Teutonic Myth and Legend

by Donald A. Mackenzie

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.

This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.

Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.

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Genres: Mythology, History, Nonfiction, Short Stories, Folklore

469 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1912

About the author

Donald Alexander Mackenzie was a Scottish journalist and folklorist and a prolific writer on religion, mythology and anthropology in the early 20th century.

Reviews

[Morgan Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great source for Norse mythology lovers! It has a vast amount of legends and puts them in chronological order, beginning with the creation of the world to the Fall of Asgard and onward. I also love the index. It references every place, character, weapon, etc., mentioned throughout the book and is very useful when gathering information about a particular object. (For example, I needed to research the Sword of Victory, and the index provided every page number for every story in which that weapon is referenced.)

Now, the two reasons I deducted a star. First, the wording is very klutzy and often confusing. I understand that this is an exact translation so that may be part of the problem, but I still think it could have been written better. Second, the time jumps are very confusing. A story will begin, then jump back into the past and continue jumping back until we've reached a hundred years before the story, only to suddenly leap forward to the story's beginning. Again, this may be the original way the stories were written, but if the stories were edited to flow in chronological order, the integrity of the originals would still remain.

Overall, a good mythology book to add to the collection!

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man there are a lot of stories in this book. I started reading this so long ago I cannot remember when I started. Found in a second hand bookshop for £2, an absolute bargain, this thick old book, written in an old style dating from 1912 is a bit of a mishmash. The stories are recounted rather than told for the most part, with the exception of the later ones which have more emotion and human frailty in them. I remember hoping to just pick this up and story tell, but all you get is bare bones that need dramatic flesh and dialogue to be layered upon them.
But what stories! Here are creation myths, the original Hamlet, the Ring cycle, tales that echo into the Hobbit, and the Lord of the Rings, and Götterdämmerung. It also pushes into modern times with Attila the Hun being a side character to the later tales. Some though will have you grinding your teeth as you try to remember the difference between Hildebrand, Heribrand and Hadubrand...
As a repository of tales to be woven into the weft of imagination, this is a useful resource. However, if you wanted to present the tales you would need to spend much time and effort to carve the rough rock here into a performing Pygmalion.

[John Kulm · Rating 5 out of 5]

MacKenzie wrote in a way that was both accessible and authentic. These German and Northern European myths have such a dreamlike quality, while reading them I often wanted to interpret them as if they were dreams. McKenzie's telling of them brought the meaning within reach.

[Bernie4444 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hours of great reading as you get lost in the stories.

The title “German Myths and Legends” would have been ridiculously long if they had to call it “Myths and Legends of Teutonic tribes (Goths, Teutons, and Anglo-Saxons)”

We already know most of the characters from today’s popular culture, TV, operas, and many corrupted versions of the stories.

I found I know a few of the stories verbatim but others were surprising. “the traditional Hamlet” for example follows a more political story and has a more Teutonic revenge feel.

This is broken down into 42 illustrated, small easy to read in one sitting story.

[William Schram · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of this book drew my interest, but I was slightly disappointed to find that it was merely Norse Mythology wrapped in a different package. Donald A MacKenzie does explain himself in that regard, and it makes sense. The Norsemen were the only group of that area that wrote down their legends before Christianity came and ruined their stories.

"German Myths and Legends" contains 42 tales. Along with the stories, we get several drawings by Gustave Dore.

Beyond that, there is not much to say about it. Thanks for reading my review, and see you next time.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Educational and entertaining.

The first half of the book covers the Norse gods in Asgard. That's Odin, Thor, Loki (spelled Loke here), the Valkyries, Valhalla and so on.

The second half moves to Midgard (Earth) starting with the story of Beowulf.

If you like Tolkien, you will probably enjoy this. It's fairly dark and bloody throughout.

I remember some of this from school, but this thick volume goes into a lot more detail.

[Jana Light · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good collection of Northern myths, interspersed with poems and passages in classic literature that were inspired by (or are adaptations of) these myths. Like most myth collections, each story stands alone and a search for plot cohesion or smooth continuity will end in frustration. But each stand-alone is rich in Alpian imagery and a certain dreaminess that, in aggregate with all the other stories, impart a fierce, cold, clear imaginative state that lingers far after you've closed the book.