Gangleri – bookreviews

I noticed this small book in the overstock pile, so new, but cheap. It speaks partly about the same period as the recently reviewed In de Marge van de Beschaving: the early Middle Ages. This is not a very well documented period for the common man. Faber is a valuer of old coins, a former teacher of history and a Frisian Protestant. The book is said to be mostly based on findings of old coins, but this is not entirely true. The first kings of The Netherlands is built of essays. Faber did not want to present an ongoing story, since there are too many blanks that cannot be filled, so he decided to compile a whole bunch of short texts with different subjects that taken as a whole suggest a story. The book is not a scholarly work, it is written in a very light tone, sometimes the preference of the author comes through. Sometimes he is quite prochristian / anti-heathen or he portrays the pagans as barbarians by giving half information, etc., but on the other hand as a Frisian nationalist he wants to show pride for his ancestors. Even though there are a few very irritating essays because of the first, taken as a whole this is a very nice little book, especially in the more historic parts. The idea behind is that before what for the Dutch became the Royal House of the Oranjes, there was a leading class of prechristian leaders from Scandinavia that the author labeled the “Wulfings”. The Wulfings came close to what can be called a Royal House, but they did not last. To make his point, Faber writes about seawolves (the symbol of the Wulfings), Odin/Wodan (who is portrayed on coins frequently as old man of the sea), parts of history around the coming of the Franks, Christianisation and for example Radbod, Audwulf or Redwald (all Wulfing ‘kings’). Other texts less needed for proof of the assertion are for example about coiners, coins (interesting), Viking plunderings, general history of our parts and a cat. All in all I found the book a nice read and an easy one too with the short texts. Also I enjoyed the unusual approach of the coins, since the symbols on those and written history are seldom combined to give information. De Eerste Koningen Van Nederland is not a super-book, but especially for the price it is sold now, surely not a waste of money. Also nice is that the author’s son, who is a visual artist, has created all the visuals for the book.
2007, uitgevery aspekt, isbn 9059113233

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 find second hand, but the price can get pretty high. Of course the book is filled with ‘Dumézilian’ essays. Apparently also that can become irritating! After the third text about ‘the threefold death’ and yet another text destilling the three functions out of some Greek text, I get the idea. I think I prefer the texts of Dumézil himself or perhaps just a more in depth analysis. In any case, the book opens in a very promising way with a nice text about linguistics of Calvert Watkins, the great In Defense Of Euhemerus by Kees Bolle and the only text about law Comparative Legal Reconstruction In Germanic by Stephen Schwartz. Towards the end things become a bit too typically Dumézilian with too little new information. It is nice to find some new scholars who follow this structure and there were some known names and of course references to other books, but I must admit that this work did not make me more enthousiastic about Dumézilian scholars. Maybe a more recent work of this kind, if there are any.

1970 University Of California Press, isbn 0520015878

A series of book is planned about the history of what nowadays are the Netherlands. This is the second publication and the following are planned for the coming years. Marco Mostert speaks about the years 0 to 1200. As a historian he mostly works with written sources, so he took the invention of bookprinting as the end of his period since a lot changed for his approach after that. The title In The Margin Of Civilisation was chosen because our parts in different times in history formed the borders of for example the Roman or the Frankish empire, usually with a part (Frisia) outside the border (or what was perceived as such). It is only a small book so it can hardly speak of everything that happened in those 1200 years. I am personally not all that interested in blunt history, but it seems like Mostert speaks about the more important events quite extensively and since he has an easy-to-read writing style, the book makes a nice read. Of course the period is most interesting for people who are interested in the Germanic tribes, little empires, the clash with the Romans and the coming of Christianity and Mostert nicely describes what tribes moved where and when, how they split and merged, allied or opposed against oppressors and how the new faith was introduced. The period described is not too often written about, since the sources are both scarse and coloured, but it is nice to have a descend book about it on the shelve.
2009 Bert Bakker, isbn 9035127749