Welcome to our book review site go-pdf.online!
You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Shamanism in Norse myth and magic
" ... presents the main features of Siberian shamanism, as they are relevant for comparison with Norse sources, and examines the Norse texts in detail to determine how far it is reasonable to assign a label of "shamanism" to the human and divine magical practices of pre-Christian Scandinavia, whose existence, it is argued, in many cases resides mainly in the imaginative tradition of the poets."--Back cover.
The Sacred Tree
The fundamental nature of the tree as a symbol for many communities reflects the historical reality that human beings have always interacted with and depended upon trees for their survival. Trees provided one of the earliest forms of shelter, along with caves, and the bounty of trees, nuts, fruits, and berries, gave sustenance to gatherer-hunter populations. This study has concentrated on the tree as sacred and significant for a particular group of societies, living in the ancient and medieval eras in the geographical confines of Europe, and sharing a common Indo-European inheritance, but sacred trees are found throughout the world, in vastly different cultures and historical periods. Sacred...
Trees in the Religions of Early Medieval England
Drawing on sources from archaeology and written texts, the author brings out the full significance of trees in both pagan and Christian Anglo-Saxon religion.
The Visual Perception of Deities from the Palaeolithic to the Present
Considering that figurines, such as the Venus from Willendorf, or the Lion Man of Hohlenstein-Stadel were already created approximately 30,000 years ago, it must be assumed that humans have had a desire to see a visual expression of their sacred beings for an exceedingly prolonged period of time. It is dialectical that visual interpretations of deities always result in a physical/body structure, resembling the shape of humans. This book is a fusion of multiple independent investigations regarding visual interpretations of deities and religions over a period of 30,000 years. A survey about the psychological necessity for humans to create images of gods and goddesses provides the background for the book’s presentation of images of deities, placed in a historical context. An accompanying text supports the illustrations to position them accordingly.
The Witch
This book sets the notorious European witch trials in the widest and deepest possible perspective and traces the major historiographical developments of witchcraft
The Paganesque and the Tale of Vǫlsi
Challenges the concept that the notorious horse penis is key to understanding the Tale of Vǫlsi, via the concept of the "paganesque". A family of Norwegian pagans, stubbornly resisting the new Christian religion, worship a diabolically animated preserved horse penis, intoning verses as they pass it from hand to hand until King Olaf the Saint intervenes. This is the matter of the medieval Tale of Vǫlsi. Traditionally, it has been read as evidence of a pre-Christian fertility cult - or simply dismissed as an obscene trifle. This book takes a new approach by developing the concept of the "paganesque" - the air of a religious culture older than and inimical to Christianity. It shows how the Ta...
Mysterious Minds
Marja-Liisa Vartio (1924-1966) is considered one of the foremost innovators of consciousness representation in Finnish post-war modernism. Mysterious Minds, the first study to examine this subject in depth, explores the portrayal of fictional minds in her novels. The volume suggests alternative methods for reading Vartio's fictional minds not only as private, solipsistic, and self-reflective consciousnesses, but also as social, collective, and interconnected entities. These intermental minds sometimes remain unreadable and mysterious even to the characters of her novels themselves. The volume is an enjoyable and beneficial read both for students and scholars sharing an interest in recent cognitive and affective narrative studies, and for anyone interested in Vartio's work.
Storied and Supernatural Places
This book addresses the narrative construction of places, the relationship between tradition communities and their environments, the supernatural dimensions of cultural landscapes and wilderness as they are manifested in European folklore and in early literary sources, such as the Old Norse sagas. The first section “Explorations in Place-Lore” discusses cursed and sacred places, churches, graveyards, haunted houses, cemeteries, grave mounds, hill forts, and other tradition dominants in the micro-geography of the Nordic and Baltic countries, both retrospectively and from synchronous perspectives. The supernaturalisation of places appears as a socially embedded set of practices that involv...
Water and the Environment in the Anglo-Saxon World
This study of the waterscapes of the Anglo-Saxon world will assist serious students of the Anglo-Saxon period in both perceiving and understanding both the textual imagery and the archaeology of water in Anglo-Saxon England.
A Companion to J. R. R. Tolkien
This is a complete resource for scholars and students of Tolkien, as well as avid fans, with coverage of his life, work, dominant themes, influences, and the critical reaction to his writing. An in-depth examination of Tolkien’s entire work by a cadre of top scholars Provides up-to-date discussion and analysis of Tolkien’s scholarly and literary works, including his latest posthumous book, The Fall of Arthur, as well as addressing contemporary adaptations, including the new Hobbit films Investigates various themes across his body of work, such as mythmaking, medieval languages, nature, war, religion, and the defeat of evil Discusses the impact of his work on art, film, music, gaming, and subsequent generations of fantasy writers
