Gangleri – bookreviews

“The Heathens. Rites, cults and religion in the Low Countries. From primeval times to Christianity.” The title and the cover of this Flemish book are quite pretentious. A history of paganism starting in times immemorial. Actually, and of course, the book is mostly about religion and not necessarily of what nowadays usually receives the term “heathenism”. Janssens indeed starts in primeval times. The first 100 pages are about prehistory, Great Mothers, enormous stone formations, etc. Janssens proves himself as a historian, not a historian of religion. He pays a lot of attention to archeological findings, large and small. Around page 100 things become more interesting when the focus shifts to proto-Celtic and proto-Germanic religion, but also here Janssens takes long sidepaths. After this follows a large part about Celts. Being a Belgian and of the opinion that the Belgae were Celts, I think maybe the author has a natural tendency to puts the magnifying glass on the Celts. Only a short chapter is dedicated to the Germanic tribes of the Low Counties and Janssens presents a strange mix of Icelandic and continental Gods and Goddesses. An exceptional number of pages is dedicated to foreign religions that were professed here for a short time: the mysteries of Isis, Mithras and Serapis.
“De Heidenen” is not really a good book. The author mixes his story with long lists of findings and his playfull chapter titles do not always cover the content all that well. The point is that he names so much findings and regardless the current border between The Netherlands and Belgium that he names plenty of new and interesting things to go and see and read more about, which indeed is very nice, but I feel that he might have better split up the story and the listings of findings and give a bit more information about the latter. You probably guessed that the book is written in Dutch and even though the book is not too good, I still recommend it to Dutch pagans or interested people. You might have to distill the valuable information, but there are clues for further investigations here. For the rest, an easy-to-read history of religion.
2009 Lannoo ISBN 97820983210

The sixth volume of the Flemish “Odalist” group Werkgroep Hagal (click on cover) periodical contains about 80 pages and 17 articles (including poems and songs) with a variety of subjects. From the always interesting “etnobotanical corner” to an article about blood and “Alvermannen” to the tower as bridge between our world and the world above, an article against the use of drugs and a critical article about living in a city. Werkgroep Hagal goes from practical heathenry to critique on modern living. This small and cheap publication is always a nice read for those who read Dutch, so I suggest you contact Hagal if you can.

The Flemish Asatrú group Werkgroep Traditie just spread its 3rd electronic newsletter that comes in place of the quarterly publication. It is written in Dutch, contains a few lengthy articles and can be read here.

I got this book as a holidays-present. Good, because I would probably have never heard of it otherwise. It is a philosophy book about modern politics and society, not really my subject. Wijnberg is a young man, seven years younger than myself, but with an impressive carreer already. This book is his third and the copy I got is 7th printing only half a year after the first publication. Wijnberg used to be an editor at the ‘opinion section’ of one of our major newspapers in which role he declined a pamphlet of the most famous Dutch politicians: Geert Wilders. Currently Wijnberg writes a column each week in the same newspaper, a speed at which he is apparently able to fill books too. “Nietzsche and Kant read the newspaper” is built with such essays. The title is rather cheesy but the subtitle “thinkers of the past about dilemmas of the present” is a bit more promising. When I started to read the book, I was immediately captured by this young man’s eagle eye regarding modern society and politics and his ability to describe his findings critically razorsharp and with the use of old and recent philosophers. The prologue alone is worth buying this book. The variety of subjects are bundled to ‘chapters’ about freedom, truth and power, God and faith, sex and love, identity, equality and the state. Very basic discussions such as the opening essay “why more choice leads to less freedom to choose” or freedom of speech come together with thoughts about journalism, animal rights, “why a believer is hurt so easily”, terrorism and homosexuality. A lot of space is used for current Dutch politics, of course mostly the popular right thinkers Geert Wilders and Rita Verdonk, but also established parties from left to right (but mostly of the right) are carefully dissected. Our beloved systems of democracy and capitalism are spoken of, but also the last two American presidents and the war in Iraq. No matter what subject Wijnberg chooses for his ponderings, in easy to read terms he places the subject in history and current society and he finds philosophers from every corner who said something about it. The book is as impressive as it is easy to read and Wijnberg manages to write both critically and constructive without taking sides or passing judgement. Both my own and the previous generation should read this book to learn something about themselves and the world that we live in. I always enjoy fingers on the sore spots of modern living and Wijnberg shows that a philosopher is more than able to do that. Suggested reading, unfortunately as of now, only available in Dutch.
2009 De Bezig Bij, isbn 989023440864

In 2009 Nederlands Heidendom” (“Dutch Heathenry”) has been around for 9 years, an anniversary to celebrate. This 2009 “yearbook” is already the 7th and is for a large part dedicated to the anniversary. “Boppo Grimmsma” who is not one of the founders, but an early member who more or less acts as chairman, gives a story of the 9 year history and tells how a small group became mostly a growing virtual group and later a practising group arose, also growing in number. At Midsummer and Midwinter the weekends open with writing contents and the booklet presents some of these scribblings. Other than those, there is an interesting article of Grimmsma again about the three colours. Besides the known information he connects the colours to the three fases of the day (black, night; red, dawn; white, day) and suggests that the order of the colours matters. Of the contest writings the one of Grimmsma in which he portrays himself as a Frisian chauvinist is the most enjoyable. There are numerous other authors too, do not worry. Again the most professionally looking, this 9 euro A5 booklet with 96 pages containing 3 articles and 18 stories is a nice read for a long winter night.