Dictionary of Northern Mythology
Rudolf Simek
Published by Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 1993. Reprinted in 2007
For two and a half thousand years, from 1500 BC to 1000 AD, 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 whereas the stuff of classical mythology has been fully absorbed into the
cultural history of the west, the mythology of northern Europe - Scandinavians,
Goths, Angles and Saxons - is often enigmatic.
In compiling this dictionary Rudolf Simek has made the fullest possible use of the
information available - Christian accounts, Eddic lays, the Prose 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. Here are not only tales of the gods, but also of 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 in the Scandinavian section of the German department
at Bonn University.
(The text above comes from the back of the book)