alight, I worked not my will.

101. Near morning I went in again when the folk were asleep. But I found a bitch bound to the fair maid’s bed.

102. Many a good maid proves false hearted when you get to know her. I found that out when I lured the wise woman in lust. The clever maiden had sport of me with all manner of mockery, and I had not my way with her.

103. Glad in his household and cheerful with guests and wise let a man be. He should be thoughtful and eloquent if he wants to be learned in lore and praised as such. The man who has little to say is deemed an idiot. That is the lot of fools.

104. The old ettin I sought, now I am back I would have gotten little, had I been silent. I spoke many words to work my will in Suttung’s hall.

105. The auger bored and made me room gnawed through stone, over and under were the ettin ways. Thus I risked my head.

106. Gunnloth gave me, as I sat on her golden seat, a drink of the dear won mead. An evil reward I dealt her afterwards, for her goodwill, and her heavy-heart.

107. Dear bought, I put it to good use. For the wise little is lacking. Othroerir has been brought up to the ve of the gods.

108. I would hardly have come out alive from the garth of the ettins, had I not enjoyed the good woman Gunnloth in whose arms I lay.

109. The next day rime Thurses strode out to ask rede of Har in Har’s Hall, asking about Bolverk, whether he was among the Gods or had been slain by Suttung.

110. I know that Odin swore an oath on a ring, How shall his troth be trusted?He robbed Suttung and took his sumble. To Gunnloth he brought sorrow.

111. It is time to sing on the sage’s seat at Urth’s well. I saw and was silent, I watched and thought. I heard the speech of men, I heard talk of runes. They were not silent at council. At Har’s hall, in Har’s hall I heard them speak.

112. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it if you learn it, it will get you good, if you understand it. Do not rise at night, except to spy or to find the outhouse.

113. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well. You will use it if you learn it, it will get you good, if you understand it. Do not sleep in the arms of a woman skilled in black arts such that she locks her limbs with yours.

114. She will work it that you will not want to go to the thing or care about the talk of the folk. You will not want food or any pleasure and you will seek your bed in sorrow.

115. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it if you learn it, it will get you good if you understand it. Watch that you are not lured to bed by another’s wife.

116. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it if you learn it, it will get you good if you understand it. If you fare veil on fell or fjord, bring food.

117. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it if you learn it, it will get you good if you understand it. Never tell your hardships to foemen, for you will never get a reward for your good wishes from evil men.

118. I saw a man sharply bitten by the ill words of a woman, Her false tongue brought his death,

and her attacks were unjust.

119. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it, if you learn it, it will get you good, if you understand it. If you have a true friend fare to find him often. Shrubs and grass grow to cover the untrodden path.

120.I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it, if you learn it, it will get you good, if you understand it. Draw a good man to yourself with staves of joy, and you will have healing songs while you live.

121. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it, if you learn it, it will get you good, if you understand it. Never be the first to forsake a friend. Sorrow eats the heart of he who can no longer speak his mind to anyone.

122. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it, if you learn it, it will get you good, if you understand it. Never bandy words with stupid apes.

123. You will never get any good from an evil man. But a good man will get you the love and goodwill of many.

124. When each can speak all his mind to the other, friendship is shared. Anything is better than fickleness. He is no friend, whose words are always fair.

125. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it, if you learn it, it will do you good if you understand it. Bandy not three words with a lesser man. Often the better man fails when the worse gets hostile.

126. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well, You will use it, if you learn it, it will get you good if you understand it. Be not a maker of shoes or a shaper of shafts, unless they are for yourself. If the shoe is ill shaped, or the shaft is not straight, they will wish you ill.

127. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it, if you learn it, it will get you good if you understand it. If you know that someone is evil, say so. Never give friendship to your enemies.

128. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it, if you learn it, and it will get you good if you understand it, Never rejoice in evil, but always do good.

129. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it, if you learn it, and it will get you good if you understand it. Do not look up in battle. Sons of men become like hogs, when warriors enchant you.

130. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it, if you learn it, and it will do you good if you understand it. If you want a good woman, speak pleasure runes to her, Pledge your troth and hold fast to it if you want joy from her. None loathes good if she gets it.

131. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it, if you learn it, and it will do you good if you understand it. Watch yourself, but don’t be overcautious. Be especially wary of ale and of another man’s wife. Thirdly, see that you are not tricked by con-men.

132. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it, if you learn it, it will get you good if you understand it. Never make sport of guests and travelers.

133. Often those who sit inside do not know the kin of those who have arrived. No man is so good that he has no faults, none so evil that he is not worthy in some way.

134. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it, if you learn it, it will get you good if you understand it. Never laugh at the hoary sage. The old often speak wisely and clearly.  Wise speech oft comes from the dried skin that hangs with the hides, dangling with the furs and swinging among the bushes.

135. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it, if you learn it, it will get you good if you understand it. Do not abuse a guest, or drive him out the door. Instead, do well for the wretched.

136. The beam must be sturdy, that is unbarred for all who ride up. Deal out rings or he

will wish you all sorts of trouble.

137. I give you rede Loddfafnir, heed it well! You will use it, if you learn it, it will get you good if you understand it. When you drink ale, call on the main of the earth, for earth is good against ale, but fire against diseases. Oak is good against costiveness, grain against wizardry bearded rye against feuds. They say the moon is good against hate. Alum use for rabies and runes against evil. The earth draws off floods.

138. I know that I hung, on a wind swept tree for all of nine nights, wounded by spear, and given to Odin, myself to myself, on that tree of which no man knows from what root it rises.

139. They dealt me no bread, nor drinking horn. I looked down, I drew up the runes, screaming I took them up, and fell back from there.

140. Fimbul spells I got from the famous Son of Bolthor the father of Bestla. I had a drink of the dear mead that was drawn from Othroerir.

141. Then I began to grow and waxed well in wisdom. One word led me to another, one work led me to another.

142. You will find runes, meaningful staves, very powerful staves, very strong staves, that Fimbul dyed, that the Ginnregin shaped, that the God Hropt carved.

143. Odin among the Aesir, but Dain for the elves, Dvalinn for the dwarves, Asvith for the ettins. I carved some myself.

144. Know how to carve them, know how to read them, know how to stain them, know how to wield them, know how to ask them, know how to bloody them, know how to send them, know how to sacrifice them.

145. It is better not to ask, than to sacrifice too much. A gift always looks for a gift. It is better unsent, than over sacrificed. So Thund carved before the doom of mankind. He rose up and came back after that.

146. I know those magical songs, not known by the wives of kings, or any human. One is called help and will help you in all sickness, sorrow and affliction.

147. I know another that is needed by the sons of men who want to be leeches.

148. I know a third for the event that I should be in dire need of fettering a foe. I can dull the blades of my attacker so that they can strike by neither weapon or wile.

149. I know a fourth, so that if bonds bind my limbs, I can get free. Fetters spring from my feet, and bonds from my hands.

150. I know a fifth. If a foe shoots a shaft into the host, it cannot fly so fast that I cannot stop it, if I catch sight of it.

151. I know a sixth. If some thane attacks me, with the wood of a young root, he who says he hates me will get hurt, but I will be unharmed.

152. I know a seventh. If I see a fire high on the hall around my bench companions,

I can help them by singing the spell.

153. I know an eighth. It is useful for all who know it, Whenever hatred flares up among warriors’ sons, I am able to quell it.

154. I know a ninth. If need arises, to save my ship on the flood, I can still the wind, and calm the waves, put the entire sea to sleep.

155. I know a tenth. If I see ghost-riders sporting in the sky, I can work it that the wild ones fare away. So their shapes (ham) shall fare home, so their spirits fare home.

156. I know an eleventh: If I lead old friends into the fray, I sing under the shield and they fare into battle mighty and whole, they fare from battle whole, they are whole, wherever they go.

157. I know a twelfth: If I see a hanged man swinging high in a tree, I can carve and stain runes, so that the man walks and speaks with me.

158. I know a thirteenth: If I sprinkle a young thane with water, he will not fall, though he goes to battle.

He will not be cut down by swords.

159. I know a fourteenth: If I talk of the gods before the folk, I can speak of Ases and elves. Few of the unlearned know these things.

160. I know a fifteenth, which Thiodrorir the dwarf sang before Delling’s door. He sang might to the Aesir, power to the elves, and understanding to Odin.

161. I know a sixteenth. If I want the heart and pleasure of a winsome lass, I turn the mind of the white-armed lady to me, and wend to bed with her.

162. I know a Seventeenth to keep her from shirking me for any other man. Mind this Loddfafnir, long will you lack it, but it will get you good, once you learn it, it will be useful to you when you understand it, and needful if known.

163. know an eighteenth that none know, neither maid, nor man’s wife. It is always better kept secret, except to the one who lies in my arms, or my sister.

164. Now are Har’s sayings said, in Har’s hall needful for the sons of men unneeded by ettins’ sons. Hail the one who speaks them, hail the one who knows them useful to he who gets them hail they who heed them.

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The Secret of the Gothick God of Darkness

The Secret of the Gothick God of Darkness

by Sir Stephen E. Flowers, Ph.D., Grand Master Emeritus

previously published in the collection Blue Rûna. reproduced with permission.

There is a Secret God, a Hidden God, who dwells in a spiralling tower fortress and who has guided and overseen our development from time immemorial—and who has remained concealed but very close to us awaiting the “future” time of re-awakening. The time of the re-awakening is near. Already we have heard the distant claps of thunder which signal the coming storm.

The legacy of the Dark Gothick God is one which can guide those chosen by him to a state of development wherein they have attained a permanent (immortal) consciousness which is free to act or not act in the material universe as it desires. This consciousness becomes privy to all manner of secrets of life and death and life in death. The price for this attainment is contained in the cost of attaining it—for one who has been so chosen there can be no rest, no respite from the Quest which is, and remains, the Eternal Work.

Because the way in which knowledge of this Dark Gothick God is passed from generation to generation contradicts the favored methods of the so-called “major religions” of the world—the religions of the “book”—Judaism, Christianity and Islam—this knowledge and its methods have been forbidden and made increasingly taboo for all of the centuries since the cunning ideological conversion of Europe by Christianity.

Books can be burned, religious leaders can be killed—but the blood endures.

The Gothick God

In recent decades our western European culture (including all the “colonies” of western European cultures such as those in North America and Australia) have witnessed a revival of an aesthetic “Gothick Culture.” This revival, or reawakening, of the Gothick spirit in many respects follows the characteristics of all the previous revivals.

The word “Gothick” is the key to understanding the nature and character of the spirit behind the aesthetic. (Here I use the “-k” spelling for aesthetic reasons as well as to differentiate the cultural movement from designations of architecture or literary history—more commonly spelled in the standard way.) “Gothick” is ultimately derived from the name of an ancient Germanic nation—the Goths.

These Goths came out of the far North (from present-day Gotaland in Sweden) and swept down into southern Europe beginning about 150 CE. They split into two major groups along the way: the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths. In the south they established kingdoms in present-day Italy (with its capital in Ravenna) and southern France (with its capital in present-day Toulouse). This latter kingdom, under pressure from the Franks, moved its capital to the present-day Spanish city of Toledo. In all of these regions the Goths established many secret traditions at the highest levels of society. The tip of this secret iceberg is revealed when you see how many Spanish and Italian names of nobility are derived from Gothic forms. Some of the more familiar examples would be Frederico, Adolfo, Carlo, Ricardo…

The mystery of what happened to the lost treasure of Rome (including the “Lost Ark”) can be solved through knowledge of Visigothic secret history. But that is a story for another time. Eventually the Goths were militarily defeated by a coalition of the Roman Catholic Church and the king of the Franks, who was the first Germanic king to convert to Roman Catholicism. All others before him, including many Goths, had “converted” to their own brand of esoteric “Gothic Christianity.” The final end to overt Gothic rule in Spain came with the Muslim invasion in 711 CE. But their secret traditions lived on.

The Goths gained a reputation in their own time, and through subsequent ages, as a sort of “master-race.” In ancient Scandinavia the word gotar was used as an honorific title for heroes, as even today members of the noble class in modern Spain are referred to as godos (“Goths”). As time went on, some of the secret Gothic tradition merged with some of the established traditions of the peoples among whom they disappeared, while other parts of it were submerged in the cultural “under-class” of peasants, vagabonds and heretics.

Four to five centuries after their official “demise” an aesthetic in memorial to the spirit of the Goths was created in northern Europe—later art historians even named the style “Gothic.” But nowhere the Goths had been remained unmarked by their prestige and secret tradition. This dark and mysterious Gothick past of superhuman qualities loomed as a secret alternative to the bright and rational Classical past which was used as a model for both Christian theologians of the Middle Ages and rational humanists of the Renaissance.

It is in this cultural framework that the Romantic movement began to grow in the 1700s. The Classical models had failed the avant-garde of the day. They looked to a more distant past, as a way of looking into a deeper, more mysterious, and at the same time more real, level of themselves. When the French looked beyond their Medieval Christian roots they found the Romans, and hence the word “Roman-tic” aptly described what it was they were looking for. In northern Europe, however, the term “Romantic” was generally found wanting by the adventurous souls who saw nothing of the deep-past = deep-self formula in the word. It was still remembered that our noble past was not Roman, but Gothick. (By now the word “Gothick” was also a synonym for “Germanic” or “Teutonic” as well.)

The Gothick world was a world of the distant and powerful past, shrouded in mist and swathed in darkness—a night-side world of dream and nightmare. The Gothick images conjured by the artists of the day—poets such as Burger, Novalis, Byron, and Hugo, or painters such as Fuseli, Arbo and Doré—acted as doorways for opening the world to the Gothick stream. The dead came alive once more and walked among the living—and upon the living begat the children of darkness.

This process has continued from those nights to these branching out in ever wider circles to encompass more aspects of life. But at the level of what might be called “popular culture” clear traces can be seen which connect Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho to M.G. Lewis’ The Monk to C.R. Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer to Edgar Allen Poe’s tales and poetry to R.W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow to Bram Stoker’s Dracula and on to Hanns Heinz Ewers, H.P. Lovecraft and Anne Rice. All in their own ways, wittingly or unwittingly, they have contributed to the descent of the Gothick God of Darkness in popular culture.

In many respects Stoker’s famous novel, Dracula, was a “warning” concerning the emergence of an “evil influence” from the Gothick past—Denn die Todten reiten schnell ! Stoker has his evil nobleman declare his kinship with the northern Berserkers who fought with the “spirit which Thor and Wodin [sic] gave them,” and even obliquely refers to the Gothic tradition reported by Jordanes in his Getica that the Huns were the offspring of Gothic sorceresses, known asHaljurûnas (“Hel-Runes”), and devils that roamed the steppes.

Neither was this influence lost on the American writer H.P. Lovecraft, who, when he was feeling more “heroic” in his younger days, strongly identified with the Gothick heritage. In a letter from October of 1921 he wrote: “I am essentially a Teuton and barbarian; a Xanthochroic Nordic from the damp forests of Germany or Scandinavia… I am a son of Odin and brother to Hengist and Horsa…”

The most important God of the ancient Goths was their most distant ancestor, which the Gothic histories record as one named Gaut. Old Norse literature provides the key to discovering the more familiar identity of this God. There we find this name among the many specialized names given to the God Ódhinn or Woden (as he was known among the Anglo-Saxons). Ódhinn is called the All-Father, and Gaut is at the head of the genealogy of the Gothic kings just as Woden is at the head of the genealogies of all the pre-Norman English kings.

This God—or ultimate præterhuman ancestor—is a wise and dark communicator. He is the master of all forms of mysterious communication by means of signs and symbols. In ancient times a system of such symbols for communication were discovered, and called “Runes.” In order to learn these the God hung himself for nine nights on a tree and thereby encountered the realm of Death—and from that spear-tip point which is the interface between life and death he at once comprehended the Runes—the Mysteries of the World.

These Runes form a system of semiotic elements which are not only potent in a purely abstract or theoretical way, but which are, by their very nature, connected to the physical universe and the realm of generation and regeneration.

Even in ancient times, when Woden was acknowledged as the High-God of the Germanic peoples, he was not a very popular God. He hid himself from most, and many were glad of it. Then and even now he dwells in deep darkness and travels to the most forbidden zones of the multiverse in his eternal search for ever increasing knowledge.

As with the ancient Goths, Woden’s most essential role is as the All-Father, as the progenitor of a continuous blood-line—and through that blood-line the forger of a permanent link with humanity. The importance of blood as a symbol of what it is that is really going on in a more mysterious way is essential. The mystery and secret of Woden is not that “knowledge” of him is passed along through clandestine cults (though this too occurs), or even through the re-discovery of old books and texts (though this happens)—but rather that such knowledge is actually encoded in a mysterious way in the DNA, in the very genetic material, of those who are descended from him. This in and of itself is an awful secret to bear—and once grasped it is a secret which has driven more than one man mad.

Runic (Mysterious) information is stored “in the blood” where it lies concealed and dormant until the right stimulus is applied from the outside which signals its activation. In this way, knowledge can seem to have been eradicated, but yet resurface again and again with no apparent, or apparently natural, connection between one manifestation and other subsequent remanifestations.

Scientists have more recently discovered the phenomenal platform for this noumenal process in the form of the double helix of the DNA molecule.

The Secret

The Gothick obsession is an obsession with the Mystery of Darkness. It is no accident, or if it is an “accident” it is a meaningful synchronicity, that the name of the mythic sorceresses of Gothic history who gave birth to the Huns was Halju-rûnas, which literally translated from the Gothic would be “The Mysteries of Death.” The Gothick offspring have always sought to pry into the Mysteries of Life and Death, to penetrate to the depth of the self and to the outermost reaches of the darkened and chaotic world. Boldly forging into the Darkness to seek the Grail of Undefiled Wisdom, to seek the mysteries , is the highest Quest of the Gothick Children of the Night. There is great power in the Quest, and the Quest alone.

The Gothic word for “mystery” is rûna. When the Gothic bishop Ulfilas translated the Christian Bible into Gothic for use in the Gothic cult he translated the Greek word mystêrion with the Gothic rûna.

The practical power of this at once simple and obscure idea of mystery was once well illustrated in an episode of the popular American television series, Unsolved Mysteries. One day an out-of-work father took his sons fishing in remote forest area where they discovered some stones in the river carved with a variety of arcane symbols. The father and his sons were deeply struck by the signs—What could they mean? Who could have carved them? They went home filled with a sense of mystery and awe. Within a short time business opportunities poured the father’s way and the family was soon prosperous. They attributed their good fortune to the power of the stones. (Experts from a nearby university determined that the signs were carved recently and were not Amerindian petroglyphs, although they appeared to be imitations of similar designs.) Indeed, the family had come by their turn of good fortune from the stones—but not because of the particular shapes or qualities of the signs themselves but rather because of the sense of mysterious power which had struck the father and sons upon seeing the stones.

In the coming years the value and power of the concept of pure Mystery, or the Hidden, will become more apparent as the ways of the Gothick God of Darkness begin to unfold.

That which links this world with that of the Mysterious Gothick realm is clearly symbolized by the blood. But do not mistake the symbol for the entirety of the thing itself—although it, as a truesymbol, is a fractum of the thing itself. The Gothick heritage, the heritage of power and knowledge, is encoded information which is by some as yet unknown paraphysical process passed from generation to generation. Knowledge of this mode of transmitting information is among the greatest taboos in our contemporary society. The reason for this is that it represents the greatest challenge to the Christian and Modern establishments with their dependence on conventional modes for transmitting information (especially the written word). The forbidden secret of the Gothick God is that you can be informed from within, by means of innate structures, which are stimulated by actual experience in the framework of objective intellectual knowledge (undefiled wisdom). When the right constellation of individuals with this knowledge are present the Ages of Dependence—on Medieval Churches or Modern Governments—will begin to come to an end.

The Gothick God of Darkness is the Unknown God, the Hidden God—and hence the God of unknown and hidden things. His actions are hidden because he is hidden. Mere words cannot reveal this information, only Words (the hidden forms behind a certain key concepts) can do this. It is these which hold the secrets of eternal consciousness and power beyond death. Look, you see it before you now! If you see it, you must work to realize it within—and having mastered it there, to realize it without.

In his landmark work The Postmodern Condition, the French critic Jean-François Lyotard has some interesting things to say about the character of knowledge and the unknown in the coming years:

Postmodern science—by concerning itself with such things as undecidables, the limits of precise control, conflicts characterized by incomplete information, ‘fracta,’ catastrophes and pragmatic paradoxes—is theorizing its own evolution as discontinuous, catastrophic, non-rectifiable, and paradoxical. It is changing the meaning of the word knowledge, while expressing how such a change can take place. It is producing not the known, but the unknown. (p. 60)

Among the unknown things which will be produced in the Unmanifest zone, which the profane call “the future,” will be the engendering of a new Gothick realm which will be none other than the remanifestation of the elder realm. As yet it lives in a crimson darkness, but in the spiraling tower the Gothick God waits and watches as those who will call his realm forth work their wills upon the world.

Reyn til Rûna!

[cult-of-death-blog]

On ‘Havamal’ by Philip Quadrio

Close to the year 1220, Icelandic scholar, Snorri Sturluson(1178-1241), produced his work Edda which was to provide a guide for thewriting of traditional poetry, an art which Snorri felt was in decline. Eddaremained one of the main sources of information on the old Scandinavianreligion until in 1642 a Bishop Brynjolfur Sveinsson obtained a codex ofpoetics believed to have been compiled by Saemundr Sigfusson ‘the Wise’(1056-1133). The codex found by Bishop Brynjolfur was presented to KingFrederick the III of Denmark and since has become known as the Codex Regius.

Among the few mythological poems in the Codex Regius are Havamal and Voluspa,which were the first of the collection to reach print in 1665. The codex, datedc.1270, is believed to have been copied from one or more older texts, theoldest literary recordings being those cited in Snorri’s Edda (c.1220). Thisessay will focus on the importance of Havamal to the study of early Norsereligion. Especially of interest to the study of Norse religion will be thenature of the wisdom literature in Havamal, Odinn’s Self sacrifice, Odinn’swinning of the mead of poetry and the mystical nature of the runes. Also amajor difference between Snorri’s Edda and Havamal, is that Snorri does nottell of Odinn’s self-sacrifice, a narrative which seems to be very important tothe cult of Odinn.

The mythic poetry of the Edda are of two main kinds, narratives usuallyillustrative or pedagogic, and didactic poems, Havamal reflects both theseelements. In Havamal different narratives concerning Odinn are presented withinthe framework of a didactic poem. Similarly in Edda (c.1220) narratives aboutthe gods are didactic and illustrative of either myth or of the way myth was usedto convey meaning in skaldic poetry. The title Havamal ‘Sayings of the HighOne’ indicates that the compiler believed the source of the wisdom in this poemwas Odinn. In the very last strophe of the poem the title is referred to: “Noware Har’s sayings - spoken in Har’s hall.”[1] That the poem is spoken in thefirst person whilst dealing with mythical narratives of Odinn would also seemto support the title.

Havamal is thought to be of tenth century Norwegian origin,corroborated by the fact that it was quoted by Eyvind the Plagiarist in his 960lay to Hakon the Good, Hakonarsmal[2]. It is also likely that the mysticalpassages, relating to the runes, originated in Norway, as the cult of Odinn wasa lot stronger in Norway[3] than Iceland. The presence of Odinn dominatesIcelandic mythic poetry and prose, yet there is little cultic or place nameevidence in Iceland which relates to Odinn. Why should a God who has had such agreat impact on Icelandic literature leave so slight a mark on its landscape?This might be due to the fact that Odinn is the god of the most literatesection of the Icelandic community, the God of poets, and hence more celebratedby them. It is possible that the myths do not truly represent the nature ofreligious practice in Norse lands, that in Havamal we only have access to aprivileged, literate discourse.

The poem itself is at least six original poems joined to form onesequence and is commonly broken down into five sections[4]. The first sectionof Havamal is called Gestathattr or the guest’s section, containing allusionsto a narrative related to a variant of the myth of the winning of the mead ofpoetry from Gunnlod (strophe 13). The “Heron of Heedlessness”[5] is mentionedand seems more concerned with drunkenness then the mead itself. However it hasbeen noted that this section may link Havamal with Skaldskaparmal, in that theHeron is famous for spontaneous regurgitation as well as gluttony, drinking,drunkenness[6] and defecation as a form of defence. All these points are relevantto Skaldskaparmal, spontaneous regurgitation and regurgitating the mead intovats, gluttony, drinking and drunkenness are represented in Odinn’s quaffingall three vats of mead and finally, defecation as a form of defence.[7] Thatdrunkenness and vomiting are part of established Odinnic tradition, evidencedby two sections of Egil’s saga; firstly in his treatment of Armond[8], who hevomits on and later blinds in one eye, but also in the poem Sonnartorrek[9]. When he states that the words don’t come as easy as the mead from Odinn’sthroat.

The second Section (strophes 80-110) mentions two of Odinn’s lovestories. Havamal firstly deals with Odinn’s encounter with Billing’s daughterwhere he is tricked and humiliated. The second is related to his dealings withGunnlod whom he tricks and leaves humiliated, so as to gain the mead of poetry.The incident with Billing’s daughter has often been compared with Skirnismal(96-101). In both stories the Gods are victims of their own passions. Followingthis is a poem, essentially didactic but containing strong cultic elements(Strophe 111), called Loddfafnismal, the title indicates that the speaker isLoddfafnir. It is clear from the verse that it is Loddfafnir who is receivingthe advice and possibly Odinn who is reciting it. The fourth section, theRunatals, is mainly concerned with Odinn’s self sacrifice (138-145). Thissection has been a point of interest for scholars of Germanic religion with apossible allusion to initiatory ritual and its common associations of trial byordeal, symbolic death and a change of state in the initiated. The last sectionof Havamal, called Ljodatal, is didactic, focusing on the transmission ofarcane knowledge, much like Sigdrifumal. The similarities to Sigdrifumal arestrong as it is also a didactic poem, which contains rules of conduct as wellas magical uses for the runes, importantly Sigurd is a favourite of Odinn, soit seems fitting that he learn rune magic.

Most of the poem is advice about social conduct, mixed with wisdomsayings, the tone of which seems cynical and suspicious. The very first stanzais similar to the cautious warning we see on page two of Snorri’s Edda, thatcaution is needed when entering unknown areas. This is appropriate to aNorwegian Viking context where life was violent and often treacherous[10]. Thepoem is not all cynical and also deals with issues such as the value offriendship, loyalty, bravery and moderation.

Suprisingly there is little talkof King or kin, ideas central to Nordic society, supporting a Viking contextfor Havamal, since on Viking voyages traditional loyalties are less importantthan the loyalties which need to develop in warrior bands, especially that offriendship[11]. It also may be due to the nature of the warrior band that oneof the most important themes in Havamal is the importance of moderation.According to Havamal moderation is to be practised in all things when eating,drinking and even moderation of wisdom is stressed. This may have suited thecommunal life of a warrior band. The didactic sections of this poem have beenlikened to other forms of wisdom literature, particularly Ecclesiastics[12].Due to the general nature of wisdom literature it would be hard to prove anyconnection. Wisdom literature is comprised of general ideas produced withoutauthority, and is a genre which is common in Old English and Norse. It is notsurprising that concepts like ‘travel broadens the mind’ are expressed in morethen one culture. Typological similarities occur in wisdom literature becausethese wisdom sayings embody widely valid truths[13].

Havamal also has a mystical component and contains important narrativeson Odinn’s life such as his self sacrifice on Yggdrasil, a narrative which hasbeen interpreted as relating to sacrifice and initiation. It is this narrativewhich provides an important link with Odinn and death. Odinn returns from theworld of the dead enriched, transformed by knowledge from the other world.Sacrifice and initiation are logically very similar, both acts are ritualised actswhose aim is transformation. The three components of sacrificial ritual arealso present in initiation, i) performance roles, ii) sequence of action, iii)effect[14]. Sacrifice has been broken down into four performance roles i)victim, ii) sacrificer, iii) sacrifier/ beneficiary, iv) deity (Hubert andMauss[15]). The role of victim and sacrifier/ beneficiary are intimately linkedby logical homology[16]. In initiation the same roles are performed but thesacrifier and the victim are united as both victim and beneficiary- i)Initiand/beneficiary, ii) initiator, iii) deity. Odinn’s sacrifice can also be analysedin terms of a three phase process of attaining knowledge. The seeker ofknowledge moves from the bondage of ignorance, through atonement towards awakeninginto the light of knowledge. A process which can also be seen in Odinn’s ordealin Grimnismal, here like Havamal we see Odinn bound (Fetter breaker, Havamal149), gaining a drink, and then expounding wisdom. The names given by Snorri tothe three vats of mead in his version of the tale in Skalskaparmal areinteresting in this regard, i) Bodn- a drinking container, also the underworldand has been interpreted as the restraint of death. ii) Son- atonement. iii)Othroerir- vital spirit, a rebirth into a more vital productive life. Thisprocess is further evidenced by two poets, Kormakr calls Odinn Hapt soenir-Theone who provides atonement, also in Egil’s Sonnatorekk, i) Egil’s tongue hasbeen fettered by grief, ii) via the atonement of poetry, iii) the fetter isbroken and the divine inspiration wells up.

Another important narrative is the winning of the mead of poeticinspiration which is alluded to three times in this poem. Firstly (strophes13,14) where we see a variant version of the tale of Odinn and Gunnlod.Secondly (104-110) we have a version of the tale which closely resembles theversion given us by Snorri and finally (140,141) Odinn gains a sip after hisordeal on the tree. Snorri could not have got the detailed version inSkaldskaparmal (p. 61-64) purely from Havamal, which is not a detailed account,but merely a series of allusions to the mead. The myth seems of secondaryimportance in Havamal’s narratives, it is what is illustrated which seem to bestressed, other ideas such as drunkenness, male/female relations and Odinn’sretrieval of information from the nether world. Possibly Snorri had more thenone source for his version in Skaldskaparmal. The myths of Odinn winning themead of poetry are reflected in other Indo-European myths which relate to thegaining of wisdom, particularly the story of Finn and the salmon of wisdom,also Indra and his drink soma. Other poems in the Edda also reflect this storyparticularly Fafnismal (31-32) which also echoes the story of Finn and theSalmon of wisdom.

Significant for the study of Norse religion in its more mysticalaspects are Odinn’s discourses on magic, the runes and their uses. Itdemonstrates that they had a meaning which was beyond their simple lettervalue, Turville- Petre suggests that their original purpose was for magic andnot writing[17]. He says that the runes are “reginkudr”[18] or divine, gainedfrom the world of death, and associated with burials, which is evidenced by therunic inscriptions on memorial stones. The magical association is corroboratedtextually by Ynglinga’s saga[19], Sigdrifumal[20], Egil’s Saga[21] as well asbeing twice mentioned in this regard in Havamal (111 and 138-164). Thesesections of Havamal have also inspired many to attempt to recreate ‘Runemagic’[22]. Despite this we must also consider that the runes may have become mystifiedby their association with a new technology, that of literacy, and theinscriptions on memorial stones may be more indicative of care for the dead andrespect for ancestors, than of mystical associations for runes.

Havamal was not directly quoted in Snorri’s Edda, raising the issue ofwhether he had access to this myth. Considering Snorri’s reputation as havingread all the vernacular Norse texts contemporary with his day and that Snorrihad access to oral sources as well[23] its likely that Snorri had access toHavamal. Odinn’s self sacrifice is also suspiciously absent in Snorri’s Edda,perhaps this was deliberate on Snorri’s part because of its connection with thecult of the high god Odinn[24]. A clue to this omission might be found inSnorri’s treatment of Odinn’s association with magic in Ynglinga Saga[25] where“sorcery is attended by such wickedness that manly men consider it shameful topractise it and so it is taught only to priestesses.”[26]. Odinn is often seenas being the transgressor of boundaries, he breaks oaths, has access to theother world, and by his practise of sorcery he transgresses sexual boundariesin a world where the masculine ideal is paramount[27].

These concepts and theimplied sexual nature of many magical and sacrificial acts[28] might not haveappealed to Snorri’s Christian Aristocratic audience. However Snorri also wroteYnglinga saga, where he does not hesitate to mention that Odinn was involved insorcery and that this was considered ergi (unmanly-effeminate). Perhaps thereare other reasons why Snorri neglected Odinn’s sacrifice. The initiatory natureof this section of Havamal may provide another clue as to why it was omitted bySnorri, initiatory rituals are quite often associated with secrecy andexclusion of no initiates. If Havamal represents such initiatory ritual perhapsit was omitted by Snorri out of respect for secrecy or the poem may only havebeen known by a few select initiates, the fact that Havamal is only found inone Icelandic manuscript[29] might be evidence of this.

The preservation of poetics dedicated to Odinn is not surprising whenone considers his role as God of poetic inspiration, and his role in thewinning of the mead of poetry. There are many scaldic kennings for poetry whichrefer to the narrative of the theft. Odinn himself is said to speak only inpoetry[30]. That the poet’s love for this God is probably related to him beingpatron of poetic inspiration is corroborated by the first stanza of Egil’sSonnatorrek;

“My mouth strains To move my tongue,

To weigh and wing The choice word:

Not easy to breath Odinn’s Inspiration

In my heart’s hinterland, little hope there.”[31]

The position of the poet in relation to the narratives in Havamal isalso interesting and reflects latter developments in prose works which featurepoet as protagonist. The best example of this is Egil’s saga where the story isdeveloped through an interplay of verse and prose. Here verse adds emotionaldepth to an otherwise action based narrative, the verse highlights the personalintellectual life of the protagonist and thus intensifies the prose narrativeby demonstrating how the poet is emotionally interacting with the events of thenarrative. This is a unique development in the northern literary tradition,however the poets were set a divine precedent in their God Odinn, a God whoplays the role of chief protagonist in Snorri’s Edda, a god who speaks inpoetry.[32]

Havamal with its combination of narrative and wisdom sayings isessentially a compilation of works dedicated to Odinn. The wisdom literaturecontains social pointers which would have been fitting to a tenth centuryNorwegian Viking setting, and is quite general in nature. The two main Odinnicnarratives dealt with in the text of the poem are his winning of the mead ofpoetry, which is mentioned three times, and his self- sacrifice, a narrativeneglected in Snorri’s Edda. The treatment of these narratives leaves open thequestion of whether they may contain initiatory elements linked to the questfor knowledge. This is supported by the fact that Odinns ordeal on Yggdrassilhas sacrificial elements which are placed in a narrative about the gaining ofwisdom, ritual death is a common feature of initiation. Perhaps the Odinniccult was an initiatory cult which was closely guarded by nobles and especiallypoets, this might explain the abundance of literary evidence, and lack ofphysical or place name evidence surviving for an Odinnic cult. Whether this wasthe case is probably impossible to tell, yet one must accept that Havamal wouldhave provided many mystical features to such a cult. This is best seen in theRunatals and Ljodatal where wisdom seeking and magic are primary. Over all itis very difficult to say how Havamal effected the Northern mind, many moderncommentators skim over the wisdom literature and focus on the mythicnarratives, however this might not have been the case in tenth centuryScandinavia where the revelations of Odinn may have been of utmost importance,especially in the performance of magic.

Bibliography.

Hollander, Lee. M. (ed. and trans.) The Poetic Edda. (Second Edition)The University of Texas Press, Austin. 1996.

Turville-Petre, E.O.G. Myth and religion in the North: The Religion ofAncient Scandinavia. University of Oxford Press. London. (1964).

The Cult of Odinn in Iceland. Nine Norse Studies. Course Book. GermanicReligion. Sydney University. (1997). (No reference in course book)

Kristjansson, J. Foote, P (ed). Eddas and Sagas: Iceland’s Medievalliterature. Hid islenska bokmenntafelag. Reykjavik. (1988).

Dronke, U. Myth and Fiction in early Norse Lands. Variorum. Vermont.(1996).

Palsson, H. Edwards, P. (eds.) Egil’s Saga. Penguin Books. RingwoodVictoria. (1976.).

Turville-Petre, E.O.G. Origins of Icelandic Literature. The ClarendonPress. Oxford. (1953).

Clunies-Ross, M. Prolonged Echoes: Old Norse Myths in Medieval NorthernSociety. Odense University Press. Canberra. (1994).

Sturluson, S. Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway. (HollanderL. trans.) University of Texas Press, Austin. (1991).

Meulengracht-Sorensen, P. The Unmanly man. Odense University Press.Canberra. (1992)

Talley, J.E. Runes mandrake and the Gallows. University of California.Los Angles. Germanic Religion. Course Book. Sydney University. (1997)

Notes

[1] Hollander, Lee. M. (ed. and trans.) The Poetic Edda. (SecondEdition) The University of Texas Press, Austin. 1996. p. 41.

[2] Turville-Petre, E.O.G. Myth and religion in the North: The Religionof Ancient Scandinavia. University of Oxford Press. London. (1964). p. 12.

[3] The Cult of Odinn in Iceland. Nine Norse Studies. Course Book.Germanic Religion. Sydney University. (1997). (No reference in course book)

[4] Kristjansson, J. Foote, P (ed). Eddas and Sagas: Iceland’s Medievalliterature. Hid islenska bokmenntafelag. Reykjavik. (1988). p. 25-30.

[5] Op cit. Hollander. (1996) p.16-17.

[6] An old German term for drunkenness was ‘vomiting like a heron’ alsofor many other interesting similarities between Heron’s and tales of Odinnsee-.

Dronke, U. Myth and Fiction in early Norse Lands. Variorum. Vermont.(1996). (VIII- p. 53-55)

[7] Ibid.

[8] Palsson, H. Edwards, P. (eds.) Egil’s Saga. Penguin Books. RingwoodVictoria. (1976.) p. 185-191.

[9] Ibid. 204-209

[10] Turville-Petre, E.O.G. Origins of Icelandic Literature. TheClarendon Press. Oxford. (1953) p. 16.

[11] Op cit. Kristjansson, J. (1988) p. 47.

[12] Op cit Turville- Petre. (1953). p. 108.

[13] Op cit. Kristjansson, J. (1988). p. 47-57.

[14] Clunies-Ross, M. Prolonged Echoes: Old Norse Myths in MedievalNorthern Society. Odense University Press. Canberra. (1994). p. 192.

[15] Ibid, p192.

[16] The idea here being that the sacrifier provides the object ofsacrifice, this object then symbolically is identified as being consubstantialwith the sacrifier, the sacrificial act brings the sacrifier closer to thedeity. In initiation the initiand presents themself as the object of sacrifice,initiation is the ultimate sacrifice, it is the gift of self to God. Perhapsthis may throw some light on Tacitus’ discussion on the wearing of collars.

[17] Op cit. Turville Petre.(1953). p. 17.

[18] Ibid.

[19] Sturluson, S. Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway.(Hollander L. trans.) University of Texas Press, Austin. (1991). Ch. 7 p.10-11.

[20] Op cit. Hollander (1996). Sigdrifumal. p. 233-240.

[21] Three occasions in Egil’s saga relate to his use of the runes,firstly to protect against poison, secondly as a curse and thirdly for healing.Op cit. Palsson, H. Edwards, P. (1976).

[22] Among the authors who have published popular works along theselines are Edred Thorsson and Kveldulf Gundarsson.

[23] Op cit. Turville Petre. (1964). p.22

[24] Op cit. Clunies Ross.(1994). p. 32.

[25] Snorri Sturluson. Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway.(Trans. Lee. M. Hollander). University of Texas Press, Austin. (1991) p10-11.

[26] Ibid.

[cult-of-death-blog]

Myth, Poetry and Norse Religion By Philip Quadrio

Myth is a means of apprehending and communicating value in the world in an internally consistent way, using narrative as a vehicle[1]. Myth and myth making are emotional and creative interactions which, in a sense, might seem non rational. Rational discourse on myth seeks to de-mythologise, to ‘explain’the non-rational, a process which severs myth from its emotional basis[2].Myths should first and foremost be read and enjoyed. In each reading, as in each telling, the myth is transformed by its interaction with the individual, an individual who is caught in and cannot be divorced from matters contemporaneous. This essay will firstly analyse some important mythological theory, with a view to establishing the limitation of such theory, before the focus is narrowed to analyse the nature of Norse mythical poetry. Icelandic literature, especially poetry, has been seen as a literary phenomenon, a cultural pinnacle, standing in sharp contrast to the image of the ‘blood thirsty’viking raider. However, the two are not mutually exclusive. Egil Skala-Grimsson, the famous Norse poet, led an illustrious viking life, raiding and killing his way from Norway to England. Poetry was very important to the Scandinavian religion, whose sovereign god was the god of poetic inspiration.The many myths which deal with the origins of poetry also attest to this importance. This essay will conclude by an examination of the nature and relation of Odinn, poetry and Norse religion.

Myth and theory.

Late nineteen century theories of myth, such as those presented byJ.G.Frazer[3], rely on a connection between myth and ritual, where mythology represents the theoretical component of the more practical ritual. In terms of the relationship between myth and ritual in an ancient context, it is recognised that the limited evidence would render such relationships speculative. It is also important to consider that this theory does not fitwith many contemporary ethnographic accounts of myth and ritual[4]. From these accounts it can be seen that mythology, although associated with some aspectsof ritual, is not necessarily the basis of all ritual. Ritual, like myth, isdynamic and communicative, ritual can use myth as the basis for symbolism butthis is not necessarily always the case. Despite its frequent association withritual, myth must be regarded as essentially a self- contained cognitivesystem, one which is internally consistent, a logical paradigm, rational yetmetaphoric[5].

Many believe that myth is closely associated with establishing socialmores. This functionalist view is however limited and fails to recognise thatmyth also articulates modes of behaviour beyond that which is sociallyacceptable, and in some cases seems to promote them[6]. In this, any effectivestudy of myth must consider the mythic relationship to society, but despitethis important social element it must also be recognised that myth hasimportant communicative and intellectual elements for the individual. Myth isboth socially and intellectually engaged[7] and so one must not only considerthe material and social world expressed by myth but also the intellectualworld. Other students of myth show an historicist approach to myth, attemptingto recover an ‘original’ version of myth and reclaim it as some primal verity.Myth however is not a monolithic entity, it exists in various forms at varioustimes and shows regional variation, depending on the needs of the community[8].Every variant narrative, every fragmentary detail is valuable, there is nooriginal or correct version of any myth.

Norse Literature.

Close to the year 1220 an Icelandic scholar, Snorri Sturluson, producedhis famous work entitled Edda. This work of prose was to provide a guide forthe writing of traditional poetry, an art which Snorri felt was in decline.Snorri’s material was structured using the vehicle of Scandinavian myth, and inthis work many myths are either told or alluded to. Although Christian, manybelieve that Snorri did in fact preserve many of the values of old Norsesociety especially since Iceland had only adopted Christianity in 1000 C.E[9].Snorri was a native of Iceland, he had travelled the Scandinavian lands widely,and may have been exposed to some pagan practices which survived in Swedenuntil the end of the Twelfth century. Despite this there is undoubtableevidence of strong Christian theoretical premises to his work, the prologuewhich euhemerises the gods and claims that the religion of the north is anatural religion which developed after the great flood[10].

Snorri’s Edda remained one of the main sources of information on theold Scandinavian religion, until in 1642 a Bishop Brynjolfur Sveinsson obtaineda codex of poetics, believed to have been compiled by Saemundr Sigfusson ‘theWise’ (1056-1133). The codex found by Bishop Brynjolfur was presented to KingFrederick the III of Denmark and since has become known as the CodexRegius[11]. Among the few mythological lays in the Codex Regius are Havamal andVoluspa[12], which were the first of the collection to reach print in 1665. Thecodex, dated c.1270, is believed to have been copied from one or more oldertexts, the oldest literary recordings being those cited in Snorri’s Edda(c.1220)[13].

Essentially there are two poetic forms which emerge from the Nordicculture, Eddic poetry (mostly contained in the Codex Regius) is rhythmic andalliterative and resembles much Old English poetry, and is either mythical orrelated to heroic legend. The mythic poetry of the Edda are of two main kinds:narratives, usually illustrative or pedagogic in nature, and didacticpoems[14]. Many poems such as Havamal reflect both elements. The codex isimportant to the study of Norse heathenism as it contains several purelymythical lays and also heroic lays with mythical allusions to the gods andother inhabitants of the Norse mythic world. It has been said that it isimpossible to understand Norse religion, literature or history without someknowledge of this type of poetry[15]. A later poetic development was that ofskaldic poetry, an art highly patronised by nobility, usually dealing with theevents of contemporary history, and unlike Eddic poetry, usually attributed toa specific poet. This form of poetry is marked firstly by its formalism, everysyllable is counted and also by the use of periphrases (kennings) whichdeveloped the use of metaphor beyond that of the earlier Eddic poetry[16].Kennings are given to many aspects of the Norse world, from the gods to thesea, from poetry to ships. Among the most numerous kennings are names for Odinn(eg. HangaTyr- Tyr of the hanged, or hrafenass-raven deity[17].) Also plentifulare kennings for poetry such as Kvasir’s blood[18]. The Skaldic poets honedtheir use of language against an ever evolving interpretation of the myths,they explored the meaning of their myths. Skaldic poetry opened up a vasthermeneutical well for Norse poetry and myth and brought with it some of themost artistic use of language during the middle ages[19]. There is alsoliterature which would seem to be transitional between these two poetic formssuch as Eiriksmal a skaldic poem written in Eddic form[20]. Then there are thepoems of the legendary Egill Skalla-Grimsson, which are skaldic yet containmuch mythical material usually contained in Eddic poetry[21].

The fact that poetry is so important to Norse mythic literature isevidenced in the narratives of Odinn’s winning of the mead of poeticinspiration. Odinn is the first to bring the art of Poetry to Asgard, the homeof the gods. This narrative is also given in prose form in Snorri’s Edda,however the most important poetic references to this narrative are contained inthe Eddic poem Havamal. The theft is alluded to in three variant forms inHavamal which would indicate that this narrative existed in differentforms[22]. Snorri could not have obtained the detailed version in his Edda[23](p. 61-64) purely from Havamal, which is not a detailed account, but merely aseries of allusions to the winning of the mead. Possibly Snorri had more thenone source for his version and one not contained in Havamal. The myths of Odinnwinning the mead of poetry are reflected in other Indo-European myths whichrelate to the gaining of wisdom, particularly the story of the salmon ofwisdom, also Indra and his drink soma. Other poems in the Edda also reflectthis story particularly Fafnismal (31-32) which tells how Sigurd gained wisdomfrom drinking the blood of a dragon’s heart and also echoes the story of Finnand the salmon of wisdom[24].

Poetry and Germanic Religion.

Evidence for an ancient Germanic religion is primarily based onexternal commentaries such as those of Caesar [25] and Tacitus[26]. These arevaluable sources, though not entirely reliable, since they reflect the agendasof their authors. The earliest source material in the vernacular is frommedieval Iceland, an historical and geographic context distinct from that of“The Gallic Wars” or “Germania”. Yet within the corpus of Eddic poetry thereexists evidence that such poetry does hark back to very ancient sources, albeitmuch distorted by transmission. The earliest datable event in Norse literatureis the death of Ermanaric the Goth (375 C.E.), some eight hundred years beforethe poems reached a written form[27]. This would indicate that the storiescontained in the Edda do represent the continuation of an oral tradition whichwould seem to be at least eight hundred years old. If one considers that manyof the tales of the Edda reflect broad elements of stories which appear to havebeen common to the Indo-European peoples[28], then one is faced with thepossibility that this oral tradition is older still. The Edda’s and Saga’s onlyallude to or recall aspects of myth and ritual, making interpretationdifficult. Ultimately this religion cannot be reconstructed in any real sense,the gulf of time is too great, the evidence too “ill-assorted” [29] and it isimpossible to have full empathy for a people so removed from our own lives. Wecan only hope to tease out motifs and themes which were important to thesepeople and through reading their literature attempt to share in theirperceptions.

The presence of Odinn dominates Icelandic mythic poetry and prose, yetthere is little cultic or place name evidence in Iceland which would relate toOdinn or an Odinnic cult[30]. Why should a God who has had such a great impacton Icelandic literature leave so slight a mark on its landscape? This might bedue to the fact that Odinn is the god of the most literate section of theIcelandic community, the God of poets, and hence celebrated by them. It ispossible that the myths do not in fact accurately represent the nature ofreligious practice in Norse lands. It is possible that we only have access to aprivileged, literate, male discourse. The preservation of poetics dedicated toOdinn is not surprising when one considers his role as God of poeticinspiration, and his role in the winning of the mead of poetry. There are manyscaldic kennings for poetry which refer to the narrative of the theft, Odinnhimself is said to speak only in poetry[31].

That the poets’ love for this God is probably related to him beingpatron of poetic inspiration is corroborated by the first stanza of EgilSkala-Grimsson’s poem Sonnatorrek (lament for my sons).

“My mouth strains- To move my tongue,

To weigh and wing- The choice word:

Not easy to breathe- Odinn’s Inspiration

In my hearts hinterland,- little hope there.”[32].

This poem was written by Egill who, after the death of his sons, isangry with Odinn and blames him for the death. At first he finds it almostimpossible to compose the poem but as he does, Odinns inspiration wells upinside him, he composes the poem and overcomes his grief[33]. The position ofthe poet in relation to the narratives in Havamal is also interesting andreflects later developments in prose works which feature the poet asprotagonist. The best example of this is Egil’s saga in which the story isdeveloped through an interplay of verse and prose. Here verse adds emotionaldepth to an otherwise action based narrative. The verse highlights the personalintellectual life of the protagonist and thus intensifies the prose narrativeby demonstrating how the poet is emotionally interacting with the events of thenarrative. This is a unique development in the northern literary tradition[34].However, the poets were set a divine precedent in their God Odinn, a God whoplays the role of chief protagonist in Snorri’s Edda, a god who speaks only inpoetry.[35]

* * *

Evidence concerning religion and religious practice in Viking ageScandinavia is uncertain, but it does appear that poetry played an importantrole. However, Literary evidence which points to the importance of poetry inthat religion might be misleading. To claim that the Edda’s are representativeof wider Norse religion is like claiming that Hesiod’s Cosmogony is indicativeof the religious attitudes of Greek society. Literary ‘evidence’ for Norsemyth, much like mythological theory, is essentially the product of a literatemale elite. What we have contained in the Edda’s is not a mythology whichrepresents ‘Icelandic religion’ or myth, it is merely representative of the wayNorse poets perceived myth and especially their own god, Odinn.

Bibliography.

Caesar. The Gallic Wars.(C. Hammond. Trans.) Oxford University Press.Oxford. (1996).

Clunies-Ross, M. Skaldskaparmal: Snorri Sturluson’s ars poetica andmedieval theories of language. Odense University Press. Odense. (1987).

Clunies-Ross, M. Prolonged Echoes: Old Norse Myths in Medieval NorthernSociety. Odense University Press. Canberra. (1994).

Dronke, U. Myth and Fiction in early Norse Lands. Variorum. Vermont.(1996).

Frazer, James G.. The Golden Bough: A study in Magic and Religion.(abriged edition). Papermac. London. 1995.

Greenway, J.L. The Golden Horns: Mythic Imagination and the Nordicpast. The University of Georgia Press. Athens. 1977

Hollander, Lee. M. (ed. and trans.) The Poetic Edda. (Second Edition)The University of Texas Press, Austin. 1996.

Kristjansson, J. Foote, P (ed). Eddas and Sagas: Iceland’s Medievalliterature. Hid islenska bokmenntafelag. Reykjavik. (1988).

Lincoln, Bruce. Myth Cosmos and Society: Indo-European Themes ofCreation and Destruction. Harvard University Press. London (1986).

Meulengracht-Sorensen, P. The Unmanly man. Odense University Press.Canberra. (1992)

Palsson, H. Edwards, P. (eds.) Egil’s Saga. Penguin Books. RingwoodVictoria. (1976.).

Sturluson, S. Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway. (HollanderL. trans.) University of Texas Press, Austin. (1991).

Tacitus. The Agricola and The Germania. (H. Mattingly & S.A.Handford. Trans). Penguin Books (1970).

Talley, J.E. Runes mandrake and the Gallows. University of California.Los Angles. Germanic Religion. Course Book. Sydney University. (1997)

Turville-Petre, E.O.G. Myth and religion in the North: The Religion ofAncient Scandinavia. University of Oxford Press. London. (1964).

Turville-Petre, E.O.G. The Cult of Odinn in Iceland. Nine NorseStudies. Course Book. Germanic Religion. Sydney University. (1997).

Turville-Petre, E.O.G. Origins of Icelandic Literature. The ClarendonPress. Oxford. (1953).

Notes

[1] John L, Greenway. The Golden Horns: Mythic Imagination and theNordic past. The University of Georgia Press. Athens. 1977. p. 2-6.

[2] Ibid.

[3] James George Frazer. The Golden Bough: A study in Magic andReligion. (abriged edition). Papermac. London. 1995.

[4] Margaret Clunies-Ross. Prolonged Echoes: Old Norse Myths andmedieval Northern society. Odense University Press. Odense. (1994). p. 11-12.

[5] Ibid. p. 13-17.

[6] Odinn, the most prominent Norse god, is often portrayed in a verynegative light, often associated with oath breaking and theft he is alsoassociated with individualism and personal quest for knowledge, none of whichwould be seen as conducive to social harmony.

[7] Op cit. Margaret Clunies Ross. (1994). p 15.

[8] Brit- Mari Nasstrom. Freyja- the Great Goddess of the North.University of Lund. Sweden. (1995). p 30-31.

[9] Jonas Kristjansson,. Foote, P (ed). Eddas and Sagas: Iceland’sMedieval literature. Hid islenska bokmenntafelag. Reykjavik. (1988). p. 20-5.

[10] Margaret Clunies-Ross. Skaldskaparmal: Snorri Sturluson’s arspoetica and medieval theories of language. Odense University Press. Odense.(1987). p. 14-15.

[11] Op cit. Jonas Kristjansson. (1988). p. 20-5.

[12] Hollander, Lee. M. (ed. and trans.) The Poetic Edda. (SecondEdition) The University of Texas Press, Austin. 1996.

[13] E.O.G. Turvile Petre. Myth and religion of the North.p 8-9.

[14] Ibid.

[15] E.O.G. Turville-Petre. Origins of Icelandic Literature. TheClarendon Press. Oxford. (1953). p16.

[16] Turville-Petre, E.O.G. Myth and religion in the North: TheReligion of Ancient Scandinavia. University of Oxford Press. London. (1964). p.14-15.

[17] Op cit Margaret Clunies-Ross. (1987). p. 100-101.

[18] Snorri Sturluson. (A Falks. trans) Edda. Everyman. London. (1995).p. 70-72.

[19] Op cit. E.O.G. Turvile Petre. (1964). p15.

[20] Ibid.

[21] H. Palsson. P. Edwards. (eds.) Egil’s Saga. Penguin Books. RingwoodVictoria. (1976.).

[22] Op cit. E.O.G. Turvile Petre. (1964). p. 35-7.

[23] Op cit. Snorri Sturluson. (1995).

[24] Ibid. p. 40-1.

[25] Caesar. The Gallic Wars.(C. Hammond. Trans.) Oxford UniversityPress. Oxford. (1996).

[26] Tacitus. The Agricola and The Germania. (H. Mattingly & S.A.Handford. Trans). Penguin Books (1970).

[27] Op cit. E.O.G. Turville Petre. (1964). p. 196.

[28] Particularly the story of creation as alluded to in Voluspa and astold by Snorri in Gylfaginning, for a more detailed examination see. BruceLincoln. Myth Cosmos and Society: Indo-European Themes of Creation andDestruction. Harvard University Press. London (1986).

[29] Mircea Eliade. Patterns in Comparative Religion. University ofNebraska Press. Lincoln. (1996). p. 5.

[30] E.O.G. Turvile-Petre. The Cult of Odinn in Iceland. Nine NorseStudies. Course Book. Germanic Religion. Sydney University. (1997).

[31] Sturluson, S. Heimskringla: History of the Kings of Norway.(Hollander L. trans.) University of Texas Press, Austin. (1991).

[32] Op cit. H. Palsson. P. Edwards. (1976). p. 204.

[33] Dronke, U. Myth and Fiction in early Norse Lands. Variorum.Vermont. (1996).

[34] Ibid p25

[35] Ibid.

[cult-of-death-blog]

"During the early twentieth century the Germanic Rebirth began to take an ugly turn. As can be seen from what has gone before, the movement was hardly mature. This childlike movement was, however, faced with some enormous cultural and political problems. Europe was plunged into World War 1, the Communist revolution in Russia, and widespread economic chaos. The immature movement was to abandon its long-held ideas of National liberalism and progressivism for an authoritarian racism. Racism is an immature understanding of nationalism. One does not have to hate others as a sign of loving one's self. In fact, if hatred of others is a hallmark of a movement, it is probably because the members of the movement really hate themselves. True "nationalism" involves respect for and assumed freedom and independence of other national folk groups" ~Stephen Flowers/Edred Thorsson ~Northern Magic~

[cult-of-death-blog]

The Reading List

Taken from Hildolf von Eisenwald’s Blog: https://versipellusrex.wordpress.com

The Reading List

There’s a rhyme & reason to the books I’ve placed on this list, and the order I’ve placed them in. You can expect to see their contents referenced in my blog posts eventually. This list isn’t static, and will be updated as new sources of information become known to me. _____________________________________________________________________ Begin with this:

The One-eyed God: Odin and the (Indo-) Germanic Männerbünde (Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph No. 36) -Kris Kershaw _____________________________________________________________________ Then these:

Phantom Armies of the Night: The Wild Hunt and the Ghostly Processions of the Undead – Claude Lecouteux The Elder Gods: The Otherworld of Early England -Stephen Pollington The Sacred and The Profane: The Nature of Religion -Mircea Eliade The Idea of the Holy -Rudolf Otto _____________________________________________________________________ Move onto these:

Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy -Mircea Eliade The Saga of the Volsungs/Volsunga Saga The Book of Werewolves -Sabine Baring-Gould The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki/ Hrólfs saga kraka _____________________________________________________________________ Then these:

The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History -Mircea Eliade Mitra-Varuna -Georges Dumezil

The Sacred and The Profane: The Nature of Religion -Mircea Eliade http://www.mediafire.com/.../EliadeMircea-The-Sacred-and... Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy -Mircea Eliade http://www.mediafire.com/.../Eliade%2C+Mircea+-+Shamanism... The Saga of the Volsungs/Volsunga Saga http://www.mediafire.com/.../kgl73bxukg.../Volsunga+saga.pdf The Myth of the Eternal Return: Cosmos and History -Mircea Eliade http://www.mediafire.com/.../EliadeMircea... Mitra-Varuna -Georges Dumezil http://www.mediafire.com/.../0f2vg8c1wu2.../Mitra-Varuna.pdf