Books Details
Author : Rudolf Simek Pages : 438 pages Publisher : D.S. Brewer Language
: eng ISBN-10 : 0859915131 ISBN-13 : 9780859915137
Books Descriptions
For two and a half thousand years, from 1500 BC to AD 1000, a culture as
significant as the classical civilisation of the Mediterranean world settled
an immense area in northern Europe that stretched from Iceland to the
Black Sea. But the sources of our knowledge about these societies are
relatively few, leaving the gods of the North shrouded in mystery. In
compiling this dictionary Rudolf Simek has made the fullest possible use
of the information available -Christian accounts, Eddic lays, the Elder
Edda, runic inscriptions, Roman authors (especially Tacitus), votive stones,
place names and archaeological discoveries. He has adhered throughout to
a broad definition of mythology which presents the beliefs of the heathen
Germanic tribes in their entirety: not only tales of the gods, but beings
from lower levels of belief: elves, dwarfs and giants; the beginning and end
of the world; the creation of man, death and the afterlife; cult, burial
customs and magic - an entire history of
