Barbarian Rites The Spiritual World Of The Vikings And The Germanic Tribes Hanspeter Hasenfratz by Hans-peter Hasenfratz 9781594774218, 1594774218 instant download after payment.

Translated and edited by Michael Moynihan.
This volume is a translation of Hans-Peter Hasenfratz’s study titled "Die religiöse Welt der Germanen: Ritual, Magie, Kult, Mythus" ("The Religious World of the Germanic Peoples: Ritual, Magic, Cult, Myth"). Since its original publication by Verlag Herder in 1992, the book has gone through numerous printings. In 2007 it was reissued as "Die Germanen: Ritual, Magie, Kult, Mythus" by Verlag HOHE.
Professor Hasenfratz's book fills an important niche in presenting a solid, streamlined introduction to ancient Germanic religious ideas and practices in their historical-cultural context. His text is well grounded in relevant scholarship, which he presents in a readily accessible manner. In contrast to any number of popular, neopagan, or overly subjective nonacademic books on Norse religion and the like, it is also thoroughly devoid of any romantic coloring. Hasenfratz is admirably cautious in dealing with the data that has been gained through the past few centuries of scholarship in archaic Germanic cultures. In this area there is much that is not known and will probably remain forever shrouded in mystery to some degree. Hasenfratz establishes from the outset how far apart contemporary Western civilization stands from these societies that existed one to two millennia ago. In his view, the best we might hope for is to be able to sketch a basic picture of older cultural ideas and practices and to gain an "approximation of the distance" that now lies between us and these very different older worlds.