Gangleri – book reviews

This book is formed by the texts of lectures that were given at a 1967 congress about the study of comparative folklore and mythology at the University of California. The congress was led by Jaan Puhvel who was also editor of the book. Puhvel is a Dumézilian scholar and that fact and the title of the book led me to get myself a copy. The book is fairly easy to… Continue reading Myth And Law Among The Indo-Europeans * Jaan Puhvel (editor) (1970)

Not a new subject, comparitive mythology, but a new approach; to me of course. Contrary to the Dumézilian approach, Oosten uses the cultural anthropological angle to look at things. However he refers to Dumézil quite a bit, he sees problems with the tripartite structure (see here). Whereas Dumézil compares different myths and characters and structures therein by comparing the functions of for example Gods, Oosten uses “the social code” (cf… Continue reading The War Of The Gods * Jarich Oosten (1985)

I bought this book when I was ‘in between literature’. It is not really a book by Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), but rather the written result of a series of interviews by his former student Bill Moyers that were broadcasted on TV. My Dutch translation has a title translating as “myths and consciousness”, I think the original title fits the content a lot better. Campbell might have had ideas that I… Continue reading The Power Of Myth * Joseph Campbell / Bill Moyers (1988)

Primordial Traditions is a periodical that I did not know. They have collected their best articles from 2005 to 2009, most of which are by the hand of editor Gwendolyn Toynton. As the title suggests, this publication takes a Traditionalistic starting point and since “the term Primordial Tradition is utilized to describe a system of spiritual thought and metaphysical truths that overarches all the other religions and esoteric traditions of… Continue reading Primordial Traditions Compendium 2009 * Gwendolyn Toynton (ed.) (2009)

If I am not mistaken, Jaan Puhvel was born in Estonia in 1932 and he was a student of Georges Dumézil (in Upsala) and follows his path in comparitive mythology. By now living and teaching in America for many years, Puhvel displays an amazing ability to play with the English language, making this book a fun read at times. Puhvel wanted to write a basic book about comparitive mythology (“mythology”… Continue reading Comparative Mythology * Jaan Puhvel (1987)

La Religion romaine archaïque suivi d’un appendice sur la religion des Estrusques 1966
Here we have a more massive investigation of Dumézil. 700 Pages about the religion of the Romans. I have no particular interest in the Roman religion, but of course the writer makes cross-references to other Indo-European religions and being so obviously Indo-European, the “archaic Roman religion” sheds a new light on some aspects of other Indo-European religions… Continue reading Archaic Roman Religion * Georges Dumézil (1970 the university of chicago press * isbn 0226169685)

The modern intellectual will without hesitation admit that the symbology of mythology has a psychological meaning. Especially since the work of psychoanalysists there can be little doubt that myths are of the same breed as dreams and that dreams are the driving force of the psyche.

I did not really plan on reading this book, but I ran into second hand and also I was a little curious… Continue reading The Hero With A Thousand Faces * Joseph Campbell (1972 princeton university press * isbn 0691017840)

du mythe au roman: la saga de Hadingus et autres essais (1970)
The English subtitle of this book is The Saga Of Hadingus, but as you can see, the original title says “the sage of Hadingus and other essays” and indeed, half of the book are appendices in the form of essays with other subjects. At least we have a title of Dumézil that is still available new, but… Continue reading From Myth To Fiction * Georges Dumézil (1973 university of chicago press * isbn 0226169723)

heur et malheur de guerrier: aspects mythiques de la fonction guerrière chez les Indo-Europèens * 1996
Whereas The Destiny Of A King (see elsewhere) deals with “the first function” (religion, law, magic, etc.), this book speaks about the second (martial, warrior, etc.). As usually Dumézil starts with Indian and Iranian mythology where he finds and describes the warrior gods. Also he speaks about “the warrior function and its relations… Continue reading The Destiny Of The Warrior * Georges Dumézil (1970 university of chicago * isbn 0226169685)

The irony! Between 1965 and 1971 the American professor Aunar Haugen and his students started to translate Dumézil’s Les Dieux des Germains (1959) because there was hardly any literature of Dumézil available in English. Nowadays you can buy several books by Dumézil in English, but the book that I wanted to read most, is only available second hand. It is even worse, this out-of-print book is so popular that incredible… Continue reading Gods Of The Ancient Northmen * Georges Dumézil (1959 * isbn 052035070)

mythe et épopée, vol 2: types épiques indo-européens: un héros, un sorcier, un roi
Well this is a Dumézil book! Mostly based on the stories of Yayati and Madhavi, Dumézil writes about sacred kings, perpetual virgins and makes a great many cross references between different mythologies. The basis lays in the Indian and Iranian mythologies, but there are chapters about Celtic mythology and especially towards the end, references to… Continue reading The Destiny Of A King * Georges Dumézil (1973 the university of chicage press * isbn 0226169758)

I am a bit disappointed by this book by Eliade. The title would have better been “history and meaning in religionswissenschaft”. The field that Eliade operated in he prefered to give the German term religionswissenschaft. This term he usually gives the (not too good) translation “history of religion” or sometimes (somewhat better) “comperative religion”. The book proves to be a history and investigation of the value of this science and… Continue reading The Quest: history and meaning in religion * Mircea Eliade (1969/ 1984 midway reprint * isbn 0226203867)

There were mainly two reasons for me to buy this book, first “with contributions by Joseph Campbell and Mircea Eliade” and the price of $ 11,70. The Universal Myths is a book with mythology of all over the world and given by theme. This brings magnificent similarities between myths as far apart as far Eastern with “Amerindian” or Babylonian with Northern. Very nice indeed! What is less nice, is that… Continue reading The Universal Myths * Alexander Eliot (1976 myths / 1990 meridian * isbn 0452010276)

Dumézil first wrote this book in his native language (French) and 10 years later completely rewrote the book for a German version. The French version still seems to be in print (or at least, recently was). I got a nice German version. I can read French, but only if there is no other option. German goes a lot better, but I still had a hard time reading this book, especially… Continue reading Loki * Georges Dumézil (1948 / 1959 wissenschaftliche buchgesellschaft)

Another compilation of texts by A.K. Coomaraswamy compiled and introduced by his son Rama Coomaraswamy. This time “on myth and meaning”. Like in the other book there are very interesting articles and articles which are just a nice read. Coomaraswamy tends to write too lengthy and treading too many sidepaths sometimes. The introduction by Rama Coomaraswamy is again a nice one. Also the opening article “Myth And Mind” is magnificent… Continue reading The Door In The Sky * Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1997 princeton university press * isbn 0691017476)

Odd. Will-Erich Peuckert is largely unknown to people interested in western esotericism. His books which were published halfway the previous century are immense, but mostly out of print and have never been available in another language than German. Still scholars from the continent seem to use Peuckert as source of information more and more. So far this has only resulted in a cheap version of the book Geheimkulte which is… Continue reading Geheimkulte * Will-Erich Peuckert (isbn 393320366X)

le roi du monde 1927
This is one of the earlier books by Guénon and a thin one too. Only just over 100 pages and I read it in not even two hours. This may be due to the fact that I read an unpublished Dutch translation, but also it seems to me that this book is written in a much easier style than for example The Reign Of Quanity… Continue reading The King Of The World * René Guénon (2004 sophia perennis * isbn 0900588543)

A book only for the Dutch-speaking among you, sorry.

“Van Anima Tot Zeus” is an encyclopedia for anyone interested in the subjects that you can find in these pages and more. 885 Pages, almost countless words and symbols varying from alchemy to psychology, psychiatry, philosophy, mythology, etc., etc. Even short biographies of persons, photos, images, explanations, cross-referances, etc., etc. Paging through the book learned me that is isn’t entirely… Continue reading Van Anima Tot Zeus * Maarten Timmer (isbn 9056373528 * 2001)

symboles fondamentaux de la science sacrée 1961
This is a book that was published post-mortem, containing 75 articles in four different periodicals between the years 1926 and 1950. I ran into this book on the internet when I was writing an article and because yet another ‘Traditionalist clue’ came to me, an interest to deep into this current deeper was awoken within me. This book by Guénon is no easy… Continue reading Symbols Of Sacred Science * René Guénon (sophia perennis 2004 * isbn 0900588772)

la règne de la quantité et les signe des temps 1945
Guénon wrote a lot of books about a lot of subjects. The recently reviewed Symbols Of Sacred Science is regarded Guénon’s primary book about symbolism, The Reign Of Quantity is regarded his primary metaphysical book. Indeed, the first part of the book is very and very literary meta-physical, but the title of the book has two parts. The book… Continue reading The Reign Of Quantity & The Sign Of Times * René Guénon (sophia perennis 2004 * isbn 0900588675)