Gods of the Ancient Northmen

So that’s what a pioneering comparative mythologer does all day!

A collection of several essays from the discoverer of the Indo-European tripartite social structure including a massive structural comparison of the cosmic cycles in Vǫluspá and Mahabharata conceived as a transfer of cosmic cycle into human time and terms (this central essay seething with Dumézil’s excitement, which can be shared and savored by anyone with any sort of geeky bent), a most amusing explanation of the odd little pair of gods Byggvir and Beyla in Lokasenna with supporting evidence from Lapp and Germanic folk-customs surviving long into Christian times, and squibs explaining the mysterious Heimdall by relation to the Welsh seal-mermaid and the astral significance of the beasts inhabiting Yggdrasil.

Also a rather neat essay on the uniquely Germanic “downshift” of the Indo-European tripartite social functional structure.

The scholarly footnotes dismissing weak arguments or wishing a source had documented his reports more thoroughly are fun, too. The footnotes were a revelation: he and other scholars often alter their theories and revise books heavily for translation. How is one to keep up!?

I loved this book!