Gangleri – book reviews

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)

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)

This is by far the best and most beaufiful translation of the Gilgamesh-epic that I have seen so far. The Dutch publisher Ambo/Anthos has a nice collection of ancient mythologies in luxery releases.

I don’t think I have to say much about the Gilgamesh. Most people are quite familiar with this Mesopotamian epic. It speaks about the king Gilgamesh and his adventures. Several plates have been found and the… Continue reading Het Gilgamesj-epos * Theo de Feyter (isbn 902631681X)

Mesopotamian myths keep appealing to the Western mind. They sure are fascinating, partly because of the fact that the Mesopotamian culture (5000 years ago) was one of the earliest ‘high civilisations’ and it had a vast influence on our own culture and literature. McCall wrote a very historical book, much more than the other three books above. A large part of the book is dedicated to the descriptions of who… Continue reading Mesopotamian Myths * Henrietta McCall (isbn 0292751303 * 1991)

After reading Daniélou’s Hindu Polytheism I wanted to read a book with Hindu myths. I was disappointed with how few there are actually available. Amazon doesn’t have too good critics about this book. The writer would approach the myths with an approach that scholars use to investigate works of Shakespeare or Dante. Also she would put too much stress on sexual symbolism in the Hindu myths. The Wikipedia article about… Continue reading Hindu Myths * Wendy Doniger-O'Flaherty (1975 penguin classics * isbn 0140443061)

Persian Myths is a subject I am not totally unfamiliar with, but I am certainly no expert. Exactly a year ago I reviewed another book about Persian mythology and also I have some Zoroastrian literature. Just like The Wise Lord Of The Sky this booklet is mostly about the pre-Zoroastrian Persia (nowadays Iran). Curtis re-tells tales and myths and while doing this you become familiar with the most important deities… Continue reading Persian Myths * Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis (isbn 0292711581 * 1993)

I bought the Dutch translation this book on a “mega-book-manifestation”. I don’t know about other countries, but in the Netherlands (and for example Germany) we have cheap bookshops that sell overstocks, books that ran out of the ‘fixed price time’, reprints and the like. We call them “white bookshops” or “book-discount”. Since a few years there are such sales in massive halls for a few days. On one of the… Continue reading Wise Lord Of The Sky: Persian Myth * Tony Allan (isbn 0705436330)

It seems that there is no English version of this book yet. Peter Toonen is a Dutch writer/journalist, but also an aurareader. He appears to be an all-round seeker for knowledge/information and his book touches numerous different fields of it. Apparently the book seemed to me very new-age and in fact it is, but this is definately a different and better book than anything from the new-age corner that I… Continue reading De Natuurlijke Tijd * Peter Toonen (isbn 9075636393)

This book is old and out of print for decades, but quite well accessible second hand. “The Garden Of The Gods” is a book about the world mythology with Egyptian, Greek, Persian, Indian, Scandinavian and Celtic mythology. The tex is alright, a mix of the myths (without much sources) and scholarly explanation (history, etc.). There are obvious flaws, blanks and misunderstandings and here and there the writer goes a bit… Continue reading De Tuin Der Goden * A.G. van Hamel (editor) (1938)

This is a very nice book about “Turkish mythology”. Actually the title is not totally correct, because the book speaks about the mythology of the “Oghuz” people. A people from central Asia that spread to Mongol, Siberia and for example nowadays Turkey. Klerk is a Dutch woman who happened to run into a collection of this mythology and she was captured by it. She kept looking for more while living… Continue reading Turkse Mythologie * Ingrid Klerk (isbn 9065562265 * 2003)

Celtic Myths * Miranda Jane Aldhouse-Green * isbn 0292727542 * 1994
Norse Myths * Raymond Ian Page * isbn 0292755465 * 1991
Persian Myths * Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis * isbn 0292711581 * 1993
Mesopotamian Myths * Henrietta McCall * isbn 0292751303 * 1991

Speaking of inflation. The first owner of these booklets bought Dutch translations in september 1996 for ƒ 5,- each (a ticket is still in one of… Continue reading Celtic / Norse / Persian / Mesopotamian myths