Gangleri – bookreviews

I was looking for something on Amazon when I ran into this book. The subject may be surprising to many, but not really new to me. The Dutchman Farwerck has written about the subject extensively in 1970 and I have touched on the subject in a couple of articles. I was curious what Runegilder Flowers/Thorsson has come up with.
Rûna Raven books are usually thin (this one is about 70 pages), A5 format, photocopied and not cheap to get to Europe ($ 22,- if I remember correctly). Unfortunately there no longer seems to be European distribution to cut the costs for us over here a bit. In any case, Flowers opens with a personal account of his very brief encounter with Freemasonry. He might have better looked for a lodge that fitted him instead of just turning to the local one. Flowers traces roots (not the roots) of Freemasony in the Northern European guild tradition. Not new perhaps, but he uses some arguments that I do not remember to have encountered earlier, mostly references in old texts about certain practices. The author compares Masonic rituals with Norse rituals, presents a translation of Guido von List’s Origins and Symbolism of Freemasonry (1910) (yes the Armanen fellow, not a great text but some nice references) and calls out to all “worthy brothers” to help to restore the original spirit and mission of Freemasonry and to non-Masons to not let Freemasonry die out. Flowers being a scholar is open about the problems with some of his arguments and tries his best to present good evidence, but still I have the idea that he jumps conclusions here and there. Of course this is just an initial investigation that some time somebody should finish (or should we just translate Farwerck into English?). The greatest feat of the booklet, by the way, is that Flowers mentions an early work that has dealt with the subject and of which I had not heard yet: Early History and Antiquities of Freemasonry: as connected with ancient Norse guilds and the oriental building fraternities by George Fort (1884). Something to look into.
2008 Rûna Raven Press

When I ordered this book, I did not know that it is a translation of an English work. I prefer to read a book in the original language, especially in this case, since my English is better than my German. It was soon clear that The One-eyed God: Odin and the (Indo-) Germanic Männerbünde (Journal of Indo-European Studies Monograph No. 36) is an expensive thing to buy. Amazon has it for $ 150,- second hand, while the German translation costs € 20,- new! I had ran into the book on Amazon Germany some time, but when I saw that it was published by a New Age publisher, I did not immediately buy it. A friend had heard good things about it, so I decided to take my changes. In the first third of the book, Kershaw thrives heavily on Otto Höffler and Mircea Eliade, but this gets better and more and especially more recent investigations are quoted. Kershaw has created a nicely readable and not too large book (300 pages) with a quite comprehensive look to the subject of “Männerbünde”. Of course written about are the Wild Hunt, sacred warriors, rites de passage and initiations (which she sometimes mixes up), wolf- and dog-symbolism, celebrations, werewolves, etc. etc. All is presented scholarly (but I have the idea that Kershaw mostly compiled other people’s ideas), with gigantic footnotes, references and sources. In some subjects I miss information, but at other times Kershaw comes with a nice (new) angle. Kershaw does not really follow the ‘Dumézilian’ structure (but apparently Dumézil is not thought off too highly in academic circles these days), so she sometimes makes comparisons which in my opinion are not possible. A very large part towards the end is about Indian mythology and I fail to see the significance of the subject here and there. Kershaw’s book might not be the ultimate book about the subject, but as far as I know the only one readily available and a fairly complete one with some nice new theories, so a highly adviced reading for people interested in this subject. Too bad that ones more, you will have to read German if you want to study a subject like this.
English version 2000 institude for the study of man, inc. isbn 0941694747
2003 German translation by Baal Müller, arun-verlag, isbn 9783866630192 (second printing 2007)