What do you think?
Rate this book
The Well and the Tree: World and Time in Early Germanic Culture
280 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1982
6 people are currently reading
361 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 18, 2017
Fantastic and in depth dissection of the cosmology and conceptions of time in Germanic culture through the study of extant source material (Nordic and Old English), as well as a bit of comparative understanding of nearby Celtic conceptions of the same. Most importantly (to this reader), Bauschatz dissects the misunderstanding of the role of the Norns away from the classical inclusion of the fates and positions it more fully within a Germanic cultural context. A must read.
February 25, 2025
Finally got a chance to sit down and read this in full. It's a very intimidating read, but a solid one with respect to the history of pre-Christian Germanic thought. It's extremely detailed in what it covers, and I am sure to be revisiting it several times in the future.
This book, for me, however, has to be viewed within the context of its reputation among Heathens. This book is seen as a sort of Holy Grail within the community, and has such high veneration, even considered an essential read. In that respect, it is overrated. There's a lot of interesting things in this book within the subject matter that it covers, but -for Heathens- the relevance is overstated.
The content that is covered that gives relevance for Heathens would be discussions of Yggdrasil, The Norns, Symbel, conceptions of time, space, relation between events generally, and certainly some deep dives into many worldview concepts that can be extrapolated out of Beowulf. There's also some cool explorations of burial artifacts and historical linguistics. But this isn't written for the Heathen, this is written for someone who is deeply interested in Germanic history. And that's a distinction that matters. The history here can give a context for the Heathen, but, especially for beginners, it's not essential reading, and a Heathen could disagree with many of the concepts described in here and be completely fine.
I think a huge part of the modern veneration around this text has to do with how complex it is coupled with how rare it is. The complexity is sometimes mistaken for a sort of mystical value. The price of this book is rarely less than 500 dollars now, and has been steadily rising. That sets a certain amount of expectation to its contents, which doesn't quite live up to the current price of the text. It certainly has good information, and is worth the read, but the culture around it creates some problems. That doesn't affect it's overall quality, just the perception around it.
This book, for me, however, has to be viewed within the context of its reputation among Heathens. This book is seen as a sort of Holy Grail within the community, and has such high veneration, even considered an essential read. In that respect, it is overrated. There's a lot of interesting things in this book within the subject matter that it covers, but -for Heathens- the relevance is overstated.
The content that is covered that gives relevance for Heathens would be discussions of Yggdrasil, The Norns, Symbel, conceptions of time, space, relation between events generally, and certainly some deep dives into many worldview concepts that can be extrapolated out of Beowulf. There's also some cool explorations of burial artifacts and historical linguistics. But this isn't written for the Heathen, this is written for someone who is deeply interested in Germanic history. And that's a distinction that matters. The history here can give a context for the Heathen, but, especially for beginners, it's not essential reading, and a Heathen could disagree with many of the concepts described in here and be completely fine.
I think a huge part of the modern veneration around this text has to do with how complex it is coupled with how rare it is. The complexity is sometimes mistaken for a sort of mystical value. The price of this book is rarely less than 500 dollars now, and has been steadily rising. That sets a certain amount of expectation to its contents, which doesn't quite live up to the current price of the text. It certainly has good information, and is worth the read, but the culture around it creates some problems. That doesn't affect it's overall quality, just the perception around it.
November 12, 2021
The first chapter, which analyzed textual records of the Norns, Yggdrasil, and Urth's well, was really good. I feel like I've come away with a better understanding of the Norns and their connection to orlog, which is more about laying down essential events of the past than the deciding of fate, as it's usually translated. There were more nuggets in the other chapters, but as a nonspecialist, I feel like I got plenty of new information in the first chapter to leave me satisfied.
February 8, 2020
Extremely interesting and useful academic book on perceptions of the world and time in early northern Europe. Recommended to me to read in a heathen context, definitely worth it. Should be 5 stars but I found the chapter on verbs impenetrable.
October 7, 2013
I found this gem in the Norton stacks at UK back in maybe '91. It changed my life, my views on religion and my ancestry. I cannot say enough good things to really do it justice. I found a copy years later and paid dearly for it. It is slow and academic and not for everyone, but I could not put it down. After reaching the last page, I opened it back up to page one and started over again. It was that good. This book influenced my thinking more than any other, bar none.
November 6, 2016
An entire culture cannot be distilled down to two symbols. Which is what nearly every essay in this book, despite some very interesting points, attempts to do. And then, as if realizing this fatal flaw, the essay on language toward the end tries to pretend it has nothing to do with the well and the tree and talks so in-depth about linguistics that it forgets to tie itself back to any of the earlier premises, making it seem like part of another work entirely.
October 26, 2013
A must-read if you can get hold of a copy. Did it ever come back into print? His seminal work on how the lack of future tense in all Germanic languages shapes the way we view the world, the universe and our concept of fate. Not an easy read.
August 4, 2014
This is an amazing book. If you are into Norse or other German/Teutonic/Viking mythology this book is very enlightening. It is a hard read of the kind that 19th century Philologists love but it is also a seminal work. Can't recommend it enough.
April 20, 2013
Can you give this book 6 stars? A fascinating insite into the early Germanic mind.
July 16, 2013
Very dense, and the last half is almost entirely language IPA garble (to me at least) but some very interesting concepts and research.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews