Book Reviews I

Book Title: Spirits, Heroes, & Hunters from North American Indian Mythology
Rating: 3/5

I love to read mythology books. It enriches our understanding of the cultures of other people, because through the mythology, folktales, and religion of a particular people we get to see their inner worlds. Everyone has an inner world, and any race with a genuine tight bond among each other has, effectively, a shared inner landscape.

Understanding other races of the earth helps us understand our own race, because it is only through contact with the Other that we understand ourselves. If everyone was naturally predisposed towards thought instead of action, nobody would "know" he is a thinker instead of a doer. But because a thinker meets a doer, he knows that he is one instead of the other.

Similarly, I come from a background that hails anthropomorphic deities that sit on golden thrones and are sovereign over certain phenomenon like Aphrodite, Zeus,etc or who are totally transcendental, omnipotent and formless like the Christian God.

Whereas the Native Americans have stories about talking animals and people who turn into animals who teach people about ceremonies necessary to make it rain or to have a successful hunt. All of their myths have the theme of natural phenomenon, and a lot of them deal with how or why certain animals act the way they do. They are closer to nature than I am. It's not MY heritage, it's someone else's - and that helps me understand my own. Of course, it's also necessary for you understand and appreciate your own heritage, but that's a rant for another day.

Also, someone's heritage/culture is not better than someone else's, though of course all people will naturally consider their own to be better than someone else's since it resonates more powerfully with them.

Myths also enriches the imagination. Myths will always permeate our minds and the stories that we tell regardless of rather or not we acknowledge their power.

Plus, some of them can be genuinely spiritually moving and reading/hearing them can be an exercise in intuition (just like how math is an exercise in reasoning). To quote Joseph Campbell, "Myths come from the same realm as dreams" and "A myth is a public dream, a dream is a private myth".

This particular book is not a complete collection. It doesn't contain every myth of the North American Indian. Not that I would want it too, since that book would be massive, and compiling it would be impossible. But I still think there is too small of a selection here. It only skims the surface.

The book begins with a simple and interesting introduction that explains that the Native Americans are not one unified civilization, but rather a diverse population of tribes who all had different lifestyles depending on where they lived (and North America is a diverse landscape!) with Eskimos in the north living in a different way than the horse riders of the Great plains, who live quite differently from the tribes living in what we know call Florida (who, because of the landscape, focused on the "gathering" part of "hunting and gathering").

Because of this, as the introduction points out, the myths are very different from one place to another. There is no unified Native American Religion or any codified tales. However, one can still find the underlying themes of the Native American mythology.

It reminds me of how numerous comparative religion and mythology scholars have pointed out the mythologies of the celts, the greeks, the romans, the norse, the slavs, etc are all very similar. Different lifestyles based off climate, landscape, etc but still similar ethnicities.

I found this introduction the best part of the book and a perfect way to start this collection of myths. Each myth that was re-told began with a blurb of where the myth was found and short information about that tribe, which goes to show the incredible diversity of people who existed on the pre-colonial North American continent.

The stories themselves are told rather matter-of-factly, which is both good and bad. It's good because that way I am more certain that the myths are not being tampered with to add more "pizzazz" (as Hollywood often does to greek myths, or as publishers of mythology books for children often do, sadly). It's bad because often the myths can be made boring by that form of storytelling, and a myth should be anything but boring. I think a good collection-of-myths book should tell myths in such a way that they contain a balance of "this is actually how the traditional story goes, including the confusing parts that don't make sense to our modern minds" and "let me tell you this in a way that will appeal to you and entertain you".

I understand that the people who colloborated to write care about the integrity of the stories quite a lot, but this book is marketed to children 10-12, and I fear that someone that age may lose interest fast.

My favourite stories were "Sedna, the witch under the sea", "the girl who married a bear", "scar face and the sun dance" "Hasjelti's dance" and "The Hummingbird Brothers".

Each story also contains pencil drawings, and there are 18 paintings littered throughout the volume. In my opinion, if a book, especially a book like this, has illustrations in it it should enhance the story. It should make me even more absorbed, help me feel the atmosphere more, make my imagination come even more alive. The pencil drawings all do that. They are done in an authentic North American Indian way.

The paintings are a mixed bag. Some of them are great and add to the story, but some of them are, quite frankly, unappealing. The bad ones are either too dull or the people have weird faces. In fact, the illustrator is bad at painting faces.

Overall, this is a great book for someone starting to get an interest in mythology (and all people should, especially the youngun's!). For someone a little more experienced in mythology-reading it is not recommended.

I have three other books from the "World Mythology" series that I look forward to reading and reviewing.

Book Title: Folklore of Nova Scotia
Rating: 3.5/5

I am deeply moved by how enriched the human soul is by a sense of community, a shared spirituality, a deep connection to the landscape, and stories upheld by tradition. I think that this particular book, with a little imagination, can transport us back into the time when these kinds of things were common. 

It's obvious that the author put a lot of passion into this book. 

There are stories about the Second Sight (the ability to see into the spirit world), shape-shifting Witches (including one witch who shapeshifted into a rabbit, and then in that form would damage the cattle of a farm. The father who owned the farm shot the rabbit in the foot. The next day there was a woman who had her foot mysteriously injured and wouldn't tell anyone what had happened), mermaids, and fairies. That last category were my favourite. 

It's a testament to the power of the ancestral folklore of the scots that they kept it so much alive when they came to Cape Breton, and updated it with new tales based in Cape Breton but with similar themes. 

But not even the stories of the scots and their traditional ways could withstand the onslaught of modern materialism and consumerism, which is why books like this are so necessary. They give a chance for the stories to be preserved. Even though they are written for strictly academic purposes, if you approach it in the right way it can bring you into contact with your ancestors, which is what it did for me personally. 

As much as I love this book it has two big flaws: It is often repetitive (particularly the "Forewarning" chapter, a collection of stories from cape breton about people being warned about their deaths by spirits or omens), and some of the stories are only a few sentences long. I ask, what is the point of including a little piece of folklore if it only vaguely relates to any of the topics (fairies, witches, etc) and is so short? Did the author take it as her personal mission to include every little scrape of folklore she could find, editing be dammed? 

The book was at it's best when the folk stories that were told were given a little bit of spice by the author. Come on, these are stories meant to be told around a campfire or at a ceilidh. They need some flavour, some personality. They are not meant to be told in such a dry, academic tone. It's even worse that Mary is obviously a good writer because whenever she adds a personal voice to the stories they are riveting. 

Overall, I'd recommend this book to anyone who is interested in it's titular topic, but if you've already read a more in depth book (this is my first introduction into studying folklore) then don't bother. I also can't imagine someone from outside of Nova Scotia reading this book, since the author is taking for granted that you know the locations of all the areas mentioned. It's also much more interesting to hear folklore from places you've actually been. Lots of the stories come from baddeck, for example. 

I'll close with the closing paragraph which resonates powerfully with me: "But time has been hard on the customs. The automobile, the telephone, the radio, leave people no time to spend on elaborate ceremonial. The old-time ceilidh too, has gone the way of the other customs, and with it the old tales that enlivened many a long winter's evening. No longer do seers startle their friends by the recital of their visions. The honk of the automobile has frightened away the bochdan (hobgoblin), and the glare of its lights has dulled the vision of the sights of the other world. Music floods the air, but is heard only with mechanical aid. Yet there are still, in the little province by the sea, a few secluded spots unspoiled by modern inventions, where the other worldliness of the Celt may disport itself in visions and in dreams"

Book Title: Irminsul
Rating: 2/5 

I literally can't get enough of Varg Vikernes.  I check his blog literally every day and listen to his music all the time. In fact, if you are reading this blogpost I may as well let you know I have been listening to his latest album the whole time while writing it. I was doing some scurrying on the internet and discovered that Varg Vikernes had released a book a long, long time ago called Irminsul. It was only 16 pages long, but I desired to read it. I was seconds away from ordering it online for 5 dollars (plus shipping, taxes, handling) before discovering that it is available for free online, with the author's permission, here: http://www.burzum.org/eng/library/irm... 

Evidently, if his blog posts are anything to go by, Varg does not believe in the same things he does now as he did at the writing of this booklet. It's interesting to see how his thought developed. He is certainly in a much better position now. This booklet is 25% wacky conspiracy theory, 25% an exposition on metaphysics, and 50% a statement of Varg's values which, at the present time, are no longer completely believed in by him. It's all based around the meaning of the Irminsul pillar which was worshipped by pre-Christian European tribes. The meaning of the Irminsul pillar is mysterious, and Varg has some rather... interesting views on what it meant. 

Using sources from the Icelandic Sagas that described what the Irminsul pillar and others like it looked like, he then goes on to describe how the Irminsul pillar is supposed to symbolize balance in the universe, and the preservation of that balance for the sake of natural harmony and growth. Sounds good, right? But when he starts to go into Ancient Alien Aryan theories and space exploration, well, it's a little kooky. What saves it from being trash is the fact that the views being expressed are ultimately meant to lead to a positive end, even if the means to that end are absurd. 

I often get the feeling that Varg sees religions/ideologies as tools. He doesn't care if such-and-such is real, he only cares about the consequence of having a strong belief in such-and-such. If believing in such-and-such a mythos makes you cherish the racial purity of your folk, cultivate positive traits like strength and intelligence, puts you in tune with the earth, then that mythos is good regardless of rather or not it is actually true. In the case of this particular book, though, Varg is going well beyond what is considered acceptable in regards to how we interpret the religion and practices of the pre-christian Europeans and is going to insanity territory. Ancient Alien Aryans? Really? 

He talks about "Indo-European values" and the need for native Europeans to return to them, versus "Judeo-Christian" values. I agree with that, but things like progressing through technology are absolutely NOT Indo-European values. They aren't Jude-Christian values, either. Varg would, thankfully, later go on to discover what "Indo-European values" means and lives very closely to them at the present time. 

It's good that Varg later turned away from fringe ideas like the ones expressed in this book and now has much more sane beliefs. Consequently, they are all much more interesting to read about. 

I'd only recommend the 5 minutes it would take you to read this short little booklet to those who are big fans of Varg's work or to those who, like me, are endlessly curious about his personality. If you are looking for an INFINITELY BETTER book by Varg about pre-christian europeans, read "Sorcery and Religion in Ancient Scandinavia" which is much longer, much better, much more interesting, much more plausible, and is jam-packed with information and interpretations you will not find anywhere else. 

Also, check out varg's amazing blog: http://thuleanperspective.com