Dictionary of Northern Mythology

by Rudolf Simek

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 Germanic religion. RUDOLF SIMEK is Professor of Medieval German and Scandinavian literature at the University of Bonn in Germany.

Genres: Mythology, History, Religion, Spirituality, Nonfiction, Reference, Folklore

424 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Rudolf Simek is an Austrian Germanist and philologist.

Simek studied German literature, philosophy and Catholic theology in the University of Vienna, before becoming a librarian and a docent at the institution. He taught among others in the universities of Edinburgh, Tromsø and Sydney. Since 1995 he is a Professor of German studies at the University of Bonn. Rudolf Simek is the editor-in-chief of Studia Medievalia Septentrionalia. 8 October 2013 Rudolf Simek received Honorary degree at the University of Rzeszów.

Reviews

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is everything. I thought I didn't know about it when Neil Gaiman spoke of it in the introduction to his newest book, Norse Mythology, but as it turned out shortly after I bought this English version, I had it all along. *lol* Typical me.
My original copy is in German though as the book was written by the Austrian professor Rudolph Simek of the University of Bonn who is a luminary in the field. I kept this translation because it has some additional text to my copy (included after the newest discoveries, the original is older and therefore had a few less archaeological knowledge to include).

This is not a novel. This is what the title says: a dictionary. You hear the name of a Norse god and want to know all about him/her? You just look him/her up in this.
However, it needs pointing out that this does not only contain all the Norse mythology but also the Anglo-Saxon myths, Germanic mythology, etc. Hence, you can find details on the Nibelungen saga and other (often less popular) myths and figures too.
Since it's in alphabetical order (as is every dictionary), there is no narrative, a term from Norse mythology might be followed by a Germanic one so there is a "disruption", and some explanations might include details on other characters/events of the same mythology that one doesn't know about yet (but there is a great cross-reference section).
Every explanation is detailed (as much as our knowledge allows, a lot has been lost because Vikings and other people of Northern faiths didn't keep written records) and easy to understand.

Also, it gets more and more obvious when reading such works that most myths are variations of one another. One already has that feeling when reading the Edda or Neil Gaiman's version of those stories, but here it's even more obvious because you get the legends of several "different" faiths. If we look at Siegfried of the Nibelungen saga, for example, who slew a dragon ... even the depiction from several hundred years ago (that is still featured on MANY German churches) looks very much like the slaying of Jörmungandr (the Midgard Serpent, which can technically also be described as a dragon).

I had already been on a Norse trip ever since Neil Gaiman's book (that one has a narrative and is in novel form) so I read the entire dictionary although that is not the way to do it of course. And it was a great way to remind me of some popular German myths that are usually not found in any novels/movies. Despite me reading the whole thing through and this being "only" a reference book, the reading never got tedious or boring. A definite authoritative work from a great scholar.

[Wood Wroth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Now in print for nearly 30 years, Rudolf Simek's well-known handbook is often celebrated for its breadth of coverage, yet after all these years and editions it contains as much useful information as it does flaws.

The most immediately obvious issue is the lack of an index or table of contents of any kind. This situation is made more problematic by referrals to entries that do not exist or appear to have been absorbed into other entries (for example "stag cult"). The only organization that occurs in this work is bare-boned alphabetical order. In other words, prepare to sail solo in a sea of small entries about votive inscriptions, my friend.

Much more of a problem is Simek's presentation of theory as fact combined with hyper-criticism of Snorri. Simek's approach to Snorri seems to owe something to the infamous ideological sphere of Eugen Mogk and Sophus Bugge. In other words, Simek generally seems to be of the school of thought that if Snorri is the only one to attest to something, then clearly Snorri must have simply made it up or was just confused. Sure, while Snorri's systemized, manual-writing approach may sometimes veer off into synthesis and blatant Euhemerism, Simek's criticisms often deal in plain conjecture, throwing the principle of "absence of evidence is not evidence of absence" to the wind. Sometimes these criticisms are even flatly wrong. For example, in an entry for "Vanaheimr", Simek states that, in the Prose Edda book "Gylfaginning", Snorri "unquestionably invented the name as a counterpart to Asgard". However, Snorri's claim is in fact echoed in a stanza of the Poetic Edda poem "Vafþrúðnismál":

In Vanaheim wise powers him created,
and to the gods a hostage gave.
At the world's dissolution,
he will return to the wise Vanir. (Thorpe trans.)

A straightforward mistake. However, it should not be ignored that Snorri had access to material now long lost to us ("Heimdalargaldr", as an example, comes to mind), and, that said, perhaps a quote from the Indo-Europeanist Georges Dumézil is appropriate here: "On this point as on so many others, Snorri knew what he was saying better than we do" (1973, "Remarks on Heimdall").

This is hardly an isolated problem. Some entries contradict one another; compare the entry for the goddess Hlín to the entry for the goddess Sága. Were they written by different people? Other problematic entry examples include an entry on the goddess Sif that somehow manages to argue against the "earth goddess" notion without mentioning the matter of Sif's "earth" heiti, the—to be frank—outright bizarreness of the *tiwaz-related entries, and an off-handed dismissal of the Indo-European Fjorgynn-Thor question. In this handbook opinions and preferred theories are pushed throughout, the word "recently" appears in entries apparently dating back to the 1970s, and the provided etymologies, as they are translated from German to English, need to be double-checked before use.

At the end of the day, when one needs reach for this handbook, checking the source material for confirmation is a necessary additional step. Consider also supplementing it with Andy Orchard's and John Lindow's handbooks which, while smaller and less wide in coverage, generally do not suffer from the same issues.

[Kim Zarins · Rating 5 out of 5]

The go-to dictionary of Norse mythological names and places. I've had this copy for years and love it so very much. It stands unsurpassed. Accept no substitute to Simek!

It's what Neil Gaiman used to write AMERICAN GODS. And guess what? Neil Gaiman signed my copy when he was touring for OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE. In my personal universe, this is a very cool thing.

I sort of doubt that anyone will ever look up Simek on Goodreads, but since I was made happy by the Neil experience, I'm sticking it here on Goodreads. Go ahead and like this review as a way of celebrating this awesome book I have, signed by Neil! Then go get your own copy!

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a must have.

[Ocean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic resource that I regularly use for looking up information on deities and concepts. Sometimes when I expect something to be a bit obscure, I'll still find an entry on it in here. One frustration is that sometimes information is split between entries, and I'm not always aware there's another entry relevant to my interests. So, sometimes a little more poking around is required, but that's often part of the fun. All in all, I find t his book to contain a wealth of information, written in an accessible way, and arranged in a way where that information is easy to find. Fantastic resource for any Heathen.

[Jess Nevins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. The most authoritative and scholarly guide to northern (Germanic and Viking) mythology out there. It shows a remarkable depth of knowledge and learning. Very good translation into English. If it has a weakness, it's Simek's reliance on German academic sources--but then, it's been the Germans who've been writing the most on this subject for decades.

[Stephen Simpson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's not perfect, but it's useful reference for Germany/Norse mythology. More of a middle ground between a dictionary and an encyclopedia, it's not going to appeal to people who want to read stories.