Gangleri – bookreviews

I saw the author speaking a while ago and decided to get another book about the runes. “Following the Vikings” is not a book giving all kinds of interpretations of rune-signs, but more a purely historical book like that of R.I. Page that I recently reviewed. Nowé uses runestones to get firsthand information about the history of the writers of runes. He gives a history of the runes and their authors and when there is a stone available of shedding light on a part of that history, it is portrayed and translated. Nowé even explains how to translate the texts, giving a word-list, explaining grammar, etc. This way you will get a history of mostly the Vikings (but the runes are both older and more recent than the Vikings) that may be known for the larger part, but since runestones were raised mostly for personal reasons, such as commemorating a dead, telling people whose land the stone is on, etc. you will get quite intimate stories and not so much the larger information. In doing this, Nowé manages to give an overview of the development of the runes and the way the stones look (art historical). The approach is both original and refeshing, besides, I do not think I ever saw a book that actually explains the language of the runes itself. However Nowé shows and explains a large number of stones, also less easy ones such as the Rök stones (including an explanation of the cipher runes), I do have the feeling that the author picked only the stones that contribute to his story. I have not really looked into this, but this probably means that stones without historical information (which might (or might not) be more interesting) are not spoken about. Overall a very nice book about the runes. Currently only available in Dutch. I do not know if there are plans for a translation.
2009 Davidsfonds, isbn 9058265919

The third book in the Western Esoteric Masters series that I read is about the famous German author Jacob Boehme (1575-1624). My girlfriend was much interested in Boehme when we met. We even spent a holiday in the place where Boehme was born and died and we have several books about him and a few of him on the shelve. However Boehme appeals to me too, for some reason I did not start to read him before I bought a book myself… Waterfield has created an anthology of texts and letters, but does not give the sources. The texts are both in depth and more personal in letters. Some texts are very interesting esoterically Christian, many are simply piously Christian. Waterfield spends quite a few pages to Boehme’s alchemical, astrological and Kabbalistic imaginary and in the appendix there is a more schematic version of Boehme’s ‘system’. All in all a nice read and while waiting for the book about Robert Fludd, I am going to read some Boehme from our own library.
2001 North Atlantic Books, isbn 9781556433573

I stumbled upon this nice little book by Rodrigues which opens with an introduction into Anglo-Saxon literature and then information about the texts featured. The texts themselves are printed in the original language on the left pages and translated on the right. As the title suggests the book contains heroic legends, such as of course Beowulf, but also the Finnesburg fragment, Wolf And Eadwacer, Widsith, Waldere and Deor, complete or a fragment. Some of the “maxims” or “gnomic verses” are printed (from the collections “Maxims I” and “Maxims II”) and a all twelve “metrical charms” (think about “The Nine Herbs Charm”, “Against A Dwarf” or “Against A Wen”). Personally I find the maxims and charms a lot more interesting than the heroic legends, but in both cases it is nice to be able to see the original texts next to a translation. It seems that Rodrigues published more of these little books, as there is a a lot more Anglo-Saxon material available, so I might go and look for these other booklets too. A tip for when you are interested in this one: look around a bit before ordering it. I am sure I did not pay the $ 45,- that Amazon.com has this book listed for. Amazon UK has it for £ 8,-, that is more like it. Other antiquarian websites have it for about € 12,-.
2003 Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, isbn 1898281017

The second book in the Western Esoteric Masters series that I review is about John Dee (1527-1608), well known to you if you have followed my website for some years. However I have quite some material of Dee myself, this book by Suster is the thinnest volume of the series. There are only about 100 pages with texts of Dee and Suster put a lot of his own commentary through the texts. Suster wanted to give a good overview about the whole figure of Dee, so the texts not only include small parts of Dee’s massive writings, but also parts of Dee’s diaries, including his personal ones. This makes that Suster’s book more gives an historical view of Dee than that the reader learns a lot about Dee’s ideas. What you can read are parts of Dee which are less well-known and/or not often available not as commentary of another writer: his preface to Euclid, Propaedeumata Aphoristica (an astronomical/astrological text) and his writings on navigation. Besides this, letters, the (spiritual) diaries and of course the Monas Hieroglyphica inspite that being but a short text, only in part. However gives a full-round view of Dee, Suster is genuinely interested in Dee’s best-known and darker side, so much even that the last part of the book gives other people’s ideas of John Dee and information about Aleister Crowley (including two texts of him!), the Golden Dawn and their use of Enochian magic. If I would have made the selection, I think I would have come to another one. If you have an historical interest in Dee, this is a nice addition to what is already available. Personally I hoped to read more of Dee’s “western esoteric” ideas.
2003 North Atlantic Books, isbn 1556434723

With some delay the midsummer edition of “Wende” is available. Articles this time include a practical guide for modern heathens in a concrete surrounding; an article about animal and human sacrifice; an interview with Aat van Gilst; a text about dualism; some misconceptions about modern heathenry; the South-African game of Jukskei and shorter writings. As always a nice “Odalistic” read. Click on the cover to go the the Hagal website. The magazine is in Flemish of course.

It has been quite a while since I studied Renaissance esotericism. A while ago I reread a book of Yates and decided to see what is available nowadays. I noticed this “Western esoteric masters” series of North Atlantic Books and ordered four of them. I plan to read them chronologically (by birthdate), so I started with Ficino (1433-1499). I have read some things about and of Ficino already, but the series offer anthologies of different authors. Of Ficino Angela Voss presents parts of his letters and parts of books such as On Obtaining Life From The Heavens, Three Books On Life and The Book Of The Sun. The lenghty and interesting introduction of Voss suggests more esoteric content than I read in the texts myself. Ficino seems to be mostly a philosopher (neoplatonic) with indeed some esoteric edges, but overall too philosophical to me. A lot of stress is laid on Ficino’s ambigious nature on astrology. He both seems to put a lot of faith in it, but otherwise says he does not because he might fall victim to the witchhunt. Ficino also proposes some kind of ‘natural magic’ with which with certain requirements the force of heavenly bodies can be used by man. Ficino brings this under the guide of medicine though. Astrology remains a Leitmotiv in the texts that were chosen. This 250 page book (not all in the series have that length) was a nice read, but I think I hoped for something more interesting.
2006 North Atlantic Books, isbn 9781556435607

Raymond Page is a famous rune-scholar from the UK. He wrote several books on the subject and lectured at Cambridge University. This book was first published in 1973, but heavily updated in 1999. The second edition had a reprint in 2006. I bought this book for two reasons. First I want to read more about non-Scandinavian heathenry and second I need to read more about runes. In about 250 pages Page speaks about each and every item with runes on it, found in the UK. He divides runes on stones, coins, in manuscripts and elsewhere. The entire book Page keeps stressing that almost any finding is hard to impossible to interpret. The reasons for this is that the findings have runes in many different futharks, either or not mixed and either or not mixed with other, usually Roman, letters. It seems that many rune-carvers either carved symbols that they did not know, or they were very sloppy in their execution. Then of course there is the problem of the state of the findings. Often the runes are (largely) extremely hard to read. Last but not least, there is the point that even when the runes are readable, they appear to mean nothing. With all that in mind, countless of rune-combinations are mentioned and either or not interpreted. During the course of the book you will read a lot about both English and non-English runes. Page shows himself as a very critical, but realistic and not too closely-minded scholar. Still, the book is quite dry and if it were not for the many image and examples too dry. But indeed, if you want to read something serious about the runes, without all kind of come-up-with information, mystical interpretations, etc., this is one that you have to get.
1973/1999 Boydell Press, isbn 0851157688

I am looking a bit into non-Scandinavian sources about the prechristian faith and ran into this little book with an introduction to and translations of the 8th century laws of the Lombards, a tribe that more or less took over nowadays Italy. Fischer Drew gives a nice, historical introduction, but also highlights elements of the “barbarian law codes”. The laws concern “Rothair’s edict” which are later completed and adjusted by his followers-up Liutprand, Ratchis and Aistulf. The laws are quite similar to those of more Northern European Germanic tribes, nice in their details and it seems as if any situation is thought of (upto a ferryman that transfers a thief, or what happens to the inheritance of a man without sons). There are compensation tarifs for wounds, regulations around marriage and sums to be paid for almost anything. Especially the later laws are much like what we nowadays call jurisprudence with new situations. Also the tone gets more and more Christian and anti-pagan with high fines for people who consult witches or who worship idols. The laws themselves are not always too great a read, but the book overall is a very nice read.
1973 University Of Pennsylvania Press, isbn 0812210557

“Apocalypse Culture” was first published in 1987 and this is the “expanded & revised” edition of 1990. Apparently the book made quite an impression at first publication. I cannot tell if 20 years later the book would still shock, but since the ease to purchase it, I think not. “Apocalypse Culture” is still not for people faint of heart though and mostly aims for people with a morbid curiosity for or acting in the very outskirts of society. The first half of the book contains things like interviews with a necrophile, a psychopath, Peter Sotos who edited the extreme sex magazine Pure and Fakir Musafar who practises extreme body modifications for shamanistic purposes. Articles are about subjects such as aesthetic terrorism, the very dark side of modern art, self-castration and mass-murdering. There are also (semi-)political texts, writings of psychotics, biographies and especially towards the end a lot of (not too interesting) conspiracy theories.
It was something different of my usual literature and I must say I enjoyed the rantings of weird people here and there and there sure are some entertaining pieces to be found. Shocking? Maybe I am a bit numb, but not really. Strange? Definately! A book to read when you want something different some time.
1987/1990 Feral House, isbn 9780922915057

I stumbled upon this book in a book discount and it happened to be a title that I needed to read for a little project that I am working on when I did not yet know that (speaking of coincidence). Another strange thing is that I paid € 12,- for this book, while I can only find it for about € 50,- or $ 60,- on the internet!
Jos Bazelmans (born 1963 close to where I live) is an antropologist and archeologist with an interest in Northern European culture. The present book is subtitled “lord, retainers and their relationships in Beowulf” and contains six essays. These texts have similar subjects, but different angles of approach. Bazelmans compares different systems of “the antropology of exchange”, mostly the ideas of Mauss and his followers and that of Dumont and his followers. These texts are way too scholarly for me, diving deep into details in the systems of different schools. The system of gift-giving and relations is treated too and that is the subject that I have current interest in but also here Bazelmans goes into details and different viewpoint too deeply for me. The Beowulf story is also dissected and ideas about how pagan and how Christian the poem is are dealt with. As a true antropologist Bazelmans also ‘maps society in Beowulf‘.
The book sure has some interesting information and it is a suggested reading for people scholarly interested in the Beowulf poem, but I personally found the book a bit too heavy and too much focussed on other details than I care about myself.
1999 Amsterdam University Press, isbn 9053563253